Note 444 — Chapter XXX · CALIPHATE OF OTHMAN. GENERAL REVIEW. A.H. XXIV.-XXXV. A.D. 645–656.

Party spirit has, no doubt, been freely used to magnify the offence of Abu Sarh. He is supposed to be the person alluded to in Sura vi. 94:—‘Who is more wicked than he who saith, I will produce a Revelation, like unto that which the Lord hath sent down?’ Vide Sale’s note in loco. The circumstances as quoted there are altogether apocryphal. He must, however, have deceived, if not betrayed, Mahomet, in some very marked way, to have led to his proscription on the capture of Mecca—an occasion on which the Prophet treated the inhabitants, with but few exceptions, with mercy and even generosity. See Life, p. 425. We have seen above (p. 248) that Omar is said by some to have been dissatisfied with Amru’s administration in Egypt—so much so, as to have superseded him partially by appointing Abu Sarh to the command in Upper Egypt. The evidence of Omar’s disapproval of Amru is imperfect, but there is no doubt that he appointed Abu Sarh to Egypt, and that Othmân on his accession found him already in power there.