Note 451 — Chapter XXXI · DOMESTIC EVENTS DURING THE CALIPHATE OF OTHMAN. HIS GROWING UNPOPULARITY.

Abbasside tales are multiplied against the unfortunate Welîd. He consorted with the poet Abu Zobeid, a converted Christian of the Beni Taghlib, and was suspected of drinking wine in company with him. Another complaint was, that a conjuring Jew from Baghdad having been condemned in Ibn Masûd’s court for witchcraft, Jondob, one of the factious leaders, killed him with his own hand instead of waiting the regular course of execution; for which unlawful act Welîd imprisoned Jondob, to the great discontent of the people. Hostile tradition, by deep colouring, has improved on these tales, representing Welîd as a brutal sot and sacrilegist. E.g. by his command, the Jew performed works of magic in the sacred precincts of the Great Mosque, assumed by sorcery the form of various animals, cut off a man’s head, and then putting it on, brought him to life again, &c. Jondob, scandalised at his devilish tricks, proceeded to cut off the Jew’s head, saying, ‘If thou canst do miracles, then bring thyself to life again.’ Upon this Welîd imprisoned Jondob, and would have put him to death had he not, by the connivance of the jailor, escaped. These tales are given by Masûdi and later writers, whose tendency to vilify Welîd by the most extravagant fiction, is manifest.

Of the same complexion are the traditions which represent the citizens of Medîna as in such bodily fear of Othmân that no one dared to carry out the sentence of scourging against Welîd; so that Aly, at last, stepped forward, and himself inflicted the stripes. Others say that Aly ordered his son, Hasan, to do so; but he refused, saying, ‘The lord of the hot is lord also of the cold’ (i.e. the sweets and the bitter of office must go together), and that then Aly compelled a grandson of Abu Tâlib (Mahomet’s uncle) to carry out the sentence.