Note 472 — Chapter XXXIII · THE OUTLOOK DARKENS. A.H. XXXIV.—XXXV. A.D. 655.

Amru, who had become a petulant malcontent ever since his deposition, is represented as speaking contumeliously of Othmân to his very face; and Othmân is represented as returning it in kind, calling him ‘a louse in his garments.’ On one occasion the Caliph is said to have addressed the people, ‘leaning on the staff of Mahomet’ (a venerable relic that had descended from the Prophet to Abu Bekr and Omar), when an Arab seized and broke it over Othmân’s head. Such stories, however much they may be tinged with Abbasside exaggeration and prejudice, point to the fact that Othmân was falling rapidly in popular esteem.