Note 474 — Chapter XXXIII · THE OUTLOOK DARKENS. A.H. XXXIV.—XXXV. A.D. 655.

We have abundance of conversations professing to have passed between Othmân and his advisers; but they have no further authority than as they represent the sentiments conventionally attributed to the several speakers. As, however, it may give point to the crisis now rapidly approaching, I subjoin the following epitome of the most received account:—

Othmân: ‘Alas, alas! what is all this I hear of you, my deputies and governors? I greatly fear that the complaints may be true; and it is upon me the burden falleth.’ They replied that the Caliph had sent his own men out to see, and they had found nothing wrong. Then he asked what they advised him to do. Sád (ex-governor of Kûfa) would have the traitors, who were burrowing in the dark, unearthed and slain; then sedition would subside. Muâvia: ‘In Syria there is no disaffection, and it would be everywhere the same were the people fairly and firmly dealt with.’ Abu Sarh proposed to work through the Dewân, increasing or diminishing stipends by way of reward and punishment. Ibn Aámir advised to engage the restless spirits in war, and so the crisis would pass over. Amru, embittered by his supersession in Egypt, is represented as addressing Othmân in coarse abuse. Othmân replied despondingly:—‘Cruel measures he would not sanction. If rebellion was to come, no one should, at the least, have that to say against him. The millstone would grind round and round to the bitter end. Good had it been, if before it began to revolve, he had been taken to his rest. There was nought left for him but to be quiet and to see that no wrong was done to anyone.’ So he gave the governors leave to depart, saying only that if fresh campaigns were set on foot, he would approve of that; otherwise he would hold on his way.

As they took their leave, Káb, the Jewish convert, said, ‘It will be the grey mule that wins,’ meaning Muâvia, who overheard the saying and from that moment (so the tradition runs) kept the Caliphate in view.

Another scene is represented, in which Othmân, surrounded by his own advisers, sends for Aly, Zobeir, and Talha. Muâvia pleaded before them the cause of the aged Caliph, and warned them of the danger they ran to their own selves in allowing any attack calculated to abate the sacredness of the Caliph’s person; it was, he said, both their duty and their interest to support him in his feeble old age. On this, Aly reproached Muâvia as the son of Hind, the ‘chewer of Hamza’s liver.’ ‘Let alone my mother,’ he responded angrily; ‘she became a good believer, and after that was not a whit behind thine own.’ Othmân interposed: ‘My cousin Muâvia doth speak the truth. Now tell me wherein I have gone astray, and I will amend my ways. It may be that I have been too open-handed towards my kinsmen. Take back that which they have received.’ So Abu Sarh disgorged 50,000 dirhems; and Merwân 15,000, and they all departed for the moment satisfied.

But all these accounts must be received with suspicion. In the midst of such violent factions as were springing up, the marvel is that tradition has preserved so consistent a narrative as we have.