Note 491 — Chapter XXXIV · THE PLOT RIPENS. CONSPIRATORS ATTACK MEDINA. DEATH OF OTHMAN. A.H. XXXV. A.D. 656.

These two were among the chief men ‘whose hearts were gained over’ by largesses from the booty after the battle of Honein.—Life of Mahomet, p. 436. Hakîm is frequently mentioned in the Prophet’s biography. It was Hakîm who carried supplies to his aunt Khadîja when shut up with Mahomet in the Sheb.—Life, p. 100.

It is said that a party of the citizens of Medîna made an attempt to stop the funeral, but desisted on seeing that a tumult would arise. We are also told that Aly himself, on hearing of the design to molest the procession and cast stones at the mourners, did his best to prevent it. Indeed, Abbasside tradition abounds with attempts to rescue the memory of Aly from the obloquy attaching to the heartless part he had been acting. For example, Masûdy gives us a tradition that when Aly heard that all was over he hastened to the palace and asked his son how it had happened—as though he could not for many days have foreseen the fatal termination to which the blockade was tending!