Note 495 — Chapter XXXV · THE ELECTION OF ALY. End of A.H. XXXV. June, A.D. 656.

This servile population (Sabâya or ‘captives’) had been pouring for years in a continuous stream, during the campaigns, into Medîna. They were employed as domestic servants, warders, body-guards, &c. Some followed trades, in quasi-freedom, paying the profits to their masters. They mostly embraced the Moslem faith because of the privileges it conferred. On the outbreak they became insubordinate, and broke away into a defiant attitude. This would occur the more readily as they formed the guards of the treasury and mansions of the great men; and, being the only trained force at Medîna, no doubt themselves felt their power. We find them similarly taking part in the outbreak at Bussorah. Like the Janissaries or Memlûk of later days, they were a petulant brood. Immediately on homage being done to Aly, they are said to have lampooned him in minatory verses, to which Aly (not to be outdone by the poetry even of slaves) replied in extempore couplets. Proclamation was made that slaves not returning to their masters would be treated as outlaws, but it had no effect.