OF THE KOMAN EMPIRE 383 death of Fatima and the decline of" his party subdued the indignant spirit of Ali : he condescended to salute the com- mander of the faithful, accepted his excuse of the necessity of preventing their common enemies, and wisely rejected his courteous offer of abdicating the government of the Arabians. After a reign of two years, the aged caliph was summoned by [Aug. 22, ad. the angel of death. In his testament, with the tacit approba- tion of the companions, he bequeathed the sceptre to the firm and intrepid virtue of Omar. " I have no occasion," said the modest candidate, " for the place." " But the place has occasion for you," replied Abubeker ; who expired with a fervent prayer that the God of Mahomet would ratify his choice and direct the °l^^ Musulmans in the way of concord and obedience. The prayer ^y 2* f ati«, was not ineffectual, since Ali himself, in a life of privacy and prayer, professed to revere the superior worth and dignity of his rival ; who comforted him for the loss of empire by the most flattering marks of confidence and esteem. In the twelfth year [eleventh] of his reign, Omar received a mortal Avound from the hand of an assassin ; he rejected with equal impartiality the names of his son and of Ali, refused to load his conscience with the sins of his successor, and devolved on six of the most respectable companions the arduous task of electing a commander of the faithful. On this occasion Ali was again blamed by his friends ^^'^ for submitting his right to the judgment of men, for recognising their jurisdiction by accepting a place among the six electors. He might have obtained their suffrage, had he deigned to promise a strict and servile conformity, not only to the Koran and tradition, but likewise to the determinations of two seuiom.^^'^ With these limitations, Othman, the secretary of Mahomet, of othman. accepted the government ; nor was it till after the third caliph, Nov. e [7] twenty-four years after the death of the prophet, that Ali was invested, by the popular choice, with the regal and sacei'dotal office. The manners of the Arabians retained their primitive simplicity, and the son of Abu Taleb despised the pomp and vanity of this world. At the hour of prayer, he repaired to the 182 Particularly by his friend and cousin Abdallah, the son of Abbas, who died A.D. 687, with the title of grand doctor of the Moslems. In Abulfeda he re- capitulated the important occasions in which Ali had neglected his salutary advice ([Ann. Mosl.] p. 76, vers. Reiske) ; and concludes (p. 85), O princeps fidelium, absque controversia tu quidem vere fortis as, at inops boni cot'"J. ct rerum gerendarum parum callens. 18'* I suspect that the two seniors (Abulpharagius, p. 115 ; Ockley, torn. i. p. 371) may signify not two actual counsellors, but his two predecessors, Abubeker and Omar. [Weil translates "the two Caliphs who preceded," Geschichte der Chalifen, i. 153.]
