Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 5 (1897).djvu/404

382 THE DECLINE AND FALL From the first hour of his mission to the last rites of his funeral, the apostle was never forsaken by a generous friend, whom he delighted to name his brother, his vicegerent, and the faithful Aaron of a second Moses. The son of Abu Taleb was after- wards reproached for neglecting to secure his interest by a solemn declaration of his right, which would have silenced all competition and sealed his succession by the decrees of heaven. But the unsuspecting hero confided in himself; the jealousy of empire, and perhaps the fear of opposition, might suspend the resolutions of Mahomet ; and the bed of sickness was be- sieged by the artful Ayesha, the daughter of Abubeker and the enemy of Ali. The silence and death of the prophet restored the liberty of the people ; and his companions convened an assembly to de- liberate on the choice of his successor. The hereditary claim and lofty spirit of Ali were offensive to an aristocracy of elders, desirous of bestowing and resuming the sceptre by a free and frequent election ; the Koreish could never be reconciled to the proud pre-eminence of the line of Hashem ; the ancient discord of the tribes was rekindled ; the fugitives of Mecca and the aujciliaries of Medina asserted their respective merits ; and the rash proposal of choosing two independent caliphs would have crushed, in their infancy, the religion and empire of the Saracens. The tumult was appeased by the disinterested resolution of Omar, who, suddenly renouncing his own preten- sions, stretched forth his hand, and declared himself the first subject of the mild and venerable Abubeker. The urgency of the moment and the acquiescence of the people might excuse this illegal and precipitate measure ; but Omar himself confessed from the pulpit that, if any Musulman should hereafter presume to anticipate the suffrage of his brethren, both the elector and the elected would be worthy of death.^^^ After the simple inauguration of Abubeker, he was obeyed in Medina, Mecca, and the provinces of Arabia ; the Hashemites alone declined the oath of fidelity ; and their chief, in his own house, maintained, above six months, a sullen and independent reserve, without listening to the threats of Omar, who attempted to consume with fire the habitation of the daughter of the apostle. The 1*1 Ockley (Hist, of the Saracens, vol. i. p. 5, 6), from an Arabian Ms., represents Ayesha as adverse to the substitution of her father in the place of the apostle. This fact, so improbable in itself, is unnoticed by Abulfeda, Al Jannabi, and Al Bochari ; the last of whom quotes the tradition of Ayesha herself (Vit. Mohammed. p. 136. Vie de Mahomet, torn. iii. p. 236).