CHAPTER XXXVI
ʿALĪ TRANSFERS HIS SEAT OF GOVERNMENT TO AL-KŪFA,
AFFAIRS IN EGYPT
36 A.H. 656–657 A.D.
Medīna abandoned as capital of Islām.As ʿAlī rode forth from Medīna in pursuit of the insurgent army, a citizen seized his bridle; "Stay!" he cried earnestly;—"if thou goest forth from hence, the government will depart from this City never more to return." He was pushed aside, as one having lost his wits; but his words were long remembered, and the prophecy was true. Medīna was to be the seat of Empire no more.
ʿAlī's entry into Kūfa,
vii. 36A.H.
Jan., 657 A.D.In the 36th year of the Hijra, seven months after the death of ʿOthmān, ʿAlī entered Al-Kūfa. The first four of these had been spent at Medīna; the other three in the campaign of "the Camel" and a short stay at Al-Baṣra. No Caliph had as yet visited Al-Kūfa. It was now to be the seat of ʿAlī's government. The inhabitants were flattered by the honour thus put upon them. The city had certain advantages; for in it were many leading men, able, and some of them willing, to support the Caliph. Moreover, ʿAlī might calculate on the jealousy of Al-ʿIrāḳ towards Syria in the approaching struggle with Muʿāwiya. But these advantages were all more than counterbalanced by the factious humour of the populace. It was the focus of Bedawi democracy; and the spirit of the Bedawīn was yet untamed. What had they gained, the men of Al-Kūfa asked, by the insurrection against ʿOthmān? The cry of vengeance on the regicides was for the moment silenced; but things, they said, were drifting back into the old Ḳoreishite groove. The charge was, in fact, the same as the Sons of the Desert were making all round. "ʿAlī hath set up his cousins,
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