CHAPTER XLIII
ASSASSINATION OF ʿALĪ
40 A.H. 661 A.D.
Conspiracy to assassinate ʿAlī, Muʿāwiya, and ʿAmr,
40 A.H.
661 A.D.The Khawārij were sorely troubled at the prospects of Islām. It was not that raids and robbery, dissension and strife, had been the order of the day, for to them bloodshed was more tolerable than apostasy. To the Khāriji, the cessation of war brought no peace of mind. A settled government was the ruin of his hopes. ʿAlī, having come to terms with ʿMuʿāwiya, there was no longer room to expect that the ungodly kingdoms of the earth would be overthrown, and the reign of righteousness restored. Thus the theocratic party brooded over the blood that had been shed in vain at Nahrawān and on other battlefields, and for the present abandoned hope. Many took refuge from the godless tyranny in the sacred precincts of the Ḥijāz, where they might lament freely over the miserable fate of Islām. As three of these thus mourned together, a gleam of hope shot across their path. "Let us each kill one of the tyrants; Islām will yet be free, and the reign of the Lord appear." And so, as in the case of ʿOthmān, but under another guise and urged by bolder hopes, the three conspired against the State. The fatal resolve once taken, details were speedily arranged. ʿAlī and Muʿāwiya, both must fall; and ʿAmr also, not only as the impious arbitrator, but also as the likeliest successor to the throne left vacant by the other two. Each was to dispose of his fellow as he presided at the morning service, on the same Friday when, being the Fast, the Grand Mosques of Al-Kūfa, Damascus, and Fusṭāṭ would be thronged with worshippers. They dipped their swords in powerful poison, and separated, swearing
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