CHAPTER XLVI
YEZĪD APPOINTED HEIR-APPARENT. HEREDITARY
NOMINATION BECOMES A PRECEDENT
56 A.H. 676 A.D.
Precedents for nomination or election of Caliph.The election of a Caliph on each succession had been followed by serious peril to the peace of Islām. The choice was supposed to be a privilege vested in the inhabitants of Medīna, "Citizens," as well as "Refugees"; but the practice had been various, and the rule had been oftener broken than observed. The Prophet himself nominated no one. Abu Bekr we may say was chosen by acclamation.[1] He again, on his deathbed, named ʿOmar successor; and ʿOmar, establishing yet another precedent, placed the choice in the hands of electors. It is true that on both these last occasions the succession was ratified by the homage of Medīna; but that was little more than formal recognition of appointment already made. At the fourth succession, the election of ʿAlī, though carried out under compulsion of the regicides, resembled somewhat the popular election of the first Caliph. Then followed the rebellion of Ṭalḥa and Az-Zubeir, based on the allegation that homage had been extorted from them. After that ensued the struggle between Muʿāwiya and ʿAlī, which ended in the so-called Arbitration of Dūma, and the double Caliphate. On the death of ʿAlī, who declined to nominate a successor, his son Al-Ḥasan was elected, not, as heretofore, by the people of Medīna, but by the citizens of Al-Kūfa. And, finally, we have the first
- ↑ Moḥammad, as we have seen, appointed him on his deathbed to lead the prayers; but he made no express nomination.
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