A.H. 60–61.
not only the fate of the Caliphate, but of Moḥammadan kingdoms long after the Caliphate had waned and disappeared.Mourning for Ḥosein. Who that in the East has seen the wild and passionate grief with which, at each recurring anniversary, the Muslims of every land spend the live-long night, beating their breasts and vociferating unweariedly the frantic cry—Ḥasan Ḥosein! Ḥasan Ḥosein!—in wailing cadence,The Moḥarram. can fail to recognise the fatal weapon, sharp and double-edged, which the Umeiyad dynasty had thus allowed to fall into the hands of bitter enemies?[1] ʿAlī, the little son of Al-Ḥosein, introduces a new thread into the tangle of claimants for the headship of Islām. His mother was a daughter (it is said) of Yezdejird, the last of the Sāsānids. He had, therefore, the support of the Persians, and is acknowledged by all the Shīʿa as the fourth Imām, under the title Zain al-ʿĀbidin ("Glory of the Devout").
- ↑ In this outburst the name of Al-Ḥasan is added to that of Al-Ḥosein, not only because the Shīʿa hold him to have been entitled to the Caliphate (though he resigned it), but because he, too, is regarded as a martyr poisoned by his wife, at the instigation, they say, of Muʿāwiya, but (as we have seen) without any sufficient presumption.
The tragedy is yearly represented as a religious ceremony, especially by the Shīʿa, in the "Passion Play," throughout which are interwoven, in a supernatural romance, the lives of the early worthies of Islām, ending with the pathetic tale of the martyr company of Kerbalā; while Abu Bekr, ʿOmar, and ʿOthmān are execrated as usurpers, and the whole Umeiyad crew, ʿObeidallah, Al-Ḥajjāj, etc., are held up to malediction.
