The third khalif was Osman or Othrnan, on whose murder Ali succeeded. Ali was surnamed ' the ever-victorious lion of God,' but his succession marked the beginning of troubles. lie was accused of having instigated Othman's assassination. 0th man's bloody shirt was conveyed to Syria, and displayed on the principal mosque of incite the Syrian army to revenge. 50,000 men, said the messenger who conveyed these tidings to Ali at Medina, are assembled about the robes of Othman, whose checks and beards have never been dry from tears, and whose eyes have never ceased from weeping blood since the hour of that prince's atrocious murder. They have drawn their swords with a solemn pledge never to return them to the scabbard, nor cease from mourning, until they have extirpated all con cerned in that detested transaction. Simul taneously with this movement in Syria, Telha and Zobeir, two of the most renowned warriors among the Arabs, and Ayasha, the favourite wife of Mahomed, repaired to Bussora, and raised the standard of rebellion against the authority of Ali. But Ali, though deficient in political ability, and wanting in the tact requisite to conciliate rival and turbulent factious, was an unrivalled soldier on the field of battle. He placed himself at the head of 30,000 men, and advanced in the direction of Bussora. In the battle of the Camel, 17,000 Arabs are said to have fallen. Tellia and Zobeir were both killed, and Ayasha became a prisoner in the power of Ali. He treated her with the utmost courtesy and forbearance, and caused her to be escorted to Mecca. This signal victory made Ali the undisputed sovereign of Irak, Egypt, Arabia, Persia, and Khorasan ; but the Syrian army remained implacable ; and Aniru, the conqueror of Egypt, in the presence of the whole army, acknowledged Moawyah, son of Abu Sussian, as the lawful khalif and prince of the masImin. All attacked the Syrian host on the
plain of Suffein. Victorious again and again in the battlefield, he allowed himself to be outwitted in diplomacy, and in the month of Ramzan 40, the career of All was brought to a close by the dagger of au assassin, and Moawyah became the undisputed khalif. In all the mosques wher ever the Muhammadan doctrines prevailed, the names of Ali and of all his family were regularly • cursed upon all occasions of public worship. His death was followed nine years after by that of his eldest son Hasan, poisoned by his own wife, at the instigation, it is said, of Moawyah ; and after a lapse of two years, his second son Husain crowned the misfortunes of his family by his bloody death on the plains of Karbala, on the tenth day of the month Maharram A.II. 61. Y ezid, son of Moawyah, was the reigning khalif at the time of the murder of Husain. That event was the signal for rebellious outbreaks in all parts of his dominions. The martyred Husain became a watchword which again and again deluged with blood the empire of the khalifs, and ultimately brought it to ruin, and has ever since separated the Muhammadans into two sects, embued with a bitter hatred, which up to the present moment, even under the strong power of the British, is ever liable to evince itself in outbreaks, needing armed intervention to be ready at hand. At present the only ruling house of the descendants of Ali is tho Asof Jahi in Hyderabad in the Dekhan, which has been in existence for nearly 200 years.—Gibbou ; Lane ; Osborn's Islam ; Osborn's Khalifs; Sir C. Birdwood ; Dr. Badger ; Bjornstjerna's British Empire in the East, p. 97 ; Bunsen, ii. p. 150. See Ali Ilahi; Ismaili; Khaja; Khutbah ; Mahomed.
K HALIFAII-ul-AKBAR, God's vicegerent, a title given to Adam.