The arms of Omar were no less successful in Persia than in Egypt. The throne of Chosroes was filled by his grandson Yezdejerd, a youth of fifteen, whose inex perience in war obliged him to entrust the royal standard to his general, Rustam. The bloody and obstinate battle of Cadesia determined the fate of Persia. Rustam was slain, and his army completely defeated by Said, the lieutenant of Oniar. The province of Trak, or Assyria, immediately submitted to the caliph ; and Bassora soon rose the emporium of Persia. Crossing the Tigris, the Arabs took Ctesiphon by assault, the capital and resi dence of the kings of Persia ; and the immense trea sures of the royal palace are computed by an Arabian historian, at three thousand of thousands of thousands of pieces of gold. The Persians made a final stand, for their religion and liberties, at Nehavend ; and this deci sive battle, which ended in their defeat, is styled by the Arabs, the victory of victories. The grandson of Chos roes, thus stripped of his dominions, was driven a help less exile from kingdon to kingdom, till China afforded him an asylum from the relentless fury of his enemies. Armenia and Mesopotamia had also yielded to the autho rity of the caliph. But while his arms were subjugating the finest provinces of the east, Omar fell by the hand of an assassin, when performing his morning devotions in the mosque at Medina.
The impartial justice of this prince, his generosity, abstinence, and piety, have drawn forth the encomiums of the Moslem historians ; and the humility of Omar commanded more reverence and esteem from his sub jects, than all the grandeur of his successors. Notwith standing the pressing solicitations of his friends, who surrounded his death-bed, he refused to nominate his successor. He rejected the names of the most illustri ous Moslems, as incapable of governing so mighty an empire ; and left his appointment to the suffrages of six elders, who had been the friends and early companions of the prophet. The virtuous Ali rejected the condi tions upon which the sceptre or Arabia was to be ob tained ;--.a compliance with the dictates of the Koran, the traditions of i'Iahomet, and the decisions of Omar and Abu Bekr. "I am willing," said the son of Abu Taleb, "to make the two first the foundation and stand ard of my government ; but I cannot admit the last to be of equal authority with these." Upon the refusal of Ali, Othman Ebn Affan, agreeing to accept the govern ment with these restrictions, was immediately proclaim ed caliph, in the 23d year of the Hegira. (A. D. 644.) Othman was 70 years of age when he ascended the Moslem throne ; and the first act of his administration she wed his weakness and partiality. Amru, the conqueror and lieutenant of Egypt, who was beloved by the in habitants on account of his affable and obliging temper, was recalled from his government ; and Abdallah, the foster-brother of the caliph, appointed in his room. This so displeased the Egyptians, that a general revolt was the consequence, which could only be quelled by the presence and exertions of the brave Amru.
From the conquest of Egypt the comment of Africa opened a wide field for the religion and courage of the Moslems. An army of 40,000 believers was entrusted to Ahdallah, to penetrate into that country, and to receive the conversion or the tribute of its natives. The deserts of Barca retarded not the march of their patient and har dy camels. The fortifications of Tripoli and Sufetula fell before the persevering bravery of the Arabs ; and the Barharions on all sides implored the mercy and protec tion of the conquerors. Abdallah, however, was pre vented from prosecuting his conquests. The progress of an epidemical disease thinned his army, and compell ed him to return, after a successful campaign of fifteen months, to the confines of Egypt.
Discontent now began to spew itself in the empire ; and the feeble administration of Othman was unable to curb the haughty spirits of the Moslem chiefs, who were elated with power and flushed with victory. Bent on foreign conquest, the caliph had neglected to secure the affections and confidence of his subjects ; and his declining age was incapable of sustaining, with firmness, the burthen of government. The spirit of sedition spread rapidly through the provinces ; and the refractory chiefs from Egypt, Syria, and Trak, assembled at Medina, to demand justice from their sovereign. They accused him of injustice and ingratitude to the bravest of his generals ; of squandering the public treasures upon his relations and favourites ; and of presuming to sit upon the highest scat of the prophet's pulpit, when his prede cessors contented themselves with the steps. Othman owned the faults of his administration ; and the insur gents were appeased for a time, by the mediation of Ali, who promised, in the name of the caliph, and in his own, to redress their grievances. The public tranquillity, however, was but of short duration. The intrigues of Ayesha, the widow of the prophet, inflamed the ambition and jealousy of the most powerful chiefs ; and the vil lainous forgery of the caliph's secretary spurred on Ma hornet Ebn Abu Bekr to hasten the destruction of his master. Othman was besieged in his palace, and the gates were bravely defended by the two sons of Ali. But the rebels intercepted their water and provisions, which forced them to abandon the caliph to the fury of the son of Alm Bekr. Othmen fell, covered with wounds
in the year of his age, and the 35th of the Hegira, (A. D. 655.) From a life of retirement and prayer, Ali was invited, by the voice of the people, to the throne of Arabia. He declined, however, a sceptre which had been so long, and so unjustly withheld from him, and declared, that he had now rather obey than command. But the good of his country overcame his reluctance ; and a tumultuous soldiery compelled him to accept of a throne and a mighty empire. His inauguration was attended by the Arabian chiefs, many of whom concealed their disaffec tion under the mask of a ready obedience. They had tasted the sweets of independence and revenge ; and as the accession of All had blasted their schemes and ex pectations, they offered him the fawning tribute of their lips, while their hearts were bent on his destruction. The widow of the prophet bore an implacable hatred against the husband and the family of Fatima. She pro voked the Meccans to revenge the murder of the ca liph, and represented the innocent Ali as an assassin and an usurper. Telha Ebn Obeid allah, and Zobeir Ebn Al dizzzain, two of her accomplices in that horrid transac tion, supported her in her iniquitous designs. Escap ing from Mecca, they planted their standard of rebel lion in the province of Assyria ; and the artful Ayesha pretended that her only object was to revenge the death of Othman. Ali marched a loyal band of 20,000 Arabs to Bassora, which had submitted to the regicides. On his march he was joined by 8000 valiant Cufans, to whom he expressed his unwillingness to shed the blood of the Moslems. "Ye men of Cufa, who have always distin guished yourselves by your bravery, and have dispersed the forces of the kings of Persia, I have desired your in terposition, to bring about a reconciliation with my bre thren of Bassora. Nothing shall be wanting on my part, as I shall always prefer the sweets of peace, to the miseries and desolations of war." Finding, however, that all attempts at an accommodation were fruitless, he left the dispute to the decision of the sword ; and charged Ayesha and her associates with the Moslem blood which should be shed in that war. All encountered the rebel army under the walls of Bassora. Ayesha took her station in the hottest of the fight. Seventy men of the Bann Daba, who held the bridle of her camel, were suc cessively slain ; and the litter in which she sat was so stuck with javelins and arrows, as to resemble the quills of a porcupine. After an obstinate resistance, the rebels were completely defeated : Telha, and Zobeir fell in the engagement, and Ayesha was taken prisoner. Ali then marched his victorious troops against a more powerful rival, Moawiyah, the prefect of Syria, who, from a pre tended declaration of Othman's in his favour, had assum ed the title of caliph. Moawiyah was the son of Abu Sophian, and chief of the family of Ommiyah, of whom the late caliph was also a descendant. Sixty thousand Syrians rallied under the bloody shirt of his murdered kinsman ; and his cause was strengthened by the attach ment of Amru, the conqueror of Egypt, to whom, for his services, he promised the government of that country. The rival caliphs met on the plains of Seffein. Three months were spent in fruitless negociations, and bloody skirmishes, in which twenty-six of the heroes of Seder were numbered among the slain. All at last proposed to decide their claim to the caliphate, and to spare the blood of his countrymen, by single combat. Amru se conded the proposal, and urged his colleague to accept the challenge ; but the trembling Moawiyah refused to stake his life on such unequal odds, and shrunk from the invincible arm of his generous rival. Upon this refusal a general action ensued. The ponderous sword of Ali carried destruction and dismay through the ranks of the Syrians. Every time he smote a rebel, he shouted Allah .dcbar," God is victorious ;" and four hundred times the hero was heard to repeat, during the engagement, that dreadful exclamation. The Syrians were driven back upon their camp ; and Moawiyah meditated a shameful flight, when a stratagem of Amru's saved his army from defeat, and checked the fury of the conquerors. Amru ordered his soldiers to advance, with the Koran fixed upon the points of their lances, and to exclaim, " This is the book of God between us and you, which ought to decide all differences, and which forbids the effusion of Moslem blood." The troops of All were awed by the solemn appeal. They threw down their arms ; and the Charejites, or enthusiasts, threatened to -abandon him, unless he immediately sounded a retreat. Thus, in the moment of certain victory, was the prize snatched from the grasp of Ali, by an insidious adversary ; and he him self compelled, by the fanaticism of his troops, to sub mit to a disgraceful truce. Overcome with sorrow and indignation, he retired to Cufa ; and those very soldiers who betrayed him at Seffeir, deserted his standard, and chose a leader of their own. While Ali was reducing these rebels to obedience, his rival had subdued Egypt, and reduced Persia, while his forces had penetrated into the province of Hedjas, and filled the holy city with terror and alarm.