Arabic Authors | Page 4

as briefly as possible, and will be found excessively
interesting, containing as it does the rise, grandeur, and decline of the

Arabs as a nation.
Muhammad, on his death in June, A.D. 632, left the entire Arab
peninsula, with two or three exceptions, under one sceptre and one
creed. He was succeeded by Abu Bakr (the father of Ayesha, the
favourite wife of the prophet), known as the Companion of the Cave,
with the title of Khalifah, or successor. His reign only lasted two years,
but during that period the various insurrections that broke out in Arabia
in consequence of the death of the Prophet were promptly put down,
after severe fighting, in various parts of the peninsula, and the whole
country was subjugated. Foreign expeditions beyond the borders were
also planned and started.
Abu Bakr, dying in August, A.D. 634, was succeeded by Umar, or
Omar, the conqueror of Syria, Persia, and Egypt by means of his
generals Khalid bin Walid (the best, perhaps, that Islam produced), Abu
Obaida, Mothanna, Sád bin Malik, Amr bin al-Aasi, and others. Omar
himself was an early convert of A.D. 615, and a sudden conversion like
our Paul; but one made his converts by fanaticism and the sword, the
other by preaching and the pen. After a glorious and victorious reign of
ten years Omar was assassinated by a Persian slave in November, A.D.
644, and was followed as Khalif by Othman, son of Affan, of the noble
family of Abd-esh-Shems, who also assumed the title 'Amir
al-Momenin, or Commander of the Faithful, which had been first
adopted by his predecessor Omar. Othman ruled for twelve years, when
he was murdered in A.D. 656, some say at the instigation of Ali,
nephew of Muhammad, and husband of his only daughter Fatima.
Anyhow, Ali succeeded Othman as Khalif, but was defeated by
Moawia, Governor of Syria, and assassinated in A.D. 660.
Moawia bin Abu Sofyan then established the Benou Umayya dynasty,
called by Europeans the Omaiyides, or Ommiades, from the name of
Umayya, the father of the race. This dynasty reigned for nearly ninety
years, and numbered fourteen successive princes, with their capital at
Damascus.
During the reign of Yazid I., the second prince (A.D. 679-683),
Hussain, the younger son of Ali the Khalif, came to an untimely end.

His elder brother, Hasan, a man of quiet disposition, had been
previously murdered by one of his wives, at the instigation, it is said, of
Yazid before he came to the throne. This happened in A.D. 669. Later
on Hussain, with his followers, rose in rebellion, and was killed on the
plain of Kerbela, A.D. 680. The descendants, however, of this faction
continued the disturbances which eventually brought about the great
Muhammadan schism, and the splitting up of the religion into two sects,
known to this day as the Sunnis and Shias. The adherents of the
legitimate Khalifate, and of the orthodox doctrine, assumed the name of
Sunnites, or Traditionists. These acknowledge the first four Khalifs (the
rightly minded, or rightly directed, as they are called) to have been
legitimate successors of Muhammad, while the sectaries of Ali are
known as the Shiites, or Separatists. These last regard Ali as the first
rightful Imam, for they prefer this title (found in Sura ii., verse 118, of
the Koran) to that of Khalif. The Turks and Arabs are Sunnis: the
Persians, and most of the Muhammadans of India, Shias.
This division into two sects, who hate each other cordially, has done
more to weaken the power of the Muhammadan religion as a power
than anything else. The Shias to this day execrate the memory of Yazid
as the murderer of their hero Hussain, whom they have ever regarded as
a martyr, and given full vent to their feelings on the subject in their
'Passion Play,' translated by Sir Lewis Pelly, and described by Mr.
Benjamin in his 'Persia and the Persians.'
Other insurrections against the reigning Omaiyide Khalifs were also
put down, portions of Asia, Africa and Spain conquered, and even
France invaded, so that at the close of the Benou Umayya dynastry,
about A.D. 750, their empire consisted of many and large territories in
Europe, Africa and Asia. Their colour was white, as opposed to the
black of the Abbasides, and the green of the Fatimites, as descendants
of Muhammad.
But the Benou Umayya dynasty succumbed, A.D. 749, under the blows
of Ibrahim (great-grandson of Abbas, the uncle of the Prophet), and of
his younger brother, Abul Abbas, better known in history as As-Saffah,
or the Blood-shedder. A decisive battle was fought on the banks of the

river Zab, near Arbela, and Marwan II. (A.D. 744-750), the last of the
Omaiyide Khalifs, was defeated, and fled first to Damascus, and then to
Egypt, where he was eventually killed