William Muir

“ They had forgotten how narrow was the issue which the umpires had to decide. The Bedawin and democrats were fighting not for one Caliph or the other, but against the pretensions of Koreish at large. It was this that nerved them to the sanguinary conflict. "If the Syrians conquer," cried one their chiefs, "ye are undone. Again ye will be ground down by tyrants like unto the minions of Othman. They will seize upon the conquests of Islam as if, forsooth, they were theirs by inheritance, instead of won by our swords. We shall lose our grasp both of this world and the next." ”

“ THE quick sagacity of 'Amr had never been turned to better account than when he proposed that the Kor'an should be the arbiter between the contending parties. To be judged by the Book of the Lord had been the cry of the democrats from the beginning. ”