Husayn ibn Ali

“ Husayn, names now so common, were (it is said) , unknown to the Arabs, although Hassán was that of a Tobba King, before the days of Mohammed who so called his two only grandsons. In Anglo-India they have become "Hobson and Jobson." The Bresl. Edit. (ii. 305) entitles this story "Tale of Abu 'l Hasan the Attár (druggist and perfumer) with Ali ibn Bakkár and what befel them with the handmaid (=járiyah) Shams al-Nahár."
[FN#175] i.e. a descendant, not a Prince.
[FN#176] The Arab shop is a kind of hole in the wall and buyers sit upon its outer edge (Pilgrimage i. 99) . ”

“ Then of his envy and malice that Wazir fell to plying the King with deceitful words and said, "O my liege lord and mighty sovran, it ill becometh thee to be thus heedless of Prince Ahmad's proceedings. Seest thou not how day after day his retinue increaseth in numbers and puissance? What an he should plot against thee and cast thee into prison, and take from thee the reins of the realm? Right well thou wottest that inasmuch as thou didst wed Prince Ali to the Lady Nur al-Nihar thou provokedest the wrath of Prince Husayn and Prince Ahmad ”

“ His two sons, Hasan and Husayn, inherited all the defects and few of the merits of their sire: Hasan was a pauvre diable, whose chief characteristic was addiction to marriage, and by poetical justice one of his wives murdered him. Husayn was of stronger mould, but he fought against the impossible; for his rival was Mu'áwiyah, the Cavour of the Age, the longest-headed man in Arabia, and against Yezíd, who, like Italy of the present day, flourished and prospered by the artificial game which the far-seeing politician, his father, had bequeathed to his house--the Ommiade. ”

“ These views all glorified Ali, the full cousin of Muhammad and husband of his daughter Fatima, but upon very different grounds. There could not but exist the feeling that a descendant of the Prophet should be his successor, and the children of Ali, al-Hasan and al-Husayn were his only grandchildren and only surviving male descendants. ”

“ As the prince had supposed, the sultan of the Indies, in the midst of the rejoicings on account of the nuptials of prince Ali and the princess Nouronnihar, was sensibly afflicted at the absence of the other two princes his sons, though it was not long before he was informed of the resolution Houssain had taken to forsake the world, and the place he had chosen for his retreat. As a good father, whose happiness consists in seeing his children about him, especially when they are deserving of his tenderness, he would have been better pleased had he stayed at his court, near his person ”

“ Some of these rude craft which, when manned, remind one of saturnine Caliph Omar's "worms floating on a log of wood," measure 60 feet long and more.
[FN#234] i.e. A descendant of Mohammed in general-and especially through Husayn Ali-son. Here the text notes that the chief of the bazar was of this now innumerable stock, who inherit the title through the mother as well as through the father.
[FN#235] Arab. "Hasab" (=quaneity) , the honour a man acquires for himself ”

“ The perpetual virginity of Fatimah even after motherhood (Hasan and Husayn) is a point of orthodoxy in Al-Islam as Juno’s with the Romans and Umá’s with the Hindu worshippers of Shiva. During her life Mohammed would not allow Ali a second wife, and he held her one of the four perfects, the other three being Asia wife of “Pharaoh,” the Virgin Mary and Khadíjah his own wife. ”

“ The Prophet, failing to save his followers from punishment, notwithstanding the united efforts of himself, of ’Alí, and of Hasan, throws away his rod, his cloak, and his turban, in his disappointment. Nor is he in the least pacified until Gabriel makes it clear to him that Huseyn, who “has suffered most,” must lend him the assistance he requires. The compassionate heart of the man is wrung, so that when [Pg 77] Huseyn makes his appearance it is to receive from his magnanimous grandsire the key of intercession. ”

“ When they had performed the funeral obsequies, Al-Hasan arraigned the assassin before him.
Ibn Muljam put to death.
Nothing daunted, Ibn Muljam said: "I made a covenant with the Lord before the Holy House at Mecca, that I would slay both 'Ali and Mu'awiya. Now, if thou wilt I shall go forth and kill the other, or perish in the attempt. If I succeed, I will return and swear allegiance unto thee." "Nay," said Al-Hasan, "not before thou hast tasted of the fire." He was put to death, and the body, tied up in a sack, was committed to the flames. ”

“ You ask of me to degrade myself for the sake of your passion?”
“Is it degrading to reconcile oneself with one’s enemy?” asked Ali.
“I did once make a step towards a reconciliation,” replied Ibrahim, “which was contemptuously spurned, and I have sworn by the Omnipotent Allah that as sure as the gold cloth was torn, so surely shall Hussain be for ever torn from my heart. Compose yourself, my son, conquer your passion; there are pretty girls enough in Bagdad besides her. I am rich and can buy the most beautiful slaves for you; but never think of an alliance with the blood of Hussain ”

“ And Abu al-Hasan said to him, "The reason of my coming is that such an one hath sent his handmaid to thee with a letter, containing his greeting to thee and mentioning therein that the cause of his not coming to thee was a matter that hath betided him. The girl standeth even now at the door: shall she have leave to enter?"; and he signed to him that it was Shams al-Nahar's slave-girl. Ali understood his signal and answered, "Bring her in," and when he saw her, he shook for joy and signed to her, "How doth thy lord?; Allah grant him health and healing!" ”

“ For the difference between the “Sayyid” (descendant of Hasan) and the “Sharíf,” derived from Husayn, see vol. v. 259. Being of the Holy House the youth can truly deny that he belongs to any place or race, as will be seen in the sequel.
43. This masterful administrator of the Caliphate under the early Ommiades is noticed in vols. iv. 3, and vii. 97. The succession to the Prophet began—as mostly happens in the proceedings of elective governments, republics, and so forth—with the choice of a nobody, “Abubakr the Veridical,” a Meccan merchant, whose chief claim was the glamour of the Apostolate. ”

“ He that loves you, loves God; and whoever opposes you, has opposed God. Whoso befriends you, him will God befriend; and whoso rejects you, him will God reject. [2]
Mullá Ḥusayn was known in Iṣfahán, for there he had obtained testimonials from the great mujtahid, Ḥájí Siyyid Muḥammad-Báqir, in support of Siyyid Káẓim-i-Rashtí. That eminent divine was now dead, but his son, Ḥájí Siyyid Asadu'lláh, walking in the footsteps of his illustrious father, refused to associate himself with the adversaries of Mullá Ḥusayn. ”

“ And Alí’ [Pg 25] the Prophet’s son-in-law, whom the Persians revere as his true successor, lived for no other purpose than to help the poor and to succour the weak. He was, as Carlyle assures us, a man worthy of Christian knighthood. So also was his son, Huseyn, whose glorious martyrdom has endeared him to the hearts of the Persian people.
In the East men are ruled and guided by religious laws and not by positive ones, so Muhammad’s aim was to make the Arabians free and united by lessening the sufferings of the poor and by establishing equality among the people. ”

“ In addition to the causes above enumerated of the rapid spread of Islam in Persia, it should be remembered that the political and national sympathies of the conquered race were also enlisted on behalf of the new religion through the marriage of Ḥusayn, the son of ʻAlī with Shāhbānū, one of the daughters of Yazdagird, the last monarch of the Sāsānid dynasty. ”

“ Trouble for us does not lie in the Hejaz itself, but in its possible expansion beyond its powers of absorption, or, in homely metaphor, if it bites off more than it can chew. There is a certain tendency just now to overrate Hejazi prowess in war and policy; in fact, King Husein is often alluded to vaguely as the "King of Arabia," and there is a sporadic crop of ill-informed [103] articles on this and other Arabian affairs in the English Press. ”

“ No opportunity was lost of gaining adherents among the Amīr’s courtiers. Hākim Bi, the Kushbegi, or vezīr, and his father-in-law Ayāz Topchi-bāshi,486 who held an important military command, were devoted to his interests.487
On Haydar’s death, his eldest son, Husayn Khān, took possession of the citadel of Bokhārā and was proclaimed Amīr. He received fervent assurances of loyalty from Nasrullah, who was the while actively plotting212 to subvert his authority, and who held a council of war at Karshī, at which Mū ́min Beg Dādkhāh, one of Husayn’s chief lieutenants, assisted. ”

“ One hundred and forty thousand Muslims of Kufá and thereabouts professed their attachment to Huseyn’s cause, and a list of these adherents of his was transmitted to Medina. Against the advice of his wisest friends, he resolved to traverse the desert of Arabia, and to appear on the banks of the Euphrates—a river held sacred to this day by every Shiah. ”

“ They asked, "What is the matter of which thou wouldst take counsel with us, O King?"; and he answered, "I am old and sickly and I fear for the realm after me from its enemies; so I would have you all agree upon some one, that I may proclaim him King in my lifetime and so ye may be at ease." Whereupon quoth they with one voice, "We all approve of thy daughter's husband Hasan, son of the Wazir Ali; for we have seen his wit and perfect understanding, and he knoweth the place of all, great and small." ”

“ Any success which they achieved was always transient. The universal condition of things in Arabia afforded the opportunity of turning a portion of the Holy Province into a personal domain. In about 1000 A.D., the heads of certain families among the descendants of Ali began to make themselves powerful in the Hijaz and held their ground. From 1200 A.D. to the present time, one line of these children of Ali, that of Katada, has succeeded in maintaining supremacy in Mecca. ”

“ Now when it was the Six Hundred and Ninety-fourth Night, She pursued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the damsel said, “O Shaykh, I am distracted from all thought of meat and drink.” Quoth I (continued Husayn) , “By what ailment, O my lady?” and quoth she, “I love one who dealeth not justly by me and I desire one who of me will none. Wherefore I am afflicted with the wakefulness of those who wake star-gazing.” I asked, “O my lady, is there on the wide expanse of earth one to whom thou hast a mind and who to thee hath no mind?” Answered she, “Yes ”

“ Doubtless he could; he was a man who got most things which he set himself to get. Yet even he might have failed here but for that girl's face, that handful of yellow Indian corn, and the fierce fight which followed for both between those two, Hussan and Husayn, who, as they were finally held back from each other by soothing, friendly hands, felt that the end was nigh if it had not already come. ”

“ Indeed such as invoke others besides Him are deservedly numbered among the inmates of the fire, while He Who is the Remembrance of God verily abideth, firm and undeviating, on the Path of Truth amidst the Burning Bush.’...
O peoples of the earth! Inflict not upon the Most Great Remembrance what the Umayyads cruelly inflicted upon Ḥusayn in the Holy Land. By the righteousness of God, the True One, He is indeed the Eternal Truth, and unto Him God, verily, is a witness. Chapter XVII.
“God had, in truth, proposed Our Mission unto the ...” ”

“ Then she wept and with her wept the old woman, who, going up to Abu al-Hasan and uncovering his face, saw his eyes bound and swollen for the swathing. So she covered him up again and said, "Indeed, O Nuzhat al-Fuad, thou art afflicted in Abu al-Hasan!" Then she condoled with her and going out from her, ran along the street until she came in to the Lady Zubaydah and related to her the story; and the Princess said to her, laughing, "Tell it over again to the Caliph, who maketh me out little of wit, and lacking of religion, and who made this ill-omened liar of a slave presume to contradict me." ”

“ There were three, he said, of whom he must beware—the two 'Abdallahs, sons of 'Omar and Az-Zubeir, and Al-Hosein son of 'Ali. The first, a pious devotee, would easily be put aside. "As for Al-Hosein," he continued, "the restless men of Al-'Irak will give him no peace till he attempt the Empire; when thou hast gotten the victory, deal gently with him, for truly the blood of the Prophet runneth in his veins. It is 'Abdallah son of Az-Zubeir that I fear the most for thee. Fierce as the lion, crafty as the fox, destroy him root and branch." ”

“ Hussain looked at him attentively. “Is this the Greek slave, daughter,” he asked, “whom your nurse procured to instruct you in music?”
“Yes, father,” replied Gulhyndi, trembling.
“You are agitated, you have been weeping, what is the meaning of all this?”
“Father, he has sung to me an air which has affected me deeply.”
“Ah! does he so well understand the art of moving your feelings?” asked Hussain. “Play, you Christian dog,” said he, turning to Ali, “move me, also, for once.”
“Pardon your slave, sir,” said Ali, “feelings cannot be forced ”

“ And a curious medley of men they are, composed of the choicest vagabonds from every nation of Al-Islam. Beyond this I must not describe the Takiyah or the doings there, for the "path" of the Darwaysh may not be trodden by feet profane.
Curious to see something of my old friends the Persians, I called with Haji Wali upon one Mirza Husayn, who by virtue of his dignity as "Shahbandar [FN#25] " (he calls himself "Consul-General") , ranks with the dozen little quasi-diplomatic kings of Cairo. ”