59

4' phet ?l If thou holdest the example of customary
"acts reprehensible, there is nothing to be said
" about such an occurrence. And likewise, if the
" two Shaikhs had not been pure, the lord prophet
" would not have exalted their heads by matrimo-
' * nial alliance; and the daughter of the lord Ali and
66 the lord prophet would never have been in the
" house of the great Fdruk (Omar), and of the pos-
" sessor of two lights (Osman). To open the road
ft of contention is not laudable ; and if not so ac-
" cording to thy opinion, explain this to me : since
<c the lord, the lion of God (Ali) was informed of all
" the secrets of the hearts, why did he wage war
" upon Maaviah, who was a Muselman? and why
" was he the death of so many men, since causing
'' death is by no means right?2 It is likewise known

1 If I am not mistaken, allusion is here made to Zeinah (Zenobia), the
wife of Zaid. Muhammed, having gone one day to the house of the latter,
\vho was not at home, found Zeinah in a dress which permitted him to
remark her beauties, with which he was so smitten, that he could not re-
frain from an exclamation betraying his sensation. Zeiuah did not fail to
apprise her husband. Zeid then thought he could not do less than to
place his wife by a divorce at the disposition of his master and benefactor,
whose slave he had once been, and by whom he was not only affran-
chised, but adopted as a son. On that very account, Muhammed was
prevented by law from marrying Zeinah; but he procured to himself an
authorization from heaven, in a verse of the Koran (chap. XXXIII. v. 36),
and after the term of Zeinah's divorce, took to wife the object of his
desires, at the latter end of the fifth year of the Hejira (A. D. 626).

2 During the contest between Ali and Moaviah, the armies of both
chiefs were in the year of the Hejira 37 (A. D. 657) encamped opposite