s, Othman,
the secretary of Mahomet, accepted the government; nor was it till after
the third caliph, twenty-four years after the death of the prophet, that
Ali was invested, by the popular choice, with the regal and sacerdotal
office. The manners of the Arabians retained their primitive simplicity,
and the son of Abu Taleb despised the pomp and vanity of this world.
At the hour of prayer, he repaired to the mosch of Medina, clothed in a
thin cotton gown, a coarse turban on his head, his slippers in one hand,
and his bow in the other, instead of a walking-staff. The companions of
the prophet, and the chiefs of the tribes, saluted their new sovereign,
and gave him their right hands as a sign of fealty and allegiance.

[Footnote 1672: Abubeker, the father of the virgin Ayesha. St. Martin,
vol. XL, p. 88--M.]

[Footnote 168: Ockley, (Hist. of the Saracens, vol. i. p. 5, 6,) from
an Arabian Ms., represents Ayesha as adverse to the substitution of her
father in the place of the apostle. This fact, so improbable in itself,
is unnoticed by Abulfeda, Al Jannabi, and Al Bochari, the last of whom
quotes the tradition of Ayesha herself, (Vit. Mohammed, p. 136 Vie de
Mahomet, tom. iii. p. 236.)]

[Footnote 169: Particularly by his friend and cousin Abdallah, the
son of Abbas, who died A.D. 687, with the title of grand doctor of the
Moslems. In Abulfeda he recapitulates the important occasions in which
Ali had neglected his salutary advice, (p. 76, vers. Reiske;) and
concludes, (p. 85,) O princeps fidelium, absque controversia tu quidem
vere fortis es, at inops boni consilii, et rerum gerendarum parum
callens.]

[Footnote 170: I suspect that the two seniors (Abulpharagius, p. 115.
Ockley, tom. i. p. 371,) may signify not two actual counsellors, but his
two predecessors, Abubeker and Omar.]

The mischiefs that flow from the contests of ambition are usually
confined to the times and countries in which they have been agitated.
But the religious discord of the friends and enemies of Ali has been
renewed in every age of the Hegira, and is still maintained in the
immortal hatred of the Persians and Turks. [171] The former, who are
branded with the appellation of Shiites or sectaries, have enriched
the Mahometan creed with a new article of faith; and if Mahomet be
the apostle, his companion Ali is the vicar, of God. In their private
converse, in their public worship, they bitterly execrate the three
usurpers who intercepted his indef