rched against a more formidable adversary;
against Moawiyah, the son of Abu Sophian, who had assumed the title of
caliph, and whose claim was supported by the forces of Syria and the
interest of the house of Ommiyah. From the passage of Thapsacus, the
plain of Siffin [174] extends along the western bank of the Euphrates.
On this spacious and level theatre, the two competitors waged a
desultory war of one hundred and ten days. In the course of ninety
actions or skirmishes, the loss of Ali was estimated at twenty-five,
that of Moawiyah at forty-five, thousand soldiers; and the list of the
slain was dignified with the names of five-and-twenty veterans who
had fought at Beder under the standard of Mahomet. In this sanguinary
contest the lawful caliph displayed a superior character of valor and
humanity. [1741] His troops were strictly enjoined to await the first
onset of the enemy, to spare their flying brethren, and to respect
the bodies of the dead, and the chastity of the female captives. He
generously proposed to save the blood of the Moslems by a single
combat; but his trembling rival declined the challenge as a sentence of
inevitable death. The ranks of the Syrians were broken by the charge of
a hero who was mounted on a piebald horse, and wielded with irresistible
force his ponderous and two-edged sword. As often as he smote a rebel,
he shouted the Allah Acbar, "God is victorious!" and in the tumult of
a nocturnal battle, he was heard to repeat four hundred times that
tremendous exclamation. The prince of Damascus already meditated his
flight; but the certain victory was snatched from the grasp of Ali by
the disobedience and enthusiasm of his troops. Their conscience was awed
by the solemn appeal to the books of the Koran which Moawiyah exposed
on the foremost lances; and Ali was compelled to yield to a disgraceful
truce and an insidious compromise. He retreated with sorrow and
indignation to Cufa; his party was discouraged; the distant provinces
of Persia, of Yemen, and of Egypt, were subdued or seduced by his crafty
rival; and the stroke of fanaticism, which was aimed against the three
chiefs of the nation, was fatal only to the cousin of Mahomet. In the
temple of Mecca, three Charegites or enthusiasts discoursed of the
disorders of the church and state: they soon agreed, that the deaths of
Ali, of Moawiyah, and of his friend Amrou, the viceroy of Egypt, would
restore the peace and unity of religion. Each of the assa