n. Only in extreme circumstances of general danger, or of failure
of heirs male, can the member of a new family reasonably aspire to
power. Moreover, there is no uniform law of election. The meeting does
not pretend to give a right, only to confirm one; for the right lies not
with the electors but with him who can maintain his election. There is,
therefore, no formal system of voting, but the elders having ascertained
who among the dead man's relations commands the strongest following,
proceed to acknowledge him by the ceremony of giving him their hands. He
then becomes their Sheykh. It sometimes happens, however, that parties
are so evenly divided between rival leaders that the tribe divides, one
section going this way and the other that, until one of the leaders
gives in his submission; otherwise the quarrel is decided by the sword.

All these features of the Arabian tribal system of succession may be
noticed in the first elections to the Caliphate. As soon as it was known
that Mohammed was indeed dead, a conclave composed of the elders and
chief men of Islam, self-constituted and recognizing no special popular
mandate, assembled in the house of Omar ibn el Khattub. This conclave is
known to jurists as the _Ahl el helli wa el agde_, the people of the
loosing and the knotting, because they assumed the duty of solving the
knotty question of succession. A nice point had to be decided, just such
a one as has in all ages been the cause of civil war in Arabia. The
Prophet had left no son, but more than one near relation. Moreover, at
that moment the new nation of Islam was in danger of internal
disruption, and the religious and the civil elements in it were on the
point of taking up arms against each other. The two chief candidates
were Ali ibn Abutaleb and Abu Bekr, the one son-in-law and cousin and
the other father-in-law of Mohammed--Ali represented the civil, Abu Bekr
the religious party; and as it happened that the latter party was
predominant at Medina, it was on Abu Bekr that the choice fell. He was
recognized as head of the more powerful faction, and the chiefs gave him
their hands; while civil war was only prevented by the magnanimous
submission of Ali.

This form of succession is held by most Sunite doctors to be the
authentic form intended by the Prophet, nor did the three following
elections differ from it in any essential point. It is only noticed that
Abu Bekr designated Omar as the most fitting person to succ