ssins chose his
victim, poisoned his dagger, devoted his life, and secretly repaired
to the scene of action. Their resolution was equally desperate: but the
first mistook the person of Amrou, and stabbed the deputy who occupied
his seat; the prince of Damascus was dangerously hurt by the second; the
lawful caliph, in the mosch of Cufa, received a mortal wound from the
hand of the third. He expired in the sixty-third year of his age, and
mercifully recommended to his children, that they would despatch the
murderer by a single stroke. [1742] The sepulchre of Ali [175] was
concealed from the tyrants of the house of Ommiyah; [176] but in the
fourth age of the Hegira, a tomb, a temple, a city, arose near the ruins
of Cufa. [177] Many thousands of the Shiites repose in holy ground at
the feet of the vicar of God; and the desert is vivified by the numerous
and annual visits of the Persians, who esteem their devotion not less
meritorious than the pilgrimage of Mecca.

[Footnote 1732: Ali had determined to supersede all the lieutenants in
the different provinces. Price, p. 191. Compare, on the conduct of Telha
and Zobeir, p. 193--M.]

[Footnote 1733: See the very curious circumstances which took place
before and during her flight. Price, p. 196.--M.]

[Footnote 1734: The reluctance of Ali to shed the blood of true
believers is strikingly described by Major Price's Persian historians.
Price, p. 222.--M.]

[Footnote 1735: See (in Price) the singular adventures of Zobeir. He was
murdered after having abandoned the army of the insurgents. Telha was
about to do the same, when his leg was pierced with an arrow by one of
his own party The wound was mortal. Price, p. 222.--M.]

[Footnote 1736: According to Price, two hundred and eighty of the Benni
Beianziel alone lost a right hand in this service, (p. 225.)--M]

[Footnote 1737: She was escorted by a guard of females disguised as
soldiers. When she discovered this, Ayesha was as much gratified by the
delicacy of the arrangement, as she had been offended by the familiar
approach of so many men. Price, p. 229.--M.]

[Footnote 174: The plain of Siffin is determined by D'Anville
(l'Euphrate et le Tigre, p. 29) to be the Campus Barbaricus of
Procopius.]

[Footnote 1741: The Shiite authors have preserved a noble instance of
Ali's magnanimity. The superior generalship of Moawiyah had cut off the
army of Ali from the Euphrates; his soldiers were perishing from want
of water. Ali sent