ya out of petty jealousy would have deprived himself of one of
his best men. The probability is that Abdarrahman was ill when returning
from the frontier, that Moawiya sent him his own medical man, the
Christian doctor Ibn Othal, and that the rumour arose that the doctor
had poisoned him. It is remarkable withal that this rumour circulated,
not in Homs (Emesa), where Abdarrahman died, but in Medina. There a
young relation of Abdarrahman was so roused by the taunt that the death
of his kinsman was unavenged, that he killed Ibn Othal near the mosque
of Damascus. Moawiya imprisoned him and let him pay a high ransom, the
law not permitting the talio against a Moslem for having killed a
Christian. The story that this relative was Khalid, the son of
Abdarrahman, is absurd inasmuch as Moawiya made this Khalid commander
against the Greeks in succession to his father. In the third case--that
of Malik Ashtar--the evidence is equally inadequate. In fact, since
Moawiya did not turn the weapon of assassination against such men as
Abdallah b. Zobair and Hosain b. Ali, it is unlikely that he used it
against less dangerous persons. These two men were the chief obstacles
to Moawiya's plan for securing the Caliphate for his son Yazid. The
leadership with the Arabic tribes was as a rule hereditary, the son
succeeding his father, but only if he was personally fit for the
position, and was acknowledged as such by the principal men of the
tribe. The hereditary principle had not been recognized by Islam in the
cases of Abu Bekr, Omar and Othman; it had had some influence upon the
choice of Ali, the husband of Fatima and the cousin of the Prophet. But
it had been adopted entirely for the election of Hasan. The example of
Abu Bekr proved that the caliph had the right to appoint his successor.
But this appointment must be sanctioned by the principal men, as
representing the community. Moawiya seems to have done his best to gain
that approbation, but the details given by the historians are altogether
unconvincing. This only seems to be certain, that the succession of
Yazid was generally acknowledged before the death of his father, except
in Medina. (See MAHOMMEDAN INSTITUTIONS.)

Moawiya died in the month of Rajab 60 (A.D. 680). His last words are
said to have been: "Fear ye God, the Elevated and Mighty, for God,
Praise be to Him, protects the man that fears Him; he who does not fear
God, has no protection." Moawiya was, in fact, a religious man a