ssora. Their
leaders, Telha and Zobeir, Sec. were slain in the first battle that stained
with civil blood the arms of the Moslems. || After passing through
the ranks to animate the troops, Ayesha had chosen her post amidst the
dangers of the field. In the heat of the action, seventy men, who held
the bridle of her camel, were successively killed or wounded; and the
cage or litter, in which she sat, was stuck with javelins and darts like
the quills of a porcupine. The venerable captive sustained with firmness
the reproaches of the conqueror, and was speedily dismissed to her
proper station at the tomb of Mahomet, with the respect and tenderness
that was still due to the widow of the apostle. After this victory,
which was styled the Day of the Camel, Ali marched 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 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. 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
t