Arabic authors : a manual of Arabian history and literature / by F.F. Arbuthnot.

  • Forster Fitzgerald Arbuthnot
Date:
1890
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Arabic authors : a manual of Arabian history and literature / by F.F. Arbuthnot. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    tionists. These acknowledge the first four Khalifs (the rightly minded, or rightly directed, as they are called) to have been legitimate successors of Muhammad, while the sectaries of Ali are known as the Shiites, or Separatists. These last regard Ali as the first rightful Imam, for they prefer this title (found in Sura ii., verse 118, of the Koran) to that of Khalif. The Turks and Arabs are Sunnis; the Persians, and most of the Muhammadans of India, Shias. This division into two sects, who hate each other cordially, has done more to weaken the power of the Muhammadan religion as a power than any- thing else. The Shias to this day execrate the memory of Yazid as the murderer of their hero Hussain, whom they have ever regarded as a martyr, and given full vent to their feelings on the subject in their ‘ Passion Play,’ translated by Sir Lewis Pelly, and described by Mr. Benjamin in his ‘ Persia and the Persians.’ Other insurrections against the reigning Omai- yide Khalifs were also put down, portions of Asia, Africa and Spain conquered, and even France in- vaded, so that at the close of the Benou Umayya dynastry, about a.d. 75 0, their empire consisted of many and large territories in Europe, Africa and Asia. Their colour was white, as opposed to the black of the Abbasides, and the green of the Fatimites, as descendants of Muhammad. But the Benou Umayya dynasty succumbed,
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