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.
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