The national party, then, had been reinforced, at the expense of the
religious, among the Koreysh, who were still at the head of all the
affairs of State. Their leader was Mawiyeh Ibn Ommiyeh, a man of
distinguished ability and of that charm of manner which high-born Arabs
know so well how to use to their political ends. He had for some years
been Governor of Syria, and was more popular there than the pious Ali;
and Syria, though not yet the nominal, was already the real seat of the
Mussulman Government. Mawiyeh therefore refused to accept Ali's election
at Medina as valid, and finding himself supported by a rival Ahl el agde
at Damascus, made that appeal to the sword which Arabian usage sanctions
as the ultimate right of all pretenders.
Religious writers agree in condemning Mawiyeh for his revolt; and while
his succession to Ali is accepted as legal, they place him on quite a
different level from the four Caliphs who preceded him. In Mawiyeh they
see fulfilled that prediction of their Prophet which announced that
Islam should be ruled for thirty years by an Imam, and ever after by a
King. Mawiyeh is, indeed, the type of all the later Mohammedan Emperors.
According to canon law, the head of the State is also head of the
religion; but Mawiyeh ceased to exercise religious functions in person.
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