370 WA.RS OF THE CALIPHS. 



enjoy certain revenues ; and that no successor to 

 the throne should be appointed during his hfe. The 

 Syrian chief accepted the terms with the utmost 

 satisf-iction. The unambitious prince, weary of the 

 world, retired to Medina, devoting his life to reli- 

 gion, and soending his vast revenues of 150,000/. 

 I vear in deeds of charity, the whole of which he 

 twice distributed among the poor. Here he fell a 

 victim to the jealousy of Moawiyah ; and the crim- 

 inal deed was perpetrated by his own wife Jaidah 

 (A. D. 670), by rubbing him while warm with a linen 

 cloth impregnated with poison. ,. •-, i u ^ 



The abdication of Hassan left an undivided, but 

 not a powerful, throne to Moawiyah. This prince, 

 the tirst of the dynasty of the Ommiades, was the 

 son of Abu Sofian, who had usurped the power of 

 Abu Taleb at Mecca, and third in descent from Om- 

 niiah, the founder of the family of that name, who 

 was a nephew of Hashem, being the son of a younger 

 brother, and consequently a collateral branch of the 

 noble tribe of the Koreish. His claim, however, 

 according to the principles of legitimacy, was pos- 

 terior to that of the descendants of Fatima, and even 

 of the children of Abbas, the uncle of the apostle. 

 It is a siiio-ular reflection, that the earliest and most 

 inveterate" persecutors of Mohammed should have 

 usurped the inheritance of his children, while his 

 person and sanctity were yet freshin their memories; 

 and that the boldest champions of idolatry shou d, 

 in the short space of forty years, have become the 

 sovereigns of that hierarchy which they had laboured 

 to overthrow. In his youth, Moawiyah had been 

 honoured with the offices of almoner and secretary 

 to the apostle, and was employed to register his 

 revelations. For twenty years he had exercised 

 supreme authority in Syria, when his e evation to 

 the calipliate divulged the important truth, that the 

 city of the Prophet was not the only place that en- 

 joyed the rights and privileges of election. 



