ABSTRACT
Upon the death of Ali, Hasan, his eldest son by Fatima, was elected Caliph. Muavia prepared to march against Kufa, where an army 40,000 strong rallied to support the claims of the house of Ali. But Hasan, unworthy son of a noble father, was more occupied with the pleasures of the harem than with the toils of administration or the dangers of war. He sent a vanguard of 12,000 men to the front and kept the main body behind at Madain, where he himself remained dallying among the gardens, afraid to try his fortune on the battlefield. On a false report that the vanguard had been cut to pieces, the fickle Kufans looted the camp of the Caliph and attempted to seize his person, hoping to make good terms for themselves with his rival. Panic-stricken, Hasan wrote hurriedly to Muavia announcing his submission. He offered to abdicate and make Medina his home if granted the contents of the treasury at Kufa and the revenues of a Persian province; adding, however, the further stipulation that the imprecations against his dead father should cease to form a part of the public prayers. Muavia made no difficulty about these terms, except that he refused to stop the imprecations against Ali. He undertook, however, to arrange that they should never be heard by Ali's son.
