Ali

, the cousin and son-in-law of Mohammed, ought, perhaps, to have been caliph after Mohammed’s death; but beipg opposed by Omar and Othman, he retired into Arabia, and there made a collection of the doctrines of Mohammed, and in this he permitted some things condemned by Abubeker, which gained him many proselytes. After the death of Othman, he was declared caliph by the Egyptians and the inhabitants of Mecca and Medina, in the year of the hegira 35, and of our Lord 655; but after a reign of four years and three quarters, he was mortally tvounded in a mosque, and died three or four days after, A. D. 661. Ali had nine wives, who brought him fourteen sons and eighteen daughters. If we consider him, with regard to his courage, moderation, piety, and understanding, he will be found one of the greatest men that was ever born among the Arabians. The Persians annually celebrate the day of his martyrdom, follow his doctrine, and hold the memory of Abubeker, Omar, and Othman, in abhorrence, while the Turks reverence them, and detest Ali.

Ali deserves a place in literary history, as he had cultivated his mind with a care unusual in his age and country. He left many collections of sentences, proverbs, and pieces of poetry. Golius and Lette have published fragments of these sentences: the first, at Leyden, 1629, and the other in 1746, at the end of Ben Zobair’s poem. Vather published Goli-us’s fragments in French, Paris, 1660. Ockley, in the third edition of his history of the Saracens, has given an English translation of 169 sentences of Ali; and Wasmuth, in the preface to his Arabic grammar, says that Tocherning published a century of his proverbs. Guadagnoli is the first who published his poems, with a Latin translation, Rome, 1642; but Knypers has edited a more | correct edition, Leyden, 1745, 8vo. This contains sir small poems, the first of which had been given by Golius at the end of Erpenius’s grammar, Leyden, 1656, and the second, third, and fourth, by Agapito, in his Arabic grammar, Rome, 1687.¹