"'Tis time, O ye Sellers, for one who hath sold himself To God, that he should arise and saddle amain. Fools! in the land of miscreants will ye abide, To be hunted down, every man of you, and to be slain? O would that I were among you, armèd in mail, On the back of my stout-ribbed galloping war-horse again! And would that I were among you, fighting your foes, That me, first of all, they might give death's beaker to drain! It grieves me sore that ye are startled and chased Like beasts, while I cannot draw on the wretches profane My sword, nor see them scattered by noble knights Who never yield an inch of the ground they gain, But where the struggle is hottest, with keen blades hew Their strenuous way and deem 'twere base to refrain. Ay, it grieves me sore that ye are oppressed and wronged, While I must drag in anguish a captive's chain." [Sidenote: Qaṭarí b. al-Fujá’a.] Qaṭarí b. al-Fujá’a, the intrepid Khárijite leader who routed army after army sent against him by Ḥajjáj, sang almost as well as he fought. The verses rendered below are included in the _Ḥamása_[395] and cited by Ibn Khallikán, who declares that they would make a brave man of the greatest coward in the world. "I know of nothing on the subject to be compared with them; they could only have proceeded from a spirit that scorned disgrace and from a truly Arabian sentiment of valour."[396] "I say to my soul dismayed-- 'Courage! Thou canst not achieve, With praying, an hour of life Beyond the appointed term. Then courage on death's dark field, Courage! Impossible 'tis To live for ever and aye. Life is no hero's robe Of honour: the dastard vile Also doffs it at last.'" [Sidenote: The Shí‘ites.] [Sidenote: The theory of Divine Right.] The murder of ‘Uthmán broke the Moslem community, which had hitherto been undivided, into two _shí‘as_, or parties--one for ‘Alí and the other for Mu‘áwiya. When the latter became Caliph he was no longer a party leader, but head of the State, and his _shí‘a_ ceased to exist. Henceforth 'the Shí‘a' _par excellence_ was the party of ‘Alí, which regarded the House of the Prophet as the legitimate heirs to the succession. Not content, however, with upholding ‘Alí, as the worthiest of the Prophet's Companions and the duly elected Caliph, against his rival, Mu‘áwiya, the bolder spirits took up an idea, which emerged about this time, that the Caliphate belonged to ‘Alí and his descendants by Divine right. Such is the distinctive doctrine of the Shí‘ites to the present day. It is generally thought to have originated in Persia, where the Sásánian kings used to assume the title of 'god' (Pahlaví _bagh_) and were looked upon as successive incarnations of the Divine majesty. [Sidenote: Dozy's account of its origin.]