The Electors, when appointed by Omar, retired at once to an adjoining chamber, and forthwith fell into such loud and hot discussion, that Abdallah exclaimed, ‘Good heavens! all this tumult, and my father still alive!’ Omar, overhearing it, desired that they should wait till his decease, and then again assemble. So after his death and burial, Micdâd, a veteran citizen appointed by the deceased Caliph to the duty, gathered the Electors in the treasury chamber attached to Ayesha’s house, Abu Talha keeping watch at the door with a guard of fifty men.[433] Omar’s order was that the choice should not be delayed beyond the third day, so that his successor might be declared by the fourth at latest; and he signified the urgency of the business in the empire’s interest, by saying that if the minority then resisted, they should be beheaded on the spot. When the Electors came together, each pressed hotly the claim of his own party, and two days were wasted in unprofitable wrangling. Abd al Rahmân spent his nights in visiting the leading citizens, and the governors and chief men from the provinces (who, having come for the yearly pilgrimage, had not yet departed to their several posts) and in sounding their views. On the third day, Abu Talha warned the Electors that he would allow no further delay, and that the decision must be come to by the following morning. To bring the matter, therefore, to an issue, Abd al Rahmân offered to forego his own claim to the Caliphate, if only the rest would abide by his decision. They all agreed but Aly, who at first was silent. At last Aly said: ‘First give me thy word that thou wilt not regard kith nor kin, but the right alone and the people’s weal.’ ‘And I,’ rejoined Abd al Rahmân, ‘ask thee first to give me thy troth that thou wilt abide by my choice, and against all dissentients wilt support the same.’ Aly assented, and thus the matter rested in the hands of Abd al Rahmân. [Sidenote: Abd al Rahmân acts as Umpire.] That night Abd al Rahmân did not close his eyes. The contest was narrowed between the houses of Hâshim and Omeyya, in the persons of Aly and Othmân, and their influence with the electoral body was fairly equal.[434] Abd al Rahmân was closeted with each of the Electors alone in turn. Zobeir was in favour of Aly; how Sád voted is not certain. With Aly and Othmân, separately, Abd al Rahmân was long in secret conference. Each pressed his own claim; but each also admitted the claim of the other to be the next in weight to his own. The morning broke upon them thus engaged; and now the nomination must be made. [Sidenote: Othmân elected Caliph.]