fearlessly denouncing the great and wealthy, and urged that they should be forced to disgorge their riches. Othmân condescended to reason with him. ‘After men have completely fulfilled their legal obligations,’ he asked, ‘what power remaineth with me to compel them to any further sacrifice?’ and he turned to Káb, the learned Jewish convert, in corroboration of what he had said. [Sidenote: banished by Othman to Rabadza. A.H. XXX. A.D. 651.] ‘Out upon thee, thou son of a Jew! What have I to do with thee?’ cried Abu Dzarr, and with these words smote Káb violently upon the stomach. Argument being thus of no further use, Othmân banished the preacher to Rabadza in the desert of Nejd, where two years after he died in penury. As he felt his end approach, the hermit desired his daughter to slay a kid, and have it ready for a party of travellers who, he said, would shortly pass that way to Mecca, and bury him; then, making her turn his face toward the Kâaba, he quietly breathed his last. Soon after, the expected party came up, and amongst them Ibn Masûd from Kûfa, who, weeping over him, bewailed his fate, and buried him on the spot on which he died. The death of Ibn Masûd himself, a few days after, added to the pathos of the incident. The plaintive tale was soon in everyone’s mouth; and the banishment of the pious ascetic and preacher of righteousness was made much of by the enemies of the Caliph. The necessity was forgotten; the obloquy remained.[458] [Sidenote: Othmân incurs odium by putting down unlawful amusements, and by extending the square of the Kâaba. A.H. XXVI. A.D. 647.] When he was himself minded to assume the office of censor and rebuke the ungodliness of the day, the unfortunate Caliph fared no better. The laxity of Syria had reached even to the sacred precincts of the Hejâz; and Othmân, on attempting to check the games and other practices held to be inconsistent with the profession of Islam, incurred resentment, especially from the gay youth whose amusements he had thwarted. Gambling and wagering, indeed, were put down with the approval of all the stricter classes of society; but there were not wanting many who, displeased with the Caliph’s interference, joined in the cry of his detractors.[459] [Sidenote: The Mosque at Medîna enlarged and beautified. A.H. XXXII. A.D. 653.]