is your Commander, but he is not ours.’ Again the helpless Caliph had to give way, and the names were written down of the contracting parties as simply ‘Aly and Muâvia.’[538] The document went on to say that both sides bound themselves by the judgment of the Corân; and, where the Corân was silent, by the acknowledged precedents of Islam. To the Umpires, the guarantee of both Aly and Muâvia was given of safety for themselves and for their families; and the promise of the people that their judgment should be followed. On their part, the Umpires swore that they would judge righteously, so as to stay hostilities and reconcile the Faithful. The decision was to be delivered after six months, or later if the Umpires saw cause for delay, and at some neutral spot midway between Kûfa and Damascus. Meanwhile hostilities should be mutually suspended.[539] The writing, having been duly executed and signed, was numerously witnessed by leading chiefs on either side. Ashtar alone refused: ‘Never again,’ he said, ‘should I acknowledge this to be mine own right hand, were it to touch a deed the like of this.’ [Sidenote: Aly returns to Kûfa, and Muâvia to Damascus.] And so the armies, having buried their dead, quitted this memorable but undecisive battle-field. Aly retired to Kûfa; and Muâvia, his point for the present gained, to Damascus. As Aly entered Kûfa, he heard wailing on every side. A chief man, whom he bade to pacify the mourners, answered: ‘O Caliph, it is not as if but two or three had been slain; of this clan hard by, alone, an hundred and fourscore lie buried at Siffîn. There is not a house but the women are weeping in it for their dead.’ [Sidenote: Discord at Kûfa.] The slaughter, indeed, had been great on both sides.[540] And what gave point to Aly’s loss was that the truce was but a hollow thing, with no hope in it of lasting peace or reconciliation. The Arab faction, to whose insolent demands Aly had yielded, was more estranged than ever. When the men of Kûfa murmured at the compromise, all that he could reply was this: that the mutinous soldiery had extorted the agreement from him; and that having pledged his faith, he could not now withdraw. He had thrown in his lot with traitors and regicides, and was now reaping the bitter fruit. Muâvia alone had gained. CHAPTER XL. THE KHAREJITES, OR THEOCRATIC FACTION, REBEL AGAINST ALY. A.H. XXXVII. A.D. 657. [Sidenote: The Arab faction taken in by appeal to Corân.]