It soon became evident that the wound indeed was mortal. They asked the Caliph whether if he died, it was his will that Hasan, his eldest son, should succeed to the throne. [Sidenote: Aly’s death. 17 Ramadhân, A.H. XL. Jan. 25, A.D. 661.] Still true to the elective principle, Aly answered: ‘I do not command this, neither do I forbid it. See ye to it.’ Then he called Hasan and Hosein to his bedside, and counselled them to be steadfast in piety and resignation to the will of God, and to be kind to their younger brother, the son of his Hanifite wife. After that he wrote his testament, and continuing to repeat the name of the Lord to the end, so breathed his last. When they had performed the funeral obsequies, Hasan arraigned the assassin before him. Nothing daunted, Ibn Muljam said: ‘I made a covenant with the Lord before the holy House at Mecca, that I would slay both Aly and Muâvia. Now, if thou wilt, I shall go forth and kill the other, or perish in the attempt. If I succeed, I will return and swear allegiance unto thee.’ ‘Nay,’ said Hasan, ‘not before thou hast tasted of the fire.’ [Sidenote: Ibn Muljam put to death.]He was put to death, and the body, tied up in a sack, was committed to the flames.[563] [Sidenote: Aly’s burial-place unknown.] Tradition, strange to say, is silent, and opinion uncertain, as to where the body of Aly lies. Some believe that he was buried in the cathedral Mosque at Kûfa, others in the palace.[564] Certainly, his tomb was never, in early times, the object of any care or veneration. The same indifference attached to his memory throughout the realm of Islam, as had attached to his person during life, and it was not till that generation had passed away that the sentiment of reverence and regard for the husband of the Prophet’s daughter, and father of his only surviving progeny, began to show itself. [Sidenote: His family.] Aly died about sixty years of age. His troubled and contested reign had lasted but four years and nine months. For a time (like Mahomet himself) he had been content with a single wife, the Prophet’s daughter Fâtima, by whom he had three sons and two daughters, the progenitors of the Synd race--the nobility of Islam.[565] After she died, he took many women into his harem, both free and servile; by whom he had, in all, eleven sons and fifteen daughters. Aly was a tender-hearted father. In his old age, a little girl was born to him, with whose prattle he would beguile his troubles; for he had her always on his knee, and doted on her with a special love.[566] [Sidenote: Forbearance and magnanimity of Aly.]