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Successful Project Management 3rd Edition Larry
Richman Digital Instant Download
Author(s): Larry Richman
ISBN(s): 9780761214885, 0761214887
Edition: 3rd
File Details: PDF, 1.74 MB
Year: 2011
Language: english
This edition published in 2015 by:

The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc.

29 East 21st Street
New York, NY 10010

Additional end matter copyright © 2015 by The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without
permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Clark, John O. E.
The basics of light/by John O. E. Clark.
p. cm.—(Core concepts)
Includes bibliographic references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4777-7762-6 (library binding)
1. Light—Juvenile literature. I. Clark, John Owen Edward. II. Title.
QC360.C54 2015
535—d23

Manufactured in the United States of America

© 2004 Brown Bear Books Ltd.

CONTENTS
Chapter One: W
 hat Is Light? 6
Chapter Two: Converting Energy 10
Chapter Three: The Movement of Light 14
Chapter Four: F inding the Speed of Light 18
Chapter Five: M
 irrors and Reflections 24
Chapter Six: Bending Light 30
Chapter Seven: Understanding Prisms 36
Chapter Eight: M
 ixing Lights and Colors 40
Chapter Nine: L ight Through a Lens 48
Chapter Ten: U
 sing Our Eyes 54
Chapter Eleven: M
 agnifying with Instruments 56
Chapter Twelve: W
 aves and Interference 64
Chapter Thirteen: Biography: Edwin Hubble 70

Glossary 85
For More Information 88
For Further Reading 90
Index 91
CHAPTER ONE

WHAT IS LIGHT?

Light is a type of radiation—the But by introducing air and adding

only type that we can see. It is a mantle, a white light is produced. The
produced whenever anything gets mantle is a mesh coated with the oxides
very hot, for example, in a candle of various rare metals, which become
flame or an electric bulb’s fila- incandescent—emitting a bright light—
ment. There are also cold sources when they are heated by the gas flame.
of light, such as a fluorescent tube
or a firefly. Creating Electric Light

F lames from a burning fuel such as

wax or oil provided people with their
earliest sources of light. Candles are
The earliest form of electric light was the
arc light. Developed by the English scien-
tist Humphry Davy in 1808, it consists of
made simply by surrounding a stringlike two carbon rods, called electrodes, with
wick with a cylinder of wax. The heat of their ends a short distance apart. When
the flame melts the wax next to the wick, the electrodes are connected to a high-
and the wax burns to produce light. An voltage supply, a very bright spark (called
oil lamp also has a wick that dips into a an arc) forms between the electrodes.
reservoir of oil such as kerosene. In both Modern arc lights, which may have metal
the candle and the oil lamp the burning electrodes, are used in movie projectors
of the fuel is an example of combustion— and searchlights.
a chemical reaction in which the fuel When an electric current passes
combines with oxygen, giving out heat along a piece of thin wire, the wire gets
and light in the process. hot. It may get red hot and even white hot
The first major improvement on before it melts or burns away. In the 1870s
wicks came with gas lighting, using flam- inventors in the United States and Great
mable coal gas. This gas normally burns Britain tried to find ways of making an
with a yellow, smoky flame. electric bulb with a filament that would
 WHAT IS LIGHT? | 7

get white hot without it burning away. vessel from which all the air had been
In 1879 Thomas Edison in the United pumped out. Modern bulbs have a thin
States and Joseph Swan in Britain piece of tungsten wire as a filament and
independently produced incandescent contain an inert gas—one that does not
electric bulbs. As a filament they used react chemically—such as argon, rather
a thin carbon fiber enclosed in a glass than a vacuum.

Electric Light
In the arc light, the earliest type of electric light, a high-voltage spark passed
between a pair of carbon electrodes. In a modern incandescent bulb the electric
current heats a tungsten filament until it becomes white hot. In a fluorescent tube
the main light comes from a phosphor that glows when illuminated by the blue-
green light produced by an electric current flowing through mercury vapor.

Fluorescent tube Glass tube

Mercury vapor

Base

Electrode
Incandescent bulb

Glass

Tungsten filament Inert gas

Phosphor coating
Support wires inside glass tube

Lead-in wire

Fuse

Base
8 | THE BASICS OF LIGHT

Light and Gas In the natural world some animals

and plants produce light. Fireflies (which
Toward the end of the 19th century sci- are actually beetles) and glowworms
entists experimented with passing (beetle larvae) are familiar examples, and
electricity through gases. Metal elec- there are some deep-sea fish that emit
trodes carried current to and from a glass light to attract their prey in the blackness
tube containing gas at low pressure. of the ocean bottom. This type of light
Neon gas, for example, produces a bright production is known as bioluminescence.
orange light, as used in advertising signs.
Mercury vapor produces a blue-green
light. The inside of a modern fluorescent
A firefly—also called a lightning bug—is
tube is coated with a phosphor, which a type of beetle that produces a flashing
gives off white light when illuminated by light from its abdomen. Different spe-
a mercury-vapor light inside it. cies flash at different rates so that they
can recognize one
another. The light
is produced by a
chemical process
within the bug’s
body.
 WHAT IS LIGHT? | 9

Scientists are studying how proteins from bioluminescent crystal jellyfish can be
injected into humans to detect cancer cells.
CHAPTER TWO

Converting Energy

All forms of energy can be con- plants to grow, and also produc-
verted into one another. We saw ing enough electricity to power,
on the previous pages that chemi- for example, a space probe.

T
cal reactions and electricity can
produce light. Here we look at how he major source of energy on Earth
light can be changed into other is light from the Sun. Without it no
forms of energy, thus enabling form of life could survive for long. That is

A field of growing corn soaks up the sunshine, using the energy of sunlight to convert
carbon dioxide and water into sugar and oxygen. The sugar is stored in the plants,
while the oxygen passes into the air.
 CONVERTING ENERGY | 11

because sunlight provides the energy

for photosynthesis, the process by High-gain antenna/radar dish
which green plants convert carbon
dioxide (from the air) and water (from
the soil) into oxygen and foods such
as sugars. Animals either eat plants,
or they eat other animals that eat
plants. So if there were no sunlight,
there would be no plants or animals.
Solar panel
Photoelectric Cells
In photosynthesis light energy is con-
verted into chemical energy, which is Forward equipment module
then stored in sugar and other plant
tissues. This is a natural, biological
process. But the conversion of light
into electricity involves some quite
advanced physics. Solar panel
The simplest form of conversion Steering
takes place in a photoelectric cell, rocket motor
like the type used for measuring light
levels in a photographer’s light meter
and in some cameras. The key to a
photoelectric cell is a substance, such
as the semimetallic element silicon, Power In Space
that emits electrons when light shines The large “paddles” on the Magellan space probe
on it. The electrons are collected and each contained hundreds of photocells. They
form an electric current. Photoelectric converted sunlight into electricity to power the
cells are used to turn streetlights on probe’s electronic systems.
and off automatically (they respond
to the amount of daylight) and in vari-
ous types of burglar alarms.
The current produced by a single
photoelectric cell is very small. For
12 | THE BASICS OF LIGHT

Above: Solar panels on a roof collect the Sun’s light radiation and convert it into electric-
ity for use in the home. Below: Solar panels can be used to power vehicles, such as this car
created by students at the University of Berkeley.
 CONVERTING ENERGY | 13

Satellites and probes powered by solar cells are able to absorb a lot of energy from their
position in space.

larger currents hundreds of cells are con- surfaces blackened and positioned so
structed as panels. Large solar panels of that it faces the Sun for most of the day.
this type are used to power the communica- The blackened surface absorbs solar
tions and control systems of space probes. radiation and heats water that is pumped
through the panel. The warmed water
Heating Water may be used in a heating system—it takes
less extra energy to heat water that is
Solar panels of a different type can be already warm than to heat cold water.
seen on the roofs of some buildings.
They consist of very thin, hollow panels
containing water, with one of the large
CHAPTER THREE

The Movement of
light
Light from a source such as the Sun
or an electric lamp travels out in
all directions at an incredibly high
P roving that light travels in straight
lines is easy because it makes opaque
objects in its way cast shadows. The
speed. It travels in straight lines. shadows produced by a small concen-
Light passes right through trans- trated light source have sharp edges. The
parent substances such as glass shadow is the area that the rays of light
and clear plastic. Substances that from the source cannot reach.
do not allow light to pass through The biggest shadow we can ever see
them are called opaque, and is the shadow of the Earth itself. The
opaque objects cast shadows. Sun makes the Earth cast a long shadow
into space, pointing away from the Sun.
Occasionally the Moon moves into the
Earth’s shadow. The Moon
shines by reflecting light from
the Sun. But when the Earth’s
shadow falls on the Moon, the
Moon ceases to shine. This is
called an eclipse of the Moon,
or a lunar eclipse.
Sometimes the Moon,
moving in its orbit, passes
exactly between the Earth and

This photograph was taken

just before the Moon’s
shadow completely cut off the
light from the Sun.
 THE MOVEMENT OF LIGHT | 15

Lunar and Solar Eclipses (Not to scale)

During a solar eclipse (a) the Moon passes between the Earth and the Sun, stopping
the Sun’s light from reaching the Earth. During a lunar eclipse (b) the Earth blocks
light from the Sun so that the light cannot reach the Moon and let it shine.

(a) Solar eclipse (b) Lunar eclipse

Moon Moon

Earth Earth
Sun Sun

Total, Annular, and Partial Eclipses (Not to scale)

Partial eclipse

Moon

Sun Earth
Total eclipse

As the Moon orbits the Earth, it passes into the Earth’s shadow,
making first a partial eclipse and then a total eclipse of the Moon.
Partial eclipse

Earth
Sun Moon Annular eclipse

When the Moon is slightly farther away from Earth than usual, it does not
completely cover the Sun’s disk, and we see an annular eclipse of the Sun.

Partial eclipse

Earth
Sun Moon Total eclipse

With the Moon at its usual distance from Earth there is a small
region where the solar eclipse is total. Elsewhere it is partial.
16 | THE BASICS OF LIGHT

the Sun. A shadow of the Moon tracks The distance between the Sun and
across the face of the Earth. For anybody the Moon is not always exactly the same.
in this shadow the Moon blocks out the It varies slightly because the Moon’s
light of the Sun, and it becomes nearly as orbit is not perfectly regular. Sometimes
dark as night. This is called an eclipse of the Moon does not completely block out
the Sun, or a solar eclipse. the Sun. (The illustrations on the previ-
Solar eclipses are important to ous page are not to scale; the relative
astronomers because they allow the distances and sizes are much greater
scientists to study the Sun’s outer atmo- than shown.)
sphere, called the corona, not normally
seen because the Sun is so bright. But Waves and Streams
during an eclipse the bright disk of the
Sun is blocked off, and the corona shows Light traveling along its straight path is
up as a pearly swathe of light surround- known as a light ray. Later sections of
ing the dark Moon. this book explain what happens to rays

Telescopes allow professional astronomers and amateur stargazers to get a closer look
at outer space.
 THE MOVEMENT OF LIGHT | 17

of light when they are reflected by pol- light is reflected by a mirror or why the
ished surfaces—such as mirrors—or when colors of the rainbow can be seen in a
they pass through pieces of glass, such soap bubble.
as lenses. A collection or bundle of light But in some situations light behaves
rays make up a light beam. Flashlights as if it is a stream of particles, like a bar-
and searchlights produce beams of light. rage of tiny, high-speed bullets from
Many of the properties of light can be a machine gun. Modern physics can
explained by assuming that light travels account for both the wave theory and the
as waves. For example, the wave theory particle theory of light.
of light gives a good explanation of how

Like a rainbow in the sky, bubbles often appear with a rainbow of colors because of
the way water reflects light.
CHAPTER FOUR

Finding the speed of

light
Light is the fastest thing in the kilometers per second (186,000
universe, and nothing can move miles per second).

W
any faster. It took physicists
and astronomers many years to hen you enter a darkened room
measure the speed of light. This and turn on the light switch, the
speed is an incredible 300,000 room seems to be flooded with light

Beams of light slice through the sky over a city as part of a laser light show.
Scientists have directed a laser beam at the Moon, from where it was reflected back
to Earth by a mirror left by Apollo astronauts. From a knowledge of the speed of light
and the time taken for the beam to make the round trip, the Moon’s distance can be
found very accurately.
 FINDING THE SPEED OF LIGHT | 19

Toothed wheel

Mirror
Observer

Light source
Semisilvered mirror

Speed of Light: Fizeau’s Method

Light is reflected by a semisilvered mirror between the teeth of a fast-rotating wheel
to another mirror 9 km (5.6 miles) away. The returning beam passes between the next
pair of teeth and then through the semisilvered mirror to the observer. The speed of
the wheel is adjusted so that there is no flicker of the light when it travels the 9 km
(5.6 miles) and back.

Curved mirror

Flat mirror

Eyepiece

Rotating mirror

Light source

Speed of Light: michelson’s method

A mirror on a rotating drum reflects a beam of light to a mirror 35 km (nearly 22
miles) away. The returning beam is reflected into an eyepiece. The image is steady
when the drum rotates by one mirror during the round trip.
20 | THE BASICS OF LIGHT

immediately. In fact, it does take a tiny to travel about 150 million kilometers to
instant of time for the light to reach your reach the Earth, and yet it does so in just
eyes, but light travels so fast it seems to over 8 minutes.
arrive instantly.
The speed of light has been mea- A Challenging
sured as 300,000 kilometers per second.
At this speed it takes light reflected from
Measurement
the Moon only just over a second to For many years, measuring the speed of
reach the Earth. Light from the Sun has light proved to be a great challenge to

Light travels so fast, it seems to arrive in a room instantly as soon as you turn on a lamp!
 FINDING THE SPEED OF LIGHT | 21

Hippolyte Fizeau made many important observations of heat and light.

scientists. The first measurement was make a round trip of 18 kilometers. His
made by the Danish astronomer Ole result was within 1 percent of the correct
Römer, who in 1676 roughly estimated value. Over 30 years later the American
the speed of light by observing eclipses scientist Albert Michelson increased the
of Jupiter’s moons. Then, in 1690 the distance traveled by the light to 70 kilo-
Dutch scientist Christiaan Huygens cal- meters. He used rotating mirrors instead
culated the speed as just over 230,000 of a toothed wheel and obtained a value
kilometers a second (which is lower than for the speed of light that was very close
the correct value by nearly 25 percent). to the modern figure—which, to be pre-
More accurate measurements had to cise, is 299,792.5 kilometers per second.
await the work of other scientists many In each method the rotating wheel or
years later. In 1849 the French physicist mirror drum acted to interrupt the beam
Hippolyte Fizeau used a rotating toothed of light. The wheel or mirrors were rotated
wheel to measure the time it took light to by an electric motor. The observer slowly
22 | THE BASICS OF LIGHT

increased the speed of the motor until The result of the change in speed is
the light did not flicker. The time taken to make the light ray alter its direction
for the light to make the round trip could inside the glass block. This effect is called
then be calculated from the rotation refraction, and it will be described in
speed of the wheel or mirrors. detail later in the book. The slowing down
is caused by the incoming light waves
Refraction interacting with electrons in the atoms of
the glass. As soon as the light ray leaves
Light travels through air very slightly the glass block, it returns to its original
slower than it travels through a vacuum. speed and direction. In this way pieces
Shining a ray of light into a rectangular of glass can bend light rays. This is how
block of glass slows it down even more. lenses and prisms, used in microscopes,
Its speed falls to about 200,000 kilo- binoculars, and other instruments, work.
meters a second, only two-thirds of the
speed of light in vacuum.

Binoculars are used to make things far away appear closer.

 FINDING THE SPEED OF LIGHT | 23

Scientists use the lenses in microscopes to see things too small for the naked eye, such
as cells and bacteria.
CHAPTER FIVE

Mirrors and
Reflections
When a ray of light strikes a flat outward (convex). But all types
mirror, it is reflected. It bounces of mirrors form images of objects
off the mirror at the same angle reflected in them.

A
at which it strikes it, just like a
ball bouncing off the ground. ll things reflect some of the light
Curved mirrors behave differ- that falls on them. If they did not,
ently, depending on whether they we would not be able to see them. But the
are curved inward (concave) or reflected light is scattered in all directions.

The windows of this building create a concave shape.

 MIRRORS AND REFLECTIONS | 25

Flat, or plane, mirrors reflect Normal

nearly all of the light that falls
on them, and they reflect it in
Reflected ray Incident ray
the same direction.
A ray of light striking a
mirror is called the incident ray.
The angle at which it strikes Angle of Angle of
reflection incidence
the mirror, that is, the angle
between the incident ray and a
right angle to the mirror (called
the normal), is known as the
Plane mirror
angle of incidence. The angle
at which the light ray leaves
the mirror is the angle of reflec- Laws of Reflection
tion. According to the laws of
At a plane mirror the angles of incidence and
reflection of light, for a plane reflection are equal. The incident ray, normal,
mirror the angle of incidence and reflected ray are in the same plane.
equals the angle of reflection.
Also, the incident ray, the nor-
mal, and the reflected ray all lie
in the same plane.

Virtual Images Reflected light

When a mirror reflects a

light ray from an object, it
reaches our eyes. We then
look back along the direction
of the reflected ray and see
an image of the object appar-
ently behind the mirror. It is
not a real image—you could Line of sight Reflection
not put it on a screen located
behind the mirror. It is there- Upside-Down Tree
fore known as a virtual image. The surface of the lake reflects light rays from
An image that can be put on the tree toward our eyes. When we look back
a screen is called a real image. along the reflected rays, we see an upside-down
Another property of plane image of the tree.
mirrors is that they form
26 | THE BASICS OF LIGHT

Simple Periscope could function without mirrors for the

A simple periscope consists of a customers. Mirrors are also used to add
lightproof tube with two mirrors light and a feeling of space to rooms.
angled at 45°. The arrows show A carefully placed mirror is as good as
the paths of two light rays. another window for improving the light.
And because it is not always obvious that
we are looking at a reflection in a mirror,
and not at a real object, illusionists and
magicians employ mirrors for some of
their on-stage trickery.
To the left you can see a diagram of a
simple periscope that has two plane mir-
rors angled at 45°. Periscopes are used to
look over obstructions, especially if you
are not tall enough to see over the heads
of people in front of you at a parade or
sporting event. Enlarging periscopes that
are used in submarines usually contain
same-sized images of objects. The image prisms instead of mirrors, as in the bin-
seems to be the same distance behind oculars illustrated on page 57.
the mirror as it actually is in front of the
mirror. But if you look at your reflection Concave and Convex
in a mirror you will see that it is reversed
left to right. Try winking your right eye, So far we have looked at properties of
and your image winks its left eye. It is as plane (flat) mirrors. Curved mirrors
if left and right have been interchanged. behave in quite a different way. There are
Physicists call this effect lateral inversion. two main types, called concave if they
But if the mirror is vertical, the image is are curved inward like the inside of the
always the right way up. bowl of a spoon, and convex if they are
curved outward like the outside of the
bowl of the spoon. The curvature gives
Using Mirrors such mirrors two further properties.
The most common use of plane mirrors Each has an axis, which is a line at right
is for looking at our own reflection. Every angles to the mirror that passes through
day people use mirrors when combing its center. And the radius of curvature is
their hair, when putting on makeup, or the distance to the mirror from the cen-
when shaving. No store that sells clothes ter of a sphere of which it would form a
part. The center of this sphere is also the
 MIRRORS AND REFLECTIONS | 27

mirror’s center of curvature. point behind the mirror, which is its focus.
With a concave mirror, rays of light A convex mirror is therefore also known
parallel to the axis are reflected to a point as a diverging mirror. The concave mirror
known as the focus. For this reason a con- has a real focus, while the convex mirror
cave mirror is also called a converging has a virtual focus.
mirror. When a convex mirror reflects In both types of mirror the focal
parallel rays, however, the reflected rays length—the distance from the mirror
fan out to form a diverging beam. These to the focus—is half the mirror’s radius
rays all appear to come from a single of curvature.

Plane and Curved

Mirrors
Plane and curved mirrors form
(a) images in different ways. With
a plane mirror (a) the image is
same-sized and upright. With a
concave mirror (b) and the object
between the focus and the mir-
ror, the image is magnified. With
a convex mirror (c) the image
(b) is always reduced in size. (C is
Image Object the center of curvature, and F is
the focus.)

F C

Image Object
(c)

C F

Image Object
28 | THE BASICS OF LIGHT

The Hubble Space Telescope, launched into orbit around the Earth by NASA in 1990,
contains a 2.4 meter (7.8 ft.) concave mirror.

Different Images When the object is moved closer to

the concave mirror’s center of curva-
The formation of images by curved mir- ture, it increases in size until, at exactly
rors is more complicated than with plane the center of curvature, the image (still
mirrors. What happens depends on inverted) is the same size as the object.
whether the mirror is concave or convex, When the object is even closer to
and on how far the object is from the mir- the mirror, between the center of curva-
ror. For a concave mirror there are four ture and the focus, the image is still real
different possibilities. and inverted but it is now larger than the
When the object is farther from the object. The mirror now magnifies.
mirror than the center of curvature, the Finally, when the object is between
image is upside down, smaller than the the focus and the mirror, the image
object, and located in front of the mirror. becomes virtual (is formed behind the
You can see this for yourself by looking mirror), magnified, and the right way
into the bowl of a polished tablespoon up. Such magnified images can be seen
from just a few inches away. in mirrors designed to be used when
 MIRRORS AND REFLECTIONS | 29

Convex driving mirrors on cars often carry a reminder that the images are closer
than they appear.

shaving or putting on makeup, as is illus- It is the type used as a driving mirror for
trated in diagram (b) on page 27. motor vehicles. Because the whole scene
A convex mirror always produces a is reduced in size, it provides a wide angle
reduced, upright virtual image (behind of view. Both types of curved mirror are
the mirror, as in diagram (c) on page 27). used in telescopes (see page 58).
 30 | THE BASICS OF LIGHT

CHAPTER SIX

Bending Light
When a ray of light passes from
one transparent substance into
another, such as from air into glass,
Y ou may have noticed that a swim-
ming pool looks as if it is not as deep
as it really is. And fish in a lake or river
it is bent. This bending, called appear to be nearer the surface than they
refraction, happens because light really are. The reason for the illusion is
moves at different speeds in differ- that light rays traveling from underwater
ent substances—and makes things objects do not keep going in the same
appear in different places. direction when they emerge through the
surface and into the air.

Normal
Incident ray Snell’s Law
Snell’s law, the chief
law of refraction,
Angle of states that the sine of
incidence i the angle of incidence
divided by the sine of
the angle of refraction
is a constant, known as
Glass block the refractive index.

Angle of
refraction r

sin i
Refractive index =
sin r
Refracted ray
 BENDING LIGHT | 31

Straw
Light rays
refracted on
leaving surface

Apparent straw
Water
Real straw

Bent Straw
Refraction causes a straw to appear bent below the surface of water in a
glass. The same effect makes a pool appear to be shallower than it really is,
and for fish to look as if they are nearer the surface than they actually are.

A similar effect occurs when light dense medium, as from glass into air, the
rays pass from air into water. The angle angle of refraction is greater than the
between the incoming ray and the nor- angle of incidence—the ray is refracted
mal (a line at right angles to the surface) away from the normal.
is called the angle of incidence. Below the As with the reflection of light, there
water surface the angle between the light are laws of refraction. The laws concern
ray and the normal is called the angle of the angles—not the angles themselves,
refraction. When light enters a denser but a mathematical function called the
medium, as when it travels from air into sine (usually written as sin) of the angle.
water or into glass, the angle of refraction The chief law says that the sine of the
is less than the angle of incidence—the angle of incidence (sin i) divided by the
ray is refracted toward the normal. When sine of the angle of refraction (sin r) has
light travels from one medium into a less a constant value for any pair of media.
32 | THE BASICS OF LIGHT

Slow Sunset Refraction

Under certain conditions, when there is a layer of in Action
denser air near the Earth’s surface, the Sun appears
to take longer to set than usual. It is a result of Refraction can have some
refraction, when the denser air bends light rays strange effects. If you
from the setting Sun. look at a drinking straw
placed in a glass of water,
Apparent Sun the straw appears to bend
below the surface. That is
because light rays travel-
Layers of dense air
ing from the straw and
leaving the surface are
Actual Sun
Observer
refracted away from the
normal. When we look
back along the emerging
rays, we see the end of the
straw at a position that
is apparently nearer the
surface (as shown in the
illustration at the top of
page 31).
This ratio is known as the refractive A similar effect can
index. For air to glass it is about 1.5, and occur with the setting Sun, when the air
for air to water it is about 1.33. The law is near the surface is denser than that above
also known as Snell’s law, after the Dutch it. Light rays from the Sun are refracted as
physicist who first formulated it nearly they pass through this denser air. Again,
400 years ago (see page 35). looking back along the refracted rays, we
The second law of refraction states see the Sun in a different position. As a
that the incident ray, the normal, and result, we appear to be able to see the Sun
the refracted ray all lie in the same plane even when it has dropped below the hori-
(just as with reflection—see pages 24–25). zon (see the illustration above).
 BENDING LIGHT | 33

Making of a Mirage
Light refracted Cool air
The diagram shows how by changing
we see a mirage by looking air density
back along the final path of Warm air
curved light rays from a dis-
tant object. It also explains
why the mirage is upside
down. Mirages of the sky
can create the appearance
of lakes of water on the sur-
face of a hot road.

Line of sight Mirage

In the opposite situation, when light Total Internal Reflection

is traveling from dense air through less
dense air, refraction also occurs, and a When the angle of incidence reaches a
mirage can be the result. In this case the certain value, called the critical angle,
warm air near the ground is less dense the angle of refraction equals 90°. In
than the colder air above it, a condition other words, the refracted light ray trav-
that often arises in deserts and above the els along the boundary between the two
surface of a highway in warm weather. media. This is called total internal reflec-
Light rays from a distant object follow a tion. If the angle of incidence is greater
curved path through the warm air. When then the critical angle, there is no refrac-
we look back along these rays we see an tion. The incident ray is then reflected
image of the distant object, but the image from the surface of the second medium,
is upside down and appears to be below just as if it had struck a mirror.
the ground surface.
34 | THE BASICS OF LIGHT

Using Refraction fiber, so that most of the light entering

at one end comes out at the other end.
The major practical use of refraction is Fiber optics are used in medical endo-
in lenses and in the instruments and scopes for making examinations inside
devices that employ them. Optical prisms a patient’s body and for long-distance
also make use of refraction (see page telephone cables in which signals are
37). A more recent application is fiber transmitted as a series of coded flashes
optics, in which light is “piped” along a of light. Several thousand telephone con-
bundle of thin fibers of glass or plastic. versations can be sent at the same time
A succession of refractions and internal along a single optic fiber.
reflections occur along the length of each

Many companies use fiber optic cables to send Internet, phone, and cable television signals
into homes and businesses.
 BENDING LIGHT | 35

Willebrord Snell
Willebrord van Roijen Snell was born in 1580 at Leiden in the Netherlands. He
trained in mathematics and physics. When his father died in 1613, he succeeded
him as Professor of Mathematics at the new Leiden University. Snell specialized
in land measurement and mapping and carried out many experiments on light
and optics. He discovered his law of refraction in 1621 and introduced the idea of
refractive index (now defined as the ratio of the sines of the angles of incidence
and refraction). When Snell died in 1626, the results of his work had still not been
published. It was later found that the refractive index is also equal
to the ratio of the speed of light in the two media concerned.

In this mirage there is a layer of warm air over the hot desert sand. Light rays from the sky
and distant hills are refracted as they pass from colder air and create upside-down images
of the hills and sky.
CHAPTER SEVEN

Understanding
prisms
Prisms are the best-known light a different extent. In fact, a trian-
benders. Refraction bends a
. gular prism can split white light
light ray when it enters a prism from the Sun into all the colors
and then bends it again when of the rainbow—a range of hues
it leaves. More importantly, it called the solar spectrum.
bends different colors of light to

A triangular glass prism splits a beam of white light into a spectrum of colors that
ranges from red, through orange, yellow, green, blue, and indigo, to violet. These are
the colors of the rainbow.
 UNDERSTANDING PRISMS | 37

Newton’s
Experiment
Isaac Newton used a
prism to split white
light into its compo-
nent colors (upper
diagram). He then used
a filter to block all but
one color—here it is
red—and showed that
a second prism did not
split it any further.

O ne of the most important experi-

ments in physics took place in a
darkened room in Cambridge, England,
of the rainbow, ranging from red to vio-
let with all the other colors in between.
As each color enters the prism, it is
in about 1665. The physicist Isaac refracted (bent). But red light is not bent
Newton allowed a beam of sunlight as much as violet light. As a result, the
through a hole in the drapes and shone it red and violet emerge from the prism at
onto a glass prism. To his surprise, paral- different angles (and the in-between col-
lel bands of rainbow colors appeared on ors emerge at in-between angles). This
the opposite wall. From this observation has the effect of spreading white light’s
Newton concluded that sunlight consists component colors into a spectrum. The
of a mixture of colors that the prism had colors are red, orange, yellow, green,
separated. When he selected just one of blue, indigo, and violet.
the colors and passed it through a second This special sort of refraction by a
prism, there was no further change. prism is known as dispersion. And the
Modern physics can easily explain different colors produced are called a
what happened in Newton’s room. White spectrum. This accounts for the colors that
light is made up of a mixture of the colors can sometimes been seen when sunlight
38 | THE BASICS OF LIGHT

Pentaprism Single-Lens Reflex

There are two types of reflector
in a modern single-lens reflex
camera: a mirror and a five-sided
prism called a pentaprism. Light
entering the camera through the
lens is first reflected upward
by the mirror. Then two more
reflections inside the penta-
prism direct the light out of the
viewfinder and into the photog-
rapher’s eye. A pentaprism is
used (and not another mirror)
because the image leaving the
lens is upside down, and the dou-
ble reflection in the pentaprism
turns the image right side
up again.
Lens Mirror

shines through a crystal glass or orna- perhaps the most common use today is in
mental light fitting. It also accounts for the the single-lens reflex camera. Everyday
formation of rainbows (see pages 45–46). prisms, such as the one Newton used, are
triangular in shape. But this camera uses a
Using Prisms prism with five faces, called a pentaprism.
The way it works is illustrated above.
Prisms are used in several scientific
instruments, such as spectrographs, as
well as in periscopes and binoculars. But

Single-lens reflex, or SLR,

cameras allow photographers
to see the exact image that
will be captured, unlike
cameras that use viewfinders.
UNDERSTANDING PRISMS | 39
Exploring the Variety of Random
Documents with Different Content
 CHAPTER XXXVIII.
ALY TRANSFERS HIS SEAT OF GOVERNMENT TO KUFA.
AFFAIRS IN EGYPT.

A.H. XXXVI. A.D. 656, 657.

When Aly rode forth from Medîna in

pursuit of the insurgent army, a Companion Medîna abandoned as seat
seized his bridle;—‘Stay!’ he cried with of Caliphate.
earnest voice;—‘if thou goest forth from this city, the government will
depart therefrom, never more to return.’ He was pushed aside as a
crackbrained meddler. But his words were long remembered, and
the prophecy was true. Medîna, hitherto queen of the Moslem world,
was to be the seat of empire no more.
About the middle of the thirty-sixth year
of the Hegira, seven months after the Aly’s entry into Kûfa. Rajab,
a.h. XXXVI. Jan. a.d. 657.
death of Othmân, Aly entered Kûfa. The
first four months of his Caliphate had been spent, as we have seen,
at Medîna; the other three in the camp at Rabadza, in the campaign
ending with the battle of the Camel, and a short stay at Bussorah. No
Caliph had as yet visited Kûfa. It was now to be the seat of Aly’s
government. We find no mention of the manner of his entry and
reception; simply the fact of his arrival. No doubt the people were
flattered by the honour now put upon them. The city also had some
advantages; for there were in it many leading men, able, and some
of them willing, to support the Caliph by their influence. Moreover,
Aly might calculate on the jealousy of the
inhabitants towards Syria, in the Factious spirit there.
approaching struggle with Muâvia. But all
this was more than counterbalanced by the fickle and factious
humour of the populace. It was the focus of Bedouin democracy; and
the spirit of the Bedouins was yet untamed. What had they gained,
the citizens asked one of another, by the rebellion against Othmân?
The cry of vengeance on the regicides was for the moment stifled;
but things were fast drifting back again into the old Coreishite
groove. This was, in fact, the same cry as the Arab tribes were
making all around. ‘Aly hath set up his cousins, the sons of Abbâs,
everywhere—in Medîna, in Mecca, and in Yemen; and now here
again at Bussorah; while he himself will rule at Kûfa. Of what avail
that we made away with Othmân; and that we have shed all this
blood, fighting with Zobeir and Talha?’ So spoke the arch-conspirator
Ashtar among his friends at Bussorah; and Aly, fearful of the effect of
such teaching, took him in his train to Kûfa, where, indeed, among
the excitable populace his influence was even more dangerous.
Another uneasy symptom of the times was that the baser sort and
the servile dregs of Bussorah, breaking loose from authority, went
forth in a body, and took possession of Sejestan on the Persian
frontier. They killed the leader sent by Aly to suppress the
insurrection, and were not put down till Ibn Abbâs himself attacked
them with a force from Bussorah.
It was in the West, however, that the
sky loured the most. That was but a shorn Struggle in prospect with
Syria.
and truncated Caliphate which Aly
enjoyed, so long as his authority was scorned in Syria. A mortal
combat with Muâvia loomed in that direction. But, before resuming
the thread of the Syrian story, it is necessary first to turn to Egypt
and relate what was being enacted there.
When the band of conspirators set out
from Egypt to attack Othmân, we have Mohammed ibn Abu
seen that Mohammed son of Abu Hodzeifa Hodzeifa usurps Egypt.
Shawwâl, a.h. XXXV. April,
thereupon ousted Abu Sarh, Othmân’s a.d. 656.
lieutenant, and usurped the government.
This man’s father had been killed at Yemâma, and Othmân, adopting
the orphan, had brought him up kindly. Mortified at the refusal of the
Caliph to give him a command until he should have proved his
capacity in the field, Mohammed joined the insurgent faction, and
gained great influence in Egypt by an affected piety and by the
vehement denunciation of his former guardian. On the murder of
Othmân he succeeded in holding the government of Egypt for
several months. But he quickly paid the penalty of his ingratitude. On
the approach of the new governor, sent by
Aly, he fled to Syria, and there lost his life. Flies to Syria and is killed.
[522]

The follower whom Aly selected for the

heavy task of governing Egypt was Cays, a Cays appointed governor of
Egypt. Safar, a.h. XXXVI.
citizen of Medîna, son of that Sád ibn August, a.d. 656.
Obâda who, it may be remembered, was
the rival of Abu Bekr for the Caliphate. Of approved sagacity,
strength, and judgment, he was a loyal follower of Aly. He declined to
take an army with him, saying that the Caliph had more need of
soldiers than he; and preferred instead to be supported by seven
‘Companions’ of the Prophet, whom he took along with him. He was
well received by the Egyptians at large, who swore allegiance to him
in behalf of Aly. But a strong faction, as before observed, found
shelter in the district of Kharanba, and loudly demanded satisfaction
for the death of Othmân. Cays wisely left these alone for the present,
waiving even the demand for tithe. In other respects he held Egypt
firmly in his grasp.
With the prospect of an early attack
from the banks of the Euphrates, Muâvia Is supplanted by Muâvia’s
became uneasy at the Egyptian border machinations.
being commanded by so firm and powerful a ruler as Cays; whom,
therefore, he made every effort to detach from his allegiance to Aly.
Upbraiding him with having joined a party whose hands were still red
with the blood of Othmân, he reminded Cays that there was yet time
to repent, and promised that, if even now he joined in avenging the
crime, he should not only be confirmed in the government of Egypt,
but his kinsmen would be promoted to such office in the Hejâz, or
elsewhere, as he might desire. Cays, unwilling to precipitate
hostilities, fenced his answer with well-balanced words. Of Aly’s
complicity in the foul deed he had no knowledge; he would wait.
Meanwhile it was not in his mind to make any attack on Syria. Again
pressed by Muâvia, Cays frankly declared that he was, and would
remain, a staunch supporter of the Caliph’s cause. Thereupon
Muâvia sought craftily to stir up jealousy between the Viceroy and
his Master. He gave out that Cays was temporising, and spoke of his
treatment of the Kharanba malcontents as proving that he was one
at heart with them.[523] The report, assiduously spread, reached (as
it was intended) the court of Aly, where it was taken up by those who
either doubted the fidelity of Cays or envied his prosperity. To test his
obedience, Aly ordered an advance against the schismatics of
Kharanba; and when Cays remonstrated against the policy, it was
taken as proof of his complicity. He was
deposed, and Mohammed the regicide, Mohammed son of Abu Bekr
son of Abu Bekr, appointed in his room. appointed to Egypt.
Cays retired in anger to Medîna, where, as on neutral ground,
adherents of either side were unmolested. Finding no peace there
from the taunts of Merwân and his party, Cays resolved at last to go
to Kûfa, and cast himself on Aly’s clemency; and Aly, on the
calumnies being cleared away, took him back at once into his
confidence, and thenceforward kept him at court as his chief adviser.
Muâvia was grieved that Merwân had driven Cays away from
Medîna: ‘If thou hadst aided Aly,’ he wrote upbraidingly, ‘with a
hundred thousand men, it had been a lesser evil than is the gain to
Aly of such a counsellor.’[524]
On his own side, however, Muâvia had
gained a powerful and astute adviser in the Muâvia is joined by Amru.
person of the conqueror of Egypt. During
the attack on Othmân, Amru had retired from Medîna with his two
sons to Palestine. The tidings of the tragedy, aggravated by his own
unkindly treatment of the Caliph, affected him so keenly that he wept
like a woman. ‘It is I,’ he said, ‘who, by deserting the aged man, am
responsible for his death.’ From his place of retirement he watched
the struggle of Zobeir and Talha at Bussorah; and when Aly
conquered, he repaired at once to Damascus, and with his two sons
presented himself before Muâvia. In consequence of the unfriendly
attitude he had held towards Othmân, Amru was at first received
coldly. But in the end, the past was all condoned; friendship was
restored between the two chiefs, and thenceforward Amru was the
trusted counsellor of Muâvia.[525]
This coalition, and the false step of Aly in recalling Cays from
Egypt, now materially strengthened Muâvia’s hands. The success of
Aly at Bussorah brought at least this
advantage even to Muâvia, that it removed Weakness of Aly’s position at
Talha and Zobeir, the only other Kûfa.
competitors, from the field. On the other hand, the position of Aly, as
one of concession to the Arab faction, was fraught with peril. While
refusing ostensibly to identify himself with the murderers of Othmân,
it was virtually in their cause that he had taken up arms; and
therefore equally in the cause of the Arabs, as against the Coreish
and aristocracy of Islam. And Aly should have foreseen that the
socialistic element in this unnatural compromise must sooner or later
come into collision with the Caliphate.
The authority of Muâvia rested on a
firmer basis; his attitude was bolder, and Advantages of Muâvia’s
his position more consistent. He had from position in Syria.
the first resisted the levelling demands of the faction which rose up
against Othmân. He was, therefore, justified now in a course of
action which, pursuing these to justice, asserted in the pursuit the
supremacy of the Coreish. The influence of the ‘Companions’ had
always been paramount in Syria; and the Arab element (partly
because very largely recruited from the aristocratic tribes of the
south) was thoroughly under control. The cry for vengeance,
inflamed by the gory emblems still hanging from the cathedral pulpit,
was taken up by high and low. The temporising attitude of the Caliph
was in every man’s mouth as a proof of complicity with the regicides.
And though many may have dreaded Aly’s vengeance in the event of
his ultimate success, the general feeling throughout Syria was a
burning desire to avenge the murder of his ill-fated predecessor.
Still, whatever other motives may have
been at work elsewhere, the contest, as Aly and Muâvia in personal
between Aly and Muâvia, had now become antagonism.
a purely personal one. The struggle was for the crown; and many
looked to ‘the grey mule of Syria’ as having the better chance. A
possible solution of the contest lay, no doubt, in the erection of Syria
into an independent kingdom side by side with that of Persia and
Egypt. But the disintegration of the empire
of Islam was an idea which as yet had Unity of Caliphate still the
ruling sentiment.
hardly entered into the minds of the
Faithful. The unity of the Caliphate, as established by the history and
the precedents of a quarter of a century, was still, and long
continued, the ruling sentiment of Islam.
 CHAPTER XXXIX.
BATTLE OF SIFFIN.

A.H. XXXVI., XXXVII. A.D. 657.

After Aly had established himself at

Kûfa, there followed a short interval of rest. Aly’s envoy returns with
The lieutenants and commanders, from defiant message from
Muâvia. Shabân, a.h. XXXVI.
their various provinces, flocked into the January, a.d. 657.
new capital to do homage to the Caliph.
Towards one of these, named Jarîr, chief of the Beni Bajîla, Muâvia
was known to entertain friendly sentiments. Him, therefore, Aly
deputed to Damascus with a letter, wherein, after reciting the fact of
his election at Medîna to the Caliphate, and the discomfiture of his
enemies at Bussorah, he called on Muâvia to follow the example of
the empire, and, with the rest, to take also the oath of allegiance.
Like the former envoy, Jarîr was kept long in attendance. At last he
was dismissed with an oral message, that allegiance would be
tendered if punishment were meted out to the regicides, but on no
other possible condition. The envoy further reported to Aly, that
Othmân’s blood-stained garment still hung upon the pulpit of the
Great Mosque, and that a multitude of the Syrian warriors had sworn
that they would use no water to wash themselves withal, neither
sleep in their beds, till they had slain the murderers of the aged
Caliph, and those that sheltered them.[526] Ashtar accused Jarîr of
playing into the hands of Muâvia; and by having dallied for so long a
time at his court, of thus giving the Syrians leisure to mature their
plans and become hardened in their hostile attitude. Jarîr, disgusted
at the imputation, retired a neutral to Kirckesia, or, according to
others, went over to Muâvia.
Seeing that Muâvia was hopelessly
alienated, Aly resolved no longer to delay Aly invades Northern Syria.
Dzul Câda, a.h. XXXVI. April,
the attack upon Syria, and he proclaimed a.d. 657.
an expedition accordingly. At first the
people were slack in answering the call. But after a time, the Caliph
succeeded in gathering together from Bussorah, Medâin, and Kûfa,
an imposing force of 50,000 men. His plan was to march first by
Upper Mesopotamia, and so to invade Syria from the north. A
detachment was sent as an advance-guard up the western bank of
the Euphrates, but meeting with active opposition there, it was forced
to cross back again into Mesopotamia. Aly himself, with the main
body, marched across the plain of Dura to Medâin, and thence up
the Tigris. Then turning, short of Mosul, towards the west, he
crossed the great desert of Mesopotamia, and, outstripping his
advanced column, reached the Euphrates in its upper course at
Ricca.[527] An unfriendly population lined the banks of the river; and
it was not without sanguinary threats that Ashtar forced them to
construct a bridge. The army crossed near Ricca; and then marching
some little distance along the right bank, westward, in the direction of
Aleppo, they met the Syrian outposts at Sûr.[528]
On learning Aly’s preparations, Muâvia
lost no time in marshalling his forces, Muâvia, advancing, meets
which greatly outnumbered the enemy, Aly, on field of Siffîn.
and, having no desert to cross, were soon to the front. Amru was in
command, having his two sons, and his freedman Werdân, as
lieutenants.[529] Aly, desirous of averting bloodshed, had given
orders that, as soon as his troops came upon the enemy, they
should halt, and, confining themselves to the defensive, avoid
precipitating hostilities before opportunity had been given for friendly
overture. The vanguards of the two armies spent the first few days in
skirmishing. Ashtar challenged the Syrian officer to single combat;
but the challenge was declined, and Ashtar told that, having imbrued
his hands in the blood of the late Caliph, he could not claim the
privileges of honourable warfare. When the main armies came in
sight of each other, Aly found Muâvia so encamped as to cut him off
from the river, and reduce his army to straits for water. He therefore
brought on an engagement, in which Muâvia was forced to change
his ground, and occupy the ill-starred field of Siffîn.[530a] Some days
of inaction followed; after which Aly sent three of his chief men to
demand that, for the good of the commonwealth, Muâvia should
tender his allegiance. No mention is made of any offer (though
perhaps it may be presumed) on the part of Aly to confirm Muâvia, in
case of his submission, in the government of Syria. A scene ensued
of fruitless recrimination. On the one hand, Muâvia demanded that
the murderers of Othmân should be brought to justice; on the other,
the demand was stigmatised as a mere cat’s-paw covering ambitious
designs upon the Caliphate. This was resented as a base calumny
by Muâvia. ‘Begone, ye lying scoundrels!’ he cried; ‘the sword shall
decide between us;’ and, so saying, he drove them from his
presence. Finding all attempts at compromise to be useless, Aly
marshalled his army into seven or eight separate columns, each
under a Bedouin chieftain of note. As many separate columns were
similarly formed on the Syrian side. And every day one of these
columns, taking the field in turn, was drawn up against a
corresponding column of the other army.
Desultory fighting in this singular way was Desultory fighting, Dzul Hijj,
kept up throughout the month, there being a.h. XXXVI. May, a.d. 657.
sometimes as many as two engagements in a single day. But the
contest could not up to this time have been very earnest or severe,
since little mention is made of sanguinary results.[530] On both sides
they feared, we are told, to bring the whole forces out into a common
battle, ‘lest the Moslems should be destroyed, root and branch,’ in
the internecine struggle.
A new year, the 37th of the Hegira,
opened on the combatants, wearied by this Truce during final month of
endless and indecisive strife, and inclined a.h. XXXVII. June, a.d. 657.
to thoughts of peace. A truce was called, to last throughout
Moharram, the first month of the year. The interval was spent in
deputations; but these proved as fruitless as those which had gone
before. Aly, influenced by the anti-Omeyyad faction around him, was
not disposed even now to admit the injustice of Othmân’s having
been put to death. When pressed upon the point by the Syrian
envoys, he declined to commit himself. ‘I
will not say,’ was his evasive answer, ‘that Fruitless negotiations.
he was wrongfully attacked, nor will I say
that the attack was justified.’ ‘Then,’ answered the Syrians, ‘we shall
fight against thee, and fight likewise against everyone else who
refuseth to say that thy predecessor was not wrongfully put to death;’
and with these words they took their final leave. On his side, Muâvia
declared to the messengers of Aly that nothing short of the
punishment of the regicides would induce him to quit the field.
‘What?’ exclaimed some one; ‘wouldest thou put Ammâr to death?’
‘And why not?’ answered Muâvia; ‘wherefore should the son of the
bond-woman not suffer for having slain the freedman of
Othmân?’[531] ‘Impossible,’ they cried; ‘where will ye stop? It were
easier to bale out the floods of the Euphrates.’
[Renewal of hostilities, Safar, a.h. XXXVII. July, a.d. 657.]
So passed away the first month of the year. At the beginning of
the second, Aly, seeing things unchanged, commenced hostilities
afresh. He caused proclamation to be made along Muâvia’s front,
recalling the Syrians from rebellion to their proper allegiance. But it
only made them rally with the more enthusiasm around Muâvia; and
a great company took an oath, girding themselves in token with their
turbans, that they would defend him to the death. The warfare was,
however, carried on at the first in the same indecisive style as
before. Six leaders on Aly’s side took, in daily turn, the command
against as many captains on the other side.[532] But though still
desultory, the conflict was becoming severer and more embittered.
Many single combats were fought. One of Aly’s sons went forth on
the challenge of a son of Omar, but was recalled by his father.[533]
And so eight or nine days passed, one differing little from the other,
till the beginning of the second week, when Aly made up his mind to
bring on a general, and, as he hoped, decisive battle. The night was
spent by his followers in preparation, and (as the Abbasside
historians relate) in recitation from the Scripture, and in prayer. Thus,
ten days after the renewal of hostilities, both armies were drawn out
in their entire array. They fought the whole
day, but the shades of evening fell, and Battle of Siffîn. 11 and 12
none had got the better. The following Safar; July 29 and 30.
morning, the combat was renewed, and with greater vigour. Aly
posted himself in the centre with the flower of his troops from
Medîna; the wings were composed separately, one of the warriors
from Bussorah, the other of those from Kûfa. Muâvia had a pavilion
pitched upon the field; and there, surrounded by five compacted
lines of his sworn body-guard, watched the day. Amru, with a great
weight of horse, bore down upon the Kûfa wing. Before the shock it
gave way; and Aly, with his sons, was exposed to imminent peril, as
well from the thick shower of arrows, as from a close encounter.
Reproaching the men of Kûfa for their cowardice, the Caliph fought
sword in hand, and with his ancient bravery withstood the charge.
Ashtar, at the head of three hundred Readers[534]—the ‘Ghâzies’ of
the day—led forward the other wing, which fell with fury upon
Muâvia’s ‘turbaned’ body-guard. Four of its five ranks were already
cut to pieces, when Muâvia, alarmed, bethought himself of flight, and
had even called for his horse, when certain martial lines came to his
lips, and he held his ground. Amru stood by him, ‘Courage to-day,’
he cried; ‘to-morrow victory.’ The fifth rank repelled the danger, and
both sides again fought on equal terms. Feats of desperate bravery
were displayed by both armies. Many men of rank were slain. On
Aly’s side fell Hâshim, the hero of Câdesîya. Of even greater
moment was the death of Ammâr, now over ninety years, and one of
the leading regicides. As he saw Hâshim fall, he exclaimed to his
fellows: ‘O Paradise! how close thou couchest beneath the arrow’s
point and the falchion’s flash! O Hâshim! even now I see heaven
opened, and black-eyed maidens, all bridally attired, clasping thee in
their fond embrace!’[535] So, singing, and refreshing himself with his
favourite draught of milk and water, the aged warrior, fired again with
the ardour of youth, rushed into the enemy’s ranks, and met the
envied fate. It had long been in everyone’s mouth both in town and
camp, that Mahomet had once said to him: ‘By a godless and
rebellious race, O Ammâr, thou shalt one day be slain;’ in other
words (so the saying was interpreted), Ammâr would be killed
fighting on the side of right. Thus his death, as it were, condemned
the cause of the ranks against whom he fought; and so it spread
dismay in Muâvia’s host. When Amru heard of it, he answered
readily: ‘And who is it that hath killed Ammâr, but Aly the “rebellious,”
that brought him hither?’ The clever repartee ran through the Syrian
host, and did much at once to efface the evil omen.[536]
 The fighting this day was in real
earnest, and the carnage on both sides Battle still rages on morning
great. Darkness failed to separate the of third day, 13 Safar, July
31.
combatants; and, like Câdesîya, that night
was called a second ‘Night of Clangour.’ The morning broke on the
two armies still in conflict. With emptied quivers they now fought
hand to hand. Ashtar, the regicide, resolved on victory at whatever
cost, continued to push the attack with unflinching bravery and
persistence. Muâvia, disheartened, began to speak to Amru of
proposing to Aly a judicial combat, Goliath-like, with a champion on
either side. ‘Then go forth thyself, and challenge Aly,’ said Amru. ‘Not
so,’ answered Muâvia; ‘I will not do that, for Aly ever slayeth his man,
and then thou shouldest succeed me.’ Amru, indeed, well knew that
this was not in Muâvia’s line; and it was no time for continuing grim
pleasantry like this. All at once Amru
bethought him of a stratagem. ‘Raise aloft Hostilities suspended for
the sacred leaves of the Corân,’ he cried; arbitration by Corân.
‘if any refuse to abide thereby, it will sow discord amongst them; if
they accept, it will be a reprieve from cruel slaughter.’ Muâvia caught
at the words. And so forthwith they fixed the sacred scrolls on the
points of their lances, and raising them aloft, called out along the line
of battle: ‘The law of the Lord! The law of the Lord! Let it decide
between us!’ No sooner heard, than the men of Kûfa leaped forward,
re-echoing the cry: ‘The law of the Lord, that shall decide between
us!’ As all were shouting thus with one accord, Aly stepped forth and
expostulated with them: ‘It was the device,’ he cried, ‘of evil men;
afraid of defeat, they sought their end by guile, and cloaked rebellion
under love of the Word.’ It was all in vain. To every argument they
answered (and the ‘Readers’ loudest of all): ‘We are called to the
Book, and we cannot decline it.’ At last, in open mutiny, they
threatened the unfortunate Caliph, that, unless he agreed, they
would all desert him, drive him over to the enemy, or serve him as
they had served Othmân. Seeing that further opposition would be
futile, Aly said: ‘Stay wild and treasonable words. Obey and fight. But
if ye will rebel, do as ye list.’ ‘We will not fight,’ they cried; ‘recall
Ashtar from the field.’ Ashtar, thus summoned, at the first refused.
‘We are gaining a great victory,’ he said, ‘I will not come;’ and he
turned to fight again. But the tumult increased, and Aly sent a
second time to say: ‘Of what avail is victory when treason rageth?
Wouldst thou have the Caliph murdered, or delivered over to the
enemy?’ Ashtar, on hearing this, unwillingly returned, and a fierce
altercation ensued between him and the angry soldiery. ‘Ye were
fighting,’ he said, ‘but yesterday for the Lord, and the choicest
among you lost their lives. What is it but that ye now acknowledge
yourselves in the wrong, and the Martyrs gone to hell?’ ‘Nay,’ they
answered; ‘it is not so. Yesterday we fought for the Lord; to-day, also
for the Lord, we stay the fight.’ On this, Ashtar upbraided them as
‘traitors, cowards, hypocrites, and villains.’ In return, they reviled him,
and struck his charger with their whips. Aly interposed. The tumult
was stayed. And Asháth, chief of the Beni Kinda, was sent to ask
Muâvia ‘what his precise meaning in raising the Corân aloft might
be.’ ‘It is this,’ he sent answer back, ‘that we should return, both you
and we, to the will of the Lord, as set forth in the Book. Each side
shall name an Umpire, and the verdict shall be binding.’ Aly’s army
shouted assent. The unfortunate Caliph was forced to the still deeper
humiliation of appointing as his arbiter a person who had deserted
him. The soldiery cried out for Abu Mûsa, the temporising Governor
of Kûfa who had been deposed for want of active loyalty. ‘This man,’
answered Aly, ‘did but lately leave us and flee; and not till after
several months I pardoned him. Neither hath he now been fighting
with us. Here is a worthy representative, the son of Abbâs, the
Prophet’s uncle; choose him as your Umpire.’ ‘As well name thyself,’
they answered rudely. ‘Then take Ashtar.’ ‘What!’ said the Bedouin
chiefs in the same rough imperious strain, ‘the man that hath set the
world on fire! None for us but Abu Mûsa.’ It was a bitter choice for
Aly, but he had no alternative. The Syrian arbiter was Amru, for
whose deep and crafty ways Abu Mûsa was no match.[537] He
presented himself in the Caliph’s camp, and the agreement was put
in writing. As dictated from Aly’s side, it ran
thus: ‘In the name of the Lord Most Deed of arbitration, 13 Safar,
Merciful! This is what hath been agreed a.h. 665.
XXXVII. July 31, a.d.

upon between the Commander of the

Faithful, and ——’ ‘Stay!’ cried Amru (like the Coreish to the Prophet
at Hodeibia); ‘Aly 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.’
And so the armies, having buried their
dead, quitted this memorable but Aly returns to Kûfa, and
undecisive battle-field. Aly retired to Kûfa; Muâvia to Damascus.
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.’
The slaughter, indeed, had been great
on both sides.[540] And what gave point to Discord at Kûfa.
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.

The quick sagacity of Amru had never

been turned to better account than when The Arab faction taken in by
he proposed to the army of Kûfa that the appeal to Corân.
Corân should be the arbiter between them. To be judged by the Book
of the Lord had been their cry from the beginning. The sacred text
gave no countenance to the extravagant pretensions of the Coreish,
nor to their (so-called) empire of favouritism and tyranny. Its precepts
were based on the brotherhood of the Faithful; and the Prophet
himself had enjoined on his people the absolute equality of all.[541]
No sooner, therefore, was it proclaimed than, as Amru anticipated,
the Arab chiefs, caught in the snare, took up the cry, and pledged
themselves thereto.
Reflection soon tarnished the prospect.
They had forgotten how narrow was the Dissatisfaction of the Arab,
issue which the Umpires had to decide. or theocratic, faction.
The Bedouins were fighting not for one Caliph or the other, but
against the pretensions of the Coreish at large. It was this that
nerved them to the sanguinary conflict. ‘If the Syrians conquer,’ cried
Yezîd ibn Cays to his followers of Bussorah and Kûfa, ‘ye are
undone. Again ye will be ground down by tyrants like the minions of
Othmân. They will possess themselves as heretofore of the
conquests of Islam, as if, forsooth, these had descended to them by
inheritance, and not been won by our good swords. We shall lose
our grasp both of this world and of the next.’ Such were the evils
which they dreaded, for which they had slain Othmân, and from
which they had now been fighting for deliverance. By the
appointment of Abu Mûsa for their Umpire, what had they obtained?
It was theocratic rule they had been dreaming of, and now they were
drifting back to the old régime. The Umpires would decide simply as
between Muâvia and Aly; and, whatever their verdict, the despotism
of the past would be riveted more firmly than ever. Nothing of the
kind they really wanted had been gained, nor was there any prospect
of its being gained, by arbitration.
Burdened with these thoughts, a body
of 12,000 men fell out from Aly’s ranks on They draw off into hostile
their homeward journey; and, keeping the camp near Kûfa.
same direction towards Kûfa, marched side by side with the army, at
some little distance off in the desert. Loud and violent in their
speech, they beat about their neighbours in rude Bedouin fashion
with their whips, and reproached one another for having abandoned
the cause of Islam to the bands of godless arbitrators; while some
few amongst them were uneasy at having betrayed the Caliph on the
field of battle, and at having now separated themselves from the
body of the Faithful. In this frame of mind they avoided Kûfa, but
encamped in its vicinity, at the village of Harôra.[542] They chose for
themselves a temporary leader. But their resolve was, that when
they gained the ascendency, they would no longer have any prince
or Caliph, nor any oath of allegiance but to the Lord alone; and
would vest the administration of affairs in a Council of State. This
theocratic dream was not confined to the schismatics at Harôra, but
had widely leavened the factious and fanatical population of Kûfa.
Aly, aware of the danger, sent his cousin, Mohammed son of Abbâs,
to reason with the seceding body, but to no effect. He then
proceeded to their camp himself, and gained over their leader, Yezîd,
by the promise of the government of Ispahan. He urged, and with
good ground, that, so far from being responsible for ‘the godless
compromise,’ he had been driven to accept the Arbitration against
his better judgment by their own wayward and persistent obstinacy;
that the Umpires were bound by the terms of the truce to deliver their
decision in accordance with the sacred text, which equally with
himself the theocrats held to be the final guide; and that, if the
Umpires’ deliverance should after all turn out to be in disregard of it,
he would without a moment’s hesitation reject the same, and again
go forth at their head to fight against the enemies of the Faith.
 There was a strange mingling of
innocence and simplicity in these They are pacified by Aly.
Seceders, with a fanatical indifference to
the distinctions of vice and virtue, and a readiness to perpetrate any
crime, whether against the person or the State, so that it forwarded
the cause they had at heart, namely, ‘the Rule of the Lord,’ and the
setting up of that which they conceived to be His kingdom.
For the present they were pacified by
the assurances of the Caliph. They broke And retire to their homes.
up their camp and returned to their homes,
there to await the decision of the Umpires.
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