However the object of dwelling at length on this subject is...

However the object of dwelling at length on this subject is that the genius and intelligence which has been attributed to Mu'awiya, and his extraordinary efficiency and competence about which much has been said, is all exaggeration and idle talk. In fact the entire success of this man was indebted to those very fictitious qualities mixed with mischief and evil and such successes and victories as are the consequences of such…