_Summary of Preceding Movements._--The conquest of Mecca had been of the
greatest importance to the Prophet, not only because Islam thus obtained
possession of this important city with its famous sanctuary, but above
all because his late adversaries were at last compelled to acknowledge
him as the Envoy of God. Among these there were many men of great
ability and influence, and he was so eager to conciliate them or, as the
Arabic expression has it, "to mellow their hearts" by concessions and
gifts, that his loyal helpers (_Ansar_) at Medina became dissatisfied
and could only with difficulty be brought to acquiesce in it. Mahomet
was a practical man; he realized that the growing state needed skilful
administrators, and that such were found in much greater number among
the antagonists of yesterday than among the honest citizens of Medina.
The most important positions, such as the governorships of Mecca and
Yemen, were entrusted to men of the Omayyad house, or that of the
Makhzum and other Koreishite families. Abu Bekr followed the Prophet's
example. In the great revolt of the Arabic tribes after the death of
Mahomet, and in the invasion of Irak and Syria by the Moslems, the
principal generals belonged to them. Omar did not deviate from that line
of conduct. It was he who appointed Yazid, the son of Abu Sofian, and
after his death, his brother Moawiya as governor of Syria, and assigned
the province of Egypt to Amr-ibn-el-Ass ('Amr b. As). It is even
surprising to find among the leading men so few of the house of Hashim,
the nearest family of the Prophet. The puzzled Moslem doctors explain
this fact on the ground that the Hashimites were regarded as too noble
to hold ordinary administrative offices, and that they could not be
spared at Medina, where their counsel was required in all important
affairs. There is, however, a tradition in which Ali himself calls the
Omayyads born rulers. As long as Omar lived opposition was silent. But
Othman had not the strong personality of his predecessor, and, although
he practically adhered to the policy of Omar, he was accused of
favouring the members of his own family--the caliph belonged himself to
the house of Omayya--at the expense of the Hashimites and the Ansar. The
jealousy of the latter two was prompted by the fact that the
governorship and military commands had become not only much more
important, but also much more lucrative, while power and money again
procured many adherents. The truly devout Moslems on the other hand were
scandalized by the growing luxury which relaxed the austere morals of
the first Moslems, and this also was imputed to Othman.
We thus see how the power of the house of Omayya developed itself, and
how there arose against it an opposition, which led in the first place
to the murder of Othman and the Caliphate of Ali, and furthermore,
during the whole period of the Omayyad caliphs, repeatedly to dangerous
outbreaks, culminating in the great catastrophe which placed the
Abbasids on the throne. The elements of this opposition were of very
various kinds:--(1) The old-fashioned Moslems, sons of the _Ansar_ and
_Mohajir_, who had been Mahomet's first companions and supporters, and
could not bear the thought that the sons of the old enemies of the
Prophet in Mecca, whom they nicknamed _tolaqa_ (freedmen), should be in
control of the imamate, which carried with it the management of affairs
both civil and religious. This party was in the foreground, chiefly in
the first period. (2) The partisans of Ali, the Shi'a (Shi'ites), who in
proportion as their influence with the Arabs declined, contrived to
strengthen it by obtaining the support of the non-Arabic Moslems, aided
thereto, especially in the latter period, by the Abbasids, who at the
decisive moment succeeded in seizing the supreme power for themselves.
(3) The Kharijites, who, in spite of the heavy losses they sustained at
the hands of Ali, maintained their power by gaining new adherents from
among those austere Moslems, who held both Omayyads and Alids as
usurpers, and have often been called, not unjustly, the Puritans of
Islam. (4) The non-Arabic Moslems, who on their conversion to Islam, had
put themselves under the patronage of Arabic families, and were
therefore called maula's (clients). These were not only the most
numerous, but also, in virtue of the persistency of their hostility, the
most dangerous. The largest and strongest group of these were the
Persians, who, before the conquest of Irak by the Moslems, were the
ruling class of that country, so that Persian was the dominant language.
With them all malcontents, in particular the Shi'ites, found support; by
them the dynasty of the Omayyads and the supremacy of the Arabs was
finally overthrown. To these elements of discord we must add:--(1) That
the Arabs, notwithstanding the bond of Islam that united them,
maintained their old tribal institutions, and therewith their old feuds
and factions; (2) that the old antagonism between Ma'adites[11]
(original northern tribes) and Yemenites (original southern tribes),
accentuated by the jealousy between the Meccans, who belonged to the
former, and the Medinians, who belonged to the latter division, gave
rise to perpetual conflicts; (3) that more than one dangerous
pretender--some of them of the reigning family itself--contended with
the caliph for the sovereignty, and must be crushed _coute que coute_.
It is only by the detailed enumeration of these opposing forces that we
can form an idea of the heavy task that lay before the Prince of the
Believers, and of the amount of tact and ability which his position
demanded.
The description of the reign of the Omayyads is extremely difficult.
Never perhaps has the system of undermining authority by continual
slandering been applied on such a scale as by the Alids and the
Abbasids. The Omayyads were accused by their numerous missionaries of
every imaginable vice; in their hands Islam was not safe; it would be a
godly work to extirpate them from the earth. When the Abbasids had
occupied the throne, they pursued this policy to its logical conclusion.
But not content with having exterminated the hated rulers themselves,
they carried their hostility to a further point. The official history of
the Omayyads, as it has been handed down to us, is coloured by Abbasid
feeling to such an extent that we can scarcely distinguish the true from
the false. An example of this occurs at the outset in the assertion that
Moawiya deliberately refrained from marching to the help of Othman, and
indeed that it was with secret joy that he heard of the fatal result of
the plot. The facts seem to contradict this view. When, ten weeks before
the murder, some hundreds of men came to Medina from Egypt and Irak,
pretending that they were on their pilgrimage to Mecca, but wanted to
bring before the caliph their complaints against his vicegerents, nobody
could have the slightest suspicion that the life of the caliph was in
danger; indeed it was only during the few days that Othman was besieged
in his house that the danger became obvious. If the caliph then, as the
chroniclers tell, sent a message to Moawiya for help, his messenger
could not have accomplished half the journey to Damascus when the
catastrophe took place. There is no real reason to doubt that the
painful news fell on Moawiya unexpectedly, and that he, as mightiest
representative of the Omayyad house, regarded as his own the duty of
avenging the crime. He could not but view Ali in the light of an
accomplice, because if, as he protested, he did not abet the murderers,
yet he took them under his protection. An acknowledgment of Ali as
caliph by Moawiya before he had cleared himself from suspicion was
therefore quite impossible.
1. _The Reign of Moawiya._--Moawiya, son of the well-known Meccan chief
Abu Sofian, embraced Islam together with his father and his brother
Yazid, when the Prophet conquered Mecca, and was, like them, treated
with the greatest distinction. He was even chosen to be one of the
secretaries of Mahomet. When Abu Bekr sent his troops for the conquest
of Syria, Yazid, the eldest son of Abu Sofian, held one of the chief
commands, with Moawiya as his lieutenant. In the year 639 Omar named him
governor of Damascus and Palestine; Othman added to this province the
north of Syria and Mesopotamia. To him was committed the conduct of the
war against the Byzantine emperor, which he continued with energy, at
first only on land, but later, when the caliph had at last given in to
his urgent representations, at sea also. In the year 34 (A.D. 655) was
fought off the coast of Lycia the great naval battle, which because of
the great number of masts has been called "the mast fight," in which the
Greek[12] fleet, commanded by the emperor Constans II. in person, was
utterly defeated. Moawiya himself was not present, as he was conducting
an attack (the result of which we do not know) on Caesarea in
Cappadocia. The Arabic historians are so entirely preoccupied with the
internal events that they have no eye for the war at the frontier. The
contention which Moawiya had with Ali checked his progress in the north.
Moawiya was a born ruler, and Syria was, as we have seen, the best
administered province of the whole empire. He was so loved and honoured
by his Syrians that, when he invited them to avenge the blood of Othman,
they replied unanimously, "It is your part to command, ours to obey."
Ali was a valiant man, but had no great talent as a ruler. His army
numbered a great many enthusiastic partisans, but among them not a few
wise-acres; there were also others of doubtful loyalty. The battle at
Siffin (657), near the Euphrates, which lasted two months and consisted
principally in, sometimes bloody, skirmishes, with alternate success,
ended by the well-known appeal to the decision of the Koran on the part
of Moawiya. This appeal has been called by a European scholar "one of
the unworthiest comedies of the whole world's history," accepting the
report of very partial Arabic writers that it happened when the Syrians
were on the point of losing the battle. He forgot that Ali himself,
before the Battle of the Camel, appealed likewise to the decision of the
Koran, and began the fight only when this had been rejected. There is in
reality no room for suspecting Moawiya of not having been in earnest
when making this appeal; he might well regret that internecine strife
should drain the forces which were so much wanted for the spread of
Islam. That the Book of God could give a solution, even of this arduous
case, was doubtless the firm belief of both parties. But even if the
appeal to the Koran had been a stratagem, as Ali himself thought, it
would have been perfectly legitimate, according to the general views of
that time, which had been also those of the Prophet. It is not unlikely
that the chief leader of the Yemenites in Ali's army, Ash'ath b. Qais,
knew beforehand that this appeal would be made. Certainty is not to be
obtained in the whole matter.
On each side an umpire was appointed, Abu Musaa al-Ash'ari, the
candidate of Ash'ath, on that of Ali, Amr-ibn-el-Ass (q.v.) on that of
Moawiya. The arbitrators met in the year 37 (A.D. 658) at Adhroh, in the
south-east of Syria, where are the ruins of the Roman Castra described
by Brunnow and Domaszewsky (_Die Provincio Arabia_, i. 433-463). Instead
of this place, the historians generally put Dumat-al-Jandal, the
biblical Duma, now called Jauf, but this rests on feeble authority. The
various accounts about what happened in this interview are without
exception untrustworthy. J. Wellhausen, in his excellent book _Das
arabische Reich und sein Sturz_, has made it very probable that the
decision of the umpires was that the choice of Ali as caliph should be
cancelled, and that the task of nominating a successor to Othman should
be referred to the council of notable men (_shura_), as representing the
whole community. Ali refusing to submit to this decision, Moawiya became
the champion of the law, and thereby gained at once considerable support
for the conquest of Egypt, to which above all he directed his efforts.
As soon as Amr returned from Adhroh, Moawiya sent him with an army of
four or five thousand men against Egypt. About the same time the
constitutional party rose against Ali's vicegerent Mahommed, son of Abu
Bekr, who had been the leader of the murderous attack on Othman.
Mahommed was beaten, taken in his flight, and, according to some
reports, sewn in the skin of an ass and burned.
Moawiya, realizing that Ali would take all possible means to crush him,
took his measures accordingly. He concluded with the Greeks a treaty, by
which he pledged himself to pay a large sum of money annually on
condition that the emperor should give him hostages as a pledge for the
maintenance of peace. Ali, however, had first to deal with the
insurrection of the Kharijites, who condemned the arbitration which
followed the battle of Siffin as a deed of infidelity, and demanded that
Ali should break the compact (see above, A.4). Freed from this
difficulty, Ali prepared to direct his march against Moawiya, but his
soldiers declined to move. One of his men, Khirrit b. Rashid, renounced
him altogether, because he had not submitted to the decision of the
umpires, and persuaded many others to refuse the payment of the
poor-rate. Ali was obliged to subdue him, a task which he effected not
without difficulty. Not a few of his former partisans went over to
Moawiya, as already had happened before the days of Siffin, amongst
others Ali's own brother 'Aqil. Lastly, there were in Kufa, and still
more in Basra, many Othmaniya or legitimists, on whose co-operation he
could not rely. Moawiya from his side made incessant raids into Ali's
dominion, and by his agents caused a very serious revolt in Basra. The
statement that a treaty was concluded between Moawiya and Ali to
maintain the _status quo_, in the beginning of the year 40 (A.D. 660),
is not very probable, for it is pretty certain that just then Ali had
raised an army of 40,000 men against the Syrians, and also that in the
second or third month of that year Moawiya was proclaimed caliph at
Jerusalem. At the same time Bosr b. Abi Artat made his expedition
against Medina and Mecca, whose inhabitants were compelled to
acknowledge the caliphate of Moawiya. On the murder of Ali in 661, his
son Hasan was chosen caliph, but he recoiled before the prospect of a
war with Moawiya, having neither the ambition nor the energy of Ali.
Moawiya stood then with a large army in Maskin, a rich district lying to
the north of the later West Bagdad, watered by the Dojail, or Little
Tigris, a channel from the Euphrates to the Tigris. The army of Trak was
near Madain, the ancient Ctesiphon. The reports about what occurred are
confused and contradictory; but it seems probable that Abdallah b.
Abbas, the vicegerent of Ali at Basra and ancestor of the future Abbasid
dynasty, was in command. No battle was fought. Hasan and Ibn Abbas
opened, each for himself, negotiations with Moawiya. The latter made it
a condition of surrender that he should have the free disposal of the
funds in the treasury of Basra. Some say that he had already before the
death of Ali rendered himself master of it. Notwithstanding the protest
of the Basrians, he transported this booty safely to Mecca. When his
descendants had ascended the throne and he had become a demi-saint, the
historians did their best to excuse his conduct. Hasan demanded, in
exchange for the power which he resigned, the contents of the treasury
at Kufa, which amounted to five millions of dirhems, together with the
revenues of the Persian province of Darabjird (Darab). When these
negotiations became known, a mutiny broke out in Hasan's camp. Hasan
himself was wounded and retired to Medina, where he died eight or nine
years afterwards. The legend that he was poisoned by order of Moawiya is
without the least foundation. It seems that he never received the
revenues of Darabjird, the Basrians to whom they belonged refusing to
cede them.
Moawiya now made his entry into Kufa in the summer of A.H. 41 (A.D. 661)
and received the oath of allegiance as Prince of the Believers. This
year is called the year of union (_jama'a_). Moghira b. Sho'ba was
appointed governor of Kufa. Homran b. Aban had previously assumed the
government of Basra. This is represented commonly as a revolt, but as
Homran was a client of Othman, and remained in favour with the Omayyads,
it is almost certain that he took the management of affairs only to
maintain order.
One strong antagonist to Moawiya remained, in the person of Ziyad. This
remarkable man was said to be a bastard of Abu Sofian, the father of
Moawiya, and was, by his mother, the brother of Abu Bakra, a man of
great wealth and position at Basra. He thus belonged to the tribe of
Thaqif at Taif, which produced many very prominent men. At the age of
fourteen years Ziyad was charged with the financial administration of
the Basrian army. He had won the affection of Omar, by his knowledge of
the Koran and the Sunna of the Prophet, and by the fact that he had
employed the first money he earned to purchase the freedom of his mother
Somayya. He was a faithful servant of Ali and put down for him the
revolt excited by Moawiya's partisans in Basra. Thence he marched into
Fars and Kirman, where he maintained peace and kept the inhabitants in
their allegiance to Ali. After Ali's death he fortified himself in his
castle near Istakhr and refused to submit. Moawiya, therefore, sent Bosr
b. Abi Artat to Basra, with orders to capture Ziyad's three sons, and to
force Ziyad into submission by threatening to kill them. Ziyad was
obdurate; and it was due to his brother Abu Bakra, who persuaded Moawiya
to cancel the order, that the threat was not executed. On his return to
Damascus, Moawiya charged Moghira b. Sho'ba to bring his countryman to
reason. Abdallah b. 'Amir was made governor of Basra.
As soon as Moawiya had his hands free, he directed all his forces
against the Greeks. Immediately after the submission of Irak, he had
denounced the existing treaty, and as early as 662 had sent his troops
against the Alans and the Greeks. Since then, no year passed without a
campaign. Twice he made a serious effort to conquer Constantinople, in
669 when he besieged it for three months, and in 674. On the second
occasion his fleet occupied Cyzicus, which it held till shortly after
his death in 680, when a treaty was signed. In Africa also the extension
of Mahommedan power was pursued energetically. In 670 took place the
famous march of 'Okba ('Oqba) b. Nafi' and the foundation of Kairawan,
where the great mosque still bears his name. Our information about these
events, though very full, is untrustworthy, while of the events in Asia
Minor the accounts are scarce and short. The Arabic historians are still
absorbed by the events in Irak and Khorasan.
The talented prefect of Kufa, Moghira b. Sho'ba, eventually broke down
the resistance of Ziyad, who came to Damascus to render an account of
his administration, which the caliph ratified. Moawiya seems also to
have acknowledged him as the son of Abu Sofian, and thus as his brother;
in 664 this recognition was openly declared.[13] In the next year Ziyad
was appointed governor of Basra and the eastern provinces belonging to
it. As the austere champion of the precepts of Islam, he soon restored
order in the whole district. Outwardly, this was the case in Kufa also.
A rising of Kharijites in the year 663 had ended in the death of their
chief. But the Shi'ites were dissatisfied and even dared to give public
utterance to their hostility. Moghira contented himself with a warning.
He was already aged and had no mind to enter on a conflict. He died
about the year 670, and his province also was entrusted to Ziyad, who
appointed 'Amr b. Horaith as his vicegerent. At a Friday service in the
great mosque 'Amr was insulted and pelted with pebbles. Ziyad then came
himself, arrested the leader of the Shi'ites, and sent fourteen rebels
to Damascus, among them several men of consideration. Seven of them who
refused to pledge themselves to obedience were put to death; the
Shi'ites considered them as martyrs and accused Moawiya of committing a
great crime. But in Kufa peace was restored, and this not by military
force, but by the headmen of the tribes. We must not forget that Kufa
and Basra were military colonies, and that each tribe had its own
quarter of the city. A wholesome diversion was provided by the serious
resumption of the policy of eastern expansion, which had been
interrupted by the civil war. For this purpose Irak had to furnish the
largest contingent. The first army sent by Ziyad into Khorasan
recaptured Merv, Herat and Balkh, conquered Tokharistan and advanced as
far as the Oxus. In 673 'Obaidallah, the son of Ziyad, crossed the
river, occupied Bokhara, and returned laden with booty taken from the
wandering Turkish tribes of Transoxiana. He brought 2000 Turkish archers
with him to Basra, the first Turkish slaves to enter the Moslem empire.
Sa'id, son of the caliph Othman, whom Moawiya made governor of Khorasan,
in 674 marched against Samarkand. Other generals penetrated as far as
the Indus and conquered Kabul, Sijistan, Makran and Kandahar.
Ziyad governed Irak with the greatest vigour, but as long as discontent
did not issue in action, he let men alone. At his death (672-673), order
was so generally restored that "nobody had any more to fear for life or
estate, and even the unprotected woman was safe in her house without
having her door bolted."
Moawiya was a typical Arab _sayyid_ (gentleman). He governed, not by
force, but by his superior intelligence, his self-control, his mildness
and magnanimity. The following anecdote may illustrate this. One of
Moawiya's estates bordered on that of Abdallah b. Zobair, who complained
in a somewhat truculent letter that Moawiya's slaves had been guilty of
trespassing. Moawiya, disregarding his son Yazid's advice that he should
exact condign punishment for Zobair's disrespect, replied in flattering
terms, regretting the trespass and resigning both slaves and estate to
Zobair. In reply Zobair protested his loyalty to Moawiya, who thereupon
pointed a moral for the instruction of Yazid.
Moawiya has been accused of having poisoned more than one of his
adversaries, among them Malik Ashtar, Abdarrahman the son of the great
captain Khalid b. Walid, and Hasan b. Ali. As for the latter, European
scholars have long been agreed that the imputation is groundless. As to
Abdarrahman the story is in the highest degree improbable. Madaini says
that Moawiya was prompted to it, because when he consulted the Syrians
about the choice of his son Yazid as his successor, they had proposed
Abdarrahman. The absurdity of this is obvious, for Abdarrahman died in
the year 666.[14] Others say[15] that Moawiya was afraid lest
Abdarrahman should become too popular. Now, Abdarrahman had not only
been a faithful ally of Moawiya in the wars with Ali, but after the
peace devoted all his energy to the Greek war. It is almost incredible
that Moawiya out of petty jealousy would have deprived himself of one of
his best men. The probability is that Abdarrahman was ill when returning
from the frontier, that Moawiya sent him his own medical man, the
Christian doctor Ibn Othal, and that the rumour arose that the doctor
had poisoned him. It is remarkable withal that this rumour circulated,
not in Homs (Emesa), where Abdarrahman died, but in Medina. There a
young relation of Abdarrahman was so roused by the taunt that the death
of his kinsman was unavenged, that he killed Ibn Othal near the mosque
of Damascus. Moawiya imprisoned him and let him pay a high ransom, the
law not permitting the talio against a Moslem for having killed a
Christian. The story that this relative was Khalid, the son of
Abdarrahman, is absurd inasmuch as Moawiya made this Khalid commander
against the Greeks in succession to his father. In the third case--that
of Malik Ashtar--the evidence is equally inadequate. In fact, since
Moawiya did not turn the weapon of assassination against such men as
Abdallah b. Zobair and Hosain b. Ali, it is unlikely that he used it
against less dangerous persons. These two men were the chief obstacles
to Moawiya's plan for securing the Caliphate for his son Yazid. The
leadership with the Arabic tribes was as a rule hereditary, the son
succeeding his father, but only if he was personally fit for the
position, and was acknowledged as such by the principal men of the
tribe. The hereditary principle had not been recognized by Islam in the
cases of Abu Bekr, Omar and Othman; it had had some influence upon the
choice of Ali, the husband of Fatima and the cousin of the Prophet. But
it had been adopted entirely for the election of Hasan. The example of
Abu Bekr proved that the caliph had the right to appoint his successor.
But this appointment must be sanctioned by the principal men, as
representing the community. Moawiya seems to have done his best to gain
that approbation, but the details given by the historians are altogether
unconvincing. This only seems to be certain, that the succession of
Yazid was generally acknowledged before the death of his father, except
in Medina. (See MAHOMMEDAN INSTITUTIONS.)
Moawiya died in the month of Rajab 60 (A.D. 680). His last words are
said to have been: "Fear ye God, the Elevated and Mighty, for God,
Praise be to Him, protects the man that fears Him; he who does not fear
God, has no protection." Moawiya was, in fact, a religious man and a
strict disciple of the precepts of Islam. We can scarcely, therefore,
credit the charges made by the adversaries of his chosen successor
Yazid, that he was a drinker of wine, fond of pleasure, careless about
religion. All the evidence shows that, during the reign of the Omayyads,
life in Damascus and the rest of Syria was austere and in striking
contrast to the dissolute manners which prevailed in Medina.
2. _Rule of Yazid._--When Moawiya died, the opposition had already been
organized. On his accession Yazid sent a circular to all his prefects,
officially announcing his father's death, and ordering them to
administer the oath of allegiance to their subjects. In that sent to
Walid b. 'Otba, the governor of Medina, he enclosed a private note
charging him in particular to administer the oath to Hosain, Abdallah b.
Omar and Abdallah b. Zobair, if necessary, by force. Walid sent a
messenger inviting them to a conference, thus giving them time to
assemble their followers and to escape to Mecca, where the prefect Omar
b. Sa'id could do nothing against them. In the month Ramadan this Omar
was made governor of Medina and sent an army against Ibn Zobair. This
army was defeated, and from that time Ibn Zobair was supreme at Mecca.
On the news of Yazid's accession, the numerous partisans of the family
of Ali in Kufa sent addresses to Hosain, inviting him to take refuge
with them, and promising to have him proclaimed caliph in Irak. Hosain,
having learned that the majority of the inhabitants were apparently
ready to support him strenuously, prepared to take action. Meanwhile
Yazid, having been informed of the riotous behaviour of the Shi'ites in
Kufa, sent Obaidallah, son of the famous Ziyad and governor of Basra, to
restore order. Using the same tactics as his father had used before,
Obaidallah summoned the chiefs of the tribes and made them responsible
for the conduct of their men. On the 8th of Dhu'l-Hijja Hosain set out
from Mecca with all his family, expecting to be received with enthusiasm
by the citizens of Kufa, but on his arrival at Kerbela west of the
Euphrates, he was confronted by an army sent by Obaidallah under the
command of Omar, son of the famous Sa'd b. Abi Waqqas, the founder of
Kufa. Hosain gave battle, vainly relying on the promised aid from Kufa,
and fell with almost all his followers on the 10th of Muharram 61 (10th
of October 680).
No other issue of this rash expedition could have been expected. But, as
it involved the grandson of the Prophet, the son of Ali, and so many
members of his family, Hosain's devout partisans at Kufa, who by their
overtures had been the principal cause of the disaster, regarded it as
a tragedy, and the facts gradually acquired a wholly romantic colouring.
Omar b. Sa'd and his officers, Obaidallah and even Yazid came to be
regarded as murderers, and their names have ever since been held
accursed by all Shi'ites. They observe the 10th of Muharram, the day of
'Ashura, as a day of public mourning. Among the Persians, stages are
erected on that day in public places, and plays are acted, representing
the misfortunes of the family of Ali.[16] "Revenge for Hosain" became
the watchword of all Shi'ites, and the Meshed Hosain (Tomb of the martyr
Hosain) at Kerbela is to them the holiest place in the world (see
KERBELA). Obaidallah sent the head of Hosain to Damascus, together with
the women and children and Ali b. Hosain, who, being ill, had not taken
part in the fight. Yazid was very sorry for the issue, and sent the
prisoners under safe-conduct to Medina. Ali remained faithful to the
caliph, taking no share in the revolt of the Medinians, and openly
condemning the risings of the Shi'ites.
Ibn Zobair profited greatly by the distress caused by Hosain's death.
Though he named himself publicly a refugee of the House of God, he had
himself secretly addressed as caliph, and many of the citizens of Medina
acknowledged him as such. Yazid, when informed of this, swore in his
anger to have him imprisoned. But remembering the wisdom of his father,
he sent messengers with a chain made of silver coins, and bearing
honourable proposals. At the same time he received a number of the chief
men of Medina, sent by the prefect, with great honour and loaded them
with gifts and presents. But Ibn Zobair refused, and the Medinians, of
whom the majority probably had never before seen a prince's court,
however simple, were only confirmed in their rancour against Yazid, and
told many horrible tales about his profligacy, that he hunted and held
wild orgies with Bedouin sheikhs, and had no religion. A
characteristically Arabic ceremony took place in the mosque of Medina.
"I cast off the oath of allegiance to Yazid, as I cast off my turban,"
exclaimed the first, and all others followed, casting off one of their
garments, till a heap of turbans and sandals lay on the floor. Ibn
Hanzala was made commander. The Omayyads, though they with their clients
counted more than 1000 men, were not able to maintain themselves, and
were allowed to depart only on condition of strict neutrality.
At last the patience of Yazid was exhausted. An army--the accounts about
the number vary from 4000 to 20,000--was equipped in all haste and put
under the command of Moslim b. 'Oqba, with orders first to exact
submission from the Medinians, if necessary by force, and then to march
against Ibn Zobair. Moslim, having met the expelled Omayyads at Wadi
'l-Qora, encamped near the city (August 683) and gave the inhabitants
three days in which to return to obedience, wishing to spare the city of
the Prophet and to prevent the shedding of blood. When, however, after
the lapse of three days, a final earnest appeal had been answered
insultingly, he began the battle. The Medinians fought valiantly, but
could not hold out against the well-disciplined Syrians. Moreover, they
were betrayed by the Medinian family of the Banu Haritha, who introduced
Syrian soldiers into the town. Medina lies between two volcanic hills,
called _harra_. After one of these the battle has been named "The Day of
Harra." For three days the city was given up to plunder. It is said that
a thousand bastards (the "children of the Harra") were born in
consequence of these days. The remaining citizens were compelled to take
the oath of allegiance to Yazid in a humiliating form; the few who
refused were killed. Ali b. Hosain, who had refused to have anything to
do with the revolt, was treated with all honour. Mahommed b.
al-Hanafiya, the son of Ali, and Abdallah b. Omar had likewise
abstained, but they had left Medina for Mecca.
Moslim then proceeded towards Mecca. He was already ill, and died about
midway between the two cities, after having given the command, according
to the orders of the caliph, to Hosain b. Nomair. It is quite natural
that the man who delivered up the city of the Prophet to plunder, and at
whose hands so many prominent Moslems fell, should have been an object
of detestation to the devout. Even some European scholars have drawn a
false picture of his personality, as has been clearly shown by
Wellhausen. About Medina also false statements have been made. The city
recovered very soon from the disaster, and remained the seat not only of
holy tradition and jurisdiction, but also of the Arabic aristocracy. In
no city of the empire, during the reign of the Omayyads, lived more
singers and musicians than in Medina.
Hosain b. Nomair arrived before Mecca in September 683 and found Ibn
Zobair ready to defend it. A number of the citizens of Medina had come
to the aid of the Holy City, as well as many Kharijites from Yamama
under Najda b. 'Amir. The siege had lasted 65--others say 40--days, when
the news came of the death of Yazid, which took place presumably on the
14th of Rabia I, 64 (12th November 683). Eleven days before a fire,
caused by imprudence, had consumed all the woodwork of the Ka'ba and
burst the black stone in three places. The evidence is quite conclusive;
yet the fire has been imputed to the Syrians, and a tale was invented
about ballistas which hurled against the House of God enormous stones
and vessels full of bitumen. In fact, the siege had been confined to
enclosure and skirmishes. It is said that on the news of the death of
Yazid a conference took place between Hosain and Ibn Zobair, and that
the former offered to proclaim the latter as caliph provided he would
accompany him to Syria and proclaim a general amnesty. Ibn Zobair
refused haughtily, and Hosain, with a contemptuous criticism of his
folly, ordered his army to break up for Syria.
Hitherto Ibn Zobair had confined himself to an appeal to the Moslems to
renounce Yazid and to have a caliph elected by the council (_shura_) of
the principal leading men. He now openly assumed the title of caliph and
invited men to take the oath of allegiance. He was soon acknowledged
throughout Arabia, in Egypt and in Irak. The Omayyads, who had returned
to Medina, were again expelled.
Yazid is described in the _Continuatio Isidori Byz._S27, as
"iucundissimus et cunctis nationibus regni eius subditis vir gratissime
habitus, qui nullam unquam, ut omnibus moris est, sibi regalis fastigii
causa gloriam appetivit, sed communis[17] cum omnibus civiliter vixit."
This is confirmed by the fact that Moawiya II. is said to have been a
mild ruler, like his father, and goes far to outweigh the prejudiced
account given by his opponents and coloured still further by tradition.
Against the accusation of being a drinker of wine he himself protested
in verses which he recited when he sent the army against Ibn Zobair.
Decisive is also the testimony of Ibn al-Hanafiya, who declared that all
the accusations brought by the Medinians were false. It may be true that
he was fond of hunting, but he was a peace-loving, generous prince. It
is uncertain at what age he died. Accounts vary between 33 and 39. The
latter finds confirmation in the statement that he was born in A.H. 25,
though another account places his birth in 22. As his son Moawiya who
succeeded him was certainly adult (the accounts vary between 17 and 23),
the latter date seems to be preferable.
3. Moawiya II. had reigned a very short time--how long is again wholly
uncertain--when he fell sick and died. Then commenced a period of the
greatest confusion. The mother of Yazid, Maisun, belonged to the most
powerful tribe in Syria, the Kalb, and it seems that this and the
cognate tribes of Qoda'a (Yemenites) had enjoyed certain prerogatives,
which had aroused the jealousy of the Qais and the cognate tribes of
Modar. Immediately after the death of Yazid, Zofar b. Harith, who had
already fought with Ibn Zobair against Yazid, had induced northern Syria
and Mesopotamia to declare for Ibn Zobair. In Homs (Emesa) the governor
No'man b. Bashir had pledged himself to the same cause. The prefect of
Damascus, Dahhak b. Qais, seemed to be wavering in his loyalty. Khalid,
the brother of Moawiya II., was still a youth and appears to have had no
strength of character. There was, however, a much more dangerous
candidate, viz. Merwan b. Hakam, of another branch of the Omayyads, who
had been Othman's right-hand man. He had pledged himself after some
hesitation to Yazid, but now his turn had come. The amir of the Kalb,
Ibn Bahdal, persuaded probably by Obaidallah b. Ziyad, conceived that
only a man of distinction could win the contest, and proclaimed Merwan
caliph, on condition that his successor should be Khalid b. Yazid, and
after him 'Amr b. Sa'id al-Ashdaq, who belonged to the third branch of
the Omayyads. Meanwhile Dahhak had declared himself openly for Ibn
Zobair. A furious battle (A.D. 684) ensued at Merj Rahit, near Damascus,
in which Dahhak and Zofar, though they had the majority of troops, were
utterly defeated. This battle became the subject of a great many poems
and had pernicious consequences, especially as regards the antagonism
between the Qais-Modar and Kalb-Yemenite tribes.
4. _Reign of Merwan I._--Merwan strengthened his position according to
the old oriental fashion by marrying the widow of Yazid, and soon felt
himself strong enough to substitute his own son Abdalmalik for Khalid b.
Yazid as successor-designate. Khalid contented himself with protesting;
he was neither a politician nor a soldier, but a student of alchemy and
astronomy; translations of Greek books have been ascribed to him (Jahiz,
_Bayan_, i. p. 126). In the year A.H. 435 there was still in Egypt a
brazen globe attributed to Ptolemy which had belonged to Khalid (Ibn
Qifti, p. 440, 1.15). He was also consulted about future events. There
were, however, not a few who deplored the fact that the throne had
passed from the descendants of Abu Sofian. This feeling gave rise to the
prophecy that there should appear later a Sofiani on the throne, who
would reign with might and wisdom. 'Amr Ashdaq made no opposition till
the death of Merwan. After the victory at Merj Rahit, Merwan conquered
Egypt, and installed as governor his second son Abdalaziz. An army sent
to the rescue by Ibn Zobair under the command of his brother Mus'ab was
beaten in Palestine by 'Amr Ashdaq. But a division sent by Merwan to the
Hejaz was cut to pieces. Obaidallah b. Ziyad set out with the purpose of
subduing Mesopotamia and marching thence against Irak. But he was
detained a whole year in the former country, by a rising of the Shi'ites
in Kufa, who were still in mourning for Hosain and had formed an army
which called itself "the army of the penitent." They were routed at Ras
'Ain, but Obaidallah had still to fight Zofar.
Meanwhile Mokhtar (son of that Abu 'Obaid the Thaqifite who had
commanded the Arabs against the Persians in the unfortunate battle of
the Bridge), a man of great talents and still greater ambition, after
having supported Ibn Zobair in the siege of Mecca, had gone to Kufa,
where he joined the Shi'ites, mostly Persians, and acquired great power.
He claimed that he was commissioned by Ali's son, Mahommed ibn
al-Hanafiya, who after the death of Hosain was recognized by the
Shi'ites as their Mahdi. A vague message from Mahommed, that it was the
duty of every good Moslem to take part with the family of the Prophet,
was interpreted in favour of Mokhtar, and thenceforward all the
Shi'ites, among them the powerful Ibrahim, son of Ali's right hand Malik
Ashtar, followed him blindly as their chief. Afterwards Ibn al-Hanafiya
seems to have acknowledged him distinctly as his vicegerent. Ibn
Zobair's representative in Kufa was compelled to flee, and all those who
had participated in the battle of Kerbela were put to death. An army
despatched against Obaidallah under Ibrahim routed the Syrians near
Mosul (battle of Khazir); Obaidallah and Hosain b. Nomair were slain.
Mokhtar was now at the zenith of power, but Ibn Zobair, determined to
get rid at all costs of so dangerous an enemy, named his brother Mus'ab
governor of Basra and ordered him to march against Kufa. Basra was at
that time full of fugitives from Kufa, Arabian chiefs who resented the
arrogance of Mokhtar's adherents, and desired eagerly to regain their
former position in Kufa. The troops of Basra had been, since the death
of Yazid, at war with the Kharijites, who had supported Ibn Zobair
during the siege of Mecca, but had deserted him later. Their caliph,
Nafi' b. Azraq, after whom they were called also Azraqites, threatened
even the city itself, when Mohallab b. Abi Sofra, a very able general,
compelled them to retire. Mohallab then marched with Mus'ab against
Kufa. Mokhtar fell, and with him the ephemeral dominion of the Persian
Shi'ites. This had been their first attempt to dispute the authority of
their Arabian conquerors, but it was not to be the last. Ibrahim b.
Ashtar, Mokhtar's governor of Mesopotamia, submitted and acknowledged
the Caliphate of Ibn Zobair.
5. Reign of Abdalmalik.--Merwan died on the 27th of Ramadan 65 (7th May
685); according to tradition, he was suffocated by his wife, because he
had insulted her son Khalid and herself. The accession of Abdalmalik was
attended with no difficulty, but the first years of his reign were
occupied by troubles in northern Syria, where, instigated by the Greeks,
the Mardaites of the Amanus, called Jarajima by the Arabs, penetrated
into the Lebanon. He was obliged to conclude an unfavourable treaty
first with them, later with the emperor of Constantinople. Moreover, in
the year 68 (A.D. 687-688) Syria was afflicted by a serious famine. Ibn
Zobair, however, was occupied at Mecca with the rebuilding of the Ka'ba,
and Mus'ab was harassed not only by the Kharijites, but also by a noble
freebooter, Obaidallah b. Horr, who had created for himself a
principality in the vicinity of Madain (Ctesiphon).
The period of the pilgrimage caused a momentary truce to all these
struggles, and in Dhu 'l-hijja, A.H. 68 (January 688), was seen the
curious spectacle of four different standards planted near Mecca,
belonging respectively to four chiefs, each of whom was a pretender to
the empire; the standard of Abdallah b. Zobair, caliph of Mecca; that of
the caliph of Damascus, Abdalmalik; that of Ali's son Mahommed b.
al-Hanafiya, Mahdi of the Shi'ites; and that of the Kharijites, who were
at that time under the command of Najda b. 'Amir. Such, however, was the
respect inspired by the holy places, that no disorders resulted.
When, in the year (69 A.H.) 689 Abdalmalik had at last encamped at Botan
Habib in the vicinity of Kinnesrin (Qinnasrin),[18] with the purpose of
marching against Mus'ab, his cousin 'Amr Ashdaq, to whom by the treaty
of Jabia, before the battle of Merj Rahit, the succession to Merwan had
been promised, took advantage of his absence to lay claim to the supreme
power, and to have himself proclaimed caliph by his partisans.
Abdalmalik was obliged to retrace his steps and to lay siege to his own
capital. The garrison of Damascus took fright, and deserted their posts,
so that 'Amr Ashdaq was compelled to surrender. The caliph Abdalmalik
summoned him to his palace and slew him with his own hand. Abdalmalik
has every claim to our esteem as one of the ablest monarchs that ever
reigned, but this murder remains a lasting blot on his career.
Abdalmalik could now give his whole attention to the projected
expedition against Irak. Mus'ab was encamped at Bajomaira in the
neighbourhood of Takrit. But Abdalmalik's first task was to subdue Zofar
and his Qaisites at Kerkesia (Qarqisia), and the rest of the partisans
of Mokhtar at Nisibis. Meanwhile, Mus'ab had to curb a violent revolt in
Basra, brought about by agents of Abdalmalik, and called after a place
in the city the revolt of the Jofrites. About the middle of A.D. 691
Abdalmalik at last encamped at Dair al-Jathaliq (the monastery of the
Catholicus) between Maskin, not far from the site of Bagdad, and
Bajomaira. Mus'ab's best troops were fighting under Mohallab against the
Kharijites; many Basrians were secretly favourable to the Omayyads, nor
were the Kufian soldiers to be trusted. The people of Irak had never
been accustomed to discipline, and no improvement had taken place during
the troubles of the last years. Abdalmalik, therefore, wrote secretly to
the chiefs of Mus'ab's army, and persuaded them to desert to him, with
the exception of Ibrahim b. Ashtar, the brave son of a brave father,
who, after the fall of Mokhtar, had become a faithful supporter of Ibn
Zobair. His death, in the beginning of the battle, decided the fate of
Mus'ab, who was slain sword in hand by a Shi'ite of Kufa.
This victory opened the gates of Kufa to Abdalmalik, and all Irak
received him with acclamation. Thence, a few days later, he sent Hajjaj
b. Yusuf at the head of 2000 Syrians against Ibn Zobair in Mecca, and
despatched a messenger to Tariq b.'Amr, who was encamped at Wadi
'l-Qora with 5000 men, to make himself master of Medina and thence to
rejoin Hajjaj. Before the arrival of this reinforcement, Hajjaj confined
himself to skirmishes, in which his soldiers always had the advantage.
Then, in Dhu 'l Qa'da 72 (March 25th, 692) Mecca was invested. The
blockade lasted more than six months, during which the city was a prey
to all the horrors of siege and famine. Hajjaj had set up a balista on
the hill of Abu Qobais, whence he poured on the city a hail of stones,
which was suspended only in the days of the pilgrimage. Ibn Zobair
employed against him Abyssinians armed with Greek-fire-tubes, who,
however, quitted him soon under the pressure of famine. This at length
triumphed over his last adherents. Ten thousand fighting men, and even
two of the sons of the pretender (it is said, on his own advice), left
the city and surrendered. Mecca being thus left without defenders, Ibn
Zobair saw that ruin was inevitable. Hajjaj having promised him amnesty
if he would surrender, he went to his mother Asma, the daughter of Abu
Bekr, who had reached the age of a hundred years, and asked her counsel.
She answered that, if he was confident in the justice of his cause, he
must die sword in hand. In embracing him for the last time, she felt the
cuirass he wore and exclaimed that such a precaution was unworthy of a
man resolved to die. He, therefore, took off the cuirass, and, when the
Omayyad troops made their way into the city, attacked them furiously,
notwithstanding his advanced age, and was slain. His head was cut off,
and sent by Hajjaj to Damascus.
With Ibn Zobair perished the influence which the early companions of
Mahomet had exercised over Islam. Medina and Mecca, though they
continued to be the holy cities, had no longer their old political
importance, which had already been shaken to its foundations by the
murder of Othman and the subsequent troubles. Henceforward we shall find
temporal interests, represented by Damascus, predominating over those of
religion, and the centre of Islam, now permanently removed beyond the
limits of Arabia, more susceptible to foreign influence, and
assimilating more readily their civilizing elements. Damascus, Kufa and
Basra will attract the flower of all the Moslem provinces, and thus that
great intellectual, literary and scientific movement, which reached its
apogee under the first Abbasid Caliphs at Bagdad, steadily becomes more
marked.
After the burning of the Ka'ba during the siege of Mecca by Hosain b.
Nomair, Ibn Zobair had rebuilt and enlarged the house of God. It is said
that he thus carried out a design of the Prophet, which he had not
ventured to undertake for fear of offending the newly converted
Koreishites. Hajjaj pulled down the enlargements and restored the Ka'ba
to its old state. Meanwhile, the caliph committed to him the government
of the Hejaz. The Medinians, whose loyalty was suspected, were treated
by him with severity; not a few _maulas_ (clients) were obliged to wear
a leaden badge on their neck (Tabari, ii. p. 854 seq.).
Thus the protracted war against Ibn Zobair was brought to an end; hence
this year (71) also is called the "year of union" (_jama'a_). But the
storms in Irak and Mesopotamia had not yet altogether subsided. The Qais
could not leave unavenged the blood shed at Merj Rahit. For about ten
years the Syrian and Mesopotamian deserts were the scene of a series of
raids, often marked by great cruelty, and which have been the subject of
a great many poems. Abdalmalik had need of all his tact and energy to
pacify ultimately the zealous sectaries, but the antagonism between
Yemenites (Kalb and Azd) and Modarites (Qais and Tamim) had been
increased by these struggles, and even in the far east and the far west
had fatal consequences.
When Abdalmalik, after a stay of forty days, returned from Irak to
Syria, he left two Omayyad princes as his vicegerents in Kufa and Basra.
Mohallab, who at the time of the battle of Bajomaira was in the field
against the Azraqites (Kharijites), and had put himself at the disposal
of the caliph, had orders to carry on the war. But the two princes
proved unequal to their task and did not support Mohallab sufficiently,
so that the Kharijites gained more than one victory. Abdalmalik in alarm
made Hajjaj governor of Irak with the most extensive powers. The troops
of Kufa, who accompanied Mohallab in an expedition against the
Kharijites, had abandoned their general and dispersed to their homes,
and nothing could induce them to return to their duty. Then, in the year
75 (A.D. 694), at the moment when the people were assembled in the
mosque for morning prayers, an unknown young man of insignificant
appearance, with a veil over his face, ascended the pulpit. It seemed at
first that he could not find his words. One of the audience, with a
contemptuous remark, took a handful of pebbles to pelt him with. But he
let them fall when Hajjaj lifted his veil and began to speak.
"Men of Kufa," he said, "I see before me heads ripe for the sickle, and
the reaper--I am he. It seems to me, as if I saw already the blood
between your turbans and your shoulders. I am not one of those who can
be frightened by inflated bags of skin, nor need any one think to
squeeze me like a fig. The Prince of the Believers has spread before him
the arrows of his quiver, and has tried every one of them by biting its
wood. It is my wood that he has found the hardest and strongest, and I
am the arrow which he shoots against you."
At the end of this address he ordered his clerk to read the letter of
the caliph. He began: "From the servant of God, Abdalmalik, Prince of
the Believers, to the Moslems that are in Kufa, peace be with you." As
nobody uttered a word in reply, Hajjaj said: "Stop, boy," and exclaimed:
"The Prince of the Believers salutes you, and you do not answer his
greeting! You have been but poorly taught. I will teach you afresh,
unless you behave better. Read again the letter of the Prince of the
Believers." Then, as soon as he had read: "peace upon ye," there
remained not a single man in the mosque who did not respond, "and upon
the Prince of the Believers be peace." Thereupon Hajjaj ordered that
every man capable of bearing arms should immediately join Mohallab in
Khuzistan (Susiana), and swore that all who should be found in the town
after the third day should be beheaded. This threat had its effect, and
Hajjaj proceeded to Basra, where his presence was followed by the same
results. Mohallab, reinforced by the army of Irak, at last succeeded,
after a struggle of eighteen months, in subjugating the Kharijites and
their caliph Qatara b. Foja'a, and was able at the beginning of the year
78 (A.D. 697) to return to Hajjaj at Basra. The latter loaded him with
honours and made him governor of Khorasan, whence he directed several
expeditions into Transoxiana. In the meantime Hajjaj himself had, in 695
and 696, with great difficulty suppressed Shabib b. Yazid at the head of
the powerful tribe of Shaiban, who, himself a Kharijite, had assumed the
title of Prince of the Believers, and had even succeeded in occupying
Kufa. In the east the realm of Islam had been very much extended under
the reign of Moawiya, when Ziyad was governor of Irak and Khorasan.
Balkh and Tokharistan, Bokhara, Samarkand and Khwarizm (modern Khiva),
even Kabul and Kandahar had been subdued; but in the time of the civil
war a great deal had been lost again. Now at last the task of recovering
the lost districts could be resumed. When, in 697, Hajjaj gave the
government of Khorasan to Mohallab, he committed that of Sijistan
(Seistan) to Obaidallah b. Abi Bakra, a cousin of Ziyad. This prefect
allowed himself to be enticed by Zanbil, prince of Zabulistan, to
penetrate into the country far from his base, and escaped narrowly, not
without severe losses. The command over Sijistan was now given to
Abdarrahman b. Ash'ath, a descendant of the old royal family of Kinda,
and a numerous army was entrusted to him, so magnificently equipped that
it was called "the peacock army." Not long after his arrival in
Sijistan, Ibn Ash'ath, exasperated by the masterful tone of Hajjaj, the
plebeian, towards himself, the high-born, decided to revolt. The
soldiers of Irak, who did not love the governor, and disliked the
prospect of a long and difficult war far from home, eagerly accepted the
proposition of returning to Irak, and even proclaimed the dethronement
of Abdalmalik, in favour of Ibn Ash'ath. The new pretender entered Fars
and Ahwaz (Susiana), and it was in this last province near Tostar
(Shuster) that Hajjaj came up with him, after receiving from Syria the
reinforcements which he had demanded in all haste from the caliph. Ibn
Ash'ath drove him back to Basra, entered the city, and then turned his
arms against Kufa, of which he took possession with aid from within.
Hajjaj, afraid lest his communications with Syria should be cut off,
pitched his camp at Dair Qorra, eighteen miles west from Kufa towards
the desert, where Mahommed, the brother of the caliph, and Abdallah, his
son, brought him fresh troops. Ibn Ash'ath encamped not far from him at
Dair al-Jamajim with a far more numerous army. In great alarm Abdalmalik
endeavoured to stifle the revolt by offering to dismiss Hajjaj from his
post. The insurgents rejected this offer, and hostilities recommenced.
At the end of three months and a half, in July 702, a decisive action
took place. Victory declared for Hajjaj. Ibn Ash'ath fled to Basra,
where he managed to collect fresh troops; but having been again beaten
in a furious battle that took place at Maskin near the Dojail, he took
refuge at Ahwaz, from which he was soon driven by the troops of Hajjaj
under 'Omara b. Tamim. The rebel then retired to Sijistan, and
afterwards sought an asylum with the king of Kabul. His partisans fled
before 'Omara's army and penetrated into Khorasan, where they were
isarmed by the governor Yazid, son of the celebrated Mohallab, who had
died in the year 701. The pretender was betrayed by the king of Kabul
and killed himself. His head was sent to Hajjaj and then to Damascus.
This happened in the year 703 or 704. Yazid b. Mohallab was soon after
deprived of the government of Khorasan, Hajjaj accusing him of
partiality towards the rebels of Yemenite extraction. He appointed in
his stead first his brother Mofaddal b. Mohallab, and nine months after
Qotaiba b. Moslim, who was destined in a later period to extend the sway
of Islam in the east as far as China.
The struggle of Ibn Ash'ath was primarily a contest for hegemony between
Irak and Syria. The proud Arabic lords could not acquiesce in paying to
a plebeian like Hajjaj, invested with absolute power by the caliph, the
strict obedience he required. They considered it further as an injustice
that the Syrian soldiers received higher pay than those of Irak. This is
apparent from the fact that one of the conditions of peace proposed by
Abdalmalik before the battle of Dair al-Jamajim had been that henceforth
the Irakian troops should be paid equally with the Syrian. Moreover,
Hajjaj, in order to maintain the regular revenue from taxation, had been
obliged to introduce stringent regulations, and had compelled a great
many villagers who had migrated to the cities to return to their
villages. Several of these were _faqihs_, students of Koranic science
and law, and all these seconded Ibn Ash'ath with all their might. But,
as Wellhausen has shown, it is not correct to consider the contest as a
reaction of the _maula's_ (Persian Moslems) against the Arabic
supremacy.
Immediately after the victories of Dair al-Jamajim and Maskin, in 702,
Hajjaj, built a new residence on the Tigris, between Basra and Kufa,
which he called Wasit ("Middle"). There his Syrian soldiers were not in
contact with the turbulent citizens of the two capitals, and were at any
moment ready to suppress any fresh outburst.
At the beginning of his reign Abdalmalik had replaced the humble mosque
built by Omar on the site of the temple at Jerusalem by a magnificent
dome, which was completed in the year 691. Eutychius and others pretend
that he desired to substitute Jerusalem for Mecca, because Ibn Zobair
had occupied the latter place, and thus the pilgrimage to the Ka'ba had
become difficult for the Syrians. This is quite improbable. Abdalmalik
was born and educated in Islam, and distinguished himself in his youth
by piety and continence. He regarded himself as the champion of Islam
and of the communion of the believers, and had among his intimates men
of acknowledged devoutness such as Raja b. Haywa. The idea of
interfering with the pilgrimage to the House of God at Mecca, which
would have alienated from him all religious men, and thus from a
political point of view would have been suicidal, cannot have entered
his mind for a moment. But the glorification of Jerusalem, holy alike
for Moslems, Christians and Jews, could not but exalt the glory of Islam
and its rulers within and without.
As soon as the expedition to Irak against Mus'ab had terminated, the
holy war against the Greeks was renewed. The operations in Asia Minor
and Armenia were entrusted to Mahommed b. Merwan, the caliph's brother,
who was appointed governor of Mesopotamia and Armenia, and in 692 beat
the army of Justinian II. near Sebaste in Cilicia. From this time forth
the Moslems made yearly raids, the chief advantage of which was that
they kept the Syrian and Mesopotamian Arabs in continual military
exercise. After the victorious march of Okba (Oqba) b. Nafi' through
north Africa and the foundation of Kairawan, his successor Qais b.
Zohair had been obliged to retreat to Barca (Cyrenaica). In the year 696
Abdalmalik sent Hassan b. No'man into Africa at the head of a numerous
army. He retook Kairawan, swept the coast as far as Carthage, which he
sacked, expelling the Greek garrisons from all the fortified places; he
then turned his arms against the Berbers, who, commanded by the Kahina
(Diviner), as the Arabs called their queen, beat him so completely that
he was compelled to retreat to Barca. Five years later he renewed the
war, defeated and killed the Kahina, and subdued the Berbers, who
henceforward remained faithful to the Arabs. Hassan continued to be
governor of Kairawan till after the death of Abdalmalik.
In the meantime Abdalmalik reconstituted the administration of the
empire on Arabic principles. Up to the year 693 the Moslems had no
special coinage of their own, and chiefly used Byzantine and Persian
money, either imported or struck by themselves. Moawiya, indeed, had
struck dinars and dirhems with a Moslem inscription, but his subjects
would not accept them as there was no cross upon them. Abdalmalik
instituted a purely Islamitic coinage. If we may believe Theophanes, who
says that Justinian II. refused to receive these coins in payment of the
tribute and therefore declared the treaty at an end, we must put the
beginning of the coinage at least two years earlier. Hajjaj coined
silver dirhems at Kufa in 694. A still greater innovation was that
Arabic became the official language of the state. In the conquered
countries till then, not only had the Greek and Persian administration
been preserved, but Greek remained the official language in the western,
Persian in the eastern provinces. All officials were now compelled to
know Arabic and to conduct their administration in that language. To
this change was due in great measure the predominance of Arabic
throughout the empire. Lastly, a regular post service was instituted
from Damascus to the provincial capitals, especially destined for
governmental despatches. The postmasters were charged with the task of
informing the caliph of all important news in their respective
countries.
All the great rivals of Abdalmalik having now disappeared, he was no
longer like his predecessors _primus inter pares_, but _dominus_. Under
his rule the members of the Omayyad house enjoyed a greater amount of
administrative control than had formerly been the case, but high office
was given only to competent men. He succeeded in reconciling the sons of
'Amr Ashdaq, and also Khalid b. Yazid, to whom he gave his own daughter
in marriage. He himself had married 'Atika, a daughter of Yazid, a union
which was in all respects a happy one. He took great care in the
education of his sons, whom he destined as his successors. His brother
Abdalaziz, governor of Egypt, whom Merwan had marked out as his
successor, died in the year 703 or 704, and Abdalmalik chose as heirs to
the empire first his son Walid, and after him his second son Suleiman.
He himself died on the 14th Shawwal 86 (9th October 705) at the age of
about sixty. His reign was one of the most stormy in the annals of
Islam, but also one of the most glorious. Abdalmalik not only brought
triumph to the cause of the Omayyads, but also extended and strengthened
the Moslem power as a whole. He was well versed in old Arabic tradition
and in the doctrine of Islam, and was passionately fond of poetry. His
court was crowded with poets, whom he loaded with favours, even if they
were Christians like Akhtal. In his reign flourished also the two
celebrated rivals of Akhtal, Jarir and Farazdaq.