CHAPTER VI. THE OMAYYADS
FOUNDATION OF THE OMAYYADS
[661-750 A.D.]
With Moawiyah commenced the dynasty of the house of Omayyah, called the “Omayyads.” This caliph is said to have patronised literature; and during his reign many of the Greek sciences were first introduced into Arabia. Moawiyah succeeded in re-establishing peace in his dominions. One of his earliest appointments was the reinstatement of Amru in the government of Egypt; allotting him, in grateful recognition of his services, the whole revenue of that wealthy country for his life-time; but Amru was advanced in years, and only enjoyed his preferment for a short time, dying in 663.
Moawiyah now turned his thoughts to foreign conquest; hoping to leave an illustrious name, together with the royal succession, to his son Yazid. Accordingly he sent him, at the head of a powerful force, to subdue that famous capital, which was destined in later years to become, as it now remains, the headquarters of Islamism and the seat of the Moslem rulers.
Great preparations were afoot, and the troops were despatched both by land and sea to attack Constantinople. The Greek power was on the decline; their emperor, a grandson of Heraclius, indolent and unfitted for his high office; and the Moslems entertained sanguine hopes of success. Their fleet passed the Dardanelles, and the army landed within seven miles of Constantinople. The besieged had fortified the place, and repulsed the assault with the Greek fire—a new and terrible agent of destruction to the Moslems, who, after ravaging the neighbouring coasts, wintered about eight miles from Constantinople, at the island of Cyzicus. Through six long years they strove, but in vain; countless lives were lost, ships wrecked, and vast sums of money expended. Long practice and the necessary energy, revived in the Greeks a few sparks of that military ardour which had for years been slumbering. They even sallied forth and attacked the Moslems; punishing them so severely, that Moawiyah, now an old man, was glad to obtain a truce for thirty years, paying the emperor annually three thousand pieces of gold, fifty slaves, and fifty Arabian horses. Yazid is accused of having instigated the murder of the mild and virtuous Hassan, who had abdicated in his father’s favour, but who had stipulated to resume the caliphate after Moawiyah’s death. This act, which secured his own succession, was perpetrated in the year forty-seven of the Hegira, 669 A.D.
[669-680 A.D.]
Moawiyah sent Achbar ben Nafi al-Fahri, a competent general, to follow up the conquests so triumphantly commenced in Africa by Abdallah ben Saad. This man proceeded from Damascus with ten thousand horse, making good speed towards Africa; and, his force rapidly augmenting by the accession of barbarian troops, he retook the city of Cyrene; but during the siege many of its magnificent edifices were destroyed. Continuing westward, he traversed desolate wilds and jungles, and passed through places infested with lions, tigers, and serpents, until he beheld the domains of ancient Carthage, the present Tunisian provinces. Here he founded a stronghold—a kind of vast caravansary, where stores might be accumulated, and whose thick and lofty walls might prove a safeguard in case of defeat. This place eventually gave origin to the city called Carwahn, or Kairwan—literally signifying a lodgment for travellers and beasts.
Meanwhile Aisha, who had caused so much discord and bloodshed, had, in the fifty-sixth year of the Hegira, numbered her years upon earth. One of her last acts of vengeance was the refusing sepulture to the body of Hassan, who had expressed a wish in his testament to be buried by the side of his grandsire, Mohammed, insisting that the mansion was hers, and carrying her malice even beyond the grave, so that Hassan was interred in the ordinary burial-ground.
The sand of Moawiyah’s life was now rapidly running out. He was anxious, ere death, to render the caliphate hereditary, and to perpetuate it in his line. Accordingly he publicly named his son Yazid as his successor, and commanded the provinces to send deputies to do fealty to him. This was more than Mohammed himself or any of his successors had ventured to require. The delegates arrived from all parts to Damascus, and gave their hands to Yazid, in pledge of fealty; thus establishing the dynasty of Omayyah, which extended over nearly a hundred years. Fourteen of them were designated the Pharaohs of that line. With Moawiyah were introduced the luxury and splendour, so linked with all our notions of oriental pomp and proverbially designated the insignia of a caliphate, which had succeeded to the stern and frugal simplicity of the early Islams. The waters and the gardens of Damascus were irresistible persuasions to indolence—that peculiar luxury, known among the Orientals by the term kaif, and in the West by the expressive Italian phrase, dolce far niente. The seat of the caliphate was fixed at Damascus; for neither Medina nor Cufa was now considered a fit residence for the Moslem caliphs. Moawiyah, having provided for his son, gave up the ghost in 680 A.D.
YAZID MADE CALIPH
[680-683 A.D.]
Yazid, then in his thirty-fourth year, was proclaimed caliph—a man who is said to have been gifted with talents, but addicted to every debasing vice, delighting in splendid attire, passionately fond of music and poetry, and much given to indulge in the indolent kaif; all these the result of long residence in the delightful but enervating climate of Damascus. But whilst the seventh caliph was idly spending his hours and days, the brave general Achbar had returned to his command in Africa, to pursue his career of conquest. He traversed Numidia (Algiers), the extensive countries of Morocco, and the ancient Mauretania, subduing and converting the inhabitants, till, arriving at the western shores of Africa, the waters of the Atlantic opposed his farther progress. Here, spurring his steed up to the saddle-girths in the surge, he is said to have elevated his scimitar towards heaven, exclaiming, “Did not these waters present an insuperable barrier, I would carry the faith and the law of the faithful to countries reaching from the rising of the sun to the setting thereof.”
But soon after this tidings reached Achbar that a rebellion had broken out in his rear. He had overdone his task, and had now to pay dearly for the temerity which the sagacious Omar had so often and so carefully repressed amongst his generals. As he marched through Numidia, he was much harassed by a band of mountaineers, who would never let themselves be entangled in a pitched battle; but descending from their fastnesses, cut off the stragglers, and carried havoc into the broken ranks. Achbar saw that destruction was inevitable; and accordingly liberated his rival and prisoner, Muhegir, telling him, that this was a day of martyrdom, and consequently, liberty for them all; and that he would not therefore deprive him of earning for himself the paradise of the faithful. The little Islam band was literally cut to pieces; and the body of Achbar was found upon a heap of slain, his broken scimitar still grasped by his lifeless hand.
During these events in Africa Yazid was endeavouring to secure undisputed possession of the caliphate. The only two whom he feared as competitors were Hosein and Abdallah, the sons of Ali and Zobair, who were both residing at Medina. Yazid wrote from Damascus to the governor of Medina, directing him to require from them the oath of fealty; but they, learning that their lives would be in peril through the intrigues of the governor and of Merwan ben Hakem, the villainous ex-secretary of Othman, fled with their families to Mecca, where they openly opposed Yazid.
SIEGE OF MECCA
[683-684 A.D.]
Hosein was slain, and his family sent captives to Damascus, where they were well treated by Yazid; who sent them under careful convoy to Medina. The anniversary of the martyrdom of Hosein is kept with great solemnity in Persia and Media; and in after years a splendid mausoleum was erected on the spot where he fell, called by the Arabs the “Meshed Hosein” (the sepulchre of Hosein). The death of Hosein furnished his friend and survivor, Abdallah the son of Zobair, with a fresh claim to the caliphate, and a subject, capable, in his able hands, of being well turned to account in working upon the feelings and faith of the Islams. He was soon proclaimed caliph by the house of Hashem, possessing at the same time a majority in his favour at Mecca and Medina.
Open rebellion broke out, and Yazid with difficulty found one infirm old general to espouse his cause. The veteran Muslim quitted Damascus with twelve thousand horse and five thousand foot. Arriving at Medina, he found the place securely entrenched and fortified. On the fourth day the city was stormed, and compelled to surrender. Ali, the son of Hosein, and the partisans and household of Omayyah, were despatched under careful escort to Damascus, and then the place was given up to three days’ pillage. In the sixtieth year of the Hegira, 683 A.D., Muslim, whose memory is execrated by all devout Moslems, died on his march to Mecca; and the command was assumed by Hosein ben Numair, a Syrian by birth. This general besieged Mecca for forty days; and just as the inhabitants feared to share the same fate as the people of Medina, news arrived that Yazid had expired at Hawwarin, in the thirty-ninth year of his age, 684 A.D. This event changed the fortunes of war. Numair offered allegiance to Abdallah; but this latter, fearing treachery, simply permitted the Syrian general and his troops, without arms, to march in procession round the ruins of the Kaaba, which had been destroyed during the siege by fire. Part of the family of Omayyah, then at Mecca, accompanied the Syrians on their return to Damascus.
All the sectarians of Ali hold the memory of Yazid in abhorrence, as the instigator of the murder of the two brothers, Hassan and Hosein; and charge him with sacrilege, in ordering the sack of Medina and Mecca.
Moawiyah II, son of Yazid, was proclaimed at Damascus eighth caliph of the Moslem empire, being the third of the house of Omayyah, a man feeble in mind and body, and one of the sect of Kadarii, maintaining the free will of men against the dictates of wiser counsels and better conscience. This second Moawiyah was in his twenty-first year when he reluctantly assumed the caliphate; for his health was so bad, that he was compelled (most probably from weak eyes) to shut himself up in darkened apartments, whence the Arabs named him Abu Laili—the Father of Night. His chief counsellor was one Omar Aheksus, who is said to have counselled him to abdicate, after a short sway of six months’ duration; for which advice the Omayyads buried the unfortunate man alive. This youthful caliph refused to nominate a successor, declaring that his grandfather had been a usurper, his father unworthy of so high a trust, and himself unwilling and unfit to undertake it. Soon after his abdication he died, the wreck of a diseased frame and morbid temperament.
[684-689 A.D.]
Again was Syria rent with civil discord. The people of Damascus favouring the claims of Merwan, the secretary, as regent during the minority of Khalid, Yazid’s son; whilst Egypt, Babylonia, Arabia, Khorasan, Medina, and Mecca acknowledged Abdallah ben Zobair as caliph. Meanwhile, Obaidah ben Zehad, the same that had caused Hosein to be slain, thought the present an auspicious moment to secure for himself an independence. After many fatigues he arrived at Damascus, in time to take an active part in the election of Merwan as caliph, while Bassora declared its allegiance to Abdallah. The claims of the former were admitted only in Syria, and there were even there two factions. A conflict ensued between the two factions; and the victory sided with Merwan, who was proclaimed caliph and obliged to marry the mother of Khalid, Yazid’s wife.
Merwan speedily marched against Egypt, but twice returned; and again twice faced about, tidings having reached him about the prowess of his lieutenant, another Amru, who ultimately subjugated Egypt. The people of Khorasan refused to acknowledge either caliph; they appointed Selim, a younger brother of Obaid Allah, to act as regent, till affairs should be finally settled. The fickle people of Cufa seemed to awaken from a prolonged lethargy, and declared in favour of the descendants of Ali; only, however, the next day to repudiate them. Four thousand men, under an aged general, did absolutely start on a fanatical expedition to destroy both claimants to the caliphate and their adherents; and so, rushing upon their fate, they were all slain.
Meanwhile, the fate of the heroic Achbar on the plains of Numidia was known at Damascus and Medina. At this time reinforcements arrived from Egypt, which helped to revive the courage of the Moslems. This only endured for a while; a large force from Constantinople, under experienced generals, landed on the coast of Africa. The Egyptians deserted their standard, Kairwan was vanquished, and the Moslems compelled to fall back upon Barca. Abdul-Malik, the eldest son of Merwan, marched to the succour of the discomfited Islam general; and the two forces combined marched upon Kairwan, defeating the enemy in every action, and finally replanted the standard of Islam in Kairwan. After this Abdul-Malik returned to Damascus, where Merwan, having caused him to be proclaimed as his successor, died after a reign of about eleven months, in the sixty-second year of the Hegira, 685 A.D.
ABDUL-MALIK, CALIPH (685-705 A.D.)
Abdul-Malik, the eleventh caliph, was proclaimed and acknowledged in Syria, Egypt, and Africa. He was in the prime of life when he succeeded to the musnud; full of enterprise, and distinguished as an able general and an accomplished scholar; but so avaricious that he was surnamed by the Arabs Kafhol Hagha, signifying in our vernacular, “skinflint.” Abdallah ben Zobair was still acknowledged caliph of a great part of the Moslem dominions; holding the seat of government at Mecca, which gave him great influence over the troops of pilgrims, that even at that early period annually resorted to the Kaaba. Abdul-Malik, jealous of this, established a rival city of pilgrimage; fixing for this purpose on Al-Kudus (Jerusalem), sacred in the eyes of Moslems, as the field connected with the acts and revelations of Jesus Christ and of Moses (both of whom they acknowledge and reverence as prophets), as well as the stage whereon Mohammed pretended to have made his miraculous ascent to heaven; besides all this, the place was surrounded by the tombs of the patriarchs. The temple at Jerusalem, where Omar had prayed upon the steps, was converted into a mosque; and it was enlarged so as to enclose these steps, and the stone called Jacob’s stone on which the patriarch is said to have slumbered during his inspired dream. This was kissed by Moslem pilgrims, as they had heretofore kissed the Black Stone of the Kaaba. During the caliphate of Abdul-Malik there was a fierce warrior, a son of Abu Obaidah, who was named Al-Mukhtar (or the Avenger), because he undertook to avenge the death of Hosein. With almost insuperable difficulties to contend against, he accomplished his vow; being mortally wounded, and his small but sturdy band of seven hundred followers cut down to a man. His death enabled Musa ben Zobair, a brother of the caliph Abdallah, to govern Babylonia and Cufa. He was at this period a comely man in the thirty-sixth year of his life, and in all points well adapted to gain the esteem and love of the people.
[689-692 A.D.]
Abdul-Malik hearing of his success invaded Babylonia himself; heading his army, and leaving his cousin Amru, who had been Merwan’s lieutenant in Egypt, to govern Syria during his absence. The kinsmen deeply hated each other; and the caliph had barely turned his back before Amru aspired to the caliphate. Abdul-Malik hearing this, hastened back; and a deadly conflict ensued between the two cousins and their adherents in the streets of Damascus. The women are said to have rushed between the combatants, holding up their children and imploring both sides to desist from so unnatural a combat. Amru laid down his arms, and articles of reconciliation were signed. The caliph broke his faith; and, getting his cousin into his power, he struck off his head with his own scimitar; then, banishing his family, he put all who had sided with Amru to death. On the departure of the exiles the caliph demanded the written contract of Amru’s widow, who replied that she had folded it in his winding sheet, to be produced at the day of judgment.
The Place of Worship, Mecca
Abdul-Malik now resumed his march to Babylonia, having sent trusty messengers before him to tamper with the fealty of Abdallah’s subjects. A battle took place near Tadmor (Palmyra), and the caliph possessed himself of Babylonia and Persian Irak. Abdul-Malik appointed his brother Besher ben Merwan governor of Babylonia; naming Musa ben Nosair, who had long enjoyed his father’s confidence, as vizir to the youthful governor. This man we shall find hereafter figuring as a noted character in the pages of Islam conquest. The caliph intrusted Musa with the military rolls of the province, holding him responsible; and the young governor confided to him the seal of office, intrusting to him the entire direction of the government. Having made all these arrangements, Abdul-Malik returned to Damascus. He was now undisputed sovereign of all the eastern part of the Moslem dominions, and further secured peace in other quarters by a shameful augmentation of tribute to the Christian emperor; but he did all this to enable him the better to carry out his scheme of attacking Abdallah, and bearding him in his very den at Mecca.
SIEGE OF MECCA
[692-698 A.D.]
Hajjaj ben Yusuf, appointed to command the expedition to Mecca, was joined by five thousand troops under Tarik ben Amru. The former general is celebrated in Moslem history as the ablest and most eloquent man of his day. Free pardon and protection were proclaimed to all who would join the standard of these generals. Abdallah sent troops to check their progress, but his precaution was unavailing. Hajjaj arrived at the city gates. Before commencing the assault, arrows, whereto proclamations and letters for the inhabitants were attached, were discharged over the walls, warning the inhabitants to desert Abdallah, who was so obstinate as to resist to the last, though their sacred city should crumble into ruins. The city was assailed with battering-rams, whilst flaming balls of pitch and naphtha were thrown over the walls and set fire to the houses.
Abdallah, though old and infirm, held out bravely against the besiegers. It is said that his mother displayed wonderful energy and courage during the siege, she being a granddaughter of Abu Bekr; ten thousand are said to have deserted to the camp of Hajjaj, and many supporters of Abdallah were slain. In this forlorn plight he was offered his own conditions of surrender; but, consulting his mother as usual, she reminded him that his father Zobair had died for the same cause, and advised him not to bend to the yoke of the line of Omayyah; saying that it were better to die honourably than live dishonoured for the few years that yet remained for him. Finally, after prodigies of valour, the poor old man was struck down by a brick, which hastened his death; and he sank exhausted, fighting to the last, dying, after a disastrous nine years’ reign, in the seventy-second year of his age and the seventieth year of the Hegira; so that in those climates, where girls are frequently mothers at fourteen and fifteen, the aged mother of Abdallah, who aided in the fight to the last, must have passed her eighty-sixth year. She died in a few hours after hearing of her son’s gallant conduct and death. Thus ended the rival caliphate.
The oath of fealty was administered to all the Arabs of those districts. Hajjaj remained governor of Mecca and Medina, as notorious for his cruelty as he was renowned for his valour.
In the year seventy-three of the Hegira peace was again restored throughout the Moslem dominions, which were now united, under the caliphdom of Abdul-Malik; and this caliph, being freed from the bonds of civil discord, now turned his thoughts to foreign conquest, hoping to revive in his name the early triumphs of Islam. First, he threw off the tribute to the Greek emperor, which, originating in the reign of Moawiyah I at 3000 dinars of gold annually, had now augmented to the yearly sum of 365,000. The Christian emperor Leontius had made himself unpopular; and the caliph, availing himself of the troubled state of his affairs, sent Ibn Walid on a depredatory expedition. Ibn Walid returned with much booty; and Lazuca and Baruncium were taken by the Moslems, through the treachery of Sergius, one of the Greek emperor’s generals. During the civil wars in the Moslem empire the Christians had retaken most of their African possessions, slaying Zohair, the commander of Barca; so that it was only in the interior that the Moslems yet held any strong positions. The caliph determined to recover all these. In the seventy-fourth year of the Hegira, Hassan ben Nohman was sent, with forty thousand picked men, to subjugate the northern coasts of Africa; and proceeded to Carthage, of which he after a time made himself master. Most of the inhabitants fell by the sword, but some escaped by sea to Sicily and Spain. The walls were demolished, the city given up to plunder, and several beautiful females were taken captives. But while rejoicing over their late victories, a fleet suddenly appeared in the offing, bringing troops from Constantinople and Sicily, reinforced by Goths from Spain; the expedition being under the command of the prefect John, an experienced and valiant soldier.
The Arab commander, finding himself unable to contend against overwhelming numbers, retired to Kairwan, where the Islams fortified themselves, patiently awaiting the reinforcements, which in due time arrived. With their combined forces the Moslems routed John and his adherents, besieged Carthage, and razed that noble city to the ground, giving the place up to flames. The imperial troops were rapidly expelled from the coast of Africa. But the Moslems had a formidable enemy to contend with in Kahina the sorceress, the mother of that Ibn Kahina who had so harassed the troops of the noble and gallant Achbar. Under this pseudo-prophetess and queen the Moors and Berbers made a valiant stand, and after several engagements Hassan was compelled to fall back upon the frontiers of Egypt. On this, Kahina is said to have addressed her troops, suggesting that they should lay waste the cities and countries intervening between her own possessions and the land of Egypt, saying that the wealth and the fruitfulness of these parts were the inducements which led these Islams continually to disturb their quiet and predicting that they would be sure, so long as these existed, to return again in greater numbers.
[698-699 A.D.]
Her suggestion was immediately acted upon. Cities and towns were razed to the ground; fruit trees cut down; fields desolated with fire; and the whole aspect of the country, from Tangiers to Tripoli, converted, from being one extensive garden, into a hideous waste, with not a tree standing to shelter a wayfarer from the sun. But the inhabitants of the plains, who were great sufferers by this extreme measure, hailed the return of the Moslems. Kahina was again in the field. This time her ranks were thinned by desertion, and she was taken prisoner and beheaded. Hassan returned, laden with booty, to Damascus, where he was received with honour, and made governor of Barca, still retaining the military command of the provinces in Africa. Hassan, however, fell a victim to his honours; for the caliph’s brother, then viceroy of Egypt, offended that his own lieutenant should be superseded in Barca, waylaid Hassan and deprived him of his appointment, keeping him so closely guarded that he died of a broken heart. Abdul-Aziz ben Merwan, the caliph’s brother, named Musa ben Nosair to the command in northern Africa. Musa was sixty years old, but still hale and vigorous. He was accompanied by his three sons.
Musa joined the army in Africa, and told the soldiers that he was one of themselves; if they found him act well, to thank God and endeavour to imitate him; if wrong, to reprove, and show him his error; and if any among them had to complain, let them speak out like men. “Finally,” said he, “I have instructions from the caliph to pay you three times the amount of arrears due”: and if anything made the cheers of the soldiers more hearty, it was this winding up to his speech. A sparrow is said to have fluttered into his bosom whilst he was speaking, which Musa interpreted into a favourable omen, crying “Victory, by the master of the Kaaba; the victory is ours;” at the same time scattering the feathers of the poor bird into the air.
Musa was liberal, and quite divested of pride—points that endeared him to the Moslem soldiers. On first arriving he had to contend with a Berber chief, Warkastaf, who headed a mountain horde that committed depredations between Zaghwar and Kairwan; him he eventually killed, and his sons, Abdul-Aziz and Merwan, scattered the mountaineers and made them retreat beyond the borders of the southern desert. Musa sent his patron a large share of the spoils which had been taken in Africa; and these chanced to arrive in Egypt at the very moment that Abdul-Aziz, the viceroy, was at his wits’ end how to appease the wrath of his brother the caliph. The caliph, who was an avaricious man, immediately decided in Musa’s favour; and confirmed his brother’s appointment; making Musa emir of Africa. It was in the seventy-fifth year of the Hegira that Musa was confirmed in his post; and in the eightieth he fought the severest contest of his African campaign, defeating strong hordes of the barbarians in their own fastnesses amongst the defiles of Mount Atlas.
[699-705 A.D.]
At last the two armies came to a pitched battle, when a Berber chief challenged any Moslem champion to single combat. There being some delay in answering this challenge, Merwan, the son of Musa, was deputed to undertake the conflict; when, though very inferior in size and strength, he slew both horse and rider, thrusting his javelin through them both. Kasleyah the king of the Berbers was slain, and the victory completed; and Merwan espoused the daughter of the deceased king, having by her two sons.
But Musa, not satisfied with triumphs by land, longed to launch out upon the seas. The caliph had ordered his predecessors to erect an arsenal at Tunis; and Musa undertook to carry out this project, building dockyards and a fleet to carry out his proposed enterprise. Many people opposed this scheme, even as their descendants the modern Arabs set their face against any improvements, as innovations which were not practised by their ancestors before them. One old Berber advised him to persevere; and he followed the advice to such purpose that, by the end of the year eighty-one of the Hegira, 701 A.D., the arsenal and dockyard were completed, and a strong fleet rode at anchor in the port of Tunis. About this time, a fleet sent by Abdul-Aziz took the island of Lampedusa, capturing immense booty; with which his ships were returning heavily laden, when a mighty tempest arose; the fleet was driven upon the rocky coast of Africa, and nearly all hands perished.
[705-715 A.D.]
Early in the eighty-second year of the Hegira, Musa embarked with a thousand volunteers, chosen from the bravest amongst his followers, upon his first naval expedition; but when the fleet was ready to set sail, much to the disappointment of those whom he had enlisted, he disembarked and handed over the command to his third and yet untried son, Abdallah. He returned laden with spoil; so much so that each of his followers laid claim to one thousand dinars of gold as his share in the booty. This expedition was the terrible Algerine scourge in embryo, which in after years carried death and devastation wherever the black flag waved triumphant. These vessels returned to port about the same time when tidings reached Musa of the death of the caliph Abdul-Malik, which occurred in the eighty-sixth year of the Hegira, 705 A.D., in the sixtieth year of his age and twentieth of his reign. His son Walid was immediately proclaimed twelfth caliph or successor of the prophet at Damascus; and Musa, immediately transmitting the caliph’s due of the immense booty brought home by the late marine expedition from Tunis, at once obtained his own confirmation in his post as governor or emir of northern Africa, while the interests of his sons were proportionately advanced.
Walid was an idle and voluptuous man; he intrusted the government of his vast dominions entirely to the emirs appointed by his father, while he himself, hating to be troubled with the affairs of state, lived almost secluded from the world within the precincts of his extensive harem, where he had no less than sixty-three wives and yet died without leaving any issue. His reign is only distinguishable for the vast improvements he introduced in the architectural style of the East. His enervated life secluded him from the well-won and well-worn laurels which had secured for his ancestors a home and a name. One of his fourteen brothers, Maslama, invaded Asia Minor, marching on Cappadocia, and besieging the city of Tyana strongly garrisoned by Christians. Finally, Tyana was won; and while Maslama extended his conquests, his son was spreading the faith of Islam in the East.
In the early part of Walid’s caliphate the fleets of Musa continued to be the scourge of the western parts of the Mediterranean. Some vessels proceeded to Sicily, some to Sardinia; Syracuse was plundered; and hundreds of beautiful women were borne away by these corsairs and sold to adorn the harems of the wealthier Moslems. Abdallah also made a successful descent upon Majorca, whilst Musa and his eldest sons triumphed over Fez, Daguella, Morocco, and Sus; the valiant tribes of the Zeuetes capitulated, till finally the caliph Walid was acknowledged throughout Almagreb to Cape Nov on the Atlantic; and there remained only Tingitania, the northern extremity of Almagreb, to be subdued.
While the two vast continents of Europe and Africa were divided by the Straits of Hercules, Ceuta and Tangiers were the rocky defences of this narrow passage on the African side; there remained but the opposite stronghold of Gibraltar to secure the key to the Mediterranean; and beyond this, in the haze of distance, Musa shaded his eyes to gaze upon the purple mountains of the fair Andalusia; perhaps the night breeze wafted across that narrow channel the strange fragrance of a thousand orange groves, intermixed with the wild herbs and flowers of the mountains of Spain, and woke the weary Arab from his dream of the dreary reality of his hot African clime to the desired conquest of that unknown country. Brightly were such dreams realised in the siege and subsequent capture of Ceuta, and in the ultimate conquest of Spain.[b]
Leaving the story of the Arabian invasion of Europe to a later chapter, we may continue with the destinies of the Omayyad dynasty.[a]
THE EASTERN CALIPHATE
Immediately on his succession Walid had confirmed Hajjaj in the government of Irak, and appointed as governor of Medina his cousin, Omar b. Abdul-Aziz, who was received there with joy, his piety and gentle character being well known. Under his government important works were undertaken at Medina and Mecca by order of Walid, who, having no rivals to struggle against, was able to give his attention to pacific occupations. The mosque of Medina was enlarged, wells were sunk, the streets widened, and hospitals established. At Mecca many improvements were introduced. The reputation of Omar attracted to the two holy cities a great number of the inhabitants of Irak, who were groaning under the iron hand of Hajjaj. The latter, who was not a man to let his prey escape from his grasp, was so urgent with Walid that he obtained the dismissal of Omar b. Abdul-Aziz in the year 93, and the appointment of Othman b. Hayyan at Medina, and of Khalid b. Abdallah at Mecca. These two prefects compelled the refugees at Mecca and Medina to return to Irak, where many of them were cruelly treated and even put to death by Hajjaj. It was probably his cruelty which drove so many men of Irak to enlist in the armies of the East and the South; and this may in some degree account for the unheard-of successes of Kotaiba b. Muslim in Transoxiana, and of Muhammed b. Kasim in India. They may also be explained by the ambition of Hajjaj, who, it is said, cherished the project of creating a vast empire for himself to the east and south of the Moslem realm, and had secretly promised the government of China to the first of his generals who should reach that country. Be this as it may, in the course of a very few years Kotaiba conquered the whole of Bokhara, Khwarizm, and Transoxiana or Mawara-annahr, as far as the frontiers of China. Meanwhile Muhammed b. Kasim invaded Mokram, Sind, and Multan, carried off an immense booty, and reduced the women and children to slavery. In Armenia and Asia Minor, Maslama, brother of the caliph Walid, and his lieutenants, also obtained numerous successes against the Greeks. In Armenia, Maslama even advanced as far as the Caucasus.
SULEIMAN’S AMBITIONS
[715 A.D.]
Costume of an Arabian Woman
Walid, in the very year of his death, which took place in 715, wished to have his son Abdul-Aziz b. Walid chosen as his successor, and had offered his brother Suleiman a great sum of money to induce him to surrender his rights to the caliphate; but Suleiman obstinately refused to do so. Walid went still farther, and sent letters to the governors of all the provinces, calling on them to make the people take the oath of allegiance to his son. None except Hajjaj and Kotaiba b. Muslim consented thus to set at nought the order of succession established by Abdul-Malik; and Suleiman succeeded without difficulty at the death of his brother. We can easily conceive the hatred felt by Suleiman for Hajjaj, and for all that belonged to him, far or near. Hajjaj himself escaped by death; but Suleiman poured out his wrath on his family, and strove to undo all that he had done. First of all, Muhammed b. Kasim, the conqueror of India, who was cousin to Hajjaj, was dismissed from his post and outlawed. Hajjaj had deprived Yazid b. Muhallab of the government of Khorasan; Suleiman conferred on him that of Irak. Kotaiba b. Muslim, on learning the accession of Suleiman, knew that his own ruin was certain, and therefore anticipated the caliph by a revolt. But Suleiman induced Kotaiba’s troops to desert by authorising them to return to their homes; and when the illustrious general sought to carry his army with him, a conspiracy was formed against him which ended in his murder. Yazid b. Muhallab, who preferred Khorasan to Irak, obtained permission to exchange. Immediately on his return to Khorasan he set on foot a series of new expeditions against Jorjan and Tabaristan. But the inhabitants of Khorasan, which he governed oppressively, made complaints against him to the caliph, accusing him of practising extortions in order to obtain such a sum of money as would enable him to rebel against his sovereign. From that day Suleiman determined to get rid of Yazid. As, however, he was then dreaming of the conquest of Constantinople, he thought it prudent to dissemble his dissatisfaction for some time in order to concentrate his attention on the object of his desires.
[715-724 A.D.]
The Byzantine Empire was disturbed by internal troubles during the years 715-717 A.D. Suleiman resolved to take advantage of these in order to rid himself forever of the hereditary enemy of Islam, and prepared a formidable expedition. A fleet of eighteen hundred vessels, equipped at Alexandria, sailed to the coasts of Asia Minor, took on board the Moslem army, commanded by Maslama, and transported it to Europe. This army appeared under the walls of Constantinople the 15th of August, 717, five months after Leo III, the Isaurian, had ascended the throne. Once more the Greek fire prevailed against the Moslems. Their fleet was destroyed by this terrible engine of war; the army could obtain no fresh supply of provisions, and suffered all the horrors of famine. Meanwhile the caliph, who desired to be present in person at the taking of Constantinople, had set out to join the army. He fell ill at Dabik, not far from Aleppo, and died there on the 22nd of September in the same year, after having nominated as his own successor his cousin, Omar b. Abdul-Aziz, and as successor to the latter, Yazid b. Abdul-Malik, his own brother. In vain did the new caliph despatch from Egypt a fleet of four hundred ships to carry arms and provisions to the army before Constantinople; this fleet also was destroyed by the Greeks, and the Moslem army was decimated by famine, and soon by the plague as well. A hundred thousand men perished miserably under the walls of Constantinople, and Maslama brought back to Asia Minor a mere handful of soldiers, and that with great difficulty.[c]
THE LAST OMAYYADS (717-750 A.D.)
The caliph appointed by Suleiman to be his successor was his cousin, Omar II, the son of Abdul-Aziz, a sovereign in whom according to some authors were united all the virtues of the great Omar without any of the latter’s severity against unbelievers, while others accuse him of levying intolerable imposts on the Christians. Yazid, Suleiman’s one time favourite, the governor of Khorasan, was thrown into prison for defalcation, and all other governors received strict orders not to resort to force and oppression in spreading the doctrines of Islamism, but to proceed with all mildness and humanity. Unfortunately for the realm the rule of the just and pious prince whose soul turned from earthly greatness and pride of conquest to the joys of paradise, was of but short duration. In the third year of his reign he succumbed to a painful malady which caused grave suspicions of poisoning to arise against certain of his ambitious kinsmen. Omar had not yet attained his fortieth year when, deeply mourned by all his people, he was laid in his grave at Deir Saman, in the neighbourhood of Hims (Emesa).
The four years’ reign of Yazid II, who had beforehand been appointed Omar’s successor by his brother, Suleiman, ran its course in the midst of civil and foreign strife. Scarcely had Yazid, Muhallab’s son, learned of the death of the caliph when he escaped from prison and fleeing to Irak, where his brothers and other kindred possessed a large following, raised the standard of revolt. He was overcome, however, by the Syrian army under Maslama at Akr, on the left bank of the Euphrates, and sought and found death on the battle-field. His brothers were also overpowered by the hostile forces at Kerman, their wives and children were sold as slaves and the rebellious cities of Bassora and Wasit were heavily punished. At the same time wars, desertions, and conspiracies were rife in the remaining provinces, especially in northern Africa; while even in Spain and southern France the Moslem arms no longer met with their former success. Meanwhile the caliph in Damascus was giving himself up completely to the pleasures of love and song, and in the arms of a favourite slave was seeking restoration from the fatigues and hardships of a ruler’s life.
[724-744 A.D.]
Yazid’s brother and successor, Hisham, adopted an entirely different course. Simple in taste, just and pious like both the Omars, he banished from his court the luxury and extravagance in which most of his predecessors had freely indulged. But the house of Omayyad had too many enemies even among the believers themselves, and passions had been too deeply stirred by the recent civil war to make it possible that the twenty years’ reign of a prince who in spite of many praiseworthy qualities had by his avarice and suspicion incurred the enmity of all the city authorities, could run its course without suffering violence from storms and accidents. The abhorrence felt in Cufa toward the cruel and rapacious governor Khalid, had moreover revived in the minds of the mercurial inhabitants of Irak, all their former aversion to the Omayyads, and incited the Shiites to fresh revolt. Khalid was indeed deposed from office and forced by torture to disgorge his ill-got wealth, but the conspiracy was already too widespread to be completely uprooted. Zaid, a grandson of Husein, headed a revolt in the streets of Cufa, which resulted in a sharp struggle during which the leader and most of his followers lost their lives. Zaid’s body was mutilated and his head sent to the caliph at Damascus. But the new glory of martyrdom served only to enhance the importance and sanctity of the Alids, and to strengthen the hopes entertained by the Abbasids, their kinsmen, of entering the succession and getting the sovereignty away from the Koreishites to secure it to the house of Hisham to which alone, in the opinion of strict believers, it rightfully belonged. They had a large following in Khorasan and Transoxiana; and the Kharijites who, in consequence of the recent campaigns, had spread over the entire realm, served them in India and in Africa in the execution of their ambitious plans against the Omayyads.
The insurrections, conspiracies, and civil wars which under Hisham broke out with ever increasing violence in the provinces, multiplying acts of rapacity and revenge, and dealing death-blows to the welfare of country, state, and people by the destruction of agriculture, industry, and trade, were so many indubitable signs that the unity of the kingdom was about to be dissolved, that the might of the Omayyad dynasty in Damascus was nearing its end. The subjugated populations were beginning to recover from their surprise and to bethink themselves of former times; and though the majority still remained faithful to the new religion, the consciousness of their national identity and remembrance of the past were not to be blotted from their minds, and the bold leader who could best evoke these secret feelings could count upon warm sympathy and a crowd of followers. The dissimilar elements that religious zeal had served to bind together in the first enthusiasm of the “Sacred War,” strove in the course of time, as other interests came uppermost and smothered passions again broke loose, to separate naturally and once more become distinct. These strivings on the part of the people towards independence were effectually aided by the divisions and hostilities that existed between the various commanders, by the machinations of the Abbasids, and their co-religionists and by the avarice of the caliph who, though observing the closest parsimony in his own mode of living, loved to feast his eyes on full state coffers.
[744-750 A.D.]
Walid II, Hisham’s successor, scattered the hoarded treasures of his predecessor, and delighted flatterers, courtiers, generals, and troops by his boundless liberality. He disgraced himself, on the other hand, by his licentiousness and excesses, and gave offence by running counter to all the accepted Mohammedan customs and religious laws. However loudly smooth-tongued poets, in whose company he squandered the wealth that was his by oppression as well as by inheritance, might sing his praises, the people were wroth with the unworthy ruler who spent his time in hunting and debauchery, found all his pleasure in wine, song, and dance, indulged in unnatural vices and flouted public decency by carrying with him dogs and wine on a pilgrimage to Mecca. When, therefore, this godless caliph sent to the governors a circular letter filled with pious maxims of the strictest orthodoxy, calling upon all the people to acknowledge and swear allegiance to his two minor sons, Hakam and Othman, as their future rulers, the unheard-of innovation excited the liveliest dissatisfaction. Especially loud in their complaints were the sovereign’s own kinsmen, who had each in secret cherished the hope of succession; so that now another and more threatening danger was added to those by which the royal house was already beset; disunion within itself. The sons of Hisham and Walid I allied themselves with the enemies of the Omayyads, and accused the caliph, whom they had also personally affronted, of “unbelief, free-thought, and incest.” Even Khalid, hitherto steadily devoted to the House of Omayyah, hesitated at swearing allegiance to two children who “did not yet know how to pray, and could not be accepted as lawful witnesses.” The caliph thereupon gave him into the hands of his mortal enemy Yusuf, governor of Cufa, who caused his members to be broken one after another until he died under the torture. By this act Walid increased the number of his enemies. A widespread conspiracy was formed in Damascus and its vicinity, under the leadership of Yazid, son of the former caliph Walid I, as a result of which the commander of the faithful was attacked by a troop of insurgents in his castle of Nadira, and after a brave resistance was overpowered and killed. The following day his head was carried on the end of a lance about the streets of Damascus, and his own brother Suleiman refused to his remains the honour of burial. The reign of Yazid III lasted but half a year. As a former rebel against the rightful sovereign, as an adherent of the doctrines of free-will, and as a parsimonious leader who curtailed the pay of his troops, he had made many enemies; and would certainly have succumbed to the arms of mighty Merwan, the Omayyad governor of Armenia and Aderbaijan, who advanced upon him with a large army, had he not died just previous to the encounter.
Merwan now entered Syria with his seasoned, experienced troops, captured Himso, and in a desperate engagement that took place in a narrow valley near Ain Diar defeated the Yemenite army that Hisham’s son, Suleiman, had led into the field against him. In this battle Suleiman left seventeen thousand men on the field of battle, and as many more fell into the hands of Merwan, while the rest of his army scattered in disorder. When the news of this battle reached Damascus, Ibrahim, whom Yazid III had designated as his successor, fled with Suleiman from the capital, after having put to death Walid’s sons and Yusuf, the earlier governor of Irak, who were in prison, and seized the state treasures. Merwan, who had hitherto acted only as Walid’s avenger and the protector of his sons, now found himself in a position where he could stretch out his hand towards the crown of caliph, and cause the oath of allegiance to be taken to himself. In order to give his pretensions the appearance of legitimacy he made known the statement of a fellow-prisoner of the murdered princes, who asserted that at his death the eldest of them had made over his right of succession to the throne to him, Merwan. In spite of this sanction, whether true or false, and in spite of the reconciliation which took place later with Ibrahim and Suleiman, Merwan’s rule never met with full recognition. The battle of Ain Diar had inflicted wounds too deep, had brought uppermost in too many minds the sacred duty of revenge, to allow Merwan, the usurper, to ever come to peaceful enjoyment of his power. The years of his reign were marked by uninterrupted struggles with hostile factions, who had again united and all over the realm were stirring up the people to revolt. Even the Syrians, who had hitherto been the Omayyad’s strongest prop, went over in part to the enemy, and Merwan, with all his military talent and the tireless activity that had won for him the rather doubtful title of Himar (Donkey), could not in the long run withstand such determined opposition. With insurrection, tribal feuds, and civil strife in every province the whole realm was in a condition of anarchy and lawlessness that destroyed all private peace, and awoke in every breast an intense desire for a firm hand at the helm of state that should guide it into less troubled waters. That such a ruler was no longer to be looked for among the members of the house of Omayyah, divided as it was, and having foot on no solid, religious ground, had lately become the settled conviction in the minds of all.
In the East the active partisan, Abu Muslim, had raised the black flag of the Abbasids and had appeared clad in black in company with his followers at the most splendid feasts. “Under the embers,” said Nasr, governor of Khorasan, to the caliph when he begged help against the house of Abbas and its champion, Abu Muslim, “I see red coals that will soon burst into flame and suffocate or consume the wisest, body and trunk. As wood nurses fire to flame, so incendiary speeches precipitate war, and in astonishment I ask, is the family of Omayyah awake or asleep?”
After Nasr had suffered numerous attacks from Abu Muslim he received from the caliph reinforcements under the general Nabata. But when the latter with ten thousand Syrians was defeated by Abu Muslim’s forces, under Kahtaba Nasr fled with the rest of his troops to Hamadan. He did not live to reach the ancient city, and his successor to the governorship surrendered to Kahtaba who was just returning from a second victory near Ispahan, on condition that himself and his Syrian followers should receive full pardon. The black flag of Abbasids now waved in all the lands east of the Tigris, and for the family of Omayyah the decisive hour had arrived. Kahtaba perished on the blood-soaked battle-field of Kerbela; but his son Hasan, who succeeded his father to the command, completely defeated the Syrian army, which was led by the brave governor Hobaira. It was now the turn of Cufa to display the black banner and in that city Abul-Abbas, the head of the Abbasids, was proclaimed caliph.
When the news of these events reached the warlike Merwan, he gathered together his entire military force and after causing Ibrahim, the eldest of the Abbasid brothers, to be put to death in his prison at Haram, advanced to meet the enemy. On the river Zab, not far from the ruins of Nineveh, where once in the neighbourhood of Arbela and Gaugamela the fate of the Persian kingdom and its reigning house had been decided, took place the great battle which wrested from the Omayyads the sceptre of supremacy in the East, and gave the first impulse toward the dissolution of the entire kingdom (January 25th, 750). Fortune which had so long been favourable to Merwan now deserted him; beset by treachery and ill-chance, he fled from the battle-field to Hims and Damascus, whither but few of the soldiers that made up his mighty forces could follow him, those who escaped the sword of the enemy finding death in the waters of the stream. Abdallah then began a triumphal march through all the towns and countries that lay between Mosul and Syria. Merwan, after having appointed his son-in-law Walid governor, fled at his approach to Palestine. Here he learned that the black flag was also flying in Damascus, where the terrible Abdallah, nicknamed “As-Saffan, the Shedder of Blood,” had celebrated his entrance by putting to death the newly appointed governor Walid, and he again sought flight—into Egypt this time. But insurrection had reached even the peaceful Nile valley, and in an unsuccessful engagement with the opposing factionists Merwan II came to a violent end while seeking refuge in a church at Busir, in Upper Egypt.
[661-750 A.D.]
With Merwan’s death the last support to the unity of the kingdom was removed. Weak and unpopular as were many of the rulers of the Omayyad dynasty, their sway nevertheless extended from the Indus and the Iaxartes to the western coast of the Pyrenean peninsula, and from the Caucasus to the Bay of Aden. Sole founders and perpetuators of the Islamite kingdom in the three divisions of the ancient world, the early fame of the Omayyads served to gloss over many a fault in their later representatives, lending a lustre to their names which according to their contemporaries did not rightfully belong to them. Now that Abul-Abbas had become established in Damascus, the central point round which the whole political life of the Moslems had revolved was lost; and Islamism was henceforth to break up into ever widening smaller circles in which each unit was free to develop individually, until the Mohammedan world should be again reduced to that condition of dismemberment which had at first prevailed among the tribes of the Arabian peninsula. There were indeed among the caliphs of Damascus some to whom virtues and the ability to rule were not denied by later writers. Omar II’s piety and love of justice, and the court life of Yazid II, bright with all the lustre that benevolence, poetry, and brilliant feasts could shed upon it, received full meed of praise from poets and true believers. By borrowing from the Byzantines their methods of administration and their Greek-Roman culture, by attracting to their court physicians, architects, and mathematicians, and enriching the simple life of the inhabitants of the desert with the arts and conveniences of civilisation, they showed future rulers how to weld together native and foreign constituents so that great results might be obtained, to unite many and diverse elements into one specific whole. But a stain rested upon the name of the Omayyads that, in the opinion of true believers, could never be wiped away. The blood of Ali and his family still dyed their hands, they had driven the sacred line of Mohammed from the seat of honour, and they had covered the head of Hosein with ridicule and contempt. These sins could not be expiated by any single act; they constituted a perpetual curse that must descend from one generation to another of the race, dividing families by dissensions and internal feuds until the whole dynasty should finally be overthrown.[d]
