Not long afterwards a curious episode in his history disturbed the equanimity of the Moslem public. Muâvia formally recognised Ziâd as the son of his own father Abu Sofiân, and therefore as his brother. The open acknowledgment of the relationship created a serious scandal throughout Islam, because it was held to contravene the law of legitimacy, and still more because it made Omm Habîba, one of the ‘Mothers of the Faithful,’ and daughter also of Abu Sofiân, to be the sister of an adulterous issue. Even the Beni Omeyyad, Muâvia’s own kinsfolk, were displeased at the affront put upon the purity of their blood. But the feeling passed away when it was seen that a pillar of iron strength had been gained to the Omeyyad side.[579] Ziâd appointed Governor of Bussorah, and eventually of Kûfa.In the year 45 A.H., Ziâd was made Governor of Bussorah, and of the whole of Southern Persia, from the Straits of Omân to the river Indus. His strong hand fell heavily on the restless population of Bussorah: the city was patrolled incessantly by an armed police of a thousand men. None might venture abroad at night on pain of death; and so ruthless was the order, that an unlucky Arab, who had wandered unawares into the precincts of the town, was tried and deliberately executed for the involuntary offence. Both at the Mosque and the palace, and whenever he went abroad, Ziâd was attended in Oriental guise by silver-sticks and lictors, and a body-guard of five hundred soldiers waited at his gate. The supremacy of law, or, as it might perhaps be called, the reign of terror, was new at Bussorah, but it effectually repressed rebellion; and the same may also be said of Kûfa, to which, on Moghîra’s death, Ziâd was translated. This stern administration was but a foretaste of the hard and cruel régime which, later on, found its climax in the bloody rule of Hajjâj; the son of Yusûf.
Design of removing Mahomet’s pulpit to Damascus.
In the fiftieth year of the Hegira, we are told that Muâvia entertained a project for removing the pulpit and staff of the Prophet from Medîna, the rebellious scene of Othmân’s murder, to Damascus, now the capital of Islam. But the impious project was, by Divine interposition, checked. For, ‘on its being touched, the pulpit trembled fearfully, and the sun was darkened, so that the very stars shone forth, and men were terrified at the prodigies.’ The tradition is significant of the superstitious regard in which everything connected with the Prophet’s person was held. It is not unlikely that Muâvia did entertain the sacrilegious design; but, if so, he was dissuaded from it by Abu Horeira, who urged that where the Prophet had placed his pulpit and his staff, there they should remain. And so they were left as relics in the Great Mosque hard by the dwelling-place of Mahomet.[580]
CHAPTER XLVIII.
YEZID APPOINTED HEIR APPARENT.—HEREDITARY NOMINATION BECOMES A PRECEDENT.
A.H. LVI. A.D. 676.
Precedents for nomination or election to the Caliphate.
The election of a Caliph on each recurring succession, excepting only that of Omar, had been followed by the risk of serious perils to the peace of Islam. The choice was supposed to be a privilege vested in the inhabitants of Medîna—‘Citizens,’ as well as ‘Refugees;’ but the practice had been various, and the rule had been oftener broken than observed. The Prophet himself nominated no one. Abu Bekr may be said to have been chosen by acclamation.[581] Abu Bekr, on his death-bed, named Omar his successor. And Omar, establishing yet another precedent, placed the nomination in the hands of Electors. It is true that on the two last-named occasions, the choice was ratified by the homage of Medîna; but that was little more than the formal recognition of an appointment already made. At the fourth succession, the election of Aly, though carried out under the compulsion of insurgent bands, resembled somewhat the popular election of the first Caliph. Then followed the unsuccessful rebellion of Talha and Zobeir, based on the allegation that homage had been extorted from them under pressure. After that, ensued the struggle between Muâvia, the de facto sovereign of Syria, and Aly, which ended in the irregular recognition of Muâvia as Caliph upon the so-called Arbitration of Dûma, and in the double Caliphate. On the death of Aly, who (we are told) declined to nominate a successor, his son Hasan was elected, not, as heretofore, by the people of Medîna, but by the citizens of Kûfa. And, finally, we have the first example of abdication, when Hasan resigned his rights into the hands of Muâvia, and left him sole Caliph of Islam.
The initiative in election no longer at Medîna.
Whatever the rights of Medîna originally may have been, circumstances had now materially altered the only practical means of exercising them. Having been abandoned as the seat of government, the privilege of choosing a Caliph, or of confirming his nomination, however much it may have vested by prescription in the citizens of Medîna, had become an anachronism now. The succession, as in the case of Hasan, followed necessarily, and at once, upon the death of the reigning Caliph, and Medîna could only ratify what had taken place elsewhere. The functions of the citizens of Medîna were thus, from the course of events, transferred to the inhabitants of the seat of government, wheresoever it might be.
Danger surrounding each succession.
Again, that which had happened after the election of Aly, might happen again at any fresh accession to the throne. Zobeir and Talha raised the standard of revolt on the plea that their oath was taken under compulsion; while between Aly and Muâvia, there followed a long and doubtful contest. The internecine struggle had imperilled the existence of Islam. Not only had the ranks of the Faithful been seriously thinned by the blood shed on either side; but, from without, enemies might at any moment have taken advantage of the strife. Muâvia, in point of fact, made a truce with the Byzantine Court while the civil war impended. But if a similar opportunity again offered, the foes of Islam might not be so forbearing, and a fatal wound might be inflicted thus upon the empire torn by intestine conflict.