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.