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.