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.