[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a victim to his honours; for the caliph’s brother, then viceroy of Egypt, offended that his own lieutenant should be superseded in Barca, waylaid Hassan and deprived him of his appointment, keeping him so closely guarded that he died of a broken heart.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.