A history of medieval islam j j saunders

THE CIVIL WARS proclaim a rival Caliph in Damascus, he marched into Iraq in 691 and engaged Mus’ab near a Nestorian monastery on the Tigris known as Dair al-Jathalik. Iraq was weary of incessant strife, and the Kufans were weary of Mus‘ab; they fought without spirit or conviction; their leader was killed; Kufa surrendered, and the Bedouin chiefs, still shaken by the uprising of the mawali under Mukhtar, swore allegiance to the Omayyad Caliph. Nothing remained but to deal with Abdallah, since Muhammad b.alHanafiya had never endorsed the claims of his supporters and was allowed to live out his life in peace. An able and ruthless soldier, Hajjaj, famous in after years as the greatest of eastern viceroys, led an army into Arabia and besieged Abdallah in Mecca. The pretender lost heart, and consulted his aged mother as to the propriety of capitulation. ‘If you are conscious of your right,’ replied the intrepid matron, who was a daughter of Abu Bakr, ‘you will die like a hero!’ Inspired by her courage, her son donned his armour, faced the besiegers, and fell sword in hand. The Syrians occupied Mecca; Abdallah’s head, presented to Abd alMalik in Damascus, assured the Caliph that he reigned at last without a rival, and the Muslim world thankfully celebrated in 692 a second jama‘a, a year of peace and reunion.

The first domestic conflict which rent Islam had continued but five years, from the rising against Othman in 656 to the death of Ali in 661: the second dragged its length for twelve, from the accession of Yazid in 680 to the fall of Abdallah in 692, and inflicted more lasting wounds, since it was marked by the tragedy of Karbala, which provided Shi‘ite Islam with a fanatical faith, nourished by the blood of martyrs, in place of a political programme, and by the first attempt of the client converts to vindicate their claim to equality with the Arabs in the Muslim umma, and these elements of discord were reinforced by the anarchical and irrepressible violence of Kharijite zealotry, the outbreak of the ferocious feud between the Kais and the Kalb, which dates, at least in its full intensity, from the battle of Marj Rahit in 684, and the unconquerable aversion of the Bedouin tribes to the controls of civilization. By dint of tremendous exertions and with the help of troops and administrators drawn from settled society, the Omayyad Caliphs put down these convulsions of barbarism and religion, but their success could not be lasting; the 75