Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 16.djvu/594

Rh 566 MOHAMMEDANISM [OMAYYADS. rest at Cufa. Compelled to inaction, All returned to Cufa, while Mo dwiya gave his attention to securing the possession of the provinces. At the beginning of A.H. 38 (A.D. 658-659), Egypt was lost to All. Amr b. al- As was sent thither by Mo awiya, and marched without delay, at the head of five thousand men, against All s vicegerent, Mohammed, son of the late Caliph, Abubekr. The brave general Ashtar, whom All sent to the help of Mohammed, was poisoned at Kolzom by the prefect of that place, acting under secret orders from Mo awiya, and All s troops retraced their steps. Meanwhile, in Egypt itself, a partisan of the Omayyads, Mo awiya b. Hodaij, who was at the head of six thousand fighting men, had declared against Mohammed, and driven him from Fostdt. On his arrival in Egypt, Amr effected a junction with Mo awiya b. Hodaij, and the unfortunate Mohammed, beaten by his adversaries, fell into the hands of Ibn Hodaij, who put him to death. While Egypt was thus being lost to All, commotions were excited at Basra itself by a partisan of the Omayyads. These were, however, put down by the governor of that city, Ziydd. This man was Mo dwiya s own brother, but illegitimate, and not having been acknowledged by his father, Abu Sofydn, he had revenged himself by embracing the party of All. Ziydd was renowned among the Arabs for his eloquence, his resolution, and his courage. At a later period, Mo awiya gained him over to his cause by publicly acknowledging him as his brother. At the time we speak of, he was a faithful servant of All, and as soon as the revolt of Basra was put down, he marched into Fdrsistdn, where he maintained peace and kept the inhabitants in their allegiance. Meanwhile, however, the other provinces were falling one after the other under the power of Mo awiya. His generals penetrated into the heart of Chaldsea ; and even in Arabia, where All s generals had at first gained some advantages, Bosr 1 b. Artah obtained possession of Medina A.H. 40 (A.D. 660-661), and compelled its inhabitants to acknowledge Mo awiya. After this he marched upon Mecca, expelled Kotham, All s governor, and there also exacted an oath of obedience to his master. Following up his successes, Bosr did not hesitate to press southward, and soon gained possession of Yemen. All was now no longer master of anything but Irak and a part of Persia, and even of these provinces the former was menaced by the Syrians, as we have seen. Taking advantage of some partial successes gained by his forces in Arabia and in Syria, All made overtures for peace, but they were rejected. Mo awiya believed himself too sure of ultimate success to be willing to share the empire. It was then that three men of the Khdrijites conceived the project of delivering Islam from those who were desolating it with fire and blood. Abd al-Rahmdn b. Moljam, Boraik b. Abdalldh, and Amr b. Bekr agreed that on the very same day the first should kill All at Cufa, the ^econd Mo dwiya at Damascus, and the third Amr b. al- As at Fostat. They fixed on Friday the 1 5th of Ramadan, A.H. 40, when they were sure of finding their victims at Assassi- the mosque. The plot was put in execution, but All nation of a i one fgj^ Qn the appointed day, Boraik made his way into the mosque of Damascus, and stabbed Mo awiya in the back with his sword. Before he could repeat the blow he was seized, and Mo awiya recovered from his wound. As for Amr, he had been kept at home by illness ; his place at the mosque was taken by Khdrija, the chief of his guards ; and it was he who fell beneath the blows of Amr b. Bekr. Abd al-Rahman was more 1 Not Bishr, as some historians call him. Bosr gave his name to a fortress near Kairawan. Beladhori calls him Bosr b. Abi Artah. successful. As All was entering the mosque, he dealt him a blow on the head with his sword, and stretched him on the ground mortally wounded. Two days later All died, and the assassin was put to death with horrible torments. All left two sons, Hasan and Hosain. The people of Irak chose Hasan Caliph. But he, not having his father s energy, recoiled before the prospect of a war with Mo awiya. Though he had an army of forty thousand men at his disposal, he preferred to renounce the Caliphate. Besides, one of his generals, Kais b. Sa d, who had urged him to continue the struggle, and had himself tried the chance of arms, had just been beaten by the Syrians. In consequence of this defeat, a mutiny had broken out in Hasan s army. He abdicated, and only demanded, in exchange for the power which he resigned, pardon for his relatives and a yearly pension of five millions of dirhems, 2 together with the revenues of the Persian city of Darab- gird. A treaty to this effect was concluded between Mo awiya and Hasan, in spite of the opposition of Hosain, who exhorted his brother to continue the struggle ; and Mo awiya entered Cufa at the head of his army, accord ing to some authorities towards the end of the month of Rabf I., A.H. 41 (July, A.D. 661), according to others a month or two later. Hasan retired to Medina, where he died eight or nine years afterwards, poisoned, it is said, by order of the Caliph. Mo awiya, who now remained sole master of the Moslem Mo a- empire, was, however, not yet universally acknowledged. wiva Five thousand Khdrijites made head against him in the^ , province of Ahwdz, the ancient Susiana, and a revolt broke out at Basra. Ziydd himself, Mo awiya s brother, refused to take the oath to him, and fortified himself at Istakhr, the ancient Persepolis. The revolt at Basra was put down by Bosr b. Artah, and Moghira b. Sho ba, whom Mo awiya had named prefect of Cufa, accepted the task of bringing about a reconciliation with Ziyad. Ziydd refused to take the oath of allegiance only because he feared being called to account for certain sums of money which were missing from the public treasury of Persia. Mo awiya promised to shut his eyes to these irregularities ; and Ziydd came to Damascus and was very well received by the Caliph, who hastened to adopt the bastard as his brother, to the great scandal of all pious Moslems. 3 After acknowledging Ziydd, who thus became Ziydd son of Abu Sofydn, Mo dwiya entrusted him with the government of Basra and of Persia, and afterwards with that of Cufa, when Moghira b. Sho ba died. Ziydd governed Irdk with the greatest vigour, to the full satisfaction of Mo awiya, who further placed the whole of Arabia under his authority ; but in that same year, A.H. 53 (A.D. 672-673), Ziydd died. It seems that Mo awiya had thought of him as his successor in the Caliphate. After Ziydd s death, the Caliph wished to secure the throne for his own son Yazid. This was a new violation of the customary rights of Islam ; for Mohammed, whose actions served as a rule, had not in his lifetime appointed any one as his successor. Mo dwiya, who was a statesman above everything, and who held religion very cheap when it interfered with his objects, did not hesitate to create a precedent. He met, however, at first with vigorous opposition, and it was not till some years later that he ventured to have his intentions publicly announced from the pulpit. In Syria the people took the oath of allegiance to Yazld ; in Arabia and Irdk public opinion declared itself against the step which Mo dwiya had taken. 2 The dirhem is a silver coin worth about a franc. 3 At a later period, the Abbasid Caliph Mahdi thought it right to have the names of Ziyad and his descendants struck off the rolls of the Koraish ; but, after his death, the persons concerned gained over the chief of the rolls-office, and got their names replaced on the lists. See Tabari, iii. 479.