Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 16.djvu/600

Rh 572 MOHAMMEDANISM [OMAYYADS. governor of Khorasan, 1 whence lie directed several expedi tions against Transoxiana. While Mohallab was fighting against the Kharijites in Persia, Hajjaj himself had had to struggle against rebel lion. Three Kharijites, S&lih, Shabib, and Motarrif, had succeeded in creating a party in Mesopotamia and Irak. The second had even pushed his audacity so far as to march upon Cufa, and for a moment had occupied that city. Hajjaj overcame the rebels; and through his vigilance, Katari b. al-Foja a, another Kharijite chief, after being pursued as far as Tabaristan, on the Caspian Sea, was taken and killed by two Omayyad generals. When he gave the government of Khorasan to Mohallab, Hajjaj had committed that of Sijistan to Obaid Allah b. Abi Bakra. At the beginning of A.H. 79, Obaid Allah s troops were beaten by the king of Kabul. Hajjaj thought it advisable to remove Obaid Allah and to replace him by the captain of his guards, Abd al-Rahman b. al-Ash ath. Ibn al- This Avas a bad choice, for Ibn al-Ash ath had often given Ash ath. proofs of an insubordinate temper, and Hajjaj soon had occasion to repent of it. In fact, soon after his arrival in Sijistan, Abd al-Rahman, whose army was composed of contingents from Cufa and Basra, always ready for revolt, conceived the design of an insurrection against the authority of Hajjaj. Popular movements often go beyond the object first proposed ; and not only did the troops welcome joyfully the idea of marching against the hated governor of Irak, but they even proclaimed the dethrone ment of Abd al-Melik, and saluted Ibn al-Ash ath as Caliph. The new pretender entered Farsistan and Ahwaz, and it was in this last province, near Shuster, that Hajjaj came up with him, after receiving from Syria the reinforcements which he had demanded in all haste from the Caliph. Hajjaj was beaten and obliged to retreat. Ibn al-Ash ath pursued him as far as Basra, which opened its gates to him ; but fortune soon changed, and he was again driven out by his adversary. Ibn al-Ash ath then turned his arms against Cufa, and with aid from within, obtained possession of it ; thus cutting the com munications of Hajjaj with Syria. The latter, thus com pelled to leave Basra, took the field, and pitched his camp at Dair al-Jamajim, two days journey from Basra. Ibn al-Ash ath marched against him at the head of his army. The condition of Irak caused the greatest uneasi ness at Damascus, and Abd al-Melik hoped to stifle the revolt by proposing to the insurgents the dismissal of Hajjaj from his post. The insurgents rejected this offer, and hostilities recommenced. At the end of three months, in Jomadi II., A.H. 83 (July 702), a decisive action took place. Victory declared for Hajjaj. Ibn al-Ash ath fled to Basra, where he managed to collect fresh troops ; but, having been again beaten, he took refuge in Susiana, from which he was driven by a son of Hajjaj. The rebel then retired into Sijistan, and afterwards sought an asylum with the king of Kabul. As soon as his partisans had rejoined him, he penetrated into Khorasan, in order to raise an insurrection there. The governor of this province was at that time Yazld, son of the celebrated Mohallab, who had died in the year 82. Yazid marched against Ibn al-Ash ath, and cut his army to pieces. From that time the pretender disappeared ; and it is thought that, having again taken refuge with the king of Kabul, he was betrayed by him and put to death. 2 It was during 1 In A.H. 78, Abd al-Melik had made Khorasan and Sijistan depend ent on the governor of Irak, so that Hajjaj had the right of directly nominating the governors of those provinces. 2 This king of Kabul is called Ratbil or Rotbil by some historians, and Zenbfl by others. See Weil, Geschichte der Chalifen, i. 449; Tabari, transl. by Zotenberg, iv. 127 ; and Mas udi, tran.sl. by Barbier de Meynard, index, s. v. Rotbil. According to Abulfeda s Geography, this long struggle that, in the year 83, Hajjaj laid the foundations of the city of Wasit (the Intermediate) ; so called because it is situated midway between Cufa and Basra. Some time after the suppression of this revolt, in the year 84, Hajjaj deprived Yazid b. Mohallab of the government of Khorasan, accusing him of partiality towards the rebels, and appointed in his stead first his brother Mofaddal b. Mohallab, and nine months after Kotaiba b. Moslim, who was destined at a later period to extend the sway of the Moslems in the East as far as China. While these events were taking place, Abd al-Melik Progi was engaged in the West in a struggle against the Greeks. of ttl1 We have seen that in the year 69 the Caliph, compelled Mosl as he then was to direct all his efforts towards Irak and Arabia, had concluded a disgraceful peace with Justinian II. It was not till A.H. 73 (A.D. 692-693) that he resumed hostilities in Armenia, Asia Minor, and Africa. The operations in Asia Minor and in Armenia were entrusted to Mohammed b. Merwan, brother of the Caliph, and to Othman b. Walid. They beat the Greeks at first; but, in consequence of subsequent reverses, the Moslems were compelled to accept peace, which was broken anew by the Greeks about the year 75 or 76, the Caliph in one of his letters to Justinian II. having used expressions which displeased the Christian monarch. In retaliation, Justinian threatened to have legends offensive to Islam struck on his coins. As, up to that time, the Moslems had no special coinage of their own, and princi- First pally used Byzantine and Persian money, this menace led Al l alj Abd al-Melik to institute a purely Arabic coinage. It co Avas a Jew of Taima, named Somair, who commenced its fabrication. Justinian II. refused to receive these coins in payment of the tribute, and declared the treaty at an end. The incensed Moslems fought valiantly, and suc ceeded in extending their frontiers to Mar ash, on the side of Asia Minor, and to Amid, on the side of Armenia. From this time forth the Moslems made yearly expedi tions against the Greeks ; but they were only razzias, for vhich the Greeks often avenged themselves by incursions into the territory of Islam. In Africa we have seen that Okba b. Nafi had been slain &quot;by the Berbers, who had taken KairaAvan. In the year 73 Abd al-Melik sent Hassan b. No man into Africa, at the head of a numerous army. He retook Kairawan, SAvept the coast as far as Carthage, expelling the Greek garrisons from all the fortified places, and then, turning his arms against the Berbers, beat them so completely that they submitted for a long time to the tribute and the conscription. But AA hen Hassan left Africa, the Greeks, under the successor of Justinian, retook the coast-line. Hassan prepared to return to Africa, but he previously demanded from the goA ernor of Egypt, Abd al- Azfz, the recall of a freedman, Avhom he had appointed governor of a part of the province of Africa. Abd al- Aziz refused, and Hassan went to Damascus to complain to the Caliph. Soon after his arriA r al at the capital he died, and the governor of Egypt placed Musa b. Nosair at the head of the expedition. This general reconquered the seaboard as far as Carthage, and drove the Greeks permanently from it. The daring Musa continued his triumphant march, and took possession of the Avhole of the coast to Tlemcen. One of his lieutenants, in the year 82, carried a reconnaissance by sea as far as Sicily. The Moslem fleet having been destroyed by a storm, Musa equipped another, and entrusted its command to his brother Abdallah, AA T ho returned to Sicily and effected a p. 343, Ibn al-Ash ath was killed in the province of Arrokhaj (Arra- chosia and his head was sent to Damascus and Egypt.