Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 16.djvu/602

Rh 574 MOHAMMEDANISM [OMAYYADS Solai- niiiu. 7. Solaimdn had nearly missed the throne. Walid, in the very year of his death, wished to have his son Abd al- Aziz b. Walid chosen as his successor, and had offered Solaiman a great sum of money to induce him to surrender his rights to the Caliphate ; but Solaiman obstinately refused to do so. Walfd went still further, and sent letters to the governors of all the provinces, calling on them to make the people take the oath of allegiance to his son. None except Hajjaj and Kotaiba b. Moslim consented thus to set at nought the order of succession established by Abd al-Melik ; and Solaiman succeeded without difficulty at the death of his brother. We can easily conceive the hatred felt by Solaiman for Hajjaj, and for all that belonged to him, far or near. Hajjaj himself escaped by death ; but Solaiman poured out his wrath on his family, and strove to undo all that he had done. First of all, Mohammed b. Kasim, the conqueror of India, who was cousin to Hajjaj, was dismissed from his post and outlawed. Hajjaj had deprived Yazid b. Mohallab of the government of Khorasan ; Solaiman conferred on him that of Irak. Kotaiba b. Moslim, on learning the accession of Solaiman, knew that his own ruin was certain, and therefore anticipated the Caliph by a revolt. But Solaiman induced Kotaiba s troops to desert by authorising them to return to their homes ; and when the illustrious general sought to carry his army with him, a conspiracy was formed against him which ended in his murder. Yazid b. Mohallab, who preferred Khorasan to Irak, obtained permission to exchange. Immediately on his return to Khorasan he set on foot a series of new expeditions against Jorjan and Tabaristan. But the inhabitants of Khorasan, which he governed oppressively, made complaints against him to the Caliph, accusing him of practising extortions in order to obtain such a sum of money as would enable him to rebel against his sovereign. From that day Solaiman determined to get rid of Yazid. As, however, he was then dreaming of the conquest of Constantinople, he thought it prudent to dissemble his dissatisfaction for some time. The Byzantine empire was disturbed by internal troubles during the years A.D. 715-717. Solaiman resolved to take advantage of these in order to rid himself for ever of the hereditary enemy of Islam, and prepared a formidable expedition. A fleet of eighteen hundred vessels, equipped at Alexandria, sailed to the coasts of Asia Minor, took on board the Moslem army, commanded by Maslama, and transported it to Europe. This army appeared under the walls of Constantinople, 15th August 717, five months after Leo III., the Isaurian, had ascended the throne. Once more the Greek fire prevailed against the Moslems. Their fleet was destroyed by this terrible engine of war ; the army could obtain no fresh supply of provisions, and suffered all the horrors of famine. Mean while the Caliph, who desired to be present in person at the taking of Constantinople, had set out to join the army. He fell ill at Dabik, not far from Aleppo, and died there on the 22d of September in the same year, after having nominated as his own successor his cousin, Omar b. Abd al- Aziz, and as successor to the latter, Yazid b. Abd al-Melik, his own brother. In vain did the new Caliph despatch from Egypt a fleet of four hundred ships to carry arms and provisions to the army before Constanti nople ; this fleet also was destroyed by the Greeks, and the Moslem army was decimated by famine, and soon by the plague as well. A hundred thousand men perished miserably under the walls of Constantinople, and Maslama brought back to Asia Minor a mere handful of soldiers, and that with great difficulty. Omar II. 8. Omar b. Abd al- Aziz, incensed at this disaster, took his revenge on the Christians of his own states by excluding them from all public employments, in spite of the great services they rendered there, and by loading them with imposts to such an extent that one public functionary wrote thus to the Caliph : &quot;If things continue to go on in Egypt as at present, all the Christians will become Moslems to escape taxation, and the State will lose its revenue.&quot; To this the pious Omar replied: &quot;I should look on the conversion of all the Christians as a great piece of good-fortune ; for God sent his prophet to act the part of an apostle, and not of a tax-gatherer.&quot; By his religious intolerance, by the simplicity of his life, and by his vigour in observing the precepts of his religion and enforcing their observance, Omar has acquired in Moslem history the reputation of a saint. But the sanctity of a prince does not ensure the greatness of a State ; and the reign of Omar, as we shall see, was injurious rather than advantageous to Islam. He alienated the provincial governors by his severity ; and the family of Abbas took advantage of the general discontent to stir up the people secretly, and thus to prepare the way for the fall of the dynasty. It will be remembered that Solaim&n died before carry ing out his purpose of deposing Yazid b. Mohallab, the governor of Khorasan. Omar II. took it on himself to fulfil this design. He summoned Yazid to his presence, and on his arrival at Damascus, threw him into prison, and demanded the restitution of the money which he believed him to have misappropriated. As Yazid alleged that he could render no account of it, the Caliph banished him to Dahlak, a small island in the Red Sea, but soon brought him back, and placed him in close confinement. It was not till A.H. 101, when Omar II. was dying, that Yazid succeeded in escaping and took refuge in Irak. Mokhallad, the son of Yazid, whom his father, on quit ting Khorasan, had left there as his lieutenant, was also summoned to Damascus, and the Caliph at first appointed Jarrah b. Abdallah governor of that province, but soon after, on receiving complaints against him, replaced him by Abd al-Rahman al-Koshairi, whom he desired to use every effort for the conversion of the unbelievers, rather than to think of extending the Moslem power by force of arms. With so pacific a disposition, it is easy to understand that the Caliph did not signalize his reign by any conquest ; except a revolt of the Kharijites in Irak, which was suppressed by Maslama, his caliphate was not distinguished by any warlike event. Its most noticeable occurrence, as we have said above, was the commencement of the Abbasid movement. The Abbasid family derived its name from Abbas, who Abbdsi was Mohammed s uncle on the father s side, and who, mov e - during the Prophet s life, had enjoyed universal considera- n tion among the Moslems. It was he who, at the death of the Prophet, had the charge of washing the corpse. The first Caliphs, Abubekr, Omar, Othman, and All, showed the utmost deference to Abbas ; and his eldest son Abdallah had been united in the closest friendship with Hosain, the unfortunate son of All After the assassina tion of Ali, and the slaughter of Hosain, Abdallah had retired to Mecca, and there brought up his numerous family in hatred of the Omayyads. It was from his youngest son Alf, born A.H. 40, that the Abbasid dynasty sprung. Under the Caliph Abd al-Melik, this Ali was living at Damascus ; but, on his marrying Labbaba, the divorced wife of Abd al-Melik, the Caliph conceived a great aversion for Ali. Walid, the son and successor of Abd al-Melik, inherited his father s prejudices, subjected Ali to every kind of insult, and drove him from his court. Walfd s successor, Solaiman, gave him leave to return to Damascus, but Ali, instead of availing himself of this permission, preferred to retire to Homaima, a town situ-