Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 16.djvu/603

Rh OMAYYADS.] MOHAMMEDANISM 575 ated in the south of Syria, on the confines of Arabia. It was in this retirement that his son Mohammed conceived the design of supplanting the Omayyad dynasty. We have said that the first AbbAsids were closely united with the family of AH. Mohammed b. All, the AbbAsid, saw clearly that it was only among the followers of All that he was likely to be able to form a party. To attain this object, he formed the plan of making it believed that a descendant of the Prophet s son-in-law had transmitted to him his rights to the Caliphate. It will be remembered that Mohammed b. Hanafiya had come forward as a pre tender to the throne at the troublous period when Ibn Xobair and Abd al-Melik were disputing the Caliphate. According to the story of the Abbasids, Abu HAshim AbdallAh, the son of Ibn Hanafiya, had gone to Homaima, to the house of Mohammed b. All, and had made on his deathbed a legal transfer of his rights to Mohammed, by appointing him his heir. Whatever may be the truth respecting this transfer, 1 Mohammed the Abbasid spread abroad the report of it, and chose especially for its pro pagation the provinces in which the family of All had the greatest number of adherents, Irak and KhorAsAn. Emissaries sent by him into these two provinces, under the caliphate of Omar II., began to stir up the people in secret against the reigning house. Omar was probably acquainted with these intrigues, but he had not time to repress them, for he died on the 20th or 25th of Eajab, A.H. 101 (5th or 10th February 720), after a reign of about two years and a half. Yazid I!. 9. Yazid, the son of Abd al-Melik, ascended the throne without resistance. His first care was to pursue Yazid b. Mohallab, who had escaped from his prison and taken refuge in IrAk. Besides reasons of state, Yazid II. had personal reasons for ill-will to Yazfd b. Mohallab. One of the wives of the new Caliph, the same who gave birth to that son of Yazid II. who afterwards reigned under the name of Walid II., was niece to the celebrated Hajjaj, who, as it will be remembered, had hated and per secuted Yazid b. Mohallab. Aware of the alliance of the new Caliph with the family of Hajjaj, the son of Mohallab had made every effort to escape as soon as he was informed of the illness of Omar II. ; for he well knew that Yazid II. would spare neither him nor his family. In fact, the Caliph sent express orders to the prefect of IrAk to arrest all the brothers and other members of the family of Mohallab who were to be found at Basra ; and this order was immediately carried out. But Yazid b. Mohallab had many partisans in IrAk. He collected a small army, and fought with such valour that in a short time he succeeded in making himself master of Basra, where he had himself proclaimed Caliph. The public treasury fell into his hands, and he employed it in paying his troops and in raising fresh ones, whom he sent on expeditions into KhuzistAn or AhwAz, FArsistAn, MokrAn, and Sind. As this revolt threatened to spread far and wide, Yazid II. was obliged to have recourse for its suppression to the celebrated Maslama. Early in A.H. 102, this illustrious general took the field, and completely defeated Ibn Mohallab near Basra. Yazid fell in the battle, and his brothers fled beyond the Indus, but were pursued and slain by the lieutenants of Maslama. This revolt suppressed, Yazid II. was able to give his thoughts to the extension of the empire, an object which had been so much neglected by his predecessor. Several expeditions were directed against FarghAna in Transoxiana, against the Khazars in Armenia, and against the Greeks in Asia Minor, but without any very decided results. In 1 The Abbasid Caliph Ma miin certainly did not believe in it, for he thought it his duty to restore the Caliphate to the family of All, by appointing as his successor All Rida, a descendant of the Caliph All. Africa, serious troubles had been caused by the appoint ment as governor of a certain Yazid b. Abi Moslim, who had been secretary to Hajjaj, and who followed the example of his master s implacable harshness. The Ber bers rose in insurrection, slaughtered the unfortunate governor, and chose in his place Mohammed b. Aus. The Caliph at first ratified this choice, but soon after dismissed Mohammed from his post, and replaced him by Bishr b. SafwAn, who sent out an expedition against Sicily. In Europe, the Arabs obtained at first some degree of success. Under the orders of Samah, then governor of Spain, they crossed the Pyrenees, and took possession of Narbonne ; but, having been beaten at Toulouse, they had to retrace their steps. It was the celebrated Abderame ( Abd al-IlahmAn) who effected their retreat. Yazid II. died three years later of a lingering illness, caused, it is said, by his grief for the death of a favourite slave-girl. At his accession, Yazid had designated as his successors, in the first place his son HishAm, and in the second his son Walid. HishAm ascended the throne without opposition. 10. HishAm was a pious prince and an enemy ofHisham. luxury; as rigid in his religion as Omar II. To this severity may in part be attributed the disturbances which broke out in the provinces during his reign. The governors were accustomed to remain loyal to the Caliphs only when the latter did not exact from them too rigorous an account. HishAm was, besides, very avaricious, a fault highly calculated to make him odious to those about him. Lastly, he favoured the Yemenites, and this alienated from him the powerful party of the Kaisites. All these circumstances emboldened the AbbAsids to carry on actively their propaganda in IrAk and KhorAsAn, and it succeeded beyond their hopes. The Kaisite tribes, offended at seeing the Caliph bestow the best posts on Yemenites, were ready to espouse with enthusiasm the cause of any one whose aim was the overthrow of the Omayyads. Rebellion had been smouldering in the provinces for thirteen years ; it broke out at last at Cufa and in the whole of IrAk, under chiefs called Moghfra and Bahlul ; and when these insurgents had been chastised, others sprung up in their place, Amr al-Yashkori, Al- Anazf, and Al-SakhtayAni. The prefect of IrAk, KhAlid b. AbdallAh, was accused of favouring this revolt, was degraded, and replaced by Yusuf b. Omar, who threw him into prison, where he remained for eighteen months. This measure increased the discontent of the people of IrAk, and a member of the family of Alf, Zaid b. Ali, collected round him a small body of partisans, and had himself proclaimed Caliph, A.H. 122 (A.D. 739-740). Unfortunately for Zaid, he had to do with the same Cufans Zaid b. whose fickleness had already been fatal to his family. In Ah - the moment of danger he was deserted by his troops, slain in an unequal conflict, and his head sent to Damascus. In KhorAsAn also there were very serious disturbances. In the year 106 (A.D. 724-725) there had already been a revolt at Balkh, excited by the emissaries of the AbbAsids. The following years brought with them fresh troubles, which led to the dismissal of the governor of KhorAsAn, Asad, the brother of KhAlid b. AbdallAh, who had been prefect of IrAk. Under the successors of Asad, who were successively Ashras b. AbdallAh, Jonaid b. Abd al-RahmAn, and Asim b. AbdallAh, seditions broke out in Transoxiana, which were repressed with great difficulty; and it was not until the year 120 that, by the appointment of the brave and prudent Nasr b. SayyAr as governor of KhorAsAn, peace was for a time restored to that region. The AbbAsid emissaries, nevertheless, secretly continued their propaganda. In India, several provinces which had been converted