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 THE CALIPHATE LOSES CONTROL IN SIND 25 openly prevailed; and now, at a later period, notwith- standing the fact that literature flourished and the personal dignity of the caliph was maintained in the highest splendour, nevertheless, not only had the Sama- nids conquered the whole of Mawara-an-nahr and Kho- rasan, not only had the Dailamites penetrated to the borders of Irak, not only had all northern Africa, except Egypt, been lost to the caliphate for ever, but, as if to crown the measure of its misfortunes, the Karmathian heretics, after plundering Kufa, Basra, and Samarra, had possessed themselves of Mecca during the very time of pilgrimage, had massacred the pilgrims, and had even carried off the sacred black stone itself, the principal and universal object of Mohammedan venera- tion. Under such circumstances, the most distant prov- inces necessarily partook of the decline from which the heart of the empire was suffering; and Sind, neglected by the imperial government, came to be divided among several petty princes, who, though they transmitted no revenue and rendered no political allegiance to the caliph, were, like other more powerful chiefs who had assumed independence, glad to fortify their position by acknowledging his spiritual supremacy and by flatter- ing him with the occasional presentation of some rarity from the kingdoms which they had usurped. The virtual renunciation of political control in Sind may be dated from the year 257 A. H. (870 A. D.), when the Caliph Mu'tamad, to divert the Safarids from their hostile designs against Irak, conferred upon Ya'kub