Page:William Muir, Thomas Hunter Weir - The Caliphate; Its Rise, Decline, and Fall (1915).djvu/209

 180 as before. The third was that the governor had in his household a girl that fared too sumptuously. Abu Mūsa was silent. Again, he was charged with making over the seals of office to Ziyād; which was admitted by Abu Mūsa, "because he found the youth to be wise and fit for office." The last charge was that he had given the largess of a thousand dirhems to a poet; and this Abu Mūsa admitted,—to preserve, as he said, his authority from scurrilous attack. The Caliph was satisfied, and permitted Abu Mūsa to resume his government, but desired him to send Ziyād and the girl to Medīna. On their arrival, ʿOmar was so pleased with Ziyād, already foreshadowing his administrative talent, that he sent him back with approval of his employment in the affairs of state; but the girl was detained, perhaps because of her undue influence, in confinement at Medīna. With Ḍabba the Caliph was very angry. Out of malice he had sought to ruin Abu Mūsa by one-sided allegations. "Truth perverted is no better," said ʿOmar, “than a lie; and a lie leadeth to hell-fire."

Al-Kūfa remained several years under its founder Saʿd, the conqueror of Chaldæa. At length, in the ninth year of ʿOmar's reign, a faction sprang up against him. The Bedawi jealousy of Ḳoreish had already begun to work; and Saʿd was accused of unfairness in distributing the booty. There was imputed also lack of martial spirit and backwardness in the field, a revival of the slanderous charge at Al-Ḳādisīya. He was summoned, with his accusers, to Medīna; but the main offence proved against him was one of little concern to them. In his public ministrations he had cut short the customary prayers; and ʿOmar, deeming the misdemeanour to be unpardonable, deposed him. To fill a vacancy requiring unusual skill, experience, and power ʿOmar unwisely appointed ʿAmmār, who, as a persecuted slave and confessor in the first days of Islām, was second to none in the faith; but a man of no ability, and now advanced in years. The citizens of Al-Kūfa were not long in finding out his incapacity; and, at their desire, ʿOmar transferred Abu Mūsa from Al-Baṣra to rule over them. But it was no easy work for him to curb the factious populace. They took offence at his slave for undue influence in buying fodder