Page:William Muir, Thomas Hunter Weir - The Caliphate; Its Rise, Decline, and Fall (1915).djvu/310

 658–60] brought to light the alarming spread of disaffection, and showed how precarious was ʿAlī's grasp upon the Bedawi races of factious Al-Baṣra.

The spirit of disturbance and unrest was not confined to Egypt and to Al-Baṣra. In a single year, we read of some half-dozen occasions on which considerable bands of the Khawārij were impelled by their theocratic creed to raise the standard of rebellion. One after another they met the common fate of slaughter and dispersion. But though crushed, the frequent repetition of such desperate enterprises, fruit of a wild and reckless fanaticism, had a disturbing effect. The most serious of these risings was that led by Al-Khirrīt ibn Rāshid of the Beni Nājiya; and it is the more remarkable, because this chief had fought bravely with his tribe by ʿAlī's side in the battles both of the Camel and of Ṣiffīn. He was driven, like many others, by strong conviction to rebel. The position of this fanatic was that ʿAlī ought to have accepted the decision of the arbiters to refer the question of the Caliphate to a Council. ʿAlī, with his usual patience, said that he would argue out the matter with him, and arranged a meeting for the purpose. But the night before, Al-Khirrīt stole away from the city with his following. "Gone," said ʿAlī, "to the devil; lost, like doomed Thamūd!" They were pursued, but effected their escape to Al-Ahwāz. There they raised the Persians, Kurds, and Christian mountaineers, by the specious and inflammatory cry that payment of taxes to an ungodly Caliph was but to support his cause, and as such intolerable. With a band of rebel Arabs, they kindled revolt throughout Fars and put the governor to flight. A force from Al-Baṣra drove them to the shores of the Indian Ocean. But they broke out again in Al-Baḥrein, where the tribes had been withholding the taxes, and some had returned to the Christian faith. Luring the people by delusive promises, they still gained head; and it was not till after a bloody battle in which Al-Khirrīt lost his life, that the supremacy of the Caliphate was re-established in southern Persia. The Muslim prisoners in this campaign were set at liberty on swearing fresh allegiance; but 500 Christians were marched away to be sold into captivity. The women and children, as they were torn from their protectors, wailed with loud and