Page:William Muir, Thomas Hunter Weir - The Caliphate; Its Rise, Decline, and Fall (1915).djvu/322

 661–80] less singular. A native of Aṭ-Ṭāif, he had been deputed by the Prophet, in company with Abu-Sufyān, to hew down the tutelary idol of that city. He was ill-favoured, being one-eyed with red hair dyed black. Clever, designing, and shameless, he survived his disgraceful fall at Al-Baṣra which nearly cost him life as well as his reputation, and rose again to influence. Finally, appointed by Muʿāwiya to that most difficult post, the government of the no longer regal Kūfa, he held under strict control the turbulent and restless city, still the frequent scene of theocratic outburst, and of those dangerous conspiracies in favour of the house of ʿAlī which began soon to disturb the Umeiyad dynasty:

But perhaps the greatest service which Al-Moghīra rendered to Muʿāwiya, was that he succeeded in reconciling Ziyād to his sovereign. The history of Ziyād is one of the most remarkable of the time. He was the reputed son of Abu Sufyān, who fell in with his mother, then a vagrant bondwoman, before his conversion at Aṭ-Ṭāif. By the faithful discharge of important trusts, Ziyād overcame the disadvantage of servile birth, rose to important office, and eventually was appointed by ʿAlī to the government of Al-Baṣra and Iṣṭakhr. Powerful, wise, and eloquent, he was by far the ablest statesman of the day. Devoted to the cause of ʿAlī, he was bitterly opposed to the pretensions of Muʿāwiya, even after the abdication of Al-Ḥasan. Called by Muʿāwiya to render an account of his stewardship in Persia, he refused to do so or to appear at Court even when threatened, if he continued to absent himself, with the execution of his sons in Al-Bṣsra. A thorn in his side, he caused continual alarm to Muʿāwiya. At last, in the year 42, Al-Moghīra, who had not forgotten the occasion on which he owed his life to the partial evidence of Ziyād, repaired to Iṣṭakhr, and persuaded him to tender his submission. Under safe-conduct he appeared before the Caliph at Damascus, and as a royal gift, together with his arrear of revenue, presented a million pieces. He was dismissed with honour, and provided with a residence in Al-Kūfa. The figure of Muʿāwiya is in the annals quite eclipsed by those of his lieutenants Al-Moghīra and Ziyād,