Page:William Muir, Thomas Hunter Weir - The Caliphate; Its Rise, Decline, and Fall (1915).djvu/335

 306 The nomination of Yezīd as successor was sure to meet with opposition when he was gone. From his deathbed, therefore, he sent a message to Yezīd, who was absent at his hunting-place, warning him of the rocks that lay ahead.There were three, he said, of whom he must beware—the two ʿAbdallahs, sons of ʿOmar and Az-Zubeir, and Al-Ḥosein son of ʿAlī. The first, a pious devotee, would easily be put aside. "As for Al-Ḥosein," he continued, "the restless men of Al-ʿIrāḳ will give him no peace till he attempt the Empire; when thou hast gotten the victory, deal gently with him, for truly the blood of the Prophet runneth in his veins. It is ʿAbdallah son of Az-Zubeir that I fear the most for thee. Fierce as the lion, crafty as the fox, destroy him root and branch."

The first care of Yezīd on assuming the Caliphate—the date was 1 vii. 60, April 7, 680 —was to require those who had before refused to swear allegiance at Medīna, now to take the oath, the order being written on a leaf no larger than a mouse's ear. Two of these, the sons of ʿOmar and Al-ʿAbbās, complied with the command. But the sons of Az-Zubeir and Al-Ḥosein, both feigning time for consideration, escaped to Mecca.

Since its capture by Moḥammad, no enemy had dared to go up against the Holy City; and there, inviolate as the doves that fluttered around the Temple, conspirators abusing the asylum were wont to plot against the Empire. As Muʿāwiya had foreseen, ʿAbdallah, the ambitious son of Az-Zubeir, aimed at the Caliphate; but so long as Al-Ḥosein survived he dissembled, professing to bow to the superior claims of the Prophet's grandson.

At Al-Kūfa, the house of ʿAlī was still after a fashion popular, Al-Ḥasan, it is true, found little support during his short-lived Caliphate there; but the fond and fickle populace now turned eagerly to Al-Ḥosein his brother. Promises of support poured in upon him, if he would but appear at Al-Kūfa and there claim regal rights. His friends at Mecca besought that he would not trust to the slippery missives of that factious city. But the son of Az-Zubeir, to be rid of his rival, fostered the design; and Al-Ḥosein,