Page:William Muir, Thomas Hunter Weir - The Caliphate; Its Rise, Decline, and Fall (1915).djvu/338

 680] to effect this without resort to arms, he ordered ʿOmar to cut off access to the river, hoping that thirst might thus force surrender. But Al-Ḥosein, who feared the cruel tyrant to bring him ʿObeidallah worse than death, stood firm to his conditions. He even prevailed on ʿOmar to urge that he might be sent direct to the Caliph's court. Well had it been for the Umeiyad house, if the prayer had been agreed to. But impatient of delay, ʿObeidallah sent instead a heartless creature called Shamir (name never uttered by Muslim lips without a shudder) to say that ʿOmar must dally no longer with Al-Ḥosein, but, dead or alive, bring him in to Al-Kūfa; should ʿOmar hesitate, Shamir was to supersede him in command. Thus forced, ʿOmar forthwith surrounded closely the little camp. Al-Ḥosein resolved to fight the battle to the bitter end. The scene that followed is still fresh in the believers' eye; and as often as the fatal day comes round, the 10th of the first month, it is commemorated with the wildest grief and frenzy. Encircled with harrowing detail, it never fails to rouse horror and indignation to the utmost pitch. The fond believer forgets that Al-Ḥosein, leader of the band, having broken his allegiance, and yielded himself to a treasonable, though impotent, design upon the throne, was committing an offence that endangered society, and demanded swift suppression. He can see nought but the cruel and ruthless hand that slew with few exceptions all in whose veins flowed their Prophet's sacred blood. And, in truth, the simple story needs no adventitious colouring to touch the heart.