Page:William Muir, Thomas Hunter Weir - The Caliphate; Its Rise, Decline, and Fall (1915).djvu/340

 680] others, descendants of Abu Ṭālib, ʿAlī's father. The camp was plundered; but no indignity was offered to the survivors, mostly women and children, who were carried, together with the ghastly load of seventy trunkless heads, to ʿObeidallah's palace. A thrill of horror ran through the crowd when the gory head of the Prophet's grandson was cast at ʿObeidallah's feet. Hard hearts were melted. As the governor turned the head roughly over with his staff (though we must be slow to accept the tales of heartless insult multiplied by Shīʿa hate), an aged voice was heard to cry: "Gently! It is the Prophet's grandson. By the Lord! I have seen these very lips kissed by the blessed mouth of Moḥammad."

The sister of Al-Ḥosein, his little son ʿAlī al-Asghar (the younger), and two daughters, sole survivors of the Family, were treated by ʿObeidallah with respect, and sent, along with the head of the pretender, to Yezīd at Damascus. Whether sincerely, or to escape the execrations already heaped upon the actors in the tragedy, the Caliph disowned responsibility for the death of Al-Ḥosein, and reproached ʿObeidallah for the deed. The ladies and children were honourably received into the royal household, and sent eventually, with every comfort and consideration, to their Medīna home. This destination, meant in kindness by Yezīd, turned out badly for the Umeiyad house. At Medīna, their return caused a wild outburst of grief and lamentation. Everything around intensified the catastrophe. The deserted dwellings inhabited heretofore by the family and kinsmen of the Prophet, the widowed ladies, the orphaned little ones,—all added pathos to the cruel tale. That tale, heard yearly by groups of weeping pilgrims at the lips of the women and children who survived to tell it,—and coloured, as oft repeated, with fresh and growing horrors,—spread over the Empire. The tragic scene was repeated in every household, and bred pity for the lineage of ʿAlī. It soon was seen that the zeal of ʿObeidallah to suppress the rebellion of Al-Ḥosein had overshot the mark. The claim of ʿAlī's line to rule, heretofore unknown, or treated only with indifference, now struck deep into the heart of multitudes; and a cloud of indignation began to gather, which ere long burst upon the Dynasty which had caused the sacrilegious massacre. The tragedy of Kerbalā decided