Page:William Muir, Thomas Hunter Weir - The Caliphate; Its Rise, Decline, and Fall (1915).djvu/342



soon felt the evil which the tragedy of Kerbalā had inflicted on the Umeiyad throne, and the rebound caused thereby in favour of the house of ʿAlī. Al-Kūfa, with proverbial inconsistency, was now eager to espouse the cause of a Dynasty which, over and again, it had cast aside. The Khāriji heresy, in ever-varying form, gained new impetus, especially at Al-Baṣra. Its adherents, repenting of their desertion of ʿAlī after the battle of Ṣiffīn, and grieving at the fate of his family, entered into a covenant of revenge and of never-ceasing hostility against the Government. But it was from a different quarter that peril first assailed the Caliphate. It arose, as Muʿāwiya had foreshadowed, from ʿAbdallah Ibn az-Zubeir.

He it was, who, to be rid of Al-Ḥosein, had encouraged the unfortunate prince in his desperate venture. No sooner did the sad story reach Arabia than Ibn az-Zubeir arose and harangued the citizens of Mecca with fierce invective against the ruling Power. Veiling his ambitious design, he described himself as a dove of the doves of the Holy House. But he soon showed his true colours, and before the end of the year commenced to canvass, though at first secretly, as claimant to the throne. On this reaching the ears of Yezīd, he swore that the rebel should yet be brought to Damascus, bound by the neck. Repenting of the oath, though wishing formally to fulfil it and yet leave Ibn az-Zubeir a way of escape, he sent a deputation to Mecca with a silver chain, and a silken dress of honour to conceal it, and invited him 318