Page:William Muir, Thomas Hunter Weir - The Caliphate; Its Rise, Decline, and Fall (1915).djvu/350

 683–92] the blood of that unfortunate Caliph. The theocrats, incensed at his refusal, now turned against Ibn az-Zubeir, whose brother Muṣʿab had hard work in opposing them. Over and over again they got possession of Al-Baṣra, and when at last driven out they retired to Al-Ahwāz and spread themselves over Persia. There committing continual ravages under one name or another (for they split up into many sects), they were with difficulty held in check by Al-Muhallab, a brave general who had already distinguished himself in Khorāsān, and was now summoned for this task by Muṣʿab.

Meanwhile an adventurer of a very different type, named Al-Mukhtār, came on the scene at Al-Kūfa. He was son of the Abu ʿObeid slain in the battle of the Bridge, and belonged to the notorious tribe of Thaḳīf. Designing and unprincipled, Al-Mukhtār was ever ready to take the side most for his own advantage. He was one of those who pursued Al-Ḥasan when, as Caliph, he fled from Al-Kūfa to AI-Medāin; and, on the other hand, he took part with Muslim, when deputed by Al-Ḥosein to Al-Kūfa. On the last occasion, he was seized by ʿObeidallah, then governor of the city, who struck him a blow that cost him an eye. Escaping to Arabia, he swore that he would revenge the injury by cutting the tyrant's body into a thousand pieces. At Mecca he aided Ibn az-Zubeir in opposing the Syrian attack on the Holy City; but distrusted by him, he departed and set up on his own account. Towards the close of 64 he returned to Al-Kūfa, now under one of Ibn az-Zubeir's lieutenants, and gained a name by joining in the cry of vengeance, raised by the ʿAlid party, against all who had been concerned in the attack upon Al-Ḥosein. But, suspected by the governor of sinister designs, he was seized and cast into prison.

The civil war which now broke out was in reality a rising of the Persian Mawāli against their Arab masters, but it was given a religious colouring. For, about this time, a wild fanaticism had seized the Khawārij of Al-Kūfa, to revenge the death of Al-Ḥosein. Ever since the tragedy at Kerbalā, a party there had more or less conspired to slay all those who had joined the enemies of their Prophet's grandson. The feeling now became intense. Early in 65, numbers of "the Penitents" (Tauwābīn), as they called themselves, visited the tomb of Al-Ḥosein at Kerbalā,