Page:William Muir, Thomas Hunter Weir - The Caliphate; Its Rise, Decline, and Fall (1915).djvu/357

 328 advantage of the divisions in the Muslim Empire, pressed heavily at this time on the Syrian frontier; and ʿAbd al-Melik, to be free for his enterprise, had to make a truce with them at the weekly tribute of 1000 golden pieces. It was the year 71 before ʿAbd al-Melik again broke ground. Having sown disaffection widely in Al-Kūfa and Al-Baṣra by missives promising pardon and rewards, he laid siege to Ḳirḳīsiyā, where Ibn az-Zubeir's governor ere long accepted the offer of amnesty, and with the Ḳeis tribes joined the Caliph's army. Muṣʿab, now thoroughly alarmed, sought the help of Al-Muhallab, but that general was at the moment hotly engaged with the Khawārij, who were close upon the walls of Al-Baṣra. So he had to meet the Caliph on the Syrian frontier with only Ibn al-Ashtar, who, though tempted with the promise of Al-ʿIrāḳ, stood fast by Muṣʿab. When the two armies met, it was soon seen that the Caliph's missives had taken effect, and that treachery was rife in Muṣʿab's camp. Ibn al-Ashtar, the only loyal friend he had, was one of the first to fall; and Muṣʿab, deserted by his troops, and having seen his son slain before his eyes, refusing quarter, was slain by one of his own Kūfaites, a hero to the last. His head, with the nose cut off, was sent round by ʿAbd al-Melik to Egypt and Damascus. It was then to have been shown over the cities of Syria, when the Caliph's wife, with better feeling, had it washed and buried. Muṣʿab died aged thirty-six. He was handsome and brave; but his memory is stained by the butchery perpetrated by his command at the death of Al-Mukhtār.

On Muṣʿab's death, the Kūfan army swore allegiance to ʿAbd al-Melik, as did also the Arab tribes of the Syrian desert. Advancing on Al-Kūfa, he encamped by the city forty days. There, one of the citizens made him a great feast at the ancient palace of the Khawarnaḳ, open to all. ʿAbd al-Melik was delighted:—"If it would only last!" he said, "but as the poet sang" (and he quoted some verses), "all is transitory here." Then he was taken over the palace, and being told of the ancient princes of Al-Ḥīra who lived there, extemporised a couplet (for he was himself a poet),