Page:William Muir, Thomas Hunter Weir - The Caliphate; Its Rise, Decline, and Fall (1915).djvu/359

 330 coming to the front. Marching from Al-Kūfa, Al-Ḥajjāj reached Aṭ-Ṭāʾif, four days east of Mecca, in the month of Shaʿbān (Jan. 692 ), without opposition, and forwarded letters of pardon to Ibn az-Zubeir if only he would submit. But Ibn az-Zubeir declined the offer. Frequent skirmishes took place on the plain of ʿArafāt, in which Al-Ḥajjāj got the advantage. Al-Ḥajjāj then sought from the Caliph leave to besiege Mecca, and also reinforcements. He obtained both. Men remembered how shocked the same ʿAbd al-Melik had been when, eight years before, Mecca was stormed by order of Yezīd, and so they said the Caliph had gone back in his religion. But this was hardly fair to him; for so long as Ibn az-Zubeir remained rival Caliph in that otherwise secure sanctuary, the Empire could not be free from the danger of revolt. It was close upon the month of Pilgrimage when Al-Ḥajjāj, strengthened by reinforcements from Medīna, from which Ibn az-Zubeir's governor had just been expelled, invested the city and mounted catapults on the surrounding heights. As the engines opened with their shot, the heavens thundered (so tradition goes) and twelve of the Syrian army were struck by lightning; but next day when the storm returned, the impartial thunderbolts fell upon the men of Mecca, an incident from which Al-Ḥajjāj drew happy augury. During the days of Pilgrimage, the bombardment was at the intercession of ʿOmar's son ʿAbdallah held over, and the solemnities proper to the season partially performed. The siege was shortly turned into a strict blockade, and in a few months the inhabitants, suffering the extremities of want, began to desert in great numbers to the enemy. Even two of his own sons did so, on Ibn az-Zubeir's advice; but a third preferred to stay and share his father's fate. The siege had now lasted seven months, when Ibn az-Zubeir lost heart. He was tempted to give in; but he would first consult his mother Asmā, daughter of Abu Bekr, now a hundred years of age. The scene is touching. With the ancient spirit of the Arab matron, she exhorted her son, if still conscious of the right, to die as a hero should. "That," said he, as he stooped to kiss her forehead, "is what I thought myself; but I wished to strengthen my thought by thine." And so, putting on his armour, he rushed into the thickest, and fell in the