Page:William Muir, Thomas Hunter Weir - The Caliphate; Its Rise, Decline, and Fall (1915).djvu/361



the death of Ibn az-Zubeir, who for thirteen years had held his ground as rival of successive Caliphs, the Umeiyad rule was anew recognised, without dispute, over the whole Muslim realm, and ʿAbd al-Melik named as Caliph in the prayers of every Mosque from east to farthest west. In his reign the Arab dominion reached its high-water mark. They were the ruling race whose sway Muslims of all other races were obliged to acknowledge. He was able at last to turn his arms again towards the north, where the Muslims now obtained material victories over the Greek forces in Asia Minor and also in Armenia; so that apprehension in that direction was for the present at an end. But the feud between Ḳeis and Kelb did not cease. Out of it sprang another between the Christian tribe of Taghlib and Suleim, and the tribe of Fezāra was also brought in. The scene of the endless series of acts of vengeance was Mesopotamia, and the feud was carried on with the utmost cruelty. In Al-Baṣra the feud between Rabīʿa and the Azd on one side and Temīm and Ḳeis on the other spread to Khorāsān, a Baṣrite colony. But it was as yet a far cry to Khorāsān, and it says much for ʿAbd al-Melik that he held together both Ḳeis and Kelb in Syria, for when revenge was afoot, all political and religious bonds were thrown to the winds.

But throughout the remainder of this reign the leading figure was unquestionably Al-Ḥajjāj, whose cruelties have stamped him as the worst tyrant of the age. For some time after the sack of Mecca he remained governor of Arabia. Having removed the unhallowed vestiges of the sacrilegious 332