Page:William Muir, Thomas Hunter Weir - The Caliphate; Its Rise, Decline, and Fall (1915).djvu/362

 692–705] siege from the precincts of the Kaʿba, which was by him restored to its previous dimensions, he visited Medīna. There he denounced in no measured terms the city in which ʿOthmān had been murdered, and even branded certain of the citizens, known as hostile to the Umeiyad line, with the mark used for a subject race.

In the following year a branch of the Khawārij, called the Azāriḳa, assumed a threatening attitude on the Persian frontier, and Al-Muhallab was deputed from Khorāsān, with heavy contingents from Al-Baṣra and Al-Kūfa, again to fight against them. But on the governor of Al-ʿIrāḳ, Bishr, the youthful brother of the Caliph, dying shortly after, the troops from both cities began to desert Al-Muhallab and, despite remonstrance, return to their homes. The Caliph now saw that none but a strong hand could curb the license of the men of Al-ʿIrāḳ, and so, to the joy of Al-Muhallab, Al-Ḥajjāj was appointed governor. He forthwith set out from Medīna with a small mounted escort, and crossing the desert by forced marches arrived in the early dawn unknown at AI-Kūfa. He entered the Mosque as men were assembling for early prayer, and mounting the pulpit sat down, with face concealed behind the folds of his red turban. "To prayers! to prayers!" he cried aloud, and still sat muffled. Some thinking him a Khāriji adventurer, took up stones to cast at him. But they dropped them in terror as, uncovering his stern features, they recognised that it was Al-Ḥajjāj. In verses full of threat and fury, he upbraided the city for its treachery; "Beware," he said, "for verily it is as if I saw many a head before me all gory in its blood!" Then he commanded the Caliph's rescript to be read aloud. It opened with the greeting of Peace; but there was no response. "Stop!" said Al-Ḥajjāj in anger, to the reader; "is it come to this, that ye respond not to the greeting of the Caliph? I will teach you soon to mend your ways." The affrighted company at once joined in the loyal response, "Peace and blessing on the Caliph!" The letter read, Al-Ḥajjāj resumed his threatening tone;—"If ye reform not forthwith," he said, "there will soon be widows and orphans enough amongst you. Unless ye depart within three