Page:William Muir, Thomas Hunter Weir - The Caliphate; Its Rise, Decline, and Fall (1915).djvu/363

334 days for Al-Muhallab's army, I swear that I will slay every man of you I find behind." And he was as good as his word. The citizens streamed day and night across the bridge; but some who failed to hasten their departure, an aged man amongst them, were barbarously put to death. At Al-Baṣra, the same scene, with even increased severity, was enacted. It was emphatically now the reign of terror.

With the view of encouraging Al-Muhallab in his harassing campaign, Al-Ḥajjāj with a column from Al-Baṣra encamped in his vicinity. There his troops mutinied for an increase of pay, such as had been given them by Muṣʿab; and at one time Al-Ḥajjāj, refusing it and left almost alone, was in peril of his life. In the end, order was restored, and an amnesty proclaimed. Not many were put to death, but amongst them was the son of Anas, once body-servant of the Prophet, and now an aged citizen of Al-Baṣra. Not content with executing his son, Al-Ḥajjāj confiscated the possessions of the father also, and, on his expostulating, covered him with invective. Stung by his reproaches, Anas appealed to the Caliph, who upbraided his lieutenant in terms of such gross indecency as few but Arabs know how to give, and ordered him on pain of personal chastisement to withdraw his words, and treat Anas with the honour due to one who had in person served the Prophet. Al-Ḥajjāj, much disconcerted, made the best amend he could. Anas accepted the apology, but added what should have touched the despot more even than the Caliph's reprimand:—"Had a Nazarene, with all his infidelity, seen one who had served the Son of Mary but for a single day, truly he had done him honour, as thou hast not done to me, who served the Prophet of the Lord for full ten years." It is the last link that connects the pages of tradition with the person of the Prophet.