Page:William Muir, Thomas Hunter Weir - The Caliphate; Its Rise, Decline, and Fall (1915).djvu/406



first event in the reign of Yezīd II. was a serious rising in Al-ʿIrāḳ—the rebellion, namely, of his namesake, Yezīd son of Al-Muhallab. The accession of the new ruler revived tribal jealousies; for his wife was niece to Al-Ḥajjāj; and so throwing over the Yemeni faction, Yezīd II. took up the cause of the family and adherents of Al-Ḥajjāj, all of whom, as we have seen, had been sorely pursued by Suleimān. Yezīd, Al-Muhallab's son, had, as the favourite of Suleimān, unfortunately as it now turned out for himself, carried out the orders of his patron with great severity; and turning a deaf ear to her cry, had confiscated to a vast amount the wealth which the present Caliph's wife inherited from her father; and so her husband had threatened that if he ever came to power, he would cut him into a thousand pieces. For this reason Yezīd, when he heard of ʿOmar's last sickness, and knew that his enemy Yezīd II. must succeed, escaped from prison, and fled to Al-Baṣra. But he rallied numerous friends around him, for with all his failings Yezīd was free and open-handed ; so having attacked the palace, he slew the governor, seized the treasury, and by profuse largesses raised a threatening force. He had the support of the Yemeni faction, especially of his own tribe the Azd, who here as in Khorāsān were allied to Rabīʿa; whilst the Ḳeis and Temīm took the other side. His chief opponent, however, was the man of religion, the friend of ʿOmar II., Al-Ḥasan al-Baṣri. The Caliph, now alarmed, sent to offer a free pardon; but Yezīd had too deeply compromised himself, and must fight it out to the bitter end. The 375