Page:William Muir, Thomas Hunter Weir - The Caliphate; Its Rise, Decline, and Fall (1915).djvu/64

 632–3] other, after Arab wont, lampoons in bitter verse. Opposition being now vain, ʿAmr sought by an unworthy stratagem to gain his safety. Making a night attack on Ḳeis, he carried him prisoner to Al-Muhājir; but he had forgotten a safe-conduct for himself. Al-Muhājir, therefore, seized both, and sent them in chains to Medīna. The Caliph was at first minded to put ʿAmr to death because of the murder of Dāduweihi, but he denied the crime, and there was no evidence to prove it. "Art thou not ashamed," said Abu Bekr to him, "that following the rebel cause, thou art ever either a fugitive or in bonds? Hadst thou been a defender of the Faith instead, then had the Lord raised thee above thy fellows." "So assuredly it is," replied the humbled chief; "I will embrace the faith, and never again desert it." The Caliph forgave them; and his clemency was not abused, for we find both these gallant and unscrupulous chiefs soon after fighting loyally in the Persian war. After this, the Yemen was speedily reduced to order, and Al-Muhājir was at liberty to pursue his march to Ḥaḍramaut.

The government of the great southern province of Ḥaḍramaut was held with difficulty during the protracted absence of Al-Muhājir by one Ziyād, who aroused the hatred of its occupants the Beni Kinda, by exacting from them the tithe; but with the support of some still loyal clans he was able to hold his place. In one of his raids Ziyād having carried off the families of a vanquished tribe, Al-Ashʿath ibn Ḳeis, chief of the Beni Kinda, was moved by their cries; and, having gathered a strong force, fell upon Ziyād and rescued the captives. It is the same Al-Ashʿath who, when he tendered homage to Moḥammad, betrothed to himself the sister of Abu Bekr. Now compromised, he went into active rebellion, and roused the whole country against Ziyād who, surrounded by the enemy, despatched an urgent summons for Al-Muhājir to hasten to his deliverance.

By this time Al-Muhājir and ʿIkrima, marching respectively from Ṣanʿā and Aden, had effected a junction at Maʿrib, and were crossing the sandy desert which lay between them and Ḥaḍramaut. Receiving the message, Al-Muhājir set off in haste with a flying squadron and, joined by Ziyād, fell upon Al-Ashʿath and discomfited him with great slaughter.