The Chaliphate - Muir - The Search For Mecca

AD. 654-5] SPREAD OF SEDITION 217
where; truth and justice could be restored no otherwise A.H. 33-34.
than by the overthrow of this wicked d)'nast)-. Such was
the preaching which daily gained ground in Egypt ; by busy
correspondence it was spread all over the Empire, and
startled the minds of men already foreboding evil from the
sensible heavings of a slumbering volcano.
The outbreak of turbulence was for the moment repressed
at Al-Basra by Ibn 'Amir; but at Al-Kufa, Sa'id had neither
power nor tact to quell the factious elements around. At
his first public service he had offended even his own part}'
by ostentatiously washing the pulpit steps before ascending
a spot pretended to have been made unclean by his drunken
predecessor. He was foolish enough not only to foster the
arrogant assumptions of Koreish, but to contemn the claims
of the Arab soldiery, to whose swords they owed the conquest
of the land. He called the beautiful vale of Chalda^a T/ie
Garden of Koreish — " as if forsooth," cried the offended
Arabs, " without o?ir strong arm and lances, they ever
could have won it." Disaffection, stimulated by the demagogue
Al-Ashtar and a knot of factious citizens, culminated
at last in an outbreak. As the Governor and a company of
the people, according to custom, sat in free and equal
converse, the topic turned on the bravery of Talha, who had
shielded the Prophet in the day of battle. " Ah "
! exclaimed
Sa'Id, " he is a warrior, if ye choose, a real gem amongst \-our
Bedawi counterfeits. A few more like him, and we should
dwell at ease." The assembly was still nettled at this speech,
when a youth incautiously gave expression to the wish, how
pleasant it would be if the Governor possessed a certain
property which lay invitingly b\- the river bank near Al-
Kufa. " What
"
! shouted the company, " out of our good
lands
"
! And with a torrent of abuse, they leaped upon the
Emeute at
^^a.'h.
t'54 ^^^
lad and his father, and went near to killing both.
To awe the malcontents, emboldened b}- this outrage. Ringleaders
ten of the ringleaders, with Al-Ashtar (of whom more hereafter)
at their head, were sent in exile to S\ria, where it was
hoped that the powerful rule of Mu'awiya and loyal example
of the S>Tians might inspire them with better feelings.
Mu'awiya quartered the exiles in a church and morning
;
and evening, as he passed by, rated them on their folly in
setting up the crude claims of the Ik^dawin against the in-
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