The Chaliphate - Muir - The Search For Mecca

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A.I). 656-7] INTRIGUE.S OF MU'AWIVA
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able a ruler as Kei.s, whom he made every effort to detach .A.H. 36.
from 'All. Upbraiding him with having joined a i)art\' y
.
.still imbued with the blood of 'Othman, he called upon {ii!nied'by
Keis to repent, and promised that, if he joined in aveneiiv o .^'"^-i^'y^' !-i
incrifiie.
the crime, he should be confirmed in the government of
Egypt, and his kinsmen promoted to such office as he
might desire. Keis, unwilling to precipitate hostilities,
fenced his answer with well-balanced words. Of 'All's
complicity in the foul deed there was as yet, he said, no
evidence ; he would wait. Meanwhile he had no intention
of making attack on Syria. Again pressed by Mu'awiya,
Keis frankly declared that he was, and would remain, a
staunch supporter of the Caliph. Thereupon Mu'awiya
sought craftily to stir uj> jealousy between 'All and his
Lieutenant. He gave out that Keis was temporising, and
spoke of his leniency towards the Egyptian malcontents
as proving that he was one at heart with them. The
report, assiduously spread, reached, as intended, the court
of 'All, where it was taken up by those who either doubted
the fidelity of Keis or envied his prosperity. To test his
obedience, 'All ordered an advance against the malcontents
;
and the remonstrance of Keis against the step as premature
was taken as proof of his complicity. He was deposed, and
the regicide Mohammad son of Abu Bekr, appointed in Moliammaci
his room. Keis retired in anger to Medina, where,
son of as on Abu
neutral ground, adherents of either side were unmolested
;
polnt'ed^t'o
but finding no peace there from the taunts of Merwan and ^syp^others,
he at last resolved to cast himself on 'All's clemenc}'
and 'All, on the calumnies being cleared away, took him
back at once into his confidence, ancl thenceforward kept
him as his chief adviser. Mu'awi\a upbraided Merwan
with having driven Keis from Medina ;— " If thou hadst
aided 'All," he said, " with a hundred thousand men, it
had been a lesser evil than is the gain to him of such a
counsellor."
On his own side, however, Mu'awiya had a powerful and MuTuviya
astute adviser in 'Amr, the conqueror of Egypt.
o-'
Durintr
I J5
^ 1 - \ 7 1
the attack on 'Othman, 'Amr had retired from Medina
'Amr.
with his two sons to Palestine. The tidings of the tragedy,
aggravated by his own unkindly treatment of the Caliph,
affected him keenl)-. "It is 1," he said, "who, by deserting
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