The Chaliphate - Muir - The Search For Mecca

A.H. 40-60.
His deith,
?3 A.H.
673 A.D.
Progress in
the East.
Africa.
'Okba founds
Kairawan,
50 A.H.
670 A.D.
296 MU'AWIYA [CHAl'. XLV.
planted in Khorasan with their wives and families. Ziyad
did not long enjoy the splendid position he had thus
achieved. Not satisfied with the East, he coveted also
charge of the Hijaz with its Holy Cities. The inhabitants
in terror prayed to the Lord that he might not have it ; and
so (says our annalist) his hand was smitten with a malignant
boil, of which he died in the year 53 (summer of ^y-i^ A.D.),
at the age of fifty-eight.
Great progress was made by Mu'awiya in extending his
rule eastward. The conquered peoples and their chiefs,
impatient of the tribute and restraints of Islam, were
continually casting off their allegiance ;
but the yoke was
yearly becoming more secure, Herat, having rebelled, was
stormed, 41 A.H. ; and two years later Kabul also was
besieged for several months, and taken after the walls had
been breached by catapults. Similar operations are
noticed against Ghazna, Balkh, Kandahar, and other
strongholds. In the year 54 a.H., one of Ziyad's sons,
crossing the Oxus and mountain range on camels, took
Bokhara
;
and two years later a son of 'Othman beat back
the Turkish hordes and gained possession of Samarkand
and Tirmidh. The territories in the far north and east
continued long on a precarious tenure ;
but in the south
all the country up to the banks of the Indus was gradually
being consolidated under Mohammadan rule or suzerainty.
The experience of Africa along its northern shore did
not materially differ from that of the East, for the Berbers
were ever and anon rebelling after they had tendered their
submission. Indeed, the struggle was harder here, for the
Roman settlements enabled the native population to offer
a more stubborn resistance. And yet, in the end, the
overthrow was not less complete, so that the bright seats
of civilisation and of the Christian faith were soon known
only by the ruins of their temples, aqueducts, and civic
buildings. 'Okba, appointed by 'Amr, 41 A.H., waged war
against the Berbers, and for several years the littoral
was ravaged as far as Barka and Waddan. In the year 50,
strengthened by Mu'awiya with a body of 10,000 Arabs, he
founded the settlement of Kairawan, to the south of Tunis,
as the African capital, and strongly fortified it against the
Berbers. Ever since, it has been regarded as a sacred centre.