The Chaliphate - Muir - The Search For Mecca

A.D. 683-92] "THE PEXITEXT" 321
the blood of that unfortunate Caliph. The theocrats, incensed A. II. 64-73.
at hi.s refu.sal, now turned again.st Ibn az-Zubeir, whose Khawi7ii
brother Mu.s'ab had hard work in opposing them. Over fall out ivith
and over again they got possession of Al-Basra, and when
at last driven out they retired to Al-Ahwaz and spread themselves
over Persia. There committing continual ravages
under one name or another (for they split up into many
sects), they were with difficulty held in check by Al-Muhallab,
a brave general who had already distinguished himself in
Khorasan, and was now summoned for this task b\'
Mus'ab.
Meanwhile an adventurer of a very different t}'pc, named
Mukhtfu at
Al-Mukhtar, came on the .scene at Al-Kufa. He was son „. ''" .
'
Jrlis previous
of the Abu 'Obeid slain in the battle of the Bridge, and history.
jjelonged to the notorious tribe of Thakif. Designing and
unprincipled, Al-Mukhtar was ever ready to take the side
most for his own advantage. He was one of those who pursued
AI-Hasan when, as Caliph, he fled from Al-Kilfa to Al-
Medain
;
and, on the other hand, he took part with Muslim,
when deputed by Al-Hosein to Al-Kufa. On the last
occasion, he was seized by 'Obeidallah, then governor of the
city, who struck him a blow that cost him an eye. Escaping
to Arabia, he swore that he would revenge the injury by
cutting the tyrant's body into a thousand pieces. At Mecca
he aided Ibn az-Zubeir in opposing the S}'rian attack on the
Holy City but distrusted by him, he departed and set
;
up on
his own account. Towards the close of 64 A. II. he returned Returns to
to Al-Kufa, now under one of Ibn az-Zubeir's lieutenants, J'>-"fa' end of
... 'U A.H.
and gained a name by joining in the cry of vengeance, raised 684 a. v.
by the 'Alid party, against all who had been concerned in the
attack upon Al-Hosein. But, suspected by the governor of
sinister designs, he was seized and cast into prison.
The civil war which now broke out was in reality a rising Khfuiji
of the Persian Mawrdi against their .Arab masters, but it !'/.'"&
^
^^
'
Kufa to
.
, ,
was given a religious colouring. For, about this time, a revenge
wild fanaticism had seized the Khawarij of Al-Kufa, to ff*^*^.
"^
'
'
Ilosem,
revenge the death of Al-Hosein. Ever since the traged)' 64 .a.h.
at Kerbala, a party there had more or less conspired to slay
all those who had joined the enemies of their Prophet's
grandson. The feeling now became intense. Early in The
65 A.M., numbers of " the Penitents" (Tauwabin), as they ^^"'*^"^^'
called themselves, visited the tomb of Al-Hosein at Kerbala,
X