The Chaliphate - Muir - The Search For Mecca

326 'AIJD AL-MELIK [chap. XI.IX.
A.H. 64-73. attacks on the unoffending people/ took Ar-Reiy, besieged
Ispahan for months, overran Al-Ahwaz and Kirman, and
even threatened Al-Kufa. Al-Muhallab, the only general able
Pilgrimage
xii. 68 A.H.
June,
688 A.D.
Rebellion of
'Amr ibn
Sa'id, 70 A.H.
68q A.D.
to cope with these savage fanatics, had been unwisely withdrawn
from the field for the government of Mosul. Mus'ab
now again sent him against the Khariji bands; and
after eight months of unceasing warfare he succeeded in
dispersing them for the time. The temporary quiet which,
apart from these Khariji outrages, at this period prevailed
throughout the Empire is signalised by the singular spectacle
chronicled by tradition, that whereas the Meccan solemnities
were always headed by the Sovereign himself or by his
Lieutenant, there were in the year 68 A.H., four leaders
who, without any breach of harmony, presided at the
Pilgrimage, each over his own adherents,—namel}- Ibn az-
Zubeir, Ibn al-Hanefiya, the Khariji Najda, who held the
south of Arabia, and the representative of the Umeiyads.
-Yet no act of violence took place.
Now that the power of Al-Mukhtar and of the Khawarij
had been broken for him, 'Abd al-Melik had for some time
been contemplating operations against Ibn az-Zubeir, and
had in fact started on more than one occasion for a campaign
to commence in the north of Syria, and sweep down upon
Al-'Irak and Arabia ; but a severe famine paralysed his
efforts for a time. At last, in the summer of 6S9 A.D. (69-70
A.ll.) he set out against the Keis in Kirklsiya, but was
recalled by a danger which threatened his throne, and led
to an act which has left an indelible stigma on his name.
At the time of Merwan's accession, it was stipulated that
the minor son of Yezld should have the next claim. A
similar expectation was held out, either then or afterwards,
to 'Amr ibn Sa'ld, cousin of the Caliph and governor of
Damascus. Both expectations were defeated by the
succession of 'Abd al-Melik, and the injury rankled in the
mind of 'Amr ibn Sa'id. Accordingly, on the Caliph's camp
nearing Aleppo, he left it secretly by night, re-entered
Damascus, and set up for himself as Caliph. 'Abd al-Melik
'
These theocratic fanatics seem throughout to have had a strange
fascination for the most savage cruelties, regarding them apparently
as service to God, if only perpetrated against those held by them as
heretics.
They even cut up women big with child.