The Chaliphate - Muir - The Search For Mecca

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A.D. 692-705] LAST LINK WITH MOHAMMAD 335
Though Al-IIajjaj escaped these recent clangers, his A. 11. 73-86.
viceroyalty was during the next two or three years seriousl)- KhiirTiT
disturbed by Khawarij of various shades. Some were dis- insurrection,
satisfied with a government that seemed to trample on the ^^.^^ ^j,
sanctions of Islam, and preferred return to the days of 695-697 a.d.
'Omar, under a Caliph to be chosen (some still holding to
Koreish, and others not) by the voice of the people at large.
The Theocrats, on the other hand, would none of an)^ Caliph
—their cry, as of old, was A\) Ru/c but the Lord's alo)ic. But
all were nerved to action by the t)'ranny of .Al-IIajjaj, and
by the countenance accorded him by the Caliph. The most
dangerous was the latter class. These had no worldly views.
As a matter of conscience, they fought with equal bravery
whatever the chances of success, goaded b}- a wild fanaticism.
They belonged for the most part to one tribe, the proud
Beni Sheiban of Bekr, who had migrated from their settlements
on the right bank of the Euphrates to new pasture
grounds in northern Mesopotamia. Their leader Shebib
ibn ^'ezTd, with his few hundreds, put to flight the thousands
of .\.l-ljajjaj. By rapid counter-marches, he outmanceuvred
his enemy, and with desperate bravery over and again discomfited
the columns which, for two years, were continually
sent against him. He repeatedly stormed the walls of
Al-Kufa, and on one occasion effecting an entrance, made
havoc in the city, and slew many of the worshippers
assembled in the Mosque. Abusing the Kufans in his
despatches to the Caliph, for their cowardice, Al-Hajjaj was
reinforced b\' a contingent of Syrian troops. With their aid Khawarij
he succeeded at last in dispersing the followers of Shebib, '^'^P^'^sed- ^
who was drowned, at the end of the year 'j'j A.ii. (Spring,
C97 A.I).), by his horse stumbling on a bridge of boats over
the river at Al-Ahwaz.^
Under Al-Hajjaj the revenues from the kharaj or land- Thelantl-iax.
tax began to fall off owing to the peasantry flocking into
the towns ; and he adopted the drastic remedy of forbidding
them to migrate and of compelling those who had done so
^
There is a story that his Ijody was sent to Al-Hajjaj, wlio had Iiis
heart taken out. It was hard as a stone, rebounding when cast on tlie
floor ; and within was found a drop of coagulated blood, such as that
from which the Kor'an tells us man was evolved. Sura .\.\ii.
5
.\cvi. 2
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Ibn Khallikfin i. 617. His mother was a Greek captive girl.