The Chaliphate - Muir - The Search For Mecca

and
336 'Al',1) AL-MELIK [chai-. i,.
A.TI. 73-86. to return. The names of their lands were even branded
upon their hands. .Such measures aroused resentment,
and so contributed to swell the ranks of the disaffected
under Ibn al-Ash'ath. Under 'Omar II. another plan had
to be tried.
Miiballab's Al-Muhallab was still engaged in Persia with Khawarij
campaign of the Azraki sect. Driven out of Fars, they fell back on
Azarika, Kirmau, and for a year and a half eluded or defied the
76-78 A.H. Caliph's forces. Their chronic rebellion might have lasted
695-697 A.D.
'
longer, had they not fallen out among themselves, and
broken up into parties that were soon effectively dispersed.
Thus the Azarika, having kept Al-'Irak ;
Persia more or
less in turmoil for a period of twenty years, were at last put
an end to. In recognition of his success, Al-Hajjaj received
Al-Muhallab with great honour at Al-Basra, and invested
him with the governments of Khorasan and Sijistan, which
had lately (78 A.H.) come under his jurisdiction. From Merv,
Al-Muhallab crossed the Oxus, and with his sons warred for
two years against the Turkomans in that direction, who,
notwithstanding previous campaigns waged with various
success, were yet but partially brought under Muslim
His death, influence. He died 82 A.H., and was succeeded by his
82 A.H.
701-702 A.D
sons. His services to Islam in the long and obstinate
struggle with the Khawarij were great ; and the name he
left behind was singularly fair and unsullied.
Ibn al- Al-Hajjaj was yet to be exposed to another danger: the
rebels^
great King beyond Sijistan, named Zunbll, when attacked
against drew the Muslim forces into difficult passes of Afghan-
So^a.h'. istan, from which they were allowed to retire only on the
699 A.P. payment of a humiliating ransom. To avenge the affront,
an army was raised, named " the peacock army," so splendid!}^
was it equipped at the cost of a heavy war cess on Al-
Basra and Al-Kufa. The command \vas unwisely placed in
the hands of the ambitious grandson of Al-Ash'ath, who
marched against Zunbll, 80 A.H., put him to flight, and
ravaged his land. Mindful, however, of the recent misfortune,
Ibn al Ash'ath (for so he is commonly called)
would have held his hand for a time till the country
settled down ; but Al-Hajjaj, upbraiding him with faintheartedness,
peremptorily bade him to war on ; and when
expostulated with, threatened supersession. The army,