The Chaliphate - Muir - The Search For Mecca

348 AL-WELlD [chap. Li.
A.H. 86-96. governors, of embezzlement. Having to set out on a
Escape of
Campaign against the Kurds, he took them with his cam{j,
Yezid. under a Syrian guard. Yezid was subjected to torture,
which he bore with fortitude ; but on one occasion the
instrument of torture pierced his leg, and he cried aloud.
His sister, one of Al-Hajjaj's wives, alarmed at the cry,
screamed, whereupon the tyrant divorced her on the spot.
The prisoners were fortunate enough to effect their escape ;
and Al-Hajjaj, thinking they had fled to Khorasfm, warned
Koteiba of the danger. But they had taken horse in the
opposite direction, and fled to Ramleh in Palestine, where
they took refuge with Suleiman, the Caliph's brother. Al-
Hajjaj was instant with the Caliph that Yezid should be
delivered up
;
whereupon Suleiman sent him, and his own
son with him, to Damascus, both in chains, with a letter
supplicating mercy. Al-Welld, touched at the sight, let
them depart in peace, and forbade Al-Hajjaj to interfere.
.Yezid continued to live with the heir-apparent as his intimate
and, as we shall see hereafter, favourite courtier.^ His tribe,
the Azd, was also that of the mother of Suleiman.
Death of During the remainder of his life we do not hear much
of Al-Hajjaj, and it was well for him that he died before Al-
Qt;^A^ii'
714 A.D. Welld, for he had given mortal offence to Suleiman, whose
right of succession Al-Welld desired to set aside in favour of
his son, and the design was encouraged by Al-Hajjaj. But
the wrath of Suleiman, though escaped by the father, fell,
as we shall see, with terrible severity on his family and
adherents. Al-Hajjaj stands out in the annals of Islam as
the incarnation of cruelty. But the Caliphate owed much
to him. For twenty years, the absolute ruler of the East in
times of trouble and danger, with anarchy abroad, perversity
and fickleness at home, rebellion and wild fanaticism at his
doors, Al-Hajjaj, by his bravery and resolution, maintained
the strength and restored the prosperity of the Empire in
Al-'Irak, 'Arabia, and Khorasan. Severity was no doubt often
justified in quelling the turbulent elements around ; but
nothing can excuse the enormous bloodshed and inhumanity
which have handed down his name as that of one of the
Suleiman was so much attached to Yezid that whenever he received
'
some special rarity, or beautiful slavc-s^irl, lie would send them to his
friend.