The Chaliphate - Muir - The Search For Mecca

A.D. 705-15] DEATH OF AL-HAJJAJ 349
cruellest tyrants the world has ever secn.^ When, after A.H. 86-96.
twenty years of fighting he had pacified his provinces,
he turned his attention to the arts of peace, developing
the canal system, reclaiming land, and doing his best to
prevent the peasantry from flocking from the country into
the towns. He and Ziyad were the two great ministers of
the Umeiyads, without whom the dynasty would not have
survived. In one respect Ziyad was the greater of the two,
since he did not use force in the shape of Syrian soldiers,
but played off one faction against another, and so gained
his end.
An indirect advantage has by some been attributed to. Wars of
the tyranny of Al-Hajjaj, in that his reign of terror drove jv|^,o7lsin"
many from their homes to swell the armies in the field, and 86-96 a.h.
so help forward the conquests for which the Caliphate of 7°5-/i5a.
Al-VVelid is famous. A brief outline of these will now be
given, beginning with the campaign of Koteiba ibn Muslim
in Central Asia. That great warrior, who was of Bahila, a
neutral tribe, advanced every summer into the provinces
beyond the Oxus, retiring, as autumn advanced, to winter
in Merv. Up to this time the Muslim campaigns appear
to have been of the nature of gharjaivdt, or raids, bringing
the subdued lands into the category of allied, protected,
or tributary, rather than of conquered and subject, states.
The proceedings were now of a more permanent nature.
Koteiba's first advance was against Balkh, Tukharistan,
and Ferghana. At Balkh, among the captives, was the
wife of Barmek a physician, who was taken as a slavegirl
into the harlm of 'Abdallah, Koteiba's brother. Soon
after, peace being made, the lady, as a matter of
grace, was restored to her husband ; but the result
of the short union with 'Abdallah was a son, acknowledged
by him, and known in after-days as Khalid the
1
Tradition puts the number of lives sacrificed by Al-Hajjaj (apart
froni carnage on the field of Ixittle) at 120,000,—mere guess-work of
course. He was fond of making copies of the Kor'an with his own
hand, and as a work of merit making distribution of them ;
but he was
bitterly opposed to Ibn MasTid's te.Kt,— declaring that he would behead
anyone who followed it. Many savage sayings are attributed to him.
The odium attaching to his name has no doubt magnified his demerits,
which, however, with every allowance for exaggeration, were precniinenliy
bad.