The Chaliphate - Muir - The Search For Mecca

A.I). 720-4] FAMILY OF AL-MUHALLAR 377
took ship by the gulf to a fortress in Kirman, hoping that its A.U. loigovernor,
who owed his post to Yezid, would give his famil)' ^^1
and kindred shelter. But they were mistaken ;
the brothers
were put to death, and the women and children, in defiance of
all Islamic law, exposed for sale in Al-Basra ; but a loyal
servant of the Umeiyads, j\l-Jarrah ibn 'Abdallah al-
I.Iakami, did his duty and ransomed them. Their estates
were, of course, confiscated. Equally cruel was the fate of Slaughter of
the prisoners at Al-Kufa, where 300 were by the Caliph's house und^
orders slain. In companies of twenty and thirty, they were followers.
brought out, some of them naked, and decapitated in cold
blood. Thus the Caliph slaked his wrath against the
faction hostile to Al-Hajjaj. And so perished the house
of Al-Muhallab, none of whose descendants were meet
representatives of that great man. The butcheries and
contempt of human life we now so often read of, are a
painful feature of the day. The cruel scene, however, is
but a fit ending to the career of the man who drove the
corn-mill of Jurjan with his victims' blood.
The services of Maslama in this dangerous rebellion, and Rising in
in the campaign against the Greeks, were rewarded by 102-104' a'.h.
the government of Al-Trak and Khorasan. As his lieutenant
at Merv, Maslama appointed his son-in-law Sa'id, a weak
man, called in derision Khodheina, from affecting in his
dress the attire of a Persian lady. The choice was far
from fortunate. There was a general rising of the hordes
in Khojanda and Ferghana, which became dangerous owing
to Muslim inactivity. The tributary Soghdians, threatened
by these, sought protection from Merv, but help being slow
of coming, they meanwhile made overtures to the Turks,
and between the two suffered grievously. When Muslim
forces did arrive, the Soghdians returned at first to their
allegiance. Information, however, having reached the
Muslim general of the murder of an Arab (for numbers
of Arabians and Persians had begun to settle in the land),
he sent for the culprit, and slew him in his tent. The
Soghdians retaliated b)- putting to death the Muslim
prisoners in their hands ; on which the general fell
upon the Soghdian residents, who having been meanwhile
disarmed had only staves wherewith to defend
themselves. The whole, 3000 in number, fell b>- the