The Chaliphate - Muir - The Search For Mecca

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400 HISHAM [chap. lv.
A.ll. 105- of the Caliphate either before or after. It was not his fault
^^
that the Empire, already undermined, continued sinking.
'Abbasid emissaries on the one hand, and Khariji theocrats
on the other, labouring in the dark, left no stone unturned
to overthrow the dynasty, casting the blackest and often
undeserved obloquy upon it. His virtues failed to arrest
the downward progress. The archives of State were during
his reign kept with a scrupulous care unequalled in any
other. There was no extravagance, and he left the imperial
treasury full. Indeed, it was unwillingness to scatter
largesses, and parsimony degenerating often into a mean
and miserly habit, that injured his popularity and impaired
his influence.^ As an instance of his justice, he refused to
let a Christian be punished for having chastised a Muslim
Dissolute servant, and chided his son for urg-ing; it. Scandalised at
WeM hei°-
^'^^ dissolute character of his nephew Al-Welid, the heirapparent,
apparent, who even on the pilgrimage to Mecca indulged
in wine and hounds,—abomination to the true believer,-
he had some thoughts of superseding him by his own son,
till he found that he was little better. Al-Welid was not
only intemperate in his life, but impatient of control, and
insolent in his attitude towards his uncle ; and so leaving
the Court, he betook himself to a country retreat in Palestine.
Hisham removed from him his evil advisers, and imprisoned
his secretary, after inflicting stripes upon him.
Al-Welld, resenting the indignity, addressed the Caliph a
satire breathing hatred and contempt. He remained in
his retreat during the rest of his uncle's reign.
When Hisham was on pilgrimage, the year after his
^
As a specimen of his meanness, a man is said once to have
brought as an offering two rare and beautiful birds, expecting a present
in return. "What shall I give thee?" said the Caliph. "Whatever
thou pleasest," he replied. " Then take one of the birds for thine own."
He chose the most beautiful. "So thou art leaving me the worse of
the two," said the Caliph ;
" I will keep them both." And he ordered
him the shabby gift of a few silver pieces.
- This was nine years before Hisham's death. The wild youth had
even thought of pitching" a pavilion hard by the Ka'ba wherein to have
a carousal with his boon companions ; but was dissuaded from the mad
design. The tale is almost incredible, and may have been invented or
coloured by 'Abbasid historians, always ready to blacken this dynasty.
But no doubt he was bad enough.