The Chaliphate - Muir - The Search For Mecca

A.D. 724-43] DEATH OF HISHAM 401
accession, he refrained in the pubh'c services from the A.II. 105-
customary imprecation on the name of 'All. He was ^^
urged by one of 'Othman's descendants to resume it; Ilisham
—"This is the Holy Place," he said, "and it becomes f'om'^eviiin
the Commander of the Faithful to rescue the memory 'AH.
of the murdered Caliph here." Hisham, displeased at
his words, replied, — "I came not here to speak ill of
any one, nor to curse ;
but to perform the rights of pilgrimage."
On another occasion having unadvisedly reviled
a Courtier, he was much distressed, and humbly made
apology. Although thus in general disposition mild and Occasional
upright, the reader will remember instances in which ^"%°'^
' ^ cruelty.
he was severe and cruel, not to say unjust, towards
lieutenants who had fallen under his displeasure. A
Muslim citizen of the old type, he was opposed to the
rising school of the Kadarlya, who advocated the doctrine
of the freedom of the will, and indulged in philosophical
speculations upon religious subjects. One such heretic
he caused to be put to death for denying that the Kor'an
was uncreate. Another, who rejected the doctrine of
inspiration, was by his command impaled after his limbs
had first been cut asunder. There is the less doubt about
such accounts, for though handed down by the unfriendly
pen of 'Abbasid writers, they would be regarded by most
believers as not discreditable to the Umeiyad race, but
rather as meritorious acts of faith.
Damascus was much exposed to epidemic plague, and to Death of
avoid contagion the Caliphs with their families were in the j^^ijV^'^h.
habit of seeking the purer air of the desert. Such favourite Feb.,
retreat was Ar-Rusafa, a city adorned with Roman buildings, ''"^^ ^'^'
four days south of Ar-Rakka.
There Hisham spent much of
his time ;
and there he died of quinsy in the twentieth year
of his reign, aged fifty-six. To his Christian subjects he
was not unfriendly. One of his friends was a Christian
monk, Stephanus, for whom he obtained the Patriarchate of
Antioch ; another the Muslim traditionist Az-Zuhri. He
disliked publicity, and transacted much of his business
through his trusty Kelbite Al-Abrash. Yet he had all the
business at his finger ends, and his ministry of finance was the
admiration of the 'Abbasid Mansur. His chief concern was
to increase taxation to the utmost limit, and he spent the
2 c