The Chaliphate - Muir - The Search For Mecca

CHAPTER LVI
AL-WKLID II., AND VEZTl) III.
125-126 A.H. 743-744 A.D.
The two brief following reigns contributed nothing but 125 a.h.
disaster to the Umeiyad cause and to the Empire at large.
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Tidings of his uncle's death were received by Al-W'ehd Accession of
with indecent delight. Notorious profligacy and incapacity
notwithstanding, he succeeded without opposition to the
throne. He made haste to send and seize the property
of the late Caliph's relatives and favourites, and to treat
them with every indignity, especially those of the tribe of
Makhzum, to whom Hisham was related through his mother.
Hisham's son Suleiman was beaten, shaven, exiled, and cast
into prison : his officials were replaced by Keisitcs. The
well-filled treasury was quickly emptied by the new Caliph's
largesses to his courtiers and increased pay to the soldiery.
Such free hand, and a generous provision for the blind and
infirm, gained for him a certain degree of popularity. But
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his intemperate and dissolute life caused great scandal Dissolute
throughout the nation. Besides such conventional pro-
fanities as wine, music, and hounds, his debauched habits
alienated from him the regard of all the better classes. He
was accused of tampering with the virtue of his predecessor's
Jiaruii^ and even darker vices were bruited abroad. To
make matters worse, he appointed two sons of tender age
his successors, and any who refused the oath of allegiance
were imprisoned. The discontent rose to such a pitch, that
even the Umeiyads plotted against him and encouraged
YezTd, another grandson of 'Abd al-Melik, to seek his
downfall.
Khalid Al-Kasri, the former governor of Al-Kufa, having
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'''"^ profane,