The Chaliphate - Muir - The Search For Mecca

AD. S13-33] UNION WITH 'ALIUS 499
for tlie difficult position which he now assumed, and which A.H. 198-
with difficulty he held for two years.
^J_
Al-Hasan, AI-Ma'mun's viceroy, was thereupon obliged Bagdad and
again to retire to Wasit, and fighting was renewed between rebVlli'on
the Imperial troops and those of the Usurper. Al-I.Iasan, 202-203 a.h.
thinking to gain over Al-Kufa with its ShTa proclivities,
appointed as its governor a brother of 'Ah ar-Rida ; and
it is significant of the caprice of that fickle city, and the
hopelessness of the new coalition, that, while ready to receive
him as a purely 'Alid leader, they would hear nothing of
him as the Persian representative of Al-Ma'mun
;
and so
fifjhting went on there as elsewhere. While the West was
in this state of turmoil, a fresh and startling change took
place at Merv.
Al-Ma'mun's eyes at last were opened. The first to tell Ma'miins
him the truth, strange to say, was 'All ar-Rida himself. %"a°'h."^'^'
Things had gone on from bad to worse since his adoption 817-818 a.d.
the year before. He ventured now to warn the Caliph that
his Wazir was hiding from him the truth ;
that the people
of Al-'Irak held him to be either half-witted or bewitched
;
and that between Ibrahim and the 'Alids the empire was
slipping from his hands;—Al-Hasan, the Wazlr's brother,
was hurrying the West to ruin, while 'pihir, who might have
righted the vessel in the storm, was thrust neglected into
Syria. A body of leading men, guaranteed against the
resentment of the Wazir, confirmed the facts, and advised
Al-Ma'mun's return at once to Bagdad, as the only safety
for the Empire. This, they added, was the loyal errand of
Harthama, had his Master but listened to him two years
before. Al-Ma'mim, now convinced that the insurrection Sets out for
was due to his own subservience to Al-Fadl, and his Shi'a ^hf 'IqI'^ „
teachincT, crave orders for his Court to march towards the Kei>.,
Capital. Arrived at Sarakhs, Al-Fadl, who had vented his ° '^ '
displeasure against the informers, was found murdered in Murder of
his bath. A reward was offered for the assassins ;
but these i,""2o2 ^\\\^
'
asserted that they had done what they did by command of
the Caliph. They were executed nevertheless, and their
heads sent to Al-Hasan with a letter of condolence on the
death of his brother, and the promise that he should succeed
to the vacant office. Al-Ma'num further showed his attachment
to .\1-Hasan by contracting a marriage with his