The Chaliphate - Muir - The Search For Mecca

!
,
A.D. 833-47] WAR WITH r.VZANTIXES 5,5
been now for twenty years the lord of Azerbijan, and A.H. 218-
whose endless roll of outrages committed, and of Muslim -32.
generals beaten and armies destroyed, had for a whole
generation struck terror into the people's mind/ made the
march a royal ovation for Afshln. As he drew near to
Samarra, the Caliph sent him every day a fresh dress of
honour with splendid gifts ;
and when the cortege approached,
went forth in state with his son and the ro)-al household, to
bring him in with ever)' mark of honour. Babek was kept
under guard, and thither Al-Mo'tasim himself with his
chief Kadi, went in disguise to gaze upon "the Shaitan
of Khorasan," as they called him, who was then paraded
over the city. Brought back to the palace, the Caliph, and cruelly
surrounded by his men of war, commanded Babek's own ^^^