A literary history of Persia

228 THE UMAYYAD PERIODanniversary, the Muslims of every land spend the live-long night,beating their breasts and vociferating unweariedly the frantic cryHasan, Hosetn ! Hasan, Hosein ! in wailing cadence can fail torecognise the fatal weapon, sharp and double-edged, which theOmeyyad dynasty allowed thus to fall into the hands of theirenemies ?"The rebellion of 'Abdu'llah ibn Zubayr, who for nine years(A.D. 683-692) maintained himself as independent Caliph in theHoly Cities, like the more formidable insurrectionIbnVubayer of Mukhtar (A.D. 683-687), Owed itS SUCCCSS tOand Mukhtar. . . . . - .the general desire tor vengeance on the murderersof al-Husayn and his kinsmen which possessed not only thewhole Shi'ite party, but even many of the Kharijites. 1In thesack of Madfna by Yazid's army (A.D. 682) there perishedeighty " Companions " of the Prophet, and no fewer than sevenhundred " Readers " who knew by heart the whole Qur'an.The blood of these too cried for vengeance, as did thedesecrated sanctuary of Mecca. Kerbeli at least was amplyavenged by Mukhtar (A.D. 686), who put to death, in manyinstances with torture, Ibn Ziyad, Shimr,4 Amr ibn Sa c d, andseveral hundred persons of lesser note who had borne a sharein that guilty deed. He himself, however, was slain less thana year afterwards by Mus'ab, the brother of Ibn Zubayr,together with 7,000 or 8,000 of his followers. The growingdissensions whereby the Musulman world was torn found aremarkable illustration in June, A.D. 688,when four rivalleaders the Umayyad Caliph 'Abdu'l-Malik, 'All's sonMuhammad (generallyknown as "//>#'/- Hanafiyya" "theson of the Hanafite woman," in allusion to his mother), IbnZubayr, and Najda the Kharijiteof the Pilgrimage at Mecca,presided over the ceremonieseach at the head of his ownfollowers.The movement headed by Mukhtdr was, as we have seen,essentially Shi'ite jthe cry was throughout for vengeance on1Muir, op. cit., p. 332.