A Short of Saracens:Chapter XII

The Extent of the Empire at Hisham's Death  — Character of his Successor — His cruelty towards his Relations — Khalid al-Kasri put to Death — Yahya bin Zaid's Rising and Death — Its effect on the People of Khorasan — Affairs in Spain — Husam (Abu"l Khattar) Governor of Spain — Submission of all Parties — His mild and just Government at the outset — His partiality for the Yemenites — Insurrection of the Modhar — Battle of Shekundah — Election of Thalaba — His Death — Election of Yusuf — The Knight of Andalusia — His Death — Arrival of Abdur Rahman, grandson of Hisham, in Spain — Invasion of Pepin the Short — Massacre of the Saracens — Siege of Narbonne — Captured by Treachery — Arab Power effaced in France — Affairs in Africa — Insurrection against Walid II. — His Death — Yezid III. proclaimed Caliph — His Death — Succession of Ibrahim — Revolt of Merwan — Battle of Ain-ul-jar — Flight of Ibrahim — Merwan proclaimed Caliph.

In the year 743 A.C, when Hisham died, the Saracenic empire had reached its extremest limit. In Europe, the empire, south of France and the whole of the Iberian Peninsula, save and except some defiles in which robber-bands maintained a guerilla warfare, belonged to the Moslems. In the Mediterranean they possessed Majorca, Minorca, Ivica, Corsica, Sardinia, Crete, Rhodes, and Cyprus, with a part of Sicily, and many of the islands of the Grecian Archipelago also belonged to them. In Africa, their sway was recognised from the Straits of Gibraltar to the Isthmus of Suez ; in Asia, from the deserts of Sinai to the Steppes of Mongolia. But whilst a vast and far-reaching conspiracy weakened the bonds of authority in the East, strife and discord in the West threatened the dissolution of the colossal fabric. 

It was at this moment of extreme gravity that the death of Hisham removed a ruler who, with all his weakness, was at least intelligent and cautious. His successor was totally different; profligate to a degree, utterly oblivious of the ordinary rules character of morality and addicted to drinking, he soon disgusted the people with his riotous and wicked life. Hisham had tried to alter the succession, but the covenant of his brother was binding and could not be departed from. 

He had also endeavoured, perhaps with some harshness, to repress the evil habits of his brother's son, which led only to unseemly quarrels and disputes. The sombre austerity of Hisham's court went against the young man's grain, and he had removed to a place in Jordan, where he waited impatiently for the death of his uncle. Immediately on receiving the news he hurried to Damascus, and began his reign by driving out Hisham's family from the palace. 

Even the funeral rites of the deceased monarch were not allowed to be performed without idecent interference. His cruelties to his cousins, the sons of Walid I. and Hisham, men of mature age who had distinguished themselves in the wars against the Romans, deepened the abhorrence felt by the people. In the beginning he tried to ingratiate himself with the legionaries by raising their stipends and distributing magnificent largesses among the populace. To win public favour he increased the allowances of the poor, the lame, and decrepit. But these endeavours were neutralised and made abortive by a fickle temperament and debased nature, which often broke forth in cruel deeds. Khalid, the governor of Irak, had lived retired in Damascus since his release under the orders of Hisham; he was now made over to his cruel enemy Yusuf, who put him to death. The youthful Yahya hunted from place to place; goaded to desperation, he rose in arms, determined to fall with the sword in his hand rather than be killed like vermin. He met the death he courted; his head was severed from his body and sent to Walid, and the body was impaled on a cross. 

The fate of Yahya created a great sensation in Khorasan, and accelerated the downfall of the Ommeyades. The people went into universal mourning; every male child born on the day of Yahya's death was named after him, and when Abli Muslim stood forth as the "Avenger of the House," they flocked to his standard dressed in black, which thenceforth became the Abbasside colour. The names of the Ommeyades who had taken part in Yahya's death were ascertained from the Register, and they were pursued and killed without mercy. 

In Spain Yusuf, a descendant of Okbah bin Nafi,the conqueror of Africa has become the ruler of Andalusia and had successfully quelled all the insurrections and were it not for a grandson of Hisham, who, fleeing from the Abbasside avengers, landed in June 755 a.c. on the shores of Spain, probably Yusuf would have founded a dynasty of his own. The arrival of this scion of the House of Ommeya completely altered the aspect of affairs. Gifted with energy, vigour, and administrative ability of the first order, and assisted by the prestige of his name, the Ommeyade prince conquered all difficulties, and finally made himself the founder of a new dynasty in Spain.

Whilst Yusuf was engaged with his adversaries, Pepin the king of France, who had been waiting to attack the Saracens until they were thoroughly weakened, swept down with an enormous horde of barbarians upon Septimania, and Western Savoy, which were still held by the Arabs. The beautiful cities were committed to the flames, the mosques, hospitals, and schools were destroyed by fire, the Arabs, regardless of sex and age, were put to the sword, and the whole country became one vast scene of carnage and destruction. The devastation wrought by tlie Franks resulted in a terrible famine, in which multitudes of people perished. In spite of their helplessness, the Saracens of Southern France maintained a stout defence for three years, contesting every inch of ground against tremendous odds. By 755 a.c, however, Narbonne alone was left in their hands, which Pepin besieged with all the resources at his command. The siege lasted four years, until the Christians within the city, taking advantage one day of the slackness of the guards, rose upon them, and after killing some, opened the gates to their brethren outside. The barbarians then poured into the city; the Moslems, men, women, and children, were put to the sword ; all vestige of civilisation was rased to the ground, and Languedoc and Provence lapsed into the general darkness which then pervaded Christian Europe. Whilst Pepin was thus driving the Saracens out of their possessions in France, the difficulties in which they were involved in Spain led to the abandonment of the mountainous tract bordering on the Bay of Biscay, where the rebels were enabled to form the nucleus of a formidable kingdom. 

In Africa, ever since the overthrow of the Berbers before Kairowan, Hanzala had ruled with unequalled success the vast province of which he held charge. Both the Berbers and the Kharijis recognised his honesty of purpose and the justice of his administration. The peace which reigned throughout his province gave an impetus to trade and commerce. The treachery and ambition of an exiled functionary named Abdur Rahman bin Habib again plunged the country into strife and dissension. In 127 a.h. he rose in rebellion in Tunis, and taking as his prisoners a number of notables whom Hanzala had sent to dissuade him from his traitorous enterprise, he marched upon Kairowan. He threatened to slay his prisoners if attacked. Hanzala, always averse to the shedding of blood, retired to Asia and into private life. Kairowan opened its gates to the rebel, who installed himself as the Viceroy of Ifrikia. But the rule thus treacherously begun was disturbed by continuous risings and war. Abdur Rahman bin Habib, however, himself remained in power until he was killed in a fight with his own brother in 137 a.c. 

Hitherto Damascus had formed the stronghold of the Ommeyades, and whatever the character or disposition of the reigning sovereign, the members of the clan never wavered in their allegiance to him. Their loyalty, bred from kinship and fostered by self-interest, added to the prestige and safety of the dynasty. Under Walid II., for the first time, a fatal change set in. His devotion to music and horse-racing, in the pursuit of which he neglected the affairs of state, though it made him unpopular among the bigots of the capital, was shared by the principal members of his family. But his profligacy and his open defiance of the ordinary rules of morality, alienated his best supporters, and the bulk of the Ommeyades fell away from him. There erupted a revolt and Yezid II, a son of Walid I., and grandson of Abdul Malik, placed himself at their head. They were joined by the populace of Damascus, and Walid II was besieged in a citadel in the suburbs of the capital. He tried to negotiate with the insurgents, but in vain. The gate was burst open, and the monarch was pursued and slain and his head severed from the body was paraded in the streets of Damascus. 

Upon the death of Walid II., Yezid, who led the revolt, was raised to the throne. He is described as a pious man, strictly observant of his religious duties, and faithful trencher in his words and actions. In his public oration, after the people had taken the oath of fealty, he explained the reasons that had led him to rise against his cousin, and went on to promise that he would fortify the frontiers, place the cities in a proper state of defence, relieve the burdens that weighed on the masses, and remove the dishonest officers of government. Had he lived long enough it is probable that he would have proved a capable sovereign, but his reign was too short and too disturbed to admit of reform or improvement. The risings in Hems and Palestine were repressed. Merwan, the Governor of Armenia, refused at first to take the oath of fealty, and moved on Syria with the avowed object of placing one of the sons of the unfortunate Walid on the throne. His nominal submission was obtained with the bribe of the possessions held by his father; and the young sons of Walid 11. were thrown into prison. 

Abdullah, the son of Omar II., was appointed the governor of iraq. Nasr, the deputy-governor of Khorasan, however, refused to obey the orders of Abdullah or to recognise the authority of Yezid III. The paralysis which seized the central administration affected the remoter limbs of the Empire; and the rising of Abdur Rahman in Africa against Hanzala passed unpunished. The only reform that Yezid was able to introduce tended to make him unpopular with the legionaries. Walid 11 had increased their pay; Yezid reduced it to the scale in Hisham's death time, which obtained for him the designation of "the Retrencher." He died after a short reign of six months, at the end of 126 a.h. Yezid III. was succeeded by his brother Ibrahim, whose authority was not recognised beyond the capital and barely lasted two months and ten days. Merwan II again took up arms with the ostensible object of releasing the sons of Walid, and marched towards Damascus. At Ain-ul-jar, a small township near the Lebanon, he was encountered by a large army sent by Ibrahim, composed chiefly of Yemenites. Merwan's troops were seasoned soldiers, and trained to warfare in a long course of fighting with the Byzantines and the Turkish hordes. The Yemenite rabble were defeated with great slaughter, and the route to Damascus lay open to the victor. 

As Merwan approached the capital, Ibrahim and his myrmidons took to flight, after killing the sons of Walid in the vain hope of staying the rescuer's march. The retainers of Walid's family now rose in riot and slaughter against the followers of the fugitive Ibrahim and his dead brother, killed a number of them, sacked their dwellings, exhumed the body of Yezid III. from his grave and impaled it on one of the city gates. Damascus was now in a terrible state of anarchy and confusion, and the arrival of Merwan was welcomed by the respectable citizens. He was immediately proclaimed Caliph; and the people readily took the oath of fealty, in the expectation that a trained soldier would restore peace to the distracted country.