WARS OF THE CALIPHS. 



375 



slaughter, during which 6000 of the principal inhabit- 

 ants are said to have perished. At Mecca, the par- 

 tisans of Hossein had proclaimed Abdallah, the son of 

 Zobeir, caliph of Arabia, Irak, Khorasan, and Egypt. 

 To this place the Syrian army directed their march; 

 and for forty days it defied all the arts and engines 

 of the besiegers. The walls were severly battered ; 

 several pillars of the temple were demohshed by 

 stones thrown from the catapults ; and one of the 

 machines, loaded with naphtha, being discharged 

 against the Kaaba, the linen veil which covered it 

 was set on fire and reduced to ashes. The city 

 shortly after was stormed by Hejaje : but Abdallah, 

 though deserted by his followers to the amount of 

 10,000, disdained to surrender, and, rushing furi- 

 ously into the thickest of the enemy, he obtained 

 from their swords the honourable death which he 

 sought. Before this occurrence had taken place, 

 Yezzid, to use the words of the Persian original, 

 «' was enrolled among the dignitaries of the infernal 

 regions." The domestic history of his successors 

 merits little attention. The recovery of Mecca had 

 established the sovereignty of the house of Ommiah 

 over the whole Moslem world ; and most of the 

 subsequent reigns were occupied in subduing refrac- 

 tory provinces or quelling the revolts of petty chief- 

 tains. Some of these insurrections were attended 

 with extraordinary scenes of atrocity and bloodshed. 

 It was the boast of Moktar, who supported the in- 

 terests of Abdallah in Persia, that he had destroyed 

 nearly 50,000 of the enemies of the Alides, exclu- 

 sive of those who perished in the several battles 

 which he fought. Hejaje, who was appointed gov- 

 ernor of Hejaz, was a cruel and sanguinary tyrant. 

 During the twenty years that he had presided over 

 Irak, he is said to have destroyed 120,000 persons 

 of rank ; and in the various prisons under his ju- 

 risdiction were found at his death 30,000 men and 

 20,000 women. 



