A.H. 86–96.
stations, and fountains to play at Mecca and Medīna.[1] It was all for ʿOmar a labour of love; and so well did he carry out these useful and ornamental works, that the Caliph, some time after, when on pilgrimage to the Holy Cities, expressed his delight and thankfulness at all he saw.
Severity of Ḥajjāj.The attractions of ‘Omar’s beneficent rule drew away from the heavy hand of Al-Ḥajjāj great numbers of the men of Al-ʿIrāḳ who in Mecca and Medina thus escaped his tyranny. This irritated Al-Ḥajjāj all the more, and ʿOmar felt bound to inform the Caliph of his increasing severity. Al-Ḥajjāj,on the other hand, complained bitterly of the shelter given to his malcontent subjects in the Holy Cities; and Al-Welīd, yielding to Al-Ḥajjāj, recalled ʿOmar In his room, separate governors were appointed to Mecca and Medīna, who ruthlessly expelled the immigrants, and threatened with death any citizen who dared to give them shelter. One of such refugees, Ibn Jubeir, who had been paymaster of Ibn al-Ashʿath's army was, after an affecting interview with his family, executed with heartless cruelty by Al-Ḥajjāj. This was a couple of years before his own death, and remorse for it affected his mind. At night he would awake with the vision of his victim clutching the bed-clothes, and crying out, O Enemy of the Lord, for what hast thou slain me? whereupon the wretched man would keep calling aloud, What have I to do with thee, thou son of Jubeir!
Yezīd ibn Muhallab escapes from him to Suleimān,
90 A.H.His treatment of Yezīd and his brothers, sons of Al-Muhallab, was equally cruel and vindictive. Against these, it will be remembered, Al-Ḥajjāj had a grudge on account
of their Yemeni leanings. After the fall of Ibn al-Ashʿath they were the only stumbling-block in his path. They were now imprisoned on the convenient charge against retiring
- ↑ There was need of some such supply at Mecca, for the multitude of pilgrims was now so great that in a dry season the water fell altogether short. In fact, one year the want was so pressing that ʿOmar bade the people join him in prayer; and shortly after rain fell in such torrents that the City was inundated. Such pious traits of ʿOmar are a popular subject with the traditionists.
The governor succeeding ʿOmar was profane enough to praise Al-Welīd at the expense of Abraham,—the former having brought sweet water into Mecca, whereas Abraham only gave them the brackish well of Zemzem.
