san
himself was wounded and retired to Medina, where he died eight or nine
years afterwards. The legend that he was poisoned by order of Moawiya is
without the least foundation. It seems that he never received the
revenues of Darabjird, the Basrians to whom they belonged refusing to
cede them.

Moawiya now made his entry into Kufa in the summer of A.H. 41 (A.D. 661)
and received the oath of allegiance as Prince of the Believers. This
year is called the year of union (_jama'a_). Moghira b. Sho'ba was
appointed governor of Kufa. Homran b. Aban had previously assumed the
government of Basra. This is represented commonly as a revolt, but as
Homran was a client of Othman, and remained in favour with the Omayyads,
it is almost certain that he took the management of affairs only to
maintain order.

One strong antagonist to Moawiya remained, in the person of Ziyad. This
remarkable man was said to be a bastard of Abu Sofian, the father of
Moawiya, and was, by his mother, the brother of Abu Bakra, a man of
great wealth and position at Basra. He thus belonged to the tribe of
Thaqif at Taif, which produced many very prominent men. At the age of
fourteen years Ziyad was charged with the financial administration of
the Basrian army. He had won the affection of Omar, by his knowledge of
the Koran and the Sunna of the Prophet, and by the fact that he had
employed the first money he earned to purchase the freedom of his mother
Somayya. He was a faithful servant of Ali and put down for him the
revolt excited by Moawiya's partisans in Basra. Thence he marched into
Fars and Kirman, where he maintained peace and kept the inhabitants in
their allegiance to Ali. After Ali's death he fortified himself in his
castle near Istakhr and refused to submit. Moawiya, therefore, sent Bosr
b. Abi Artat to Basra, with orders to capture Ziyad's three sons, and to
force Ziyad into submission by threatening to kill them. Ziyad was
obdurate; and it was due to his brother Abu Bakra, who persuaded Moawiya
to cancel the order, that the threat was not executed. On his return to
Damascus, Moawiya charged Moghira b. Sho'ba to bring his countryman to
reason. Abdallah b. 'Amir was made governor of Basra.

As soon as Moawiya had his hands free, he directed all his forces
against the Greeks. Immediately after the submission of Irak, he had
denounced the existing treaty, and as early as 662 had sent his troops
against the Alans and the Greeks. Since then, no year pa