agdad, steadily becomes more
marked.

After the burning of the Ka'ba during the siege of Mecca by Hosain b.
Nomair, Ibn Zobair had rebuilt and enlarged the house of God. It is said
that he thus carried out a design of the Prophet, which he had not
ventured to undertake for fear of offending the newly converted
Koreishites. Hajjaj pulled down the enlargements and restored the Ka'ba
to its old state. Meanwhile, the caliph committed to him the government
of the Hejaz. The Medinians, whose loyalty was suspected, were treated
by him with severity; not a few _maulas_ (clients) were obliged to wear
a leaden badge on their neck (Tabari, ii. p. 854 seq.).

Thus the protracted war against Ibn Zobair was brought to an end; hence
this year (71) also is called the "year of union" (_jama'a_). But the
storms in Irak and Mesopotamia had not yet altogether subsided. The Qais
could not leave unavenged the blood shed at Merj Rahit. For about ten
years the Syrian and Mesopotamian deserts were the scene of a series of
raids, often marked by great cruelty, and which have been the subject of
a great many poems. Abdalmalik had need of all his tact and energy to
pacify ultimately the zealous sectaries, but the antagonism between
Yemenites (Kalb and Azd) and Modarites (Qais and Tamim) had been
increased by these struggles, and even in the far east and the far west
had fatal consequences.

When Abdalmalik, after a stay of forty days, returned from Irak to
Syria, he left two Omayyad princes as his vicegerents in Kufa and Basra.
Mohallab, who at the time of the battle of Bajomaira was in the field
against the Azraqites (Kharijites), and had put himself at the disposal
of the caliph, had orders to carry on the war. But the two princes
proved unequal to their task and did not support Mohallab sufficiently,
so that the Kharijites gained more than one victory. Abdalmalik in alarm
made Hajjaj governor of Irak with the most extensive powers. The troops
of Kufa, who accompanied Mohallab in an expedition against the
Kharijites, had abandoned their general and dispersed to their homes,
and nothing could induce them to return to their duty. Then, in the year
75 (A.D. 694), at the moment when the people were assembled in the
mosque for morning prayers, an unknown young man of insignificant
appearance, with a veil over his face, ascended the pulpit. It seemed at
first that he could not find his words. One of the audience, with a
contemptuous remark, took a