SULEIMAN’S AMBITIONS

[1Sidenote: [715 A.D.]]

2[Illustration: COSTUME OF AN ARABIAN WOMAN]

3Walid, in the very year of his death, which took place in 715, wished to have his son Abdul-Aziz b. Walid chosen as his successor, and had offered his brother Suleiman a great sum of money to induce him to surrender his rights to the caliphate; but Suleiman obstinately refused to do so. Walid went still farther, and sent letters to the governors of all the provinces, calling on them to make the people take the oath of allegiance to his son. None except Hajjaj and Kotaiba b. Muslim consented thus to set at nought the order of succession established by Abdul-Malik; and Suleiman succeeded without difficulty at the death of his brother. We can easily conceive the hatred felt by Suleiman for Hajjaj, and for all that belonged to him, far or near.

4Hajjaj himself escaped by death; but Suleiman poured out his wrath on his family, and strove to undo all that he had done. First of all, Muhammed b. Kasim, the conqueror of India, who was cousin to Hajjaj, was dismissed from his post and outlawed. Hajjaj had deprived Yazid b. Muhallab of the government of Khorasan; Suleiman conferred on him that of Irak. Kotaiba b. Muslim, on learning the accession of Suleiman, knew that his own ruin was certain, and therefore anticipated the caliph by a revolt. But Suleiman induced Kotaiba’s troops to desert by authorising them to return to their homes; and when the illustrious general sought to carry his army with him, a conspiracy was formed against him which ended in his murder. Yazid b.

5Muhallab, who preferred Khorasan to Irak, obtained permission to exchange. Immediately on his return to Khorasan he set on foot a series of new expeditions against Jorjan and Tabaristan. But the inhabitants of Khorasan, which he governed oppressively, made complaints against him to the caliph, accusing him of practising extortions in order to obtain such a sum of money as would enable him to rebel against his sovereign. From that day Suleiman determined to get rid of Yazid. As, however, he was then dreaming of the conquest of Constantinople, he thought it prudent to dissemble his dissatisfaction for some time in order to concentrate his attention on the object of his desires.

6[Sidenote: [715-724 A.D.]]

7The Byzantine Empire was disturbed by internal troubles during the years 715-717 A.D. Suleiman resolved to take advantage of these in order to rid himself forever of the hereditary enemy of Islam, and prepared a formidable expedition. A fleet of eighteen hundred vessels, equipped at Alexandria, sailed to the coasts of Asia Minor, took on board the Moslem army, commanded by Maslama, and transported it to Europe. This army appeared under the walls of Constantinople the 15th of August, 717, five months after Leo III, the Isaurian, had ascended the throne. Once more the Greek fire prevailed against the Moslems. Their fleet was destroyed by this terrible engine of war; the army could obtain no fresh supply of provisions, and suffered all the horrors of famine.

8Meanwhile the caliph, who desired to be present in person at the taking of Constantinople, had set out to join the army. He fell ill at Dabik, not far from Aleppo, and died there on the 22nd of September in the same year, after having nominated as his own successor his cousin, Omar b. Abdul-Aziz, and as successor to the latter, Yazid b. Abdul-Malik, his own brother. In vain did the new caliph despatch from Egypt a fleet of four hundred ships to carry arms and provisions to the army before Constantinople; this fleet also was destroyed by the Greeks, and the Moslem army was decimated by famine, and soon by the plague as well.

9A hundred thousand men perished miserably under the walls of Constantinople, and Maslama brought back to Asia Minor a mere handful of soldiers, and that with great difficulty.[c]