The traditional hatred of Al-Hajjaj was envenomed by the accession of the Abbasides, and this dynasty, the better to distinguish itself from the Ommiades, affected love for the Holy Family, especially Ali and his descendants, and a fanatical hatred against their oppressors. The following table from Ibn Khaldún (Introduct. xxii.) shows that the Caliphs were cousins, which may account for their venomous family feud.
’Abd Manaf. | +-----------------+-------------------+ | | Hashim. Abd Shams. | | Abd al-Muttalib. Umayyah. | | +-------------------+---------------+ +-----+--------+ | | | | | Al-Abbas. Abdullah. Abu Talib. Harb. Abu ’l-Aus. | | | | | Abdullah. Mohammed. | Abu Sufyan. Al-Hakim. | | | | | Ali. Fatimah married Ali. Mu’awiyah. Marwan. | | (1st Ommiade.) | +------+-----+ | | | Mohammed. Al-Hasan. Al-Husayn. | Al-Saffáh. (1st Abbaside.)
[The word here translated “invited guest” reads in the MS. “Mad’úr.” In this form it is no dictionary word, but under the root “D’r” I find in the Muhít: “wa ’l-’ámatu takúlu fulánun da’irun ya’ní ghalízun jáfin” = the common people say such a one is “da’ir,” _i.e._, rude, churlish. “Mad’úr” may be a synonym and rendered accordingly: as though thou wert a boor or clown.—ST.]
A neat specimen of the figure anachronism. Al-Hajjaj died in A.H. 95 (= A.D. 714), and Cairo was built in A.H. 358 (= A.D. 968).
Perfectly true even in the present day. The city was famed for intelligence and sanguinary fanaticism; and no stranger in disguise could pass through it without detection. This ended with the massacre of 1840, which brought a new era into the Moslem East. The men are, as a rule, fine-looking, but they seem to be all show: we had a corps of them in the old Básh-Buzuks, who, after a month or two in camp, seemed to have passed suddenly from youth into old age.
In text “Yasta’amilúna al-Mrd,” which may have a number of meanings, _e.g._ “work frowardness” (Maradd), or “work the fruit of the tree Arák” (Marad = wild capparis) and so forth. I have chosen the word mainly because “Murd” rhymes to “Burd.” The people of Al-Yaman are still deep in the Sotadic Zone and practice; this they owe partly to a long colonization of the “’Ajam,” or Persians. See my Terminal Essay, § “Pederasty,” p. 205.