Note 554 — Chapter XLIII · REVOLT OF EGYPT. A.H. XXXVIII. A.D. 658.

The fact is mentioned famâ clamante, and there is no counter evidence. It was, no doubt, of vital importance to Muâvia to be rid of Ashtar; but this may of itself have suggested the report; and in the East, sudden deaths are generally set down to poisoning, a charge easy to make and difficult to disprove. Muâvia, we are told, promised the chief, who was collector of the tithes and revenues at the head of the Red Sea, immunity from taxation for ever after, if he committed the foul deed. But as these histories were all compiled more or less under Abbasside influences, and the evidence is absolutely one-sided, we must be on our guard against the continual abuse and depreciation of the Omeyyad dynasty. The portion of the original Tabari, now in the press may possibly throw light on this and other obscure passages of our history.