Note 598 — Chapter L · THE OMEYYAD AND ABBASSIDE DYNASTIES, AND CONCLUSION.

Weil thinks that if, instead of leaving his battles to be fought by his generals and remaining himself inactive at Mecca, he had shown the energy of his early days and attacked the Caliphs in Syria, he would probably have overthrown them; even as it was, he was near to doing so.

The dismantling of the Káaba excited the same terror as when it was rebuilt in the youth of Mahomet, nearly a century before. (Life, p. 28.) No one durst detach a stone; and when Ibn Zobeir took the pickaxe in his own hands, many fled the city, fearing the Divine wrath, and only returned when after three days they saw no ill effect follow.

In the time of Ibn Zobeir music and singing were common at Mecca, so that notwithstanding the scandal excited at Medîna, the practices of Syria were beginning to leaven even the Holy Cities.