Note 602 — Chapter L · THE OMEYYAD AND ABBASSIDE DYNASTIES, AND CONCLUSION.

Whatever the cruelties of Hajjâj, it must be confessed that he had a rebellious race to deal with. And in respect of his attack on Mecca, from whence Ibn Zobeir so long defied the empire, it is difficult to see how that attack could have been avoided; but the necessity is forgotten, and only the sacrilege, with its testudos and battering rams, remembered. In point of cruelty, indeed, it would not be easy for inhumanity to outdo the deeds of some of the Abbasside Caliphs. But Hajjâj was the servant of the ‘godless’ Omeyyads, and indiscriminate abuse must be heaped both on him and his Master.