Q. & A. 711 to 1707 with solved Papers css 1971 to date

32

HISHAM
(724-743A.D./105-125 A.H.)
On the death of Yazid II. his brother Hisham succeeded to an empire racked by tribal dissensions, and full of trouble at home and abroad. The wild hordes of Turkomans and Khazars pressing on the north, and Khariji zealots seething within with discontent, and the emissaries of the house of Abbas working underground, combined to sap the foundation of Umayyads power in the East. The flower of the nation had perished either in the civil wars or under the suspicious policy of a jealous court. The blind confidence reposed by the last sovereign in his ministers had thrown the government into the hands of incompetent and self-seeking functionaries whose incapacity and misrule alienated the people. Here and there, a few men shone, like stars on a darkening horizon, for their devotion to duty, but generally amongst the official classes, the old patriotism and enthusiasm for the Faith had almost died out in the pursuit of individual ambition. At this crisis a master’s hand was needed at the helm to save the ship of state from drifting to destruction. But Hisham was little fitted by character or disposition to cope with difficulties which now best the empire.
He was undoubtedly an improvement upon his immediate predecessor; the atmosphere of the court became purer, the laxity of the former reign gave way to decorum, the city was purged of the parasites that live on society, and greater regard was paid to the conventionalities and rules of life. But his austerity wore an aspect of somberness, and his parsimony amounted to avarice. And these failings were aggravated by more serious defects of character. Bigoted in his views, narrow in his sympathies, and suspicious in
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nature, he trusted nobody, and relied chiefly on espionage and intrigue to prevent hostile combinations and conspiracies. Easily swayed by false reports, he often sacrificed the best servants of the state upon mere suspicion, and the frequent change of governors led to disastrous consequences.1
He ruled for a long period which was, according to Mas’udi, a reign of nineteen years nine months and nine days. Hisham’s Caliphate was the last important reign of the Umayyad Caliphate, during which several significant events occurred both within and on the frontiers of the empire, which hastened the fall of this dynasty. We begin first with the events in the East, i.e. in Iraq, Khurasan and the Central Asia.