If adapted to the unique requirements of various regions and peoples of the world, such economic pluralism could have a greater global impact over the next fifty years than the collectivist economics of Marxism and neo-Marxism have had during the half century just past. [“New Directions for American Foreign Policy,”, Orbis , Summer 1969, Published by Foreign Policy Research Institute, University of Pennsylvania.]
At the end of this address he ordered his clerk to read the letter of the caliph. He began: "From the servant of God, Abdalmalik, Prince of the Believers, to the Moslems that are in Kufa, peace be with you." As nobody uttered a word in reply, Hajjaj said: "Stop, boy," and exclaimed: "The Prince of the Believers salutes you, and you do not answer his greeting! You have been but poorly taught. I will teach you afresh, unless you behave better. Read again the letter of the Prince of the Believers." Then, as soon as he had read: "peace upon ye," there remained not a single man in the mosque who did not respond, "and upon the Prince of the Believers be peace." Thereupon Hajjaj ordered that every man capable of bearing arms should immediately join Mohallab in Khuzistan (Susiana), and swore that all who should be found in the town after the third day should be beheaded. This threat had its effect, and Hajjaj proceeded to Basra, where his presence was followed by the same results. Mohallab, reinforced by the army of Irak, at last succeeded, after a struggle of eighteen months, in subjugating the Kharijites and their caliph Qatara b. Foja'a, and was able at the beginning of the year 78 (A.D. 697) to return to Hajjaj at Basra. The latter loaded him with honours and made him governor of Khorasan, whence he directed several expeditions into Transoxiana. In the meantime Hajjaj himself had, in 695 and 696, with great difficulty suppressed Shabib b. Yazid at the head of the powerful tribe of Shaiban, who, himself a Kharijite, had assumed the title of Prince of the Believers, and had even succeeded in occupying Kufa. In the east the realm of Islam had been very much extended under the reign of Moawiya, when Ziyad was governor of Irak and Khorasan. Balkh and Tokharistan, Bokhara, Samarkand and Khwarizm (modern Khiva), even Kabul and Kandahar had been subdued; but in the time of the civil war a great deal had been lost again. Now at last the task of recovering the lost districts could be resumed. When, in 697, Hajjaj gave the government of Khorasan to Mohallab, he committed that of Sijistan (Seistan) to Obaidallah b. Abi Bakra, a cousin of Ziyad. This prefect allowed himself to be enticed by Zanbil, prince of Zabulistan, to penetrate into the country far from his base, and escaped narrowly, not without severe losses. The command over Sijistan was now given to Abdarrahman b. Ash'ath, a descendant of the old royal family of Kinda, and a numerous army was entrusted to him, so magnificently equipped that it was called "the peacock army." Not long after his arrival in Sijistan, Ibn Ash'ath, exasperated by the masterful tone of Hajjaj, the plebeian, towards himself, the high-born, decided to revolt. The soldiers of Irak, who did not love the governor, and disliked the prospect of a long and difficult war far from home, eagerly accepted the proposition of returning to Irak, and even proclaimed the dethronement of Abdalmalik, in favour of Ibn Ash'ath. The new pretender entered Fars and Ahwaz (Susiana), and it was in this last province near Tostar (Shuster) that Hajjaj came up with him, after receiving from Syria the reinforcements which he had demanded in all haste from the caliph. Ibn Ash'ath drove him back to Basra, entered the city, and then turned his arms against Kufa, of which he took possession with aid from within. Hajjaj, afraid lest his communications with Syria should be cut off, pitched his camp at Dair Qorra, eighteen miles west from Kufa towards the desert, where Mahommed, the brother of the caliph, and Abdallah, his son, brought him fresh troops. Ibn Ash'ath encamped not far from him at Dair al-Jamajim with a far more numerous army. In great alarm Abdalmalik endeavoured to stifle the revolt by offering to dismiss Hajjaj from his post. The insurgents rejected this offer, and hostilities recommenced. At the end of three months and a half, in July 702, a decisive action took place. Victory declared for Hajjaj. Ibn Ash'ath fled to Basra, where he managed to collect fresh troops; but having been again beaten in a furious battle that took place at Maskin near the Dojail, he took refuge at Ahwaz, from which he was soon driven by the troops of Hajjaj under 'Omara b. Tamim. The rebel then retired to Sijistan, and afterwards sought an asylum with the king of Kabul. His partisans fled before 'Omara's army and penetrated into Khorasan, where they were isarmed by the governor Yazid, son of the celebrated Mohallab, who had died in the year 701. The pretender was betrayed by the king of Kabul and killed himself. His head was sent to Hajjaj and then to Damascus. This happened in the year 703 or 704. Yazid b. Mohallab was soon after deprived of the government of Khorasan, Hajjaj accusing him of partiality towards the rebels of Yemenite extraction. He appointed in his stead first his brother Mofaddal b. Mohallab, and nine months after Qotaiba b. Moslim, who was destined in a later period to extend the sway of Islam in the east as far as China. Entry: 5