rimage to the Ka'ba had
become difficult for the Syrians. This is quite improbable. Abdalmalik
was born and educated in Islam, and distinguished himself in his youth
by piety and continence. He regarded himself as the champion of Islam
and of the communion of the believers, and had among his intimates men
of acknowledged devoutness such as Raja b. Haywa. The idea of
interfering with the pilgrimage to the House of God at Mecca, which
would have alienated from him all religious men, and thus from a
political point of view would have been suicidal, cannot have entered
his mind for a moment. But the glorification of Jerusalem, holy alike
for Moslems, Christians and Jews, could not but exalt the glory of Islam
and its rulers within and without.

As soon as the expedition to Irak against Mus'ab had terminated, the
holy war against the Greeks was renewed. The operations in Asia Minor
and Armenia were entrusted to Mahommed b. Merwan, the caliph's brother,
who was appointed governor of Mesopotamia and Armenia, and in 692 beat
the army of Justinian II. near Sebaste in Cilicia. From this time forth
the Moslems made yearly raids, the chief advantage of which was that
they kept the Syrian and Mesopotamian Arabs in continual military
exercise. After the victorious march of Okba (Oqba) b. Nafi' through
north Africa and the foundation of Kairawan, his successor Qais b.
Zohair had been obliged to retreat to Barca (Cyrenaica). In the year 696
Abdalmalik sent Hassan b. No'man into Africa at the head of a numerous
army. He retook Kairawan, swept the coast as far as Carthage, which he
sacked, expelling the Greek garrisons from all the fortified places; he
then turned his arms against the Berbers, who, commanded by the Kahina
(Diviner), as the Arabs called their queen, beat him so completely that
he was compelled to retreat to Barca. Five years later he renewed the
war, defeated and killed the Kahina, and subdued the Berbers, who
henceforward remained faithful to the Arabs. Hassan continued to be
governor of Kairawan till after the death of Abdalmalik.

In the meantime Abdalmalik reconstituted the administration of the
empire on Arabic principles. Up to the year 693 the Moslems had no
special coinage of their own, and chiefly used Byzantine and Persian
money, either imported or struck by themselves. Moawiya, indeed, had
struck dinars and dirhems with a Moslem inscription, but his subjects
would not accept them as there was no cross upon the