969 CE: Suppression of Kharijites in Iraq
During the struggle between Abdul-Malik and Abdullah bn Zubair, Kharijites gained strength and were once again threatening to tear Iraq apart. The intense fanatics with the slogan no rule but that of Allaah, had spread terror and devastation up and down the country, regarding everyone who was not in agreement with them as infidel punishable by death. By now, there were a large number of people in their ranks who were attracted by their views.
After long years of struggle, Hajjaj defeated them in 696 CE, but only after expeditionary force was sent by the Caliph from Syria. Their leader, Shahib was defeated and drowned in the Dujail River [the modern River Karun, Persia] in 696 [or 697]. It was mainly due to the energy and determination of Hajjaj that the Kharijites were suppressed and Iraq was spared of their brutality.
782 CE: Consolidation by Hajjaj of Eastern Wing of The Empire On the eastern side of the empire
Hajjaj ibn Yusuf had by now put down all the major uprisings and felt that the time had come to consolidate his rule. In 702 he built a new city called Was it [meaning midway city] halfway between the two most turbulent cities of the empire, Kufa and Basra, and later used it as his base, controlling the whole of the western empire from this strategic location until his death in June, 714 at the age of fifty-three. He also turned his attention to improving civil matters in Iraq, which had once been a prosperous province but which had been devastated during the previous twenty years of civil wars. In the ensuing period, he undertook this task with characteristic vigour and was equally successful.
He improved the irrigation system in this fertile country by digging a number of new canals and restoring the large one between the Euphrates and Tigris. This network of canals, which flowed from the Euphrates into the Tigris, was also used for the transport of goods to and from Syria; in fact it opened up navigational routes linking different parts of Syria and Iraq with India through the Persian Gulf.
This article was culled from the publications of Deen Communication Limited