Samaritans lived. One of those villages called Bait-Mâma, which lay in the district of Nâbulus and whose inhabitants were Samaritans, made a complaint in the year to the effect that they were poor and unable to pay the five-dînâr kharâj, upon which al-Mutawakkil gave orders that it be reduced again to three.
Muʿâwiyah spares the hostages. Hishâm ibn-ʿAmmâr from Ṣafwân ibn-ʿAmr and Saʿîd ibn-ʿAbd-al-ʿAzîz:—The Greeks made peace with Muʿâwiyah with the stipulation that he pay them a certain sum of money. Muʿâwiyah took hostages from them and held them in Baʿlabakk. The Greeks proved perfidious to Muʿâwiyah, but still the Moslems did not consider it legal to put the hostages in their hands to death; and so they set them free, saying, "Loyalty against perfidy is better than perfidy against perfidy." According to Hishâm, al-Auzâʿi, among other authorities, maintains the same view.
ʿ
