Some people in Lebanon rebelled, complaining of the collector of the kharâj of Baʿlabakk. This made Ṣâliḥ ibn-ʿAli ibn-ʿAbdallâh ibn-ʿAbbâs send against them troops who destroyed their fighting power, and the rest were allowed to retain their [Christian] faith. Ṣâliḥ sent the latter back to their villages and expelled some of the natives of Lebanon. Al-Ḳâsim ibn-Sallâm related to me on the authority of Muḥammad ibn-Kathîr that Ṣâliḥ received a long communication from al-Auzâʿi, of which the following extract has been preserved: "Thou hast heard of the expulsion of the dhimmis from Mt. Lebanon, although they did not side with those who rebelled, and of whom many were killed by thee and the rest returned to their villages. How didst thou then punish the many for the fault of the few and make them leave their homes and possessions in spite of Allah's decree:[1] 'Nor shall any sinning one bear the burden of another,' which is the most rightful thing to abide by and follow! The command worthy of the strictest observance and obedience is that of the Prophet who says, 'If one oppresses a man bound to us by covenant and charges him with more than he can do, I am the one to overcome him by arguments.'"[2] To this he added other citations.
The frontier and littoral towns fortified. Muḥammad ibn-Sahm al-Anṭâki from abu-Isḥâḳ al-Fazâri:—The banu-Umaiyah used to direct their summer and winter campaigns against the Greeks beyond the frontier cities of Syria and Mesopotamia by means of Syrians and Mesopotamians, and they used to station the ships for the invasion and to post the guard on the coast, giving up or delaying the invasion at the time in which the enemy was strong and wide awake [?]. When abu-Jaʿfar al-Manṣûr began his rule, he examined the
