"The Imám Walíd am I! In all my glory Of trailing robes I listen to soft lays. When proudly I sweep on towards her chamber, I care not who inveighs. There's no true joy but lending ear to music, Or wine that leaves one sunk in stupor dense. Houris in Paradise I do not look for: Does any man of sense?" Let us now turn from the monarchs to their subjects. [Sidenote: Political and religious movements of the period.] In the first place we shall speak of the political and religious parties, whose opposition to the Umayyad House gradually undermined its influence and in the end brought about its fall. Some account will be given of the ideas for which these parties fought and of the causes of their discontent with the existing _régime_. Secondly, a few words must be said of the theological and more purely religious sects--the Mu‘tazilites, Murjites, and Ṣúfís; and, lastly, of the extant literature, which is almost exclusively poetical, and its leading representatives. [Sidenote: The Arabs of ‘Iráq.] The opposition to the Umayyads was at first mainly a question of politics. Mu‘áwiya's accession announced the triumph of Syria over ‘Iráq, and Damascus, instead of Kúfa, became the capital of the Empire. As Wellhausen observes, "the most powerful risings against the Umayyads proceeded from ‘Iráq, not from any special party, but from the whole mass of the Arabs settled there, who were united in resenting the loss of their independence (_Selbstherrlichkeit_) and in hating those into whose hands it had passed."[384] At the same time these feelings took a religious colour and identified themselves with the cause of Islam. The new government fell lamentably short of the theocratic standard by which it was judged. Therefore it was evil, and (according to the Moslem's conception of duty) every right-thinking man must work for its destruction. Among the myriads striving for this consummation, and so far making common cause with each other, we can distinguish four principal classes. [Sidenote: Parties opposed to the Umayyad government.] (1) The religious Moslems, or Pietists, in general, who formed a wing of the Orthodox Party.[385] (2) The Khárijites, who may be described as the Puritans and extreme Radicals of theocracy. (3) The Shí‘ites, or partisans of ‘Alí and his House. (4) The Non-Arabian Moslems, who were called _Mawálí_ (Clients). [Sidenote: The Pietists.]