ARABIA

and the SURROUNDING COUNTRIES

to illustrate

THE LIFE OF MOHAMMET

AND THE ANNALS OF

THE EARLY CALIPHATE

By Sir William Muir, K.C.S.I., LL.D., D.C.L.

WILLIAM MUIR

ANNALS OF
THE
EARLY CALIPHATE

FROM THE DEATH OF MAHOMET
TO THE
OMEYYAD AND ABBASIDE DYNASTIES
A.H. XI-LXI (A.D. 632–680)
FROM ORIGINAL SOURCES.

AMSTERDAM
ORIENTAL PRESS
1968

REPRINT 1968 OF THE EDITION LONDON 1883.
PRINTED IN THE NETHERLANDS.

PREFACE.

This work is a continuation of the ‘Life of Mahomet.’ Taking up the thread from his death and burial, it tells the story of the spread of the Religion which he founded, and seeks to trace the special causes—national, tribal, and spiritual—which moulded the Faith, created its expansive power, and guided its onward progress. The object is, in short, to float the bark of Islam over the rapids and devious currents of its early course until, becoming more or less subject to ordinary human influences, it emerges on the great stream of time. I have, therefore, given the first four Caliphates in full detail; I have endeavoured to explain the ascendency of the Omeyyad house; and then, briefly showing how the Abbasside dynasty rose upon its ruins, my purpose being ended, I close the book. Thereafter the history of Islam spreads itself out into the history of the world.

The materials for the work will be understood by the reader as he goes along. They are purely Arabian. Christian authorities there are absolutely none to speak of. We depend entirely upon Mahometan tradition; and that in a form very different from what we have been accustomed to in the Life of Mahomet. The substance of tradition becomes, after the Prophet’s death, more of a general outline; altogether wanting (excepting some of the special episodes) in that profuse detail with which the life of Mahomet is overlaid.

Such as it is, however, the story can be worked out broadly with consistency, and the progress of the Moslem arms and faith, as a whole, depicted truthfully. The great treasury of tradition on which the historian must draw is the Annals of Tabari, happily styled by Gibbon the Livy of the Arabians, who flourished in the third century of the Hegira. Unfortunately his work has hitherto been accessible to me, in its original form, only as far as the great battle of Câdesîya, in the fourteenth year of the Hegira—that is, three years after the Prophet’s death.[1] The materials, however, so laboriously collected by Tabari, have been copiously used by later writers, especially by Ibn al Athîr (d. A.H. 630), whose History has been mainly followed in these Annals, from the point at which Tabari, as at present available, ends. I have not neglected other sources, such as Belâdzori (3rd cent.) and Ibn Khaldûn, a later writer. In all essential points I believe that the picture which I have endeavoured to draw of the rise and spread of the Faith may be accepted with confidence.

I have received much help from the invaluable work of Dr. Weil,[2] whose literary acumen and candour are equalled only by his marvellous industry and research. I have also freely made use of M. Caussin de Perceval’s admirable Essai sur l’Histoire des Arabes; but it unfortunately ends with the Caliphate of Omar. On the general condition of early Mussulman society I have found the scholarly volumes of H. von Kremer most valuable.[3]

I have followed the same system of rendering names as in the ‘Life of Mahomet’ (adopted mainly from Caussin de Perceval), excepting in such received forms as Bussorah, Mecca, &c.; namely:

In quoting from the ‘Life of Mahomet,’ I refer to the Second Edition in one volume, unless the First Edition in four volumes is specified.

I am indebted for the map which illustrates the campaigns, to Mr. Trelawney Saunders, whose close acquaintance with the geography of Syria and Chaldæa peculiarly qualifies him to identify many of the sites, routes, &c.

The reader must remember that the Mussulman year is a purely lunar one, being eleven days shorter than ours, so that passing through the solar cycle it gains a year in about every thirty-three years.

At the death of Mahomet, in the eleventh year of the Hegira, Moharram (the first month of the Arabian year) began on the 29th of March, so that the corresponding months of the European calendar fell at that period as in the following table:

To keep the notation distinct, I have ordinarily marked the years of the Hegira by Roman numerals.

W. M.

November 1882.

CONTENTS.

Errata

Page 72, line 14, for Hâtim, son of Adî, read Adî, son of Hâtim.

Page 241, line 15, for Khâlid read Amru.

ANNALS
OF
THE EARLY CALIPHATE.

CHAPTER I.
ELECTION OF ABU BEKR.
A.H. XI. A.D. 632.

Death of Mahomet, 13 Rabi I. A.H. XI., June 8, A.D. 632.

At eventide of a summer day in the eleventh year of the Hegira, three chief ‘Companions’ of Mahomet might be seen issuing in haste from the Great Mosque at Medîna, where, close by in the chamber of Ayesha, his favourite wife, the Prophet of Arabia lay dead.[4] They were Abu Bekr, Omar, and Abu Obeida. I will first describe each briefly, and then explain the object of their errand.

Abu Bekr.

Abu Bekr, now threescore years of age, was somewhat short in stature, of a spare frame, rounded back, and stooping gait. His face was thin, complexion smooth and fair, nose aquiline and sharp, with other features delicate; the forehead high; the eyes deep-seated and far apart; the veins well marked. His scanty hair and beard, now for many years white, was dyed red. The countenance was still in old age handsome; and the expression mild, but wise and resolute. To him faith in the Prophet had become a second nature, and, now that his Master was gone, the disciple lived but to fulfil his will. It was this that nerved a disposition naturally soft and yielding, and made Abu Bekr, the True,[5] of all the followers of Mahomet, the firmest and most resolute.

Omar.

Omar, fifteen years younger, differed both in frame and temperament. Broad-shouldered and tall, he towered above the crowd. Though somewhat dark in complexion, the face was fresh and ruddy. He was now bald; and his beard was dyed like his friend’s. His stride was long, and his presence commanding. Naturally hasty and passionate, he would twist his moustache when angry and draw it downwards to his mouth. But time had mellowed temper; and, beneath an imperious manner, he was bland and courteous. Their attachment to Mahomet had, on these two friends, an effect exactly opposite. That which braced the soft nature of Abu Bekr served to abate the vehemence of Omar. Both stood in a like relation to the Prophet, each having given a daughter to him in marriage; Haphsa, Omar’s daughter, was one of Mahomet’s favourite wives; but Ayesha, the child of Abu Bekr, was queen in his affections to the end.

Abu Obeida.

On these two men at this moment hung the future of Islam. The third, who now accompanied them, Abu Obeida, was between them in age. He was thin, tall, and sinewy; bald, and with little beard. Mild, unassuming, and unwarlike, he was yet destined to take a leading part in the conquest of Syria.

Abu Bekr and Omar in the Great Mosque.

It was the afternoon of the day on which, but an hour or two before, Mahomet had breathed his last. The event had come unexpectedly at the end. Abu Bekr, thinking the Prophet better, had shortly before retired to his house in the suburbs of the city. Called back in haste, he entered Ayesha’s chamber, and kissed the face of his departed friend, saying:—

Men of Medîna would elect a chief of their own.

‘Sweet wert thou in life; and sweet thou art in death.’ The mosque was filled with a crowd excited by the voice of Omar, who wildly proclaimed that the Prophet was not dead, but in a trance; and that, like Moses, he would surely return to them again. Abu Bekr, issuing from the chamber (which opened directly from the court of the mosque), put his friend aside with these memorable words:—Whoso worshippeth Mahomet, let him know that Mahomet is dead indeed; but whoso worshippeth God, let him know that God liveth and dieth not. He added passages from the Corân, in which the Prophet had said that he would die; and Omar, hearing them as if he had never heard them before, was speechless. The multitude quieted down before the solemn words of Abu Bekr. But just then a messenger hurried up with the report, that the citizens of Medîna—the Ansâr, had assembled to choose for themselves a chief. The moment was critical. The unity of the faith was at stake. A divided power would fall to pieces, and all might be lost. The mantle of the Prophet must fall upon one successor, and on one alone. The sovereignty of Islam demanded an undivided Caliphate; and Arabia would acknowledge no master but from amongst the Coreish. The die must be cast, and at once.

Stormy scene in the hall of the citizens.

Such, no doubt, were the thoughts which occurred to Omar and Abu Bekr on receiving intelligence of the elective conclave; and so, alarmed at the danger, they hastened to the spot, accompanied by Abu Obeida, if haply they might nip it in the bud. On the way they met two friendly citizens coming from the assembly, who warned them of the risk they ran; but, notwithstanding, they hurried on. The men of Medîna meanwhile, gathered in one of their rude halls, were bent upon an independent course. ‘We have sheltered this nest of strangers,’ they cried. ‘It is by our good swords they have been able to plant the Faith. The Chief of Medîna shall be from amongst ourselves.’ And they had already fixed their choice on Sád ibn Obâda, leader of the Beni Khazraj, one of ‘the Twelve’ at ‘the Pledge of Acaba,’ who, sick of a fever, lay covered up at the further end of the hall. At this moment the three Companions entered but just in time, for had the Citizens elected Sád and pledged their troth to him, Medîna might have been irretrievably compromised. Omar, with his native vehemence, was about to speak, when Abu Bekr bade him to be silent, and anticipated him, as Omar used in after days to say, with the same arguments he himself had thought of, and even better. ‘Every word,’ said Abu Bekr, calmly and firmly, ‘which the Citizens had uttered in their own praise was true, but in noble birth and influence the Coreish were paramount, and to none but them would Arabia yield obedience.’ ‘Then,’ cried the men of Medîna, ‘let there be one chief from amongst you and one from amongst us.’ ‘Away with you!’ exclaimed Omar; ‘two cannot stand together’; and even Sád from beneath his covering muttered that to divide the power would weaken it. High words ensued. Hobâb, on the side of Sád, cried out, ‘Hear him not! Attend to me, for I am the well-rubbed Palm-stem.[6] If they refuse, expel them from the city. I am the Roaring Lion of the desert, and will devour them up.’ ‘The Lord destroy thee!’ cried Omar; and Hobâb returned the words. The altercation gaining in heat and bitterness, Abu Bekr saw that it must be stopped at any risk; so stepping forward he said: ‘Ye see these two’—and he pointed to Omar and Abu Obeida—‘Choose ye now whichever of them ye will, and salute him as your Chief.’ ‘Nay,’ cried both at once, ‘Thou hast already, at the Prophet’s bidding, led the prayers; thou art our Chief. Stretch forth thine hand.’ He did so, and they struck their hand on his in token of allegiance.[7] Others began to follow their example. ‘Wilt thou cut thine own kinsman’s throat?’ cried Hobâb to a Khazrajite about to take the pledge. ‘Not so,’ he answered; ‘I only yield the right to whom the right is due.’ Whilst they yet hesitated, the Beni Aus, jealous of the rival tribe and of Sád its nominee, spake among themselves: ‘If this man be chosen, the rule will be for ever with the Beni Khazraj. Let us salute Abu Bekr as our Chief.’[8] Abu Bekr elected Caliph.The example once set, group after group advanced to place their hand on that of Abu Bekr, till none was left but Sád, who still lay covered in the corner. Acknowledged thus by the men of Medîna, there could be no doubt of Abu Bekr’s acceptance by the Coreish and all the Refugees.[9] He was one of themselves, and the Prophet, by appointing him to take his place, when laid aside, at the daily prayers, had in a manner indicated him as his vicegerent. And so homage was done on all sides to Abu Bekr. He was saluted as the ‘Caliph,’ or ‘Successor of the Prophet.’

Burial of the Prophet.

The night was occupied in preparing the dead for sepulture. The body was washed and laid out, and the grave dug in Ayesha’s apartment, where Mahomet had breathed his last. On the morrow the citizens, men, women, and children, thronged the chamber to look once more upon their Prophet’s face. And then the body was reverently committed to the dust.

Abu Bekr’s inaugural address.

The funeral being over, and the court of the Great Mosque still crowded with the mourners, Abu Bekr ascended the pulpit, and, sitting down, was saluted as Caliph by acclamation. Then he arose, and said: ‘O people! Now I am Chief over you, albeit not the best amongst you. If I do well, support me; if ill, then set me right. Follow the true, wherein is faithfulness; eschew the false, wherein is treachery. The weaker amongst you shall be as the stronger with me, until that I shall have redressed his wrong; and the stronger shall be as the weaker, until, if the Lord will, I shall have taken from him that which he hath wrested. Leave not off to fight in the ways of the Lord; whosoever leaveth off, him verily shall the Lord abase. Obey me wherein I obey the Lord and his Prophet; when I disobey, then obey me not. Now, arise to prayer, and the Lord be with you!’ The assembly stood up for prayer, and Abu Bekr, for the first time as Caliph, filled the place of Mahomet.

Sád declines to swear fealty; and also (probably) Aly for a time.

Besides Sád, there were few, if any, who refused to do homage to Abu Bekr. According to most authorities, Aly declined to do so until the death of Fâtima his wife, six months afterwards. Zobeir and Talha are also mentioned, but doubtfully.[10] Sád persisted in his refusal; he even threatened to empty his quiver against the usurpers, and then fight against them with his retainers. ‘Let him alone,’ was the advice of those around the Caliph; ‘he is but a single man, and his secession will not signify; but if force be used against him, then his tribe will fight.’ The advice approved itself to Abu Bekr’s forbearing spirit. Sád kept aloof, and never appeared at court or in the mosque. When Omar succeeded to the Caliphate, he presented himself with these words, ‘I love thee not, O Omar!’ and, disappearing, eventually died in Syria.

The succession, how far provided for by Mahomet; and the precedent now established.

With Mahomet ceased the theocratic power which, as a prophet, he had exercised; but the kingly functions, as ruler over all Islam, descended to his successor. According to Arabian notions, such a ruler was, like the Chieftain of a tribe, the head and representative of the people, and his nomination was incomplete till confirmed by their homage. Omar, we are told, in after days declared that the irregular election of Abu Bekr (referring apparently to the scene enacted in the hall) should not be drawn into a precedent. It was, he said, an event the happiest in its consequences for Islam, but justified only by the urgency of the moment. What might have been the issue if any son of Mahomet had survived, it is useless to speculate. But certainly the hereditary descent of kingly power was foreign to the sentiment of Arabia. As matters stood, Mahomet seems to have shrunk from anticipating the contingency of his death, and made no preparation for what should follow. But in so far as we may suppose him to have felt his illness mortal and his death impending, the nomination of Abu Bekr to conduct the public prayers (the acknowledged mark of chief or delegated authority) may be held the natural indication of his wish that he should succeed.[11] Apart from the counter-claim of the men of Medîna, there was, in point of fact, neither doubt nor hesitancy in the election, and the counter-claim died away almost as soon as made. The notion of divine right, or even of preferential claim, resting in the Prophet’s family, was the growth of a later age.

CHAPTER II.
EXPEDITION OF OSÂMA TO THE SYRIAN BORDER.
A.H. XI. A.D. 632.

Osâma ordered by Mahomet to lead an expedition against the Syrian border, A.H. XI. May, A.D. 632.

Abu Bekr soon had the opportunity of showing that he was resolved to carry out the commands of Mahomet to the very letter. A few weeks previously an expedition had been ordered to avenge by a raid on the Syrian border the disaster which, three years before, had tarnished the Moslem arms. In that reverse Zeid, the Prophet’s bosom friend, who led the army, was with many others slain at Mûta; and the more distinctly now to mark the object of the campaign, his son Osâma, though still a youth, was nominated by Mahomet to the command, and bidden to avenge his father’s death. The camp was formed at Jorf, a little way on the Syrian road; but during the Prophet’s sickness the force remained inactive, uncertain of the issue. When the fatal event took place, Osâma broke up the camp, and carrying back the banner which he had received at the hands of Mahomet, planted it in the court of the Great Mosque, close by the door of Ayesha’s apartment.

Abu Bekr deaf to reclamations against its dispatch.

The day following his inauguration as Caliph, Abu Bekr took up the banner, and placing it in the hands of Osâma, in token that he was still commander, bade the army again assemble and encamp, as it had done before, at Jorf; and not a man was to be left behind. Obeying the command, the fighting men of Medîna and its neighbourhood flocked again to the camp, and even Omar was amongst the number. While yet preparing to depart, the horizon darkened suddenly. Report of the Prophet’s mortal illness, followed by tidings of his death, had spread like wildfire over the land. From every side there now came rumours of disloyalty, and of the resolve to cast the yoke of Islam off. The sense of the army, and of Osâma himself, was strongly against leaving the city thus defenceless, and the Caliph exposed to the risk of sudden inroad. Omar was deputed to represent this to Abu Bekr, and also to urge (as had been already urged to Mahomet himself[12]) that, if the expedition must proceed, some more experienced general should command. To the first request Abu Bekr replied, calm and unmoved: ‘Were the city swarming round with packs of ravening wolves, and I left solitary and alone, the force should go; not a word from my Master’s lips shall fall to the ground.’ At the second demand the Caliph’s anger kindled: ‘Thy mother be childless, O son of Khattâb!’ he said, seizing Omar by the beard. ‘Shall the Prophet of the Lord appoint a man to the command, and I, deposing him, appoint another in his place?’ So Omar returned, without gaining either object, to the army.

He accompanies it a little way on foot. June, A.D. 682.

When all was ready for the march, Abu Bekr repaired to the camp, and accompanied the force a little way on foot, ‘Be mounted,’ said Osâma to him; ‘or else I will dismount and walk by thee.’ ‘Not so,’ replied Abu Bekr; ‘I will not mount; I will walk and soil my feet, a little moment, in the ways of the Lord. Verily, every step in the ways of the Lord is equal to the merit of manifold good works, and wipeth out a multitude of sins.’ After a while he stopped, and said to Osâma: ‘If it be thy will, give Omar leave that he may return with me to the city, for strength and counsel.’ So he gave him leave.[13]

And gives Osâma instructions.

The army then halted, to receive the parting injunctions of the Caliph. ‘See,’ said he, addressing Osâma, ‘that thou avoid treachery and deceit. Depart not in any wise from the right. Thou shalt mutilate none; neither shalt thou kill child or aged man, nor any woman. Injure not the date-palm, neither burn it with fire; and cut not down any tree wherein is food for man or beast. Slay not of the flocks or herds or camels, saving for needful sustenance. Ye may eat of the meat which the men of the land shall bring unto you in their vessels, making mention thereon of the name of the Lord. And the monks with shaven heads that spend their lives in monasteries, if they submit, leave them in their cloisters unmolested. Now march forward in the name of the Lord, and may He protect you from sword and pestilence!’

Osâma returns victorious, July and August.

So Abu Bekr returned with Omar to Medîna. Osâma marched by Wâdi al Cora, in the direction of Dûma, Obna, and the highlands south of Syria. The brunt of his attack fell upon the Beni Codhâa, and the semi-Christian tribes which, under the Roman banner, had discomfited and slain his father. That disaster was now avenged in fire and blood. The land was ravaged far and near, and after an absence of two months, the army returned laden with spoil.[14]

Meanwhile stirring events had transpired at Medîna, of which an account is given in the chapter following.

CHAPTER III.
MEDINA THREATENED.
A.H. XI. June and July, A.H. 632.

Beneficial effects of Osâma’s expedition.

In after days Abu Bekr used to look back with a just pride and satisfaction to his despatch, against a universal reclamation, of Osâma’s force. Public opinion was not long in justifying the act and attributing thereto results of essential benefit. The firmness of his attitude inspired the Bedouin tribes with a sense of stability in the government. If the leaders at Medîna had not been confident in their strength at home they would not have sent away this army; and the Arabs, reasoning thus, were restrained from much that they might otherwise have attempted. Still the position was critical, and at times sufficiently alarming.

Courageous attitude of Abu Bekr.

It was indeed a thing of which the brave old Caliph might proud. ‘The Arabs,’ so the tradition runs, ‘were on all sides rising in rebellion. Apostasy and disaffection began to raise their heads; Christians and Jews to stretch out their necks; and the Faithful were left like a flock of sheep without a shepherd—their Prophet gone, their numbers few, and their foes a multitude.’ It was in face of all this that Abu Bekr sent off beyond recall his only force, and left Medîna open and, to the outward eye, defenceless.

Insurrection throughout Arabia.

During the lifetime of Mahomet three rivals had already laid claim to the prophetic office and raised the standard of rebellion. In the south, insurrection had hardly been quelled by the assassination of the ‘Veiled Prophet’ of Yemen, when tidings of the death of Mahomet made it burst forth with redoubled violence. Enshrined in the very centre of the peninsula, Moseilama had detached the powerful tribes around Yemâma from their allegiance; and to the north-east, nearer home, Toleiha, the third pretender, was now openly and dangerously hostile.[15] From every quarter, in rapid succession, came the news of spreading disaffection. The legates of Mahomet, the collectors of tithes—all, in fact, who represented the authority of Islam—fled or were expelled. The Faithful were massacred, and some confessors suffered a cruel death. Mecca and Tâyif quivered and vacillated at the first intelligence of the Prophet’s decease; in the end, through the strong influence of the Coreish, they stood firm; but they were almost alone. Here and there some few tribes, under loyal, or, it might be, temporising, chiefs, maintained the semblance of obedience; but they were hardly discernible amidst the seething mass of rebellion. Amru, hurrying back from Omân (whither he had been sent by Mahomet as ambassador at the Farewell Pilgrimage), witnessed the whole of Central Arabia either in open revolt or ready to break away on the first demand of tithes, and his report filled the citizens of Medîna with dismay.[16] In truth, Islam had never taken firm hold of the distant provinces; and as for the Bedouins, Mahomet had himself had frequent cause to chide their fickleness. It was fear of punishment, and the lust of plunder, rather than attachment to the faith, which had hitherto held these wild sons of the desert in bondage to the Prophet. The restraints and obligations of Islam were irksome and distasteful; and now, on Mahomet’s death well rid of them, they hoped to return to their lawless life.

Demand for exemption from tithes refused by Abu Bekr.

As report after report came in of fresh defection, Abu Bekr could but instruct his officers to hold on where they were able with the loyal few, hoping to tide over the crisis till the return of Osâma’s force. For the immediate defence of Medîna he took such measures as were possible. He called in all that remained of the faithful tribes in the neighbourhood, and posted pickets at the various approaches to the city. The turbulent tribes in the near desert to the east were the first to assume a threatening attitude. The Beni Abs and Dzobiân massed there in such numbers ‘that the land was straitened by them,’ and they parted into two bodies, one at Rabadza,[17] the other at Dzul Cassa, the first station from Medîna on the road to Nejd. The false prophet Toleiha sent his brother with men to help them; but they still vacillated between the claims of the pretender and Islam. At last they bethought themselves of a compromise. They sent a deputation to Abu Bekr, offering to hold by Islam and its ritual if only they were excused the tithe. The strangers bearing the message were welcomed by the chiefs of Medîna, but by the Caliph their advances were indignantly rejected. He would relax not a tittle of the legal dues. ‘If ye withhold but the tether of a tithed camel,’ said Abu Bekr, bluntly, ‘I will fight with you for the same.’ With this refusal they retired, and also with the intelligence that the city had but few defenders left. Now was the time, before the army came back, not only for plunder, but to deliver a decisive blow. Abu Bekr, foreseeing this, redoubled his precautions. He strengthened the pickets, and set over them the chief men who had remained with him—Aly, Zobeir, Talha, and Abdallah ibn Masûd. For the rest of the people he appointed the Great Mosque a rendezvous. ‘The land hath rebelled against us,’ he said, ‘and they have spied out our nakedness and the weakness of our defence. Ye know not whether they will come upon you by night or come upon you by day, or which of you may be first attacked. They verily hoped that we should have accepted their offer, but we rejected it. Wherefore be vigilant and ready.’

Attack on Medîna repelled.

And so it came to pass. They tarried but three days, when a surprise was attempted from Dzul Cassa. The outposts were on the alert, and kept the assailants at bay while the main guard was hurried up from the Mosque on camels. The Bedouins, hardly prepared for so warm a reception, fled back upon their reserves. They were pursued; but the camels of the Moslems, being used only to draw water for the fields, took fright at a stratagem of the enemy, and turning, fled back to the Mosque.[18] There were no casualties among the Medîna troops, but the rebels were emboldened by the flight of their opponents. Abu Bekr, anticipating a renewed attack, called out every man capable of bearing arms, and spent the night in marshalling his force. Next morning, while yet dark, the Caliph himself led out the little band in regular array, with a centre and two wings.[19] The enemy were taken by surprise at early dawn, and as the sun rose were already in full flight. Abu Bekr drove them with slaughter out of Dzul Cassa, and, leaving a portion of his little force as an outpost there, returned with the rest to Medîna.

Good effect of the victory.

The affair was comparatively small, but its effect great. As failure would have been disastrous, perhaps fatal, to Islam, so victory was the turning-point in its favour. The power of the Prophet’s successor, even without his proper army, to secure the city and beat off his assailants was noised abroad. And soon after, the spirits of the Moslems rose as they saw certain chiefs appear, bringing in the tithes. The tribes they represented, to be sure, were few in contrast with the apostate hordes; but it was an augury of brighter days to come. Safwân and Zibricân, chiefs of two branches of the Beni Temîm, and Adi son of Hâtim from a loyal branch of the Beni Tay, were the first to present their legal offerings to the Caliph. Each was ushered into his presence as an ambassador. ‘Nay,’ said Abu Bekr; ‘they are more than that; they are Messengers of glad tidings, true men, and defenders of the faith.’ And the people answered, ‘Even so; now the good things that thou didst promise are appearing.’

Saving of Islam due to Abu Bekr.

Tradition delights to ascribe with pious gratitude the preservation of Islam to the aged Caliph’s faith and fortitude. ‘On the death of Mahomet,’ we are told, ‘it wanted but little, and the faithful had utterly perished. But the Lord strengthened the heart of Abu Bekr, and stablished us thereby in the resolve to give place, no not for one moment, to the apostates; and to say but these three words—Submission, Exile, or the Sword.’ It was the simple faith in Mahomet of Abu Bekr which fitted him for the task, and made him carry out the law of his Master to the very letter. But for him, Islam would have melted away in compromise with the Bedouin tribes, or might have perished in the throes of its birth.

CHAPTER IV.
RETURN OF OSÂMA. EXPEDITIONS FORMED AGAINST THE APOSTATE TRIBES THROUGHOUT ARABIA.
A.H. XI. Sept.—Oct. A.D. 632

Osâma’s return. Jumâd II. A.H. XI. Sept. A.D. 632.

Osâma at last appeared, and Medîna, for two months left unprotected, was relieved from further danger. The army returned laden with booty. The royal Fifth was delivered to the Caliph, and by him distributed among the people.[20]

Expedition against Beni Abs and Dzobiân.

Abu Bekr lost no time in now following up the advantage he had gained over the Beni Abs and Dzobiân. Driven back from Dzul Cassa, they had retired to Rabadza, and vented their anger in destroying by cruel deaths the faithful followers of the Prophet still left amongst them. Deeply moved at the fate of these confessors, Abu Bekr took a solemn oath that ‘he would by the like deaths destroy as many of them as they had slain, or even more.’

Abu Bekr chastises the rebel tribes at Rabadza.

Putting Osâma in command of the city, and leaving the army there for a little while to recruit, Abu Bekr took the remaining force and marched again towards Rabadza. The chief men expostulated with him on going forth to fight in person. If a commander were killed in action, his place could easily be filled; but if the Caliph fell, their head and ruler would be gone. ‘Nay,’ replied Abu Bekr; ‘but I will go forth, and will be your comrade even as one of your own selves.’[21] So they marched on, and coming up with the enemy at Abrac, completely discomfited them, killing some, and taking others prisoners. The Beni Abs and Dzobiân fled to Toleiha, and joined his army at Bozâkha. Thereupon Abu Bekr confiscated their pasture-lands, and declared them to be for ever a public domain reserved for the stud and camels of the State. On eventually submitting, they found themselves thus debarred from re-entry; but this was of comparatively little consequence, as they had, in the end, ample compensation in the conquered lands beyond Arabia. After some days spent at Rabadza, the Caliph returned to Medîna.

Islam must be reimposed on all Arabia.

The army by this time was refitted. The tithes had begun to come in from many neighbouring tribes in token of submission. Medîna was no longer in peril, and the citizens breathed freely. But a heavy burden still lay upon the Caliph. Islam was to be the faith of all Arabia;—‘Throughout the peninsula there shall be no second creed,’ was the behest of Mahomet on his death-bed. False prophets must be crushed; rebels vanquished; apostates reclaimed or exterminated; and the supremacy vindicated of Islam. It was, in short, the mission of Abu Bekr to redeem the dying Prophet’s words.

Eleven expeditions despatched to different parts of Arabia.

With this great purpose, Abu Bekr went forth a second time to Dzul Cassa, and there summoned the whole available forces of Islam and all the loyal chiefs around him. He divided them into eleven independent columns, and over every one appointed a distinguished leader, to whom (following the example of his Master) he presented a banner. Arabia was mapped out, and each detachment given a province to reclaim, with marching orders, where to begin and what course to take. Thus Khâlid ibn Saîd was named for the Syrian border; Khâlid ibn Welîd was to subdue Toleiha; and Ikrima with Shorahbîl, Moseilama; Mohâjir was sent to Yemen; Alâ to Bahrein; Hodzeifa and Arfaja to Mâhra; and Amru against the Beni Codhâa. And so by this great scheme, in course of time, no spot would be left unconquered. The troops retained at home were few; for few were needed now.[22]

Proclamation summoning apostates to repent. Oct., A.D. 632.

Having despatched the various expeditions, Abu Bekr returned to Medîna. There his first concern was to publish a summons to the apostate tribes, commanding them everywhere to repent and submit themselves, on which condition they should be pardoned, and received back into Islam. Such as refused would be attacked, their fighting men cut to pieces, and their women and children taken captive. This summons was sent by the hand of envoys to every province and rebellious tribe. The Adzân, or call to prayer, was to be the test of faith; if that were heard and responded to, good and well; if not, the people were apostate, and as such to be attacked.

Abu Bekr did not again go out to fight.

Abu Bekr never again left Medîna to lead his troops. Some say that afterwards he regretted this; but it is not likely that he did so. Medîna, where he continued to reside, was his proper place. From it, as a central point, he was able to direct the movement of his commanders all over the peninsula; and with operations in so many different quarters to control he could not have been better situated.

No chief ‘Companion’ appointed to a command.

It is more open to remark that none of the more distinguished Companions of the Prophet were appointed to commands. The same was the case with Omar, who was known to say that he purposely refrained from nominating them to any government, both out of respect to their dignity,[23] and also to strengthen his own hands by having them about him as advisers. This latter reason may also well have weighed with Abu Bekr, who used to take counsel on all important matters with the leading Companions. Still, it is singular that men like Aly and Zobeir, who took so prominent a part in the battles of Mahomet, should now altogether disappear from operations in the field.

CHAPTER V.
CAMPAIGN OF KHALID AGAINST THE FALSE PROPHET TOLEIHA.
A.H. XI. Nov. A.D. 632.

Materials for the first epoch imperfect.

The materials for our story at this point are few, obscure, and disconnected. The scene of confusion that reigned throughout Arabia is presented to our view in but dim and hazy outline. With the Prophet’s life, Tradition proper ends. The prodigious stores of oral testimony, which light up in minutest detail the career of Mahomet, suddenly stop. The grand object of tradition was, from the oral teaching and example of the Prophet, to supplement by authoritative rulings what was wanting in the Corân. That motive ceased with the death of Mahomet, and with it tradition, as such, ceases also.[24] What history we have for the period immediately succeeding is in the form of loose fragments—the statements, it may be, of eyewitnesses, or gathered as hearsay from the memory of Arab tribes, or from legends in the neighbouring conquered lands. Hence it is that, after the death of Mahomet, we are left for a time to grope our way by evidence always scanty and often discrepant. The further back we go, the obscurity is the greater; and it is most so while, in the first year of Abu Bekr’s Caliphate, Islam was struggling for existence. There was little room then for thought beyond the safety of the moment; and when at length the struggle was over, nothing was left but the sense of relief from a terrible danger, and the roughest outline of the way in which it had been achieved. No date is given for any one of the many battles fought throughout the year. Here and there we may be guided by the apparent sequence of events; but as the various expeditions were for the most part independent of one another, and proceeding simultaneously all over the peninsula, even this indication too often fails.[25]

Arrangement of narrative of campaigns against apostate tribes.

Such being the case, the thread of our narrative here must run an arbitrary course. Taking Tabari as our guide, we begin with the campaign of Khâlid against Toleiha in the north-east, and follow him thence southward to Yemâma. We shall then take up the provinces assigned to other leaders, as they lie geographically around the coasts—Bahrein, Omân, Hadhramaut and Yemen.

Khâlid ibn Welîd.

After Abu Bekr and Omar, the most prominent figure in the story of the early Caliphate is without doubt that of Khâlid, son of Welîd. More to him than to any other is it due that Islam spread with such marvellous rapidity. A dashing soldier, and brave even to rashness, his courage was tempered by a cool and ever-ready judgment. His conduct on the battle-fields which decided the fate of the Persian empire and of the Byzantine rule in Syria, must rank him as one of the greatest generals of the world. Over and again he cast the die in crises where loss would have been destruction to Islam, but always with consummate skill and heroism which won the victory. The carnage following his arms gained for him the title of The Sword of God; and so little regard had he for loss of life even amongst his own followers, that he could wed the freshly-made widow of his enemy on the field yet moistened by his people’s blood. He had already distinguished himself in the annals of Islam. Fighting, at the first, on the side of the Coreish, the defeat of the Prophet at Ohod was due mainly to his prowess. At the capture of Mecca, now in the ranks of the faithful, his was the only column which shed blood; and shortly after, the cruel massacre of an unoffending tribe brought down upon him the stern reproof of Mahomet.[26] At the battle of Mûta, three years before, he had given a signal proof of his generalship, when, the Moslem army having been routed by Roman legions, and its leaders one after another slain, he saved the shattered remnants by skilful and intrepid tactics from destruction.[27] It was this Khâlid whom Abu Bekr now sent forth against the rebel prophets Toleiha and Moseilama.

Khâlid marches towards the Beni Tay.

His column, by far the strongest of the eleven, was composed of the flower of the Refugees from Mecca, as well as of the men of Medîna, which latter marched under their own officer, Thâbit son of Cays.[28] To divert the enemy’s attention, Abu Bekr gave out that the destination was Kheibar, and (to strike the greater terror into the insurgents) that he intended himself to join it there with a fresh contingent. Khâlid, however, was not long in quitting the northern route. Striking off to the right, he made direct for the mountain range of Ajâ and Salmâ, the seat of the Beni Tay, and not distant from the scene of Toleiha’s revolt among the Beni Asad.

Toleiha, the false prophet.

Of the doctrines of Toleiha, as of the other pretenders to the prophetic office, we know little, nor indeed anything at all to show wherein the secret of influence lay. A few doggrel verses and dark or childish sayings are all that the contemptuous voice of tradition has transmitted of their teaching, if such it can be called. So far as appears, it was a mere travesty of Islam. Toleiha forbad prostration during worship. ‘The Lord,’ he said, ‘hath not commanded that ye should soil your foreheads in the dust, neither that ye should double up your backs in prayer.’ Similarly Moseilama and Sajâh remitted two of the five daily times of prayer. That four pretenders (for Sajâh the prophetess was also such) should have arisen in different parts of Arabia, and, even before the death of Mahomet, drawn multitudes after them, would seem to imply something in their doctrine deeper than senseless rhymes and more specious than petty variations of the Moslem rite.[29] So much is clear, that the spiritual sense of Arabia had been quickened by the preaching of Mahomet, and that his example had not only suggested the claims of others, but also contributed to their success. Jealousy of Mecca and Medîna, moreover, and impatience of the trammels of Islam, were powerful incentives for Bedouins to cast in their lot with these pretenders. Thus the Beni Ghatafân, who before their submission to Mahomet were in league with the Tay and Asad tribes, had recently fallen out with them and lost some of their pasture-lands. Oyeina,[30] chief of the Ghatafân, now counselled a return to their old relations with the Beni Asad. ‘Let us go back,’ he said, ‘to our ancient alliance which we had before Islam with them, for never since we gave it up have I known the boundaries of our pasture-lands. A prophet of our own is better than a prophet of the Coreish. Besides, Mahomet is dead, but Toleiha is alive.’ So saying, Oyeina, followed by 700 warriors of his tribe, joined the false prophet at Bozâkha.

Khâlid reclaims the Beni Tay.

When first he heard of the heresy, Mahomet had deputed Dhirâr to the Beni Asad, with instructions to rally the faithful amongst them, and with their aid to crush Toleiha. The two encountered one another, and the sword of Dhirâr, we are told, glanced off from the person of his adversary. On this, a rumour spread abroad that Toleiha led a charmed life, and thenceforward his cause prospered. After their defeat at Abrac, the insurgents, as we have seen, flocked to Toleiha at Bozâkha, and he was further strengthened by the adhesion of two influential branches of the Beni Tay.[31] Dhirâr found his position at last so insecure that he fled to Medîna. The great family of the Beni Tay, however, was not wholly disloyal, for Adî (as above mentioned) had already presented the legal dues to Abu Bekr on behalf of some part of it. Adî therefore was now sent forward by Khâlid to his people, in the hope of detaching them from Toleiha’s cause. He found them in no friendly humour. ‘The Father of the Foal!’ they cried (for such was the sobriquet contemptuously used for Abu Bekr[32]); ‘thou shalt not persuade us to do homage to him.’ ‘Think better of it,’ replied Adi; ‘an army approacheth which ye cannot withstand. Ye shall know full soon that he is no foal, but a lusty stallion. Wherefore see ye to it.’ Alarmed at his words, they begged for time that they might recall the two branches which had joined Toleiha, ‘For,’ said they, ‘he will surely hold them hostages, or else put them to death.’ So Khâlid halted three days, and in the end they not only tendered submission, but joined him with 1,000 horse, ‘the flower of the land of Tay, and the bravest of them.’

Battle of Bozâkha.

Thus reinforced, Khâlid advanced against Toleiha. On the march his army was exasperated by finding the bodies of two of their scouts—one a warrior of note named Okkâsha—who had been slain, and left by Toleiha to be trampled on the road.[33] The armies met at Bozâkha, and the combat is said to have been hot and long. At last (so we are told) the tide of battle was turned by certain utterances of Toleiha, who was on the field in his prophetic garb of hair. Oyeina fought bravely with his 700 of the Beni Fezâra.[34] The situation becoming critical, he turned to Toleiha, saying, ‘Hath any message come to thee from Gabriel?’ ‘Not yet,’ answered the prophet. A second time he asked, and received the same reply. ‘Yes,’ said Toleiha, a little after, ‘a message now hath come.’ ‘And what is it?’ inquired Oyeina eagerly. ‘Thus saith Gabriel to me, Thou shalt have a millstone like unto his, and an affair shalt happen that thou wilt not forget.’ ‘Away with thee!’ cried Oyeina scornfully; ‘no doubt the Lord knoweth that an affair will happen that thou shall not forget! Ho, ye Beni Fezâra, every man to his tent!’ So they turned to go; and thereupon the army fled. Toleiha escaped with his wife to Syria. His subsequent history proved him a brave warrior; but he had a poor cause, and the combat could hardly have been very severe, as no mention is made of loss on either side.

Toleiha’s sequel.

His sequel is curious. At the first, Toleiha took refuge with the Beni Kelb on the Syrian frontier; then when the Beni Asad were pardoned, he returned to them and again embraced Islam. Passing Medîna soon after on pilgrimage, he was seized and carried to Abu Bekr, who set him at liberty, saying, ‘Let him alone. What have I to do with him? The Lord hath now verily guided him into the right path.’ When Omar succeeded to the Caliphate, he presented himself to take the oath of allegiance. At first Omar spoke roughly to him: ‘Thou art he that killed Okkâsha and his comrade. I love thee not.’ ‘Was it not better,’ answered Toleiha, ‘that they by my hand should obtain the crown of martyrdom, rather than that I by theirs should have perished in hell-fire?’ When he had sworn allegiance, the Caliph asked him concerning his oracular gift,[35] and whether anything yet remained of it. ‘Ah,’ he replied, ‘it was but a puff or two, as from a pair of bellows.’ So he returned to his tribe, and went forth with them to the wars in Irâc, where, in the great struggle with Persia, he became a hero of renown.

Beni Asad and other tribes received back into Islam.

After the battle of Bozâkha, the Beni Asad, fearing lest their families should fall into the conqueror’s hand, tendered their submission. The Beni Aámir, Suleim, and Hawâzin, tribes which had stood aloof watching the event, now came in, and received from Khâlid the same terms as the Beni Asad. They resumed the profession of Islam with all its obligations, and in proof thereof brought in the tithe. A full amnesty was then accorded, on condition only that those who during the apostasy had taken the life of any Moslem should be delivered up. These were now (to carry out the Caliph’s vow) put to the like death as that which they had inflicted. If they had speared their victims, cast them over precipices, drowned them in wells, or burned them in the fire, the persecutors were now subjected to the same barbarous and cruel fate.

A body of malcontents under Omm Siml discomfited.

Khâlid stayed at Bozâkha for a month, receiving the submission of the people in the vicinity and their tithes. Troops of horse scoured the country, and struck terror into the vacillating tribes around. In only one direction was serious opposition met. Certain malcontents from amongst the penitent and returning people, unable to brook submission, gathered themselves together in a defiant attitude. They had yet to learn that the grip of Islam was stern and crushing. Their restless and marauding spirit preferred, perhaps, even as a forlorn hope, to hold their enemy at bay; or they had sinned beyond the hope of grace. Thus they assembled in a great multitude around Omm Siml, daughter of a famous chieftain of the Ghatafân. This lady’s mother, Omm Kirfa, had been captured and put to a cruel death by Mahomet. She herself had waited upon Ayesha as a captive maid in the Prophet’s household; but the haughty spirit of her race survived the servitude. Mounted on her mother’s war-camel, she led the force herself, and incited the insurgents to a bold resistance. Khâlid proclaimed the reward of one hundred camels to him who should maim her camel. It was soon disabled; and, Omm Siml slain, the rout was easy.[36]

Oyeina, Corra, and Alcama released by Abu Bekr.

In this campaign the only persons taken captive were those who had deeply compromised themselves as leaders in rebellion. They were sent by Khâlid to Abu Bekr. The chief were Oyeina, Corra, and Alcama. The story of this last, a chief of the Beni Aámir, is curious. After the surrender of Tâyif he had fled to Syria. On the death of Mahomet he returned, and incited his people to rebellion. An expedition sent in pursuit of him had seized his family, and carried them off captive to Medîna. He fled; but as all the country-side had now submitted, there was no longer any way of escape, and he was seized and delivered up to Khâlid. Corra, of the same tribe, was one of those whom Amru, on his journey from Oman, had found vacillating, and of whom he brought an evil report to Abu Bekr. Oyeina, the marauding chieftain of the Fezâra, had often been the terror of Medîna. When the city was besieged by the Coreish, he offered his assistance on certain humiliating terms, which the Prophet was near accepting; and he was one of the many influential leaders ‘whose hearts,’ after the battle of Honein and siege of Tâyif, ‘had been reconciled’ by the Prophet’s largesses. He was now led into Medîna with the rest in chains, his hands tied up behind his back. The citizens crowded round to gaze at the fallen chief, and the very children smote him with their hands, crying out, ‘Enemy of the Lord, and apostate!’ ‘Not so,’ said Oyeina bravely; ‘I am no apostate; I never was a believer until now.’[37] The Caliph listened patiently to the appeal of the captives. He forgave them, and commanded their immediate release.

Fujâa, a freebooter, burned alive.

Abu Bekr, as a rule, was mild in his judgments, and even generous to the fallen foe. But on one occasion the treachery of a rebel chief irritated him to an act of barbarous cruelty. Fujâa, a leader of some note amongst the Beni Suleim, under pretence of fighting against the insurgents in his neighbourhood, obtained from the Caliph arms and accoutrements for his band. Thus equipped, he abused the trust, and, becoming a freebooter, attacked and plundered Moslem and Apostate indiscriminately. Abu Bekr thereupon wrote letters to a loyal chief in that quarter to raise a force and go against the brigand. Hard pressed, Fujâa challenged his adversary to a parley, and asserted that he held a commission from the Caliph not inferior to his. ‘If thou speakest true,’ answered the other, ‘then lay aside thy weapons and accompany me to Abu Bekr.’ He did so, and followed, without further resistance, to Medîna. No sooner did he appear than the Caliph, enraged at his treachery, cried aloud: ‘Go forth with this traitor to the burial-ground, and there burn him with fire.’ So, hard by in Backî, the graveyard of the city, they gathered wood, and heaping it together at the Mosalla, or place of prayer, kindled the pile, and cast Fujâa on it.

Abu Bekr regrets the act.

If the charges were well founded, which we have no ground for doubting, Fujâa deserved the fate of a bandit; but to cast him alive into the flames was a savage act, for which Abu Bekr was sorry afterwards. ‘It is one of the three things,’ he used to say, ‘which I would I had not done.’[38]

CHAPTER VI.
STORY OF MALIK IBN NOWEIRA.
A.H. XI. A.D. 632.

Khâlid advances south. A.H. XI. November (?) A.D. 632.

Having subdued the Beni Asad, and other tribes inhabiting the hills and desert to the north-west of Medîna, Khâlid now bent his steps southward, against the Beni Temîm who occupied the plateau towards the Persian Gulf.

The Beni Temîm.

This great tribe had from time immemorial spread itself with multitudinous branches over the pasture-lands and settlements lying between Yemâma and the delta of the Euphrates. Some of its clans professed Christianity, but the greater portion were heathen. They used in past times to have frequent passages, often of a hostile character, with Persia.[39] Most part of this people had submitted to the claims of Mahomet, and the oratorical contest between their embassy and the poets of Medîna forms a curious episode in the Prophet’s life.[40] His death had produced amongst them the same unsettlement and apostasy as elsewhere. Abu Bekr’s first early success resulted, as we have seen, in bringing some of their chiefs to Medîna with the tithes. Meanwhile a strange complication had arisen which embroiled the Beni Yerbóa, one of their clans, commanded by the famous Mâlik ibn Noweira, and eventually brought Khâlid on the scene.

It was no less than the advent of Sajâh, a prophetess, at the head of a great host from Mesopotamia. She was descended from the Beni Yerbóa, but her family had migrated north, and joined the Beni Taghlib, among whom in Mesopotamia she had been brought up as a Christian. Sajâh the prophetess gains over Mâlik ibn Noweira, chief of Beni Yerbóa. How long and by what steps she had assumed the prophetic office, and what (if any) were her peculiar tenets, we do not know; for nothing of hers excepting some childish verses has been preserved. At the head of the Taghlib and other Christian tribes,[41] each led by its own captain, she had crossed into Arabia, hoping to profit by the confusion that followed on the death of Mahomet, and was now on her way to attack Medîna. Reaching the seats of the Beni Temîm, she summoned to her presence the Beni Yerbóa, her own clan, and promised them the kingdom, should victory crown her arms. They joined her standard, with Mâlik ibn Noweira at their head. The other clans of the Beni Temîm refused to acknowledge the prophetess; and so, diverted from her design upon Medîna, she turned her arms against them. In a series of combats, though supported by Mâlik, she was worsted. Then, having made terms and exchanged prisoners, she bethought her of attacking the rival prophet, Moseilama of Yemâma, whose story I must here in some part anticipate.

Sajâh, having married Moseilama, retires to Mesopotamia.

Moseilama was strongly supported by his own people, the Beni Hanîfa, in his claim to be their prophet and ruler; but he now felt that the meshes of Abu Bekr were closing round him. The Caliph’s officers were rallying the yet loyal or vacillating chiefs in Hejer; and Khâlid, whom Moseilama dreaded most of all, was behind. Tidings of the approach of a new enemy at this crisis added to his perplexity; and he therefore sent a friendly message to the prophetess to come and meet him. She came, and they found their sentiments so much in unison that they cemented the alliance by marriage. Moseilama conceded to her one half-share of the revenues of Yemâma—the share, he said, which belonged to the Coreish, but which, by their tyranny and violence, they had forfeited. After a few days she departed again to her own country, leaving a party with three of her officers to collect the stipulated tribute. Like a meteor, this strange personage disappeared as soon almost as she had startled Arabia by her advent; and we hear no more of her.[42]

Mâlik ibn Noweira and the Beni Yerbóa attacked by Khâlid.

Khâlid, flushed with victory, was now drawing near, and most of the branches of the Temîm were forward in tendering their submission to him. At this critical juncture, the withdrawal of Sajâh, and his own previous doubtful attitude, left Mâlik ibn Noweira at the head of the Beni Yerbóa in a position of some perplexity, and he was undecided how to act.[43] On the other hand, conflicting news divided the Moslem camp. For some reason Khâlid was bent on attacking the Beni Yerbóa. The men of Medîna[44] were equally opposed to the design, for which they alleged that Khâlid had from the Caliph no authority. It would have been better for him had he listened to the remonstrance. But he replied haughtily, ‘I am commander. In the absence of orders, it is for me to decide. I will march against Mâlik ibn Noweira with the men of Mecca, and with such others as choose to follow me. I compel no man.’ So he went forward and left the malcontents behind. These, however, thought better of it, and rejoined the army. Khâlid marched straight upon Bitâh, the head-quarters of Mâlik, but he found not a soul upon the spot. It was utterly deserted.

Mâlik brought a prisoner into Khâlid’s camp;

In fact, Mâlik had resolved on submission, though his proud spirit rebelled against presenting himself before Khâlid. He knew the ordinance of Abu Bekr, that none but they who resisted his arms, and refused the call to prayer, should be molested. So he told his people that there was no longer use in opposing this new way, but that, bowing down, they should suffer the wave to pass over them: ‘Break up your camp,’ he said, ‘and depart every one to his house.’ Khâlid finding things thus, was not content, but, treating the neighbourhood as enemy’s land, sent forth bands everywhere to slay and plunder, and take captive all that offered opposition or failed to respond to the call for prayer. Amongst others, Mâlik was brought in with his wife and a party of his people. When challenged, they had replied that they too were Moslems. ‘Why, then, these weapons?’ it was asked. So they laid aside their arms and were led as captives to the camp. As they passed by Khâlid, Mâlik cried aloud to him, ‘Thy master never gave command for this.’ ‘“Thy master,” sayest thou?’ was the scornful reply of Khâlid; ‘then, rebel, by thine own admission, he is not thine!’

and, with other prisoners put to death.

The captors differed in their evidence. Some averred that the prisoners had offered resistance. Others, with Abu Catâda, a citizen of Medîna, at their head, deposed that they had declared themselves Moslems, and at once complied with the call to prayer. So they were remanded till morning under an armed guard. The night set in cold and stormy, and Khâlid (such is his explanation), with the view of protecting them from its inclemency, gave the guard command ‘to wrap their prisoners.’ The word was ambiguous, signifying in another dialect[45] not ‘to wrap,’ but ‘to slay,’ and Dbirâr, commandant of the guard, taking it in that sense, put the prisoners, and with them Mâlik, forthwith to the sword. Khâlid, hearing the uproar, hurried forth; but all was over, and he retired, exclaiming, ‘When the Lord hath determined a thing, the same cometh verily to pass.’ But the fate of Mâlik was not thus easily to be set at rest. He was a chief of name and influence, and a poet of some celebrity. The men of Medina who had opposed the advance were shocked at his cruel fate. Abu Catâda roundly asserted the responsibility of Khâlid. ‘This is thy work!’ he said; and, though chided for it, he persisted in the charge. He declared that never again would he serve under Khâlid’s banner. In company with Motammim, Mâlik’s brother, he set out at once for Medina, and there laid a formal complaint before the Caliph. Omar, with his native impetuosity, took up the cause of the Yerbóa chief. Khâlid had given point to the allegations of his enemies by marrying Leila, the beautiful widow of his victim, on the spot. From this scandalous act, Omar drew the worst conclusion. ‘He hath conspired to slay a believer,’ he said, ‘and hath gone in unto his wife.’ He was instant with Abu Bekr that the offender should be degraded and put in bonds, saying, ‘The sword of Khâlid, dipped thus in violence and outrage, must be sheathed.’ ‘Not so,’ replied the Caliph (of whom it is said that he never degraded one of his commanders); ‘the sword which the Lord hath made bare against the heathen, shall I sheathe the same? That be far from me.’ Nevertheless, he summoned Khâlid to answer for the charge.

Khâlid exonerated by Abu Bekr;

Khâlid lost no time in repairing to Medina. He went up straightway to the Great Mosque, and entered it in his rough field costume, his clothes rubbed rusty with his girded armour, and his turban coiled rudely about the head with arrows stuck in it. As he passed along the courtyard towards the Caliph’s place, Omar could not restrain himself, but seizing the arrows from his turban, broke them over his shoulders, and abused him as hypocrite, murderer, and adulterer. Khâlid, not knowing but that Abu Bekr might be of the same mind, answered not a word, but passed into the Caliph’s presence. There he told his story, and the explanation was accepted by Abu Bekr;—only he chided him roughly for having thus incontinently wedded his victim’s widow, and run counter to the custom and feelings of the Arabs in celebrating his nuptials on the field. As Khâlid again passed Omar, he lightly rallied him in words which showed that he had been exonerated. Motammim then pressed the claim, as one of honour, for payment of his brother’s blood-money, and release of the prisoners that remained. For the release Abu Bekr gave command, but the payment he declined.

but held guilty by Omar.

Omar remained unconvinced of the innocence of Khâlid, and still was of opinion that he should be withdrawn from his command. He persevered in pressing this view upon Abu Bekr, who would reply, ‘Omar, hold thy peace! Refrain thy tongue from Khâlid. He gave an order, and the order was misunderstood.’ But Omar heeded not. He neither forgave nor forgot, as in the sequel we shall see.

Mâlik’s death commemorated in verse by his brother.

The scandal was the greater, because Mâlik ibn Noweira was a chief renowned for his generosity and princely virtues, as well as for poetic talent. His brother, Motammim, a poet likewise of no mean fame, commemorated his tragic end in many touching verses. Omar loved to listen to his elegies; and he used to tell Motammim that if he had himself possessed the poetic gift, he would have had no higher ambition than to mourn in such verse over the fate of his own brother Zeid, who shortly after fell at Yemâma.[46]

The affair leaves a stain on Khâlid’s fame.

The materials are too meagre to judge conclusively whether the right in this grave matter is on the side of Omar or of the Caliph, Abu Bekr. Although the hostile bias of Khâlid against Mâlik led undoubtedly to the raid upon his tribe and the harsh treatment which followed thereupon, still, with the conflicting evidence, we may hold the deeper charge unproven. But in wedding the widow of his enemy while his blood (shed as we are to believe in misconception of his order) was fresh upon the ground, Khâlid, if he gave no colour to darker suspicions, yet transgressed the proprieties even of Arab life, and justified the indictment of unbridled passion and cold-blooded self-indulgence.[47]

CHAPTER VII.
BATTLE OF YEMAMA.
End of A.H. XI. Beginning of 633 A.D.

Campaign of Khâlid against Moseilama. January, A.D. 633.[48]

But sterner work was in reserve for Khâlid. In the centre of Arabia, and right in front of his army, some marches east, lay Yemâma. There resided the Beni Hanîfa, a powerful branch of the great tribe Bekr ibn Wâil. Partly Christian and partly heathen, the Beni Hanîfa had submitted to Mahomet; but they were now in rebellion, 40,000 strong, around their prophet Moseilama. It was against these that Khâlid next directed his steps.

Moseilama’s previous story.

The beginning of Moseilama’s story belongs to the life of Mahomet.[49] Small in stature, and of a mean countenance, he had yet qualities which fitted him for command. He visited Medîna with a deputation from his people, and it was pretended that words had then fallen from Mahomet signifying that he would yet be a sharer with him in the prophetic office. Building thereon, Moseilama advanced his claim, and was accepted by his people as their prophet. When summoned by Mahomet to abandon his impious pretensions, he sent an insolent answer claiming to divide the land. Mahomet replied in anger, and drove the ambassadors from his presence. To counteract his teaching, he deputed Rajjâl, a convert from the same tribe, who had visited Medîna, and there been instructed in the Corân.[50] On returning to his people, however, this man also was gained over by the pretender to espouse his claims as founded on the alleged admission of Mahomet himself. Moseilama, we are told, deceived the people by tricks and miracles; aped, in childish terms, the language of the Corân; and established a system of prayers similar to those of Mahomet. In short, his religion, so far as we can tell, was but a wretched imitation of Islam.[51] At the period we have now reached, he had just rid himself of Sajâh, the rival prophetess, by the singular expedient of taking her to wife, and then bribing her by half the revenues of Yemâma to return from whence she came. Parties of Mesopotamian horse were still about the country collecting her dues, when Khâlid’s approach changed the scene; and Moseilama, marching out with a great army to meet him, pitched his camp at Acraba.

Ikrima suffers a reverse.

Ikrima and Shorahbîl were the commanders originally despatched by Abu Bekr to quell the rising at Yemâma,[52] and both suffered at the hands of Moseilama from a hasty and unguarded advance. Ikrima, anxious to anticipate his fellow, hurried forward, and was driven back with loss. The details (as generally the case when tradition deals with a defeat) are wanting; but the reverse was so serious that Abu Bekr, in reply to the despatch reporting it, wrote angrily to Ikrima. ‘I will not see thy face,’ he said, ‘nor shalt thou see mine, as now thou art. Thou shalt not return hither to dishearten the people. Depart unto the uttermost coasts, and there join the armies in the east of the land, and then in the south.’ So, skirting Yemâma, he went forward to Omân, there to retrieve his tarnished reputation. Shorahbîl, meanwhile, was directed to halt and await the approach of Khâlid.[53]

Khâlid sets out for Yemâma.

It was after the reverse of Ikrima that Khâlid, on being summoned to Medîna on the affair of Mâlik ibn Noweira, received the commission to attack Moseilama. In anticipation of serious opposition, the Caliph promised to strengthen his army by a fresh column composed of veterans from amongst the men of Mecca and Medîna. So Khâlid returned to his camp at Bitâh, and when these reinforcements came up, he marched in strength to meet the enemy. It was now that Shorahbîl, whose troop formed the vanguard, hastening forward like Ikrima, met with a like reverse, and was severely handled by Khâlid for his temerity.

Mojâa, a chief of the Beni Hanîfa, taken prisoner.

While yet a march from Acraba, Khâlid surprised a mounted body of the Beni Hanîfa under command of the chief Mojâa. They were returning from a raid against a neighbouring tribe, unaware of the approach of the Mussulman army. But they belonged to the enemy, and as such were all put to the sword, excepting Mojâa, whom Khâlid spared, as he said he promised to be useful on the coming eventful day, and kept chained in his tent under charge of Leila, his lately espoused wife.

Battle of Acraba or Yemâma.

On the morrow, the two armies met upon the sandy plain of Acraba. The enemy rushed on with desperate bravery. ‘Fight for your loved ones!’ cried the son of Moseilama; ‘it is the day of jealousy and vengeance; if ye be worsted, your maidens will be ravished by the conqueror, and your wives dragged to his foul embrace!’ So fierce was the shock that the Moslems were driven back, and their camp uncovered. The tent of Khâlid was entered by the wild Bedouins; and, but for the chivalry of her captive, who conjured his countrymen to spare a lady of such noble birth, Leila would have perished by their swords. ‘Go, fight against men,’ Mojâa cried, ‘and leave this woman;’ so they cut the tent-ropes and departed. There was danger for Islam at the moment. Defeat would have been disastrous; indeed, the Faith could hardly have survived it. But now the spirit of the Moslems was aroused. Khâlid, knowing the rivalry between the Bedouin and the city Arabs, separated them to fight apart. On this they rallied one the other; and the sons of the desert cried: ‘Now we shall see the carnage wax hot amongst the raw levies of the town. We will teach them how to fight!’ Prodigies of valour were fought all round. The heroic words and deeds of the leaders, as one after another fell in the thick of battle, are dwelt on by the historian with enthusiasm. Zeid, the favourite brother of Omar, who led the men of Mecca, singled out Rajjâl, and, reproaching his apostasy, despatched him forthwith. A furious south wind, charged with the desert sand, blew into the faces of the Moslems, and, blinding them, caused a momentary pause. Upbraiding them for their slackness, Zeid cried out: ‘I shall follow them that have gone before; not a word will I utter more, till we beat the apostates back, or I appear to clear myself before my Lord. Close your eyes and clench your teeth. Forward like men!’ So saying, he led the charge and fell. Abu Hodzeifa, another Companion of note, calling out ‘Fight for the Corân, ye Moslems, and adorn it by your deeds!’ followed his example and shared his fate. Seeing this, Abu Hodzeifa’s freedman, Sâlim, seized the banner from his dying master, and exclaiming, ‘I were a craven bearer of the Corân if I feared for my life,’ plunged into the battle and was slain.[54] Nor were the citizens of Medîna behind their fellows. Their commander, Thâbit ibn Cays, reproached them indignantly: ‘Woe be to you,’ he said, ‘because of this backsliding. Verily, I am clear of ye, even as I am clear of these,’ and he pointed to the enemy as he flung himself and perished in their midst. Animated thus, the rank and file charged furiously. Backwards and forwards swayed the line, and heavy was the carnage. But urged by Khâlid’s valiant arm,[55] and raising the grand battle-cry ‘Yâ Mohammedâ!’ the Moslem arms at length prevailed. The enemy broke and began to give. ‘To the garden!’ cried Mohakkem, a brave leader of the Beni Hanîfa; ‘to the garden, and close the gate!’ Taking his stand, he guarded their retreat as they fled into an orchard surrounded by a strong wall, and Moseilama with them. The Moslem troops, following close, soon swarmed all round the wall, but found no entrance anywhere. The Garden of Death.At last Berâa, one of the Twelve,[56] cried, ‘Lift me aloft upon the wall.’ So they lifted him up. For a moment, as he looked on the surging mass below, the hero hesitated; then, boldly leaping down, he beat right and left, until he reached the gate, and threw it open. Like waters pent up, his comrades rushed in; and, as beasts of the forest snared in a trap, so wildly struggled the brave Beni Hanîfa in the Garden of Death. Hemmed in by the narrow space, and hampered by the trees, their arms useless from their very numbers, they were hewn down, and perished to a man. The carnage was fearful, for besides the slain within the walls, an equal number were killed on the field, and again an equal number in the flight.[57] The Beni Hanîfa discomfited, with great slaughter on both sides.The Moslems, too, despite their splendid victory, had cause to remember the Garden Death and the battle of Yemâma, for their loss was beyond all previous experience. Besides those killed hand to hand in the garden, great numbers fell in the battle when their ranks wavered and gave way. The Refugees from Mecca lost 360 men, and the Citizens of Medîna 300, or nearly 700 in all; while the slaughter amongst the Bedouins, though somewhat less, raised the gross number over 1,200, besides the wounded. And amongst them were nine and thirty chief ‘Companions,’ or men of note, amongst the Prophet’s followers. At Medîna there was hardly a house, whether of Refugees or native Citizens, in which the voice of wailing was not heard.[58]

Moseilama among the slain.

Moseilama was slain by Wahshi, the same negro warrior who, swinging a javelin, after his savage style of warfare, round his head, had on the field of Ohod brought the sainted Hamza to the ground. After the battle Khâlid carried the chief Mojâa, still in chains, over the field to identify the dead. As they passed along the field of battle, turning the bodies over one after another, they came upon a stalwart figure. ‘Look, was this your master?’ said Khâlid. ‘Nay,’ replied Mojâa, ‘this was a nobler and a better man.’ It was the corpse of the brave Mohakkem, who fell covering the retreat, slain by the hand of Abdul Rahman, the Caliph’s son. Then they entered the Garden of Death. Among the heaps of the mangled dead, they stumbled on a body of insignificant mien. ‘This is your man,’ said Mojâa, as he turned it on its side; ‘truly ye have done for him!’ ‘Yea,’ replied Khâlid, ‘or rather it is he which hath done for you, that which he hath done.’

Truce with the Beni Hanîfa.

The Mussulman horse now scoured the country, and every day brought in bands of prisoners. Aware that after their crushing defeat his people were incapable of resistance, Mojâa bethought him of a stratagem. He represented them as holding their forts and fastnesses in force throughout the country, and so persuaded Khâlid to offer them their lives if they at once capitulated. Meanwhile, by his secret suggestion, the battlements were lined by every available person, even by the old men and women in armed disguise; and Khâlid’s messengers returned with the answer that they would fight to the last. The army was wearied with the hard struggle, and most of them anxious, after the long campaign, to return to their homes; and so Khâlid concluded a truce, on terms more favourable than they would have obtained but for Mojâa’s artifice. When it came to light, Khâlid reproached him for it; but in the end excused him on the pleaded ground of patriotism, and stood by the treaty. No sooner was it concluded, than he received a despatch of unwonted severity from Abu Bekr, who, to strike terror into other apostate tribes, commanded that not a single adult male of the ungodly and rebellious race should be spared. Fortunately the truce forbade the bloody edict. The Beni Hanîfa, like other prostrate tribes, were received back into the bosom of Islam, and a portion only of their number were retained in captivity.[59]

Deputation of Beni Hanîfa to the Caliph.

When the campaign was ended, Khâlid sent a deputation of the chief survivors to Abu Bekr, who received them courteously. ‘Out upon you!’ said he; ‘how is it that this impostor led you all astray?’ ‘O Caliph!’ they answered, ‘thou hast heard it all; he was one whom the Lord blessed not, nor yet his people;’ and they repeated to him some of the things he used to say. ‘Good heavens!’ exclaimed Abu Bekr, ‘Beshrew you! What kind of words are these? There is neither sense in them for good nor yet for evil, to have beguiled you thus, but a kind of strange fatuity.’ So he dismissed them to their homes.[60]

Many ‘Companions’ among the slain. Zeid, brother of Omar.

Among the killed we meet not a few names familiar to us in the annals of the Prophet’s life. The carnage amongst the Readers—those who had the Corân by heart—was so great, as to suggest to Omar the first design of collecting the sacred text, ‘lest any part should be lost therefrom.’ At the death of his favourite brother Zeid, who had shared with him the dangers of the first battles of Islam, Omar was inconsolable. ‘Thou art returned home,’ he said to his son Abdallah, ‘safe and sound; and Zeid is dead. Wherefore wast not thou slain before him? I wish not to see thy face.’ ‘Father!’ answered Abdallah, ‘he asked for martyrdom, and the Lord granted it. I strove after the same, but it was not given unto me.’ Such was the spirit of these Moslem warriors.

Khâlid marries Mojâa’s daughter.

Khâlid again signalised his victory by wedding a captive maid upon the field.[61] ‘Give me thy daughter to wife,’ he said to Mojâa, the prisoner who had so faithfully defended his bride in the hour of peril. ‘Wait,’ replied Mojâa; ‘be not so hasty. Thou wilt endamage thyself in the eyes of thy Chief, and me likewise.’ ‘Man, give me thy daughter!’ he repeated imperiously; so Mojâa gave her to him. When Abu Bekr heard of it, he wrote him a letter sprinkled with blood. ‘By my life! thou son of Khâlid’s father, thou art a pretty fellow, living thus at thine ease. Thou weddest a damsel, whilst the ground beneath the nuptial couch is yet wet with the blood of twelve hundred!’ The reproof fell lightly upon Khâlid. ‘This is the work,’ he said, as he read the epistle, ‘of that left-handed fellow,’ meaning Omar. The sentiment, however, was Abu Bekr’s own; but the ‘Sword of the Lord’ could not be spared.

We shall meet Khâlid next in Chaldæa, by the banks of the river Euphrates.

CHAPTER VIII.
CAMPAIGN AGAINST THE REBELS IN THE EAST AND SOUTH OF ARABIA.
A.H. XI. A.D. 632–3.

Campaigns in the east and south of Arabia. A.H. XI.

Having traced Khâlid’s victorious career from the north to the centre of Arabia, we shall now follow the Mussulman arms in their progress from Bahrein and Omân on the Persian Gulf, along the southern coast to Hadhramaut and Yemen, but more briefly than before, both because the authorities themselves are brief, and also because the interest of the story, apart from a few instructive incidents, centres mainly in the general result, that is, the reclamation of apostate Arabia.

Bahrein invaded by Alâ. A.H. XI. A.D. 633.

Beyond Yemâma, skirting the western shore of the Persian Gulf from Catîf to Omân, lies the long tract, desert and littoral, called Hejer and Bahrein. It was chiefly occupied by the Beni Bekr, and other branches of the great Beni Rabia family. Mondzir, the Christian chief of Bahrein, had adopted Islam, and, in acknowledgment of the Prophet’s suzerainty, entertained a Resident from Medîna at his court.[62] He died shortly after Mahomet, and then the whole province rebelled. One tribe alone was kept loyal by Jarûd, a disciple taught at the feet of the Prophet, who now preached that, though Mahomet had gone the way of all the prophets, Islam would not the less survive. Alâ, the Resident, who had fled upon the outbreak, was reappointed by the Caliph, and despatched with a force to reclaim the rebellious province.[63] This was after the brilliant campaign of Khâlid, and the country was sufficiently near the scene of his operations to feel its influence. As he passed along the outskirts of Yemâma, the Beni Hanîfa, Temîm, and other tribes, anxious to prove their loyalty, sent contingents to join the column.[64] Thus reinforced to double his original numbers, Alâ attempted to cross the waterless zone of Dahna, lying between him and the Gulf. The army lost its way, and was overtaken by darkness in the very midst of the wilderness; the water was all spent, no springs were known of, and they resigned themselves to despair. With the sun would arise a scorching heat, and they would all perish of thirst. The miraculous lake.But, in answer to their earnest cries and supplications, as morning broke, water suddenly appeared shining on the horizon. They hastened forward, and found it to be a lake. Watering their camels and horses therefrom, they drank themselves abundantly, and went on their journey joyfully. The marvel is, in the believers’ eyes, the more extraordinary, as no spring had ever been seen in the wilderness of Dahna before, nor after the most diligent search has the miraculous lake ever been found again.[65]

Bahrein reduced.

The rebellion in Bahrein had by this time assumed formidable dimensions. Hotem, a powerful chief, had gathered around him not only the backsliding tribes, but also the mixed races of Persian and Indian parentage, who abounded on the shores of the Gulf;[66] and they had fixed upon a scion of the house of Hîra as their king. The faithful remnant under Jarûd, blockaded by the rebels, were nearly succumbing to hunger, when, to their relief, Alâ appeared. For offensive operations, however, against so great a host, the Moslem force was still too weak. To guard their position, they dug a deep trench in front, and for a whole month contented themselves with single combats and indecisive skirmishing. At last, one night, finding the enemy disordered and overcome with wine, they made an attack from all sides, put them to flight, and killing Hotem, took the prince of Hîra prisoner.[67]

Miraculous descent on the island of Dârîn.

The discomfited force fled, and, taking ship, found refuge in Dârîn, one of the numerous islets a little way off from the mainland, and the seat of a Nestorian bishopric.[68] Thither they were pursued by Alâ, and here again we are told of a miraculous interposition. No boats or means of transport were anywhere at hand. Raising, therefore, a wild invocation to the Lord of Hosts for help, the Moslems rushed into the sea and crossed the strait as it had been a shallow sandy beach. The enemy, taken by surprise on their island, were put utterly to the sword, so that not one escaped to tell the tale. A pious bard has likened the passage to that of the Israelites through the Red Sea, and a monk is said to have been converted by the double miracle of waters breaking out in the wilderness, and waters drying up in the channel of the great deep. The spoil was prodigious,[69] and multitudes of women and children were taken captive.

Bahrein reclaimed by Alâ.

While thus engaged, Alâ received material help from loyal followers along the coast. They secured the wavering, protected the rear from surprise, and overawed unruly tribes ever ready for plunder and rapine. Thus the whole region of Hejer, reclaimed to the faith, fell peaceably under the government of Alâ.[70] Mothanna.Amongst those who aided in this work was Mothanna, a chief of great influence over the Bekr clans, from one of which he sprang.[71] Following up the victory of Alâ along the coast, this warrior in his progress northward reached at last the delta of the Euphrates, where he inaugurated a movement that was of lasting importance and which will shortly engage our attention.

The campaign of Omân followed close upon that of Bahrein.[72] Jeyfar, Prince of Omân, had a year or two before tendered his allegiance to Mahomet. Omân reconquered by Hodzeifa.Amru was thereupon deputed to be the Prophet’s Representative at his court, and the demand of tithes from this distant province was foregone, on condition that they were distributed among the local poor.[73] Notwithstanding this concession, Mahomet was no sooner dead than the whole province revolted. The rebellion was led by one Lackît, who, to swell his influence, claimed himself to be a prophet. Jeyfar fled to the mountains and Amru to Medîna. The task of reclaiming Omân and the adjoining province of Mâhra was committed by Abu Bekr to Hodzeifa and Arfaja, two converts of influence in those parts.[74] They were assisted by Ikrima, son of Abu Jahl, who (as we have seen) was bidden by Abu Bekr to retrieve his reputation in this distant quarter. Arrived in Omân, they effected a junction with Jeyfar, and were then sufficiently strong to re-occupy Sohâr.[75] An engagement followed at Dabâ. Battle of Dabâ.Here the Moslems, hard pressed, were near to suffering defeat, when, at the critical moment, a great body of Abd al Cays and other tribes recently reclaimed in Bahrein appeared on the field and turned the battle in their favour. The slaughter amongst the enemy was great, and their families, which they had placed in the rear to nerve their courage, fell a welcome prize into the believers’ hands. The mart of Dabâ, enriched by Indian merchandise, yielded a magnificent booty, and Arfaja was at once deputed to Medîna with the royal Fifth of slaves and plunder.

Ikrima reduces Mâhra.

Hodzeifa was left behind as governor of Omân. Ikrima, having reached the easternmost point of Arabia, turning now to the south-west, pursued his victorious course to Mâhra. His army was swelled not only by the Bahrein contingent but by fresh levies, attracted by his success, from the tribes upon his march. Mâhra was distracted at this moment by the quarrel of two rival chiefs. Espousing the cause of the weakest, who at once avowed the faith, Ikrima attacked the other and achieved a great victory. Among the spoil were 2,000 Bactrian camels and a vast supply of arms and beasts of burden. This quarter of the peninsula, including the islands along the coast, was soon completely pacified. After some time spent here in the re-establishment of order, Ikrima, with an army now of overwhelming strength, advanced, as he had been instructed, to join Mohâjir in the campaign against Hadhramaut and Yemen. But before proceeding further, we must take a brief retrospect of things in the south and west of the peninsula.

Order restored in the Hejâz, Tihâma, and south-west coast.

The commotion in that quarter caused by the rebellion of Aswad, the ‘Veiled Prophet,’ had hardly subsided, when the death of Mahomet threw the land into a worse confusion. Mecca and Tâyif, after the first excitement, remained tolerably secure under their governors, the youthful Attâb[76] and Othmân ibn al Aás. But in the Tihâma (coast washed by the Red Sea), as well as in the interior, misrule and violence were rife. A party of marauders from amongst the Beni Khozâa and other lawless Bedouins round about the Holy City, ready as ever for plunder and rapine, were dispersed with great slaughter by the levies of Attâb. Order was maintained by a body of 500 men quartered within the sacred limits, and by small pickets throughout the districts of Mecca and Tâyif. But between them and Yemen there was nothing save turmoil and alarm. Troops of bandit horse, remnants of the false prophet’s army, hovered about the country to the south and west of Najrân. They were headed by Amr ibn Mádekerib, a poet of note and a chief of great local influence, before whom Khâlid ibn Saîd, the governor of Najrân, fled for his life. On one occasion, however, Khâlid, with but a small following, surprised Amr and spoiled him of his horse and the sword Samsât, inherited from Himyar kings and famous in Arab song.[77] The whole coast was in a ferment, and the loyal adherents of Islam were fain to flee for shelter to fastnesses in the mountains. Bands of the Beni Azd, occupying the uplands, approached the sacred territory in threatening attitude, but were dispersed by the governor of Tâyif. The whole Tihâma was overrun by swarming bands of the Akk and Ashár tribes, who closed the roads and barred communications with the south. Tâhir, who had been placed by Mahomet over these tribes, was now commissioned with a force to rally the faithful remnant on the spot, and to clear the country of the robbers infesting it. This he did so effectually that the roads became again impassable, but now simply from the offensive multitude of carcases strewn upon them.[78]

In Yemen peace was not so easily restored. The false prophet Aswad (it will be recollected) was assassinated by three of his courtiers, who, at the bidding of Mahomet, conspired with his wife against him.[79] Confusion in Yemen following the assassination of Aswad.These were the Arab chief Cays ibn Abd Yaghûth, commander of his army, and the two ministers, of Persian descent, Feroze and Dâdweih, who thereupon succeeded to the government at Sanâa.[80] When tidings of these events reached Medîna just after Mahomet’s death, Abu Bekr appointed Feroze to be his lieutenant, with Cays and Dâdweih to help him. The Arab blood of Cays rebelled against serving under a foreigner, and he plotted to expel the whole Persian race. The princes of Himyar, however, Dzul Kelâa and others,[81] would not help him, and he was obliged to call in the aid of the brigand Amr ibn Mádekerib and his marauding bands. Dâdweih was treacherously slain by Amr at a feast, but Feroze escaped, and after much hardship, secured his retreat with a friendly tribe in the hills of Khaulân. For a time Cays carried all before him. The family of Feroze was taken captive, and the Persian settlers, pursued in every direction, fled to the mountains, or took ship from Aden. Feroze appealed for help to the Caliph; but it was long before he had any troops to send. So Feroze cast about for himself, and at length, by the aid of some loyal tribes, put the troops of Cays to flight, regained possession of his family and reoccupied Sanâa.[82]

Mohâjir marches from Medîna upon Yemen. End of A.H. XI. Spring, A.D. 633.

But more effectual help to quell the disordered country was soon at hand. On one side, Mohâjir was marching from the north. Appointed by the Prophet his lieutenant in Hadhramaut, he had long been detained by sickness at Medîna, and perhaps also by the inability of the Caliph to furnish him with a following. He was the last of the commanders sent forth by Abu Bekr to reclaim the backsliding tribes. Passing through Tâyif and Najrân, as late, probably, as ten or twelve months after the death of Mahomet,[83] he was joined on the way by various loyal tribes, and thus approached the disturbed country at the head of a substantial force. On the other side, Ikrima, with his great and ever-growing army, was advancing from the east. Hastening to meet Mohâjir, he, for the present, left Hadhramaut on his right, and passed rapidly on to Aden. Alarmed at the gathering storm, Cays ibn Abd Yaghûth and Amr ibn Mádekerib had joined their forces to oppose Mohâjir. But soon quarrelling, they parted, and, according to the wont of Arab poets, abused each other in insulting verse.[84] Amr, perceiving opposition to be now in vain, sought, by a strange expedient, to gain his safety. He made a night attack upon Cays, and carried him prisoner to Mohâjir; but he had forgotten a safe-conduct for himself. Mohâjir, therefore, seized them both, and sent them in chains to Medîna. The Caliph was at first minded to put Amr to death because of the murder of Dâdweih; but he denied the crime, and there was no evidence to prove it. ‘Art thou not ashamed,’ said Abu Bekr to him, ‘that following the rebel cause, thou art ever either a fugitive or in bonds? Hadst thou been a defender of the Faith instead, then had the Lord raised thee above thy fellows.’ ‘So assuredly it is,’ replied the humbled chief; ‘I will embrace the faith, and never again will I desert it.’ So the Caliph forgave them both; and his clemency was not abused, for we find these gallant but unscrupulous chiefs soon after fighting loyally in the Persian war.

Peace restored in Yemen.

After this, Yemen was speedily reduced to order. The rebel horse, remnant of the false prophet’s army, was pursued without quarter, and soon exterminated. And Mohâjir, established firmly at Sanâa, ruled in security over the whole of that country, from Najrân to Aden.

Rebellion in Hadhramaut under Ashâth ibn Cays.

Mohâjir and Ikrima were now at leisure to turn their arms against Hadhramaut, the great province which occupies the south of Arabia, east of Yemen. There Ziâd, who held Mohâjir’s government during his protracted absence, was hard pressed. He had, at an early period, aroused the hatred of the Beni Kinda by harshness in collecting the tithe; but, supported by the Sakûn, and other tribes hostile to the Beni Kinda, he had obtained several important advantages over them.[85] On one occasion he carried off, with great spoil, the families of a vanquished tribe. Asháth ibn Cays, chief of the Kinda, was moved by their cries; and, having gathered a strong force, fell upon Ziâd, and rescued the captives. It is the same Asháth who, when he tendered his homage to Mahomet, had betrothed to himself the sister of Abu Bekr.[86] Thus compromised he went into active rebellion, and roused the whole country against Ziâd, who, surrounded by the enemy, despatched an urgent summons to Mohâjir to hasten to his deliverance.

Subdued by Mohâjir and Ikrima.

By this time Mohâjir and Ikrima, marching respectively from Sanâa and Aden, had effected a junction at Mâreb, and were crossing the sandy desert of Sayhad, which lay between them and Hadhramaut. Learning the critical position of Ziâd, Mohâjir set off in haste with a flying squadron, and, joined by Ziâd, fell upon Asháth, and discomfited him with great slaughter. The routed enemy fled for refuge to the stronghold of Nojeir, which Mohâjir immediately invested. Ikrima soon came up with the main body, when there were troops enough both to surround the city and also to ravage all the country round about. Stung by witnessing the ruin of their kindred, and preferring death to dishonour, the garrison sallied forth, and fought the Moslems at every point about the fortress. After a desperate struggle, in which the approaches were filled with the dead, they were driven back. Meanwhile Abu Bekr, apprised of the obstinate resistance, sent orders to make an example of the rebels, and give no quarter. The wretched garrison, with the enemy daily increasing, and no prospect of relief, were now bereft of hope. Seeing the position desperate, the wily Asháth made his way to Ikrima and treacherously agreed to deliver up the fortress if nine lives were guaranteed. Ashâth sent prisoner to Medîna and released by Abu Bekr.The Moslems entered, slew the fighting men, and took the women captive. The list of the nine to be spared was presented to Mohâjir. ‘Thy name is not here!’ cried the conqueror, exultingly, to Ashâth; for the craven traitor had forgotten, in the excitement of the moment, to enter his own name;—‘the Lord be praised, who hath condemned thee out of thine own mouth.’ So, having cast him into chains, he was about to order his execution, when Ikrima interposed and induced him, much against his will, to refer the cause to Abu Bekr. The crowd of captive women, mourning the massacre of their sons and husbands, loaded the recreant as he passed by with bitter imprecations.[87] Arrived at Medîna, the Caliph abused him as a pusillanimous wretch who had neither the power to lead, nor yet the courage to defend, his people; and he threatened him with death. But at last, moved by his appeal to the terms agreed upon by Ikrima, and by his protestations that he would thenceforth fight bravely for the faith, Abu Bekr not only forgave him, but allowed him to fulfil the marriage with his sister.[88] Ashâth remained for a while in idleness at Medîna, and the Caliph was heard to say that one of the three things that he repented having done during his Caliphate was his weakness in sparing this rebel’s life. But afterwards Ashâth went to the wars in Syria and Irâc, and there redeemed his name.

Authority re-established in the south.

By these operations the rebellion in the south was crushed, and the reign of Islam completely re-established. Mohâjir elected to remain in Yemen, where he shared the government with Feroze. Ziâd continued to administer Hadhramaut.

A curious story is told of a lady whom Ikrima married at Aden, and carried with him into his camp. Ikrima marries a lady who had been betrothed to Mahomet.She had been betrothed to Mahomet, but the marriage had never been consummated. The soldiers murmured, and questioned the propriety of Ikrima’s marriage. Mohâjir referred the matter to Abu Bekr, who decided that there was nothing wrong in the proceeding, as Mahomet had never fulfilled his contract with the betrothed damsel.[89]

Two songstresses mutilated for profane singing.

I should not here omit to mention the fate of two songstresses in Yemen, who were accused, one of satirising the Prophet, the other of ridiculing the Moslems, in their songs. Mohâjir had the hands of both cut off, and also (to stay their singing for the future) their front teeth pulled out. The Caliph, on hearing of it, approved the punishment of the first; for, said he: ‘Crime against a prophet is not as crime against a common man; and, indeed, had the case been first referred to me, I should, as a warning to others, have directed her execution.’ But he disapproved the mutilation of the other.

CHAPTER IX.
ENROLMENT OF THE BEDOUIN TRIBES FOR WAR BEYOND ARABIA.

Opposition beaten down in Arabia.

With the campaign in Hadhramaut, opposition in Arabia was at an end. A brief review may be of use before we pass on to the wars without.

Review of the military operations which crushed the apostasy.

North, east, south, and west throughout the peninsula, the circle of victory was now complete. It began, we might say, with the avenging expedition of Osâma, directed by the Prophet against the Syrian border. This was followed up, more leisurely, by the arms of Amru, who restored the prestige of Islam amongst the Codhâa and other tribes on the Roman frontier. During Osâma’s absence the brave Caliph, with but a scanty following, beat back the rebel tribes which, hovering around Medîna, threatened the heart of Islam. Then followed Khâlid’s brilliant achievements, which, beginning with the Beni Tay on the north-east, and reclaiming the apostate tribes as he moved south, ended with the bloody and decisive field of Yemâma in the centre of Arabia. The flower of the Moslem troops was engaged in this great struggle, which decided the fate of Islam, then trembling in the balance; and while it was in progress, operations languished elsewhere. Subsequently, the campaign throughout the peninsula was carried on vigorously, but in many quarters with limited resources and varying fortune; till Ikrima, sweeping down the eastern coast, joined Mohâjir in the south, and stamped out the last embers of apostasy.

The rebellion was totally suppressed, but the people remained still backward and sullen. Arabia sullen, till roused by the war-cry from without.The wild and turbulent tribes were brought back unwillingly. They chafed at the demand of tithe and obedience to Medîna. It was simply force and fear that as yet attached them to the Caliph. The question occurs, what would have been the fortune of Islam had no grand impulse arisen from without? It may be difficult to say, but the prospect certainly was not encouraging. Convictions so shallow and aspirations so low as those of the Bedouin would soon have disappeared; and force and fear could not long have availed to hold together the repellent atoms which go to form the Arab nation. The South was jealous of the North; the Bedouins of the desert scorned the population settled in towns and villages; every tribe had some cause of rivalry with its neighbour; new feuds were ever arising out of the law of blood. Even in Medîna, the cradle of the faith, the Beni Aus were impatient of the Beni Khazraj, and both were jealous of the Refugees from Mecca. The only authority recognised by a Bedouin is the authority of his tribal chief, and even that sits lightly. To him freedom is life; and dependence on a central power most hateful. The yoke of Islam (had nothing external supervened) would soon have been shaken off, and Arabia returned again to its former state. But fortunately for Islam (sadly for the interests of humanity) a new idea electrified the nation. No sooner was apostasy put down than, first in Chaldæa and then in Syria, collision with the Christian tribes kindled the fire of foreign war; and forthwith the Arabs, both town and Bedouin, were riveted to Islam by a common bond—the love of rapine and the lust of spoil.

The Moslems crusade due to circumstances rather than design.

That the heritage of Islam is the world was an afterthought. The idea (spite of much proleptic tradition) had presented itself but dimly, if at all, to Mahomet himself. His world was Arabia; and for it Islam was sent. From first to last the call was made primarily to Arabs and to them alone. It is true that, some years before his death, Mahomet had summoned certain kings and princes to confess the catholic faith of Abraham; but the step had not in any way been followed up. Nor was it otherwise with the command to fight against idolators, Jews, and Christians: that command was announced to the Arab tribes assembled in pilgrimage at Minâ;[90] it had reference only to them, and had no immediate bearing whatever on warfare beyond the bounds of the peninsula. The Prophet’s dying legacy was to the same effect:—‘See,’ said he, ‘that there be but one faith throughout Arabia.’ The seed of a universal claim, indeed, had been sown; but that it ever germinated was due to circumstances rather than design. Even Omar, after his rôle of splendid victories, manifested a continual dread lest his armies should proceed too far; and, separated by some gulf or mountain range, should be cut off from succour and exposed to danger. Therefore he set barriers (as we shall see) to the ambition of his people, beyond which they should not pass.

The Arabs issue forth as the conquerors of the world.

Nevertheless, universal empire was altogether in accord with the spirit of the faith. ‘When a people leaveth off to fight in the ways of the Lord,’ said Abu Bekr in his inaugural address (and, in saying it, struck the key-note of Islam), ‘the Lord casteth off that people.’ And so, when the Rubicon, the border land of Arabia, was once crossed, the horizon enlarged in ever-widening circles, till it embraced the world. Now indeed the marauding spirit of the Bedouin was in unison with the militant spirit of Islam. The cry of plunder and of conquest reverberated throughout the land, and was answered eagerly. The movement began naturally with the tribes in the north which had been first reclaimed from their apostasy, and whose restless spirit led them over the frontier. Later on, in the second year of the Caliphate, the exodus spread to the people of the south. At first the Caliph forbade that help should be taken from such as had backslidden. The privilege of fighting for the faith was reserved for those who had remained firm in its profession. But, step by step, as new spheres opened out, and the cry ran through the land for fresh levies to fill up the ‘martyr’ gaps, the ban was put aside, and all were welcome. Warrior after warrior, column after column, whole tribes in endless succession, with their women and children, issued forth to battle. And ever, at the marvellous tale of cities conquered, of booty rich beyond compute, of fair captives distributed on the field—‘to every man a damsel or two,’ and, above all, at the sight of the royal Fifth of spoil and slaves sent to Medîna—fresh tribes arose and went. Onward and still onward, like swarms from the hive, one after another they poured forth, pressed first to the north, and spread thence in great masses to the east and west.

Discredit still attaching to apostasy.

It must not, however, be overlooked that though apostasy was thus condoned, and in the blaze of victory almost forgotten, a certain discredit still clung to the backslider. His guilt was not like that of others who had committed sins, however black, ignorantly before conversion. The apostate, having been once enlightened, cast by his fall a deliberate slur upon Islam. And therefore no chief who had joined the great apostasy was ever promoted to a chief command. He might fight, and was welcome, in the ranks, and was even allowed to head small parties of fifty or a hundred; but to the last the post of leader was denied him.

Slaves of Arab blood set free.

The Arab race, thus emerging from its desert-home, became the aristocracy of Islam. Conquered nations, even if they embraced the faith, fell into a lower class. The Arabs were the dominant caste wheresoever they might go, and it was only as ‘clients’ of the noble race that people of other lands could share their privileges—crumbs, as it were, which fell from off their table. Yet great numbers of the Arabs themselves were slaves, taken prisoner during the apostasy or in previous intertribal warfare, and held in captivity by their fellow-countrymen. Omar felt the inconsistency. It was not fit that any of the noble race should remain in bondage. When, therefore, he succeeded to the Caliphate, he decreed their freedom. ‘The Lord,’ he said, ‘hath given to us of Arab blood the victory, and great conquests without. It is not meet that any one of us, taken captive in the days of ignorance,[91] or in the wars against the apostate tribes, should be holden in slavery.’ All slaves of Arab descent were accordingly ransomed, excepting only such bondmaids as had borne their masters children. Men who had lost wives or children now set out in search, if haply they might find and claim them. Strange tales are told of some of these disconsolate journeys. Ashâth recovered two of his wives taken captive in Nojeir. But some of the women who had been carried prisoners to Medîna preferred remaining with their captors.[92]

Death of Fâtima, the Prophet’s daughter.

Before passing on to more stirring scenes, it may be proper here to notice some domestic events occurring in the first year of Abu Bekr’s Caliphate. In it Fâtima, the Prophet’s daughter and wife of Aly, died. She had claimed a share in her father’s property. Repairing, in company with her husband, to the Caliph, she said: ‘Give me the inheritance that falleth to me.’ Abu Bekr inquired whether it was her portion of the household goods that she desired. ‘Fadak and Kheibar,’ she answered, ‘and the tithe lands of Medîna—my portion therein, even as thy daughters will inherit of thee when thou diest.’ The Caliph answered: ‘Truly thy father was better than I, and thou art better than my daughters. But the Prophet hath said, No one shall be my heir; that which I leave shall be for alms. Now, therefore, the family of Mahomet shall not eat of these lands; for, by the Lord! I will not alter a tittle of that which he hath ordained. But,’ added he, ‘if thou art certain that thy father gave thee this property, I will accept thy word, and fulfil his promise.’ She answered that she had no evidence excepting that of Omm Ayman, the Prophet’s aged nurse, who had said that her father had given her Fadak.[93] So Abu Bekr maintained his decision. Fâtima felt aggrieved, and was much displeased. She survived but a few months,[94] leaving two sons, Hasan and Hosein, through whom alone the issue of Mahomet was perpetuated. Aly, who, during her lifetime, had held aloof, began after her decease, like the rest of the chief Companions, to frequent the Caliph’s court.

Death of Abu Bekr’s son.

In this year Abu Bekr lost his son Abdallah, who died from the effects of a wound received at the siege of Tâyif.

Omar Chief Justice.

As supreme judge in civil causes, the Caliph nominated Omar; but warlike operations so occupied men’s minds, that for the time the office was a sinecure.

The first Pilgrimage under the Caliphate. Dzul Hijj. A.H. XI. March, A.D. 633.

The presidency at the annual Pilgrimage is always carefully recorded by the annalists of Islam. The Caliph was too much engrossed with the commotion throughout Arabia to proceed himself to Mecca on the first Pilgrimage of his reign, and he therefore commissioned Attâb, governor of the holy city, to preside in his stead.[95]

So ended the first year of the Caliphate.

CHAPTER X.
CAMPAIGN OF KHALID IN IRAC.
A.H. XII. A.D. 633.

Collision with border tribes led to conflict with Roman and Persian empires.

Chaldæa and the south of Syria belong, as well by nature as by population, to Arabia. The tribes inhabiting that region, partly heathen, at the time we write of, but chiefly Christian, formed an integral portion of the Arab race. As these resisted the Moslem columns engaged on the frontier, they were eventually supported by their respective sovereigns—the western tribes by the Byzantine empire, and the eastern by Persia. Thus through them the struggle spread, and soon brought Islam face to face in mortal conflict with the two great Powers of the east and west.

History of Byzantine and Persian campaigns dependent exclusively on Arabian sources.

The sources of our history, being purely Arabian, throw little light on the condition of the provinces to which the scene will now be transferred. With the Roman empire, the Arabs of the peninsula had never at any time much acquaintance or concern, and the Byzantine annals of Syria are suddenly quenched by the Saracenic cataclysm. A few brief lines is all we have from them of the momentous events on which we are about to enter. Of the Eastern empire, succeeding as the Arabs did to the Sassanide dynasty, they naturally had a greater interest in the antecedents; and we have, through their historians, glimpses of the anarchy that now prevailed in Persia. But even this is, at the best, fragmentary and imperfect.

It is enough, for our present purpose, to know that in neither of the two great powers had the nerve and virtue of early days survived. Roman and Persian empires at Mahomet’s death.Luxury, oppression, religious strife, and military disaster had undermined their strength and impaired their vigour. The Roman empire, extinguished in the west by barbarian hordes, existed only in the provinces governed by the Byzantine capital. Between the Kaiser and the Chosroes war had long prevailed; and Syria or Mesopotamia had been the prize now of one, now of the other. By the last turn of fortune, Heraclius, in a brilliant campaign directed from the Black Sea, had routed the Persians on the field of Nineveh, and marched triumphantly to the very gates of Ctesiphon (Medâin). A.H. VI. A.D. 627.The Chosroes, with eighteen of his sons, was put to death by Siroes, who enjoyed but a few months the fruit of his parricidal crime; and ‘in the space of four years, the royal title was assumed by nine candidates, who disputed, with the sword or dagger, the fragments of an exhausted monarchy.’[96] Such was the condition of Persia, its court imbecile and anarchy rampant, at the time when Abu Bekr was engaged in his struggle with the apostate tribes. Nevertheless, the Arabian armies met with a fiercer and more protracted opposition on the Persian than on the Syrian side. And the reason is that Islam aimed its blow at the very heart of Persia. Constantinople might remain, with Syria gone, ignobly safe. But if the Arabs gained Irâc, Ctesiphon must fall into their hands.

Mothanna attacks the border tribes of Irâc.

Among the chiefs who aided Alâ in the reoccupation of Bahrein, Mothanna has been named.[97] Advancing up the shore of the Persian Gulf, he reduced Catîf, and carried his victorious army into the delta of the Euphrates. ‘Who is this Mothanna?’ asked Abu Bekr, as tidings of his success kept reaching Medîna; ‘and to what tribe doth he belong?’ Learning that he was of the Beni Bekr ibn Wâil, he gave him a commission to carry forward his arms, fighting in the ways of the Lord.[98] The service was just such as the Arabs loved; and Mothanna’s column was soon swelled to 8,000 men. But opposition gathered in front. The Christian and heathen tribes were roused; and Abu Bekr, anticipating a struggle strongly backed by other forces in their rear, resolved that (Khâlid being now at leisure) ‘the Sword of the Lord’ should be unsheathed there.

Abu Bekr sends troops under Khâlid and Iyâdh towards Irâc. A.H. XII. March, A.D. 633.

It was now the beginning of the twelfth year of the Hegira. Rebellion had been put down in the centre of Arabia, and the southern tribes were also in fair way to pacification. It was Abu Bekr’s policy to turn the victorious arms of the restless Arabs to similar work elsewhere. He therefore despatched two armies to the northern frontier. One of these, under command of Khâlid, joined by Mothanna, was to march on Obolla near the mouth of the Euphrates, and thence, driving the enemy up its western shore, to work its way towards Hîra, the capital of Irâc. Iyâdh, at the head of the other, was directed to Dûmat al Jendal, which had cast off its allegiance; and thence to pass also on to Hîra. Whichever of the two first reached and captured that city was to be in command of the country.[99]

Khâlid joins Mothanna in Irâc.

The progress of Iyâdh was hampered by his enemy, and he was long detained in the Jôf, or country about Dûma. Khâlid met with no such obstacle. His army, like Mothanna’s, was swelled on its march from Yemâma to Irâc by large bodies of Bedouins. These were of the greater service as his numbers had been thinned not only by the carnage at Yemâma, but also by the free permission, which, after their long and arduous campaign, the Caliph had given the army, of furlough to their homes. Nevertheless, the expedition was so popular that when Khâlid, after a flying visit to the Caliph at Medîna, rejoined his camp as it neared the mouth of the Euphrates, he found himself at the head of 10,000 men; and this besides the 8,000 of Mothanna, who hastened loyally to place himself under the great leader’s command.

The Syrian desert and Mesopotamia.

The country on which they had now entered was, in some of its features, familiar to the invading army, but in others new and strange. From the head of the Persian Gulf to the Dead Sea there stretches right across the peninsula a stony wilderness, trackless and waterless. As you advance north, nature relaxes its severity; the plain, still a desert, is at certain seasons clothed with verdure, bright with flowers and instinct with the song of birds and hum of insect life. Such is the pasture-land which for several hundred miles extends from Damascus to the Tigris. Still further north, the desert features gradually disappear, and, about the latitude of Mosul, are blended with the hills and fields of Asia Minor. Athwart this vast plain, from Aleppo to Babylon, runs the river Euphrates, and the far east is bounded by the Tigris flowing under the mountain ranges of Persia. Between the two rivers lies the Jezîra, or ‘Island,’ of Mesopotamia, full of patriarchal memories. Over this great waste there roamed (as still roam) Bedouin tribes with their flocks and herds. The greater part of these Arabs had for centuries professed the Christian religion. Those on the Syrian side, as the Beni Ghassân of Bostra, owed allegiance to the Roman Empire; while on the east, like the Lakhmites of Hîra, they were dependent upon Persia.[100] But nomad life tends to fickleness of attachment and laxity of faith; and, not infrequently, affinity with their brethren of Arabia, and the lust of plunder, led these northern Arabs, deserting now their ancient allies and their ancestral faith, to cast in their lot with the invading columns.

Chaldæa and the delta of the Euphrates. Irâc Araby.

The lower Euphrates—Irâc Araby[101]—is in striking contrast with the region just described. The two great rivers of Mesopotamia, while yet more than 500 miles above the sea, draw close to one another. Below this point, the land, naturally rich, is easily supplied with water, and when irrigated is exuberantly fertile. Instead of joining where they approach, the two rivers still keep apart, and for two or three hundred miles, running parallel, inclose what was the memorable plain of Dura. The country (as now) was covered with long hillocks and mounds, the remains of an ancient network of irrigation,[102] and also strewed with fragments of brick and pottery, remnants of the dim ages of antiquity. At the time of which we write, the face of the land was not, as it is for the most part now, a barren waste, but richly cultivated and irrigated by canals. On the Tigris, a little below the point of its drawing near the Euphrates, was Medâin, ‘the twin city’ (combining the sites of both Seleucia and Ctesiphon), at this time the capital of Persia. Fifty miles to the south of it a series of shapeless mounds, looking down on the ‘great river’ Euphrates, marked the site of ancient Babylon, and from their summit, still to the south, might be descried the Birs Nimrûd (or ‘Tower of Babel’) rearing its weird head on the horizon of the verdant plain. Some thirty miles yet further south lay Hîra, the capital of the Lakhmites and of the Arab tribes around. It stood (like its successor Kûfa) upon the Bâdacla, a branch which issues from the right bank of the Euphrates by a channel in the live rock, sixteen miles above Babylon, cut by the hand of man, but of unknown antiquity.[103] Sweeping to the west of the parent river, the rival stream, in its southward course, feeds many marshes, and especially the great lake called the ‘Sea of Najaf; after a wide circuit it rejoins the Euphrates above its junction with the Tigris. There was in olden times another branch still further to the west, the Khandac, or ‘Trench of Sapor,’ which intended as a bar to Bedouin incursions, and, taking a yet wider circuit, fell into the Euphrates near Obolla, at the head of the Persian Gulf. This is now dry, but originally it carried a stream which, like the other, helped materially to widen the green belt continually narrowed and pressed in upon by the dry and sandy desert beyond. The lower delta again has features of its own. It is subject to tidal flow for fifty miles above the junction of the two rivers. Alluvial, low, and watered with ease, it is covered with a sea of corn, and has, not without reason, been called ‘the garden of the world.’ Besides the familiar palm, the country abounded with the fig, mulberry, and pomegranate. But the climate was close and oppressive; the fens and marshes, always liable to inundation, were aggravated by the neglect of dams and sluices in those days of anarchy;[104] and the Arab, used to the sandy steppes of the peninsula, gazed wonderingly at the luxuriant growth of reeds and rushes, and at buffalos driven by the pestiferous insects to hide their unwieldy bodies beneath the water, their heads alone appearing, or splashing lazily through the shallow waste of endless lagoons. All Chaldæa, from the estuary upwards, was cultivated, as now, by Fellaheen, or Arab peasantry, and these were lorded over by Dihcâns, or collectors commissioned by the Persian Court.[105] Such was the magnificent province lying between the desert and the mountain range of Persia, the cradle of civilisation and the arts, which attracted the first crusade of the Moslem arms.

Khâlid advances on the delta, and summons Hormuz.

The Satrap of the delta was Hormuz, a Persian prince, who (we are told), ‘fighting the tribes of Arabia by land, and the Indians by sea, guarded thus the portals of the Empire.’ But he was hateful to his Arab subjects, and his name for tyranny had become a byword. To him, as master of the tribes gathering in his front, Khâlid addressed a letter in the haughty type of Moslem summons. ‘Accept the faith and thou art safe, or else pay tribute, thou and thy people; which thing if thou refusest, thou shalt have thyself to blame. A people is already upon thee, loving death, even as thou lovest life.’ Then he ordered an advance. Mothanna led the first column; Adi, son of Hâtim (the famous chieftain of the Beni Tay), the second. Khâlid brought up the rear; all three converging upon Hafîr, a station on the Persian frontier by the desert border.[106]

Khâlid routs the army of the Persians. Battle of Chains.

Startled by the strange summons, Hormuz informed the king, and set out to meet the invader with an army, the wings of which were commanded by princes of the royal house. He marched in haste, thinking to have an easy victory over the untrained tribes of the desert; and reaching first the encamping ground, took possession of the springs. Khâlid, coming up, bade his force alight, and at once unload their burdens. Moharram, A.H. XII. March, A.D. 633.‘Then,’ said he, ‘let us fight for the water forthwith; by my life! the springs shall be for the braver of the two.’ Thereupon Hormuz challenged Khâlid to single combat, and, though he treacherously posted an ambuscade, was in the encounter slain. The Moslems then rushed forward, and with great slaughter put the enemy to flight, and pursued them to the banks of the Euphrates. The Arabs had now a foretaste of the spoils of Persia. The share of each horseman was one thousand dirhems, besides great store of arms.[107] The jewelled tiara of Hormuz, symbol of his rank, and valued at a hundred thousand pieces, was sent to the Caliph with the royal Fifth.[108] An elephant taken in the field was marched as part of the prize to Medîna; but having been paraded about the town, much to the wonder of the admiring citizens, was sent back as unsuitable to the place.[109] The action was called ‘the Battle of the Chains,’ for we are told that a portion of the Persian army was bound together to prevent its giving way.[110]

‘The Lady’s Castle.’

The defeated army fled towards the capital, and Mothanna with his horse hastened after them. Crossing the Euphrates, he came upon a fortress called ‘The Lady’s Castle,’ held by a Persian princess. Leaving his brother Moänna to besiege her, he advanced to a second fort defended by the husband. This he took by storm, and put the garrison to the sword; which, when the lady heard of, she embraced Islam, and, forgetting her Persian lord, readily gave her hand to Mothanna’s brother.

Persians again defeated at Madzâr.

The ardour of Mothanna was near to causing a disaster. When Hormuz’ message reached Medâin, the King despatched Cârin, another prince of the first rank, to reinforce him. Midway he was met by remnants of the defeated army, which, with the two princes, were retreating to Medâin.[111] Here their flight was stayed, and they rallied at Madzâr, on the southern bank of the great canal, or branch of the Tigris which runs athwart the peninsula to the Euphrates. Cârin, thus strengthened, resolved on giving battle to Mothanna, who in his adventurous pursuit had reached thus far. Khâlid, apprised of the check, hastened to relieve his lieutenant, and arrived just in time. The field was fiercely contested; Cârin and both princes lost their lives, and a prodigious number of the enemy was either slain or drowned; the remainder escaped in boats.[112] The deep channel stopped farther advance; but the spoil of the enemy’s camp again was very great. Khâlid, encamped on the bank of the canal, scoured the country on either hand, killing all the people fit for war, and taking their women captive. But the Fellaheen, or unwarlike peasants, he left unharmed.

The court was now thoroughly aroused. Arab invaders, they began to say, were best met by Arabs who knew their tactics; and so the king raised a great levy of the Beni Bekr and other loyal clans, under a famous warrior of their own. Battle of Walaja. Safar, A.H. XII. April, A.D. 633.He also summoned Bahmân, a veteran general, from the provinces, to command the imperial troops. The combined army, in imposing force, encamped at Walaja, on the farther side of the Euphrates. Leaving a detachment to guard his conquests in the lower delta, Khâlid advanced with the remainder of his army to meet the enemy. The battle was long and obstinate, but was won by the tactics of the Moslem leader, who, when the enemy were exhausted, surprised them by two ambuscades in their rear. The discomfiture was complete. The Persians fled, and with them the Bedouins, but not until several of them had been taken prisoner. Flushed with success and delighted with the bounty spread around, Khâlid called his troops together and addressed them in these stirring words: Khâlid’s oration on gaining the victory.‘Ye see the riches of the land. Its paths drop fatness and plenty, so that food is scattered about, even as stones are in Arabia. Were it but as a provision for this present life, and no holy war to wage, it were worth our while to fight for these fair fields and banish care and penury for ever.’[113] Khâlid here struck a chord at which every Bedouin heart leapt for joy. Now, also, the cunning device of the Corân, with respect to the other sex, began to tell. Persian ladies, both maids and matrons, ‘taken captive by the right hand,’ were forthwith, without stint of number, lawful to the conquerors’ embrace; and, in the enjoyment of this privilege, they were nothing loth to execute upon the heathen ‘the judgment written.’ Thus religious fanaticism was kindled by martial ardour, and both riveted by incentives irresistible to the Arab—fight and foray, the spoil of war, and captive charms.[114]

Battle of Allîs. Safar, A.H. XII. May, A.D. 633.

The cup had but just touched their lips, and many a chance might yet dash it from their hand. The great family of the Beni Bekr ibn Wâil were divided in the struggle, part holding with Khâlid and part with the Persian court. The bitter feeling between the Bedouins of Mesopotamia and the levies of Mothanna was aggravated by defeat and captivity. Smarting under the injury, the Christian tribes roused their nomad brethren on both banks of the Euphrates, and urged the Court of Persia to revenge. Just then, Ardshir the king fell sick, and Bahmân was detained at court[115]; but he sent an army across the peninsula to join the Bedouins, who, from every side, were flocking to Allîs, on the south of the Euphrates, half way between Hîra and Obolla. News of this great rising forced Khâlid to fall back hastily, and recross the river. Then leaving a strong detachment at Hafîr to secure his rear, he boldly turned to meet the enemy. The Arab tribes first rushed to the attack, and Khâlid slew their leader. Then the Persians advanced, and the Moslems were hard pressed as they had never been before. The battle was fiercely contested, and the issue at one time so doubtful as to make Khâlid vow to the Lord that if he got the victory, the blood of His foes should flow in a river. At last the Persians, unable to withstand his impetuous generalship, broke and fled. To fulfil his savage oath, it was proclaimed by Khâlid that no fugitive should be slain, but that all must be brought alive into the camp. For two days the country was scoured by the Moslem horse, and a great multitude of prisoners gathered. The ‘River of Blood’.Then the butchery commenced in the dry bed of a canal, but the earth drank up the blood. Company after company was beheaded, and still the gory flux remained. At last, on the advice of an Arab chief, Khâlid had a flood-gate opened above, and the crimson tide redeemed his vow. There were flour-mills upon the spot, and Tabari tells us, with apparent satisfaction, that for three days, corn for the whole army was ground by the reddened flood. The memory of the deed was handed down in the name of the ‘River of Blood,’ by which thereafter this stream of infamous memory was called.[116]

The Persian supper on the field of battle.

When the battle was over, the army found ready spread in the camp of the enemy a sumptuous repast, to which the Persians, when surprised by Khâlid, were about to sit down. It was a novel experience for the simple Arabs, who handled the white fritters with childish delight, and devoured rich pancakes and other delicacies of an eastern table with avidity. Khâlid ate his supper leaning on the body of a stalwart hero, ‘the equal of a thousand warriors,’ whom, in single combat, he had but just cut down.’

Abu Bekr delighted at the victory.

Tidings of the victory, with a choice portion of the spoil, a welcome earnest of the royal Fifth to follow, were at once despatched to Abu Bekr. The messenger, himself a brave warrior (for the duty was an honourable one) described the heat and progress of the battle, the feats and prowess of the more distinguished heroes, the multitude of the captives (the butchery, no doubt, as well) and the riches of the spoil. The Caliph, overjoyed at his glowing tale, bestowed upon the envoy, in token of his royal favour, a beautiful damsel from amongst the captive maidens he had carried with him.[117]

The principality of Hîra.

For the moment the spirit of the enemy, both Bedouin and Persian, was broken; but the former had proved so troublesome, and occupied a position in the desert pastures from which they could so materially annoy his flank and rear and his communications with Arabia, that Khâlid resolved on reducing the whole tract west of the Euphrates occupied by the Bedouins, with its capital city of Hîra. The last of the Lakhmite dynasty, which had long ruled over Hîra, died in prison at the Persian Court five and twenty years before; and he was replaced by a favourite, Iyâs ibn Cabîsa, from the Beni Tay. A few years after, a Persian army, with their allies from Hîra, was signally defeated by the Beni Bekr ibn Wâil on the field of Dzu Câr; and from the year 614 A.D. the city was governed by a Marzabân, or Persian Satrap. Partly from its interests being akin to those of the Christian tribes of Mesopotamia, partly from its being a dependency of Persia, the influence of Hîra was little felt in Arabia proper. But recent events had shown that even the Beni Bekr might combine with the border capital to resist the invader. To prevent the recurrence of such a danger, Khâlid now directed his steps to Hîra.[118]

Amghîsia sacked.

With this view he advanced rapidly up the western bank of the Euphrates, and surprised Amghîsia, a town on the same channel as Hîra, and its rival in size and wealth.[119] The inhabitants, without resisting, fled, and the booty was so rich that each horseman took 1,500 dirhems. When the Fifth reached Medîna, Abu Bekr was overwhelmed at the sight; ‘O ye Coreish,’ he exclaimed in ecstasy, ‘verily your lion, the lion of Islam, hath leapt upon the lion of Persia, and spoiled him of his prey. Surely the womb is exhausted. Woman shall no more bear a second Khâlid!’

Hîra besieged, capitulates.

Finding boats at Amghîsia, Khâlid embarked his infantry and baggage, and was tracking up the Bâdacla to Hîra, when the flotilla grounded suddenly. Azâdzuba, the Satrap of Hîra, had sent his son to lay open the irrigating escapes, and hence the dried-up channel and bewilderment of the Moslems.[120] Apprised by the boatmen of the cause, Khâlid hastened with a flying squadron to the canal-head, slew the Satrap’s son, and, having closed the sluices, enabled the boats again to ascend. Then the army, having disembarked and taken possession of the beautiful palaces of Khawarnac and Najaf, the summer residence of the princes of Hîra, encamped before the city walls.[121] The Satrap, just then receiving intelligence of the king’s decease, and stunned by the death of his own son, fled across the river. The city was called upon to surrender, but, defended as it was by four citadels, resisted. The ramparts were manned, and the besiegers kept at bay by a continuous discharge of missiles. But a monastery and cloisters lay without; and the monks and clergy, exposed to the fury of the besiegers, induced the citizens to capitulate. The chief men agreed to the terms demanded, which were embodied in a treaty. Then they brought gifts, which Khâlid accepted, and despatched, with tidings of the surrender, to Medîna. Abu Bekr ratified the treaty and accepted the presents, but desired that their value should be deducted from the tribute.

Terms of treaty with Hîra.

The men of Hîra bound themselves to pay a heavy tribute yearly, to which all classes, saving religious mendicants, should be assessed. The Moslems, on their part, engaged to protect the city from attack. The treaty did not stand long, but it is interesting as being the first concluded with a principality without the peninsula.[122] One strange condition was insisted on. The beauty of Kerâmat, sister of a leading citizen, had been long proverbial, and Showeil, one of Khâlid’s soldiers, laid claim to her on the ground that Mahomet, hearing him extol her charms, had promised (so the story runs) that when Hîra was captured, she should be his bride. Though now well stricken in years, Khâlid insisted that Showeil should have her. The thing was grievous to the lady’s household, but she took it lightly. ‘Care not for it,’ she said; ‘what will he do with an old woman like me? The fool saw me in my youth, and hath forgotten that youth remaineth not for ever.’ Showeil soon found out that it was even so, and was glad to name a ransom, which she paid at once, and then departed to her people.[123]

Hîra, though occupied by Khâlid, remains Christian. A.H. XII. A.D. 633.

The occupation of Hîra was the first definite step in the outward movement of Islam. Here Khâlid fixed his head-quarters, and remained for about a year. It was, in fact, the earliest Moslem capital beyond the limits of Arabia. The administration was left with the heads of the native municipality, who, together with the surrounding population, were, if not friendly, at the least neutral. Khâlid, indeed, expected that, being of Arab descent, and themselves long ruled by a native dynasty, the citizens of Hîra would actively have joined his cause. Adi, grandson of the poet of that name, was one of the deputation which concluded the peace. ‘Tell me,’ said Khâlid rallying him, ‘whether ye be of Persian blood?’ ‘Judge by our speech: doth that betray ignoble birth?’ ‘True,’ answered Khâlid; ‘then why do ye not join our faith, and cast in your lot with us?’ ‘Nay,’ answered the Christian, ‘that we shall never do; the faith of our fathers we shall not abjure, but shall pay tribute unto you.’ ‘Beshrew the fools!’ cried Khâlid; ‘Unbelief is as the trackless desert, and he that treadeth it the silliest of mankind. Here two guides are offered, an Arab and a Stranger; and of the two they choose the Stranger!’ The flux and reflux of Roman invasion had, no doubt, loosened their faith in Persia; but the court of Medâin was near at hand, and, though in the last stage of senility, sufficiently strong to command the allegiance of a small dependency like Hîra. The permanence of Arab conquest, too, was yet uncertain; the love of their ancestral faith was still predominant; and so the city chose to remain as tributary. And several centuries later we find the inhabitants of the neighbourhood in considerable numbers still attached to the Christian faith.[124]

Public prayer established. ‘The Service of Victory.’

Public prayer, outward symbol of the dominant faith, was now established; and the citizens might hear the cry of the Muedzzin, as, five times a day, beginning with the earliest dawn, the call to prayer resounded from the adjacent camp. Khâlid celebrated his success in a special Service of victory. The occasion was memorable. Clothed in a loose flowing robe girt about the neck, he turned, when the prayers were over, to the assembly, and thus extolled their bravery: ‘In the field of Mûta (where he had himself rallied the dispersed army) nine swords were broken in my hand.[125] But I met not there any foe to match those ye have encountered here; and of these none more valiant than the men of Allîs.’ It is, however, open to remark that the early campaign in Irâc is surrounded by tradition with a special halo; for the loss here on the Moslem side was not great, and, judged by this unerring test, the fighting could hardly compare with that of many a well-contested field in the Prophet’s time.[126]

Summary administration set up in the conquered province.

While the city of Hîra was left in the immediate hands of its chief men, summary rule was set up over the adjacent country. The Dihcâns—great landholders and imperial tax-gatherers—had been waiting upon fortune. Seeing now that, while the Court was inactive, Khâlid carried everything before him, many began to tender submission and enter into engagements with the conqueror for payment of the revenue. Abu Bekr had, in his wisdom, strenuously enjoined that the Fellaheen, or occupiers of the soil, should be maintained in possession, and their rights scrupulously respected. The Persian demand remained unchanged on these, with the addition only of a light poll-tax. In other respects, terms were granted corresponding with those given to Hîra. Holding their ancestral faith, the people became Zimmies, or protected dependents. Khâlid undertook to defend them, and they on their part pledged allegiance and bound themselves to give notice if danger threatened.[127] Garrisons were quartered in a few commanding places and the troops were organised into five moveable columns. By these the country was kept in check. In this manner Khâlid held all to the south of the Euphrates, and also the lower delta, stretching from Hîra eastward across the Great River to the banks of the lower Tigris. Throughout this region none were secure from rapine but such as had entered into engagements. Fifty days’ grace was allowed to bring in the revenue, and, till it was paid, hostages were kept; a formal discharge was given on payment.[128] The tribute, as well as the booty, was distributed among the army ‘for the strengthening of the same.’

Persia paralysed by internal trouble.

Persia was meanwhile hopelessly distracted. The massacre by Siroes and his jealous successors, of the male progeny near the throne, had been so ruthless and complete that no heir of the royal blood could anywhere be found, and a rapid succession of feeble claimants was set up by the princesses left to form the court. Thus paralysed, the Persians could do little more than protect the capital by holding in force the Nahr Shîr, an intervening stream that flowed down the peninsula.[129] This line was threatened by Mothanna; but Abu Bekr gave stringent orders that no advance should be made upon Medâin till all was secure behind. A.H. XII. A.D. 633.No tidings, moreover, had as yet been received from Iyâdh at Dûma, with whom (as before explained)[130] co-operation was imperative. Khâlid fretted at remaining thus inactive, ‘playing,’ as he called it, ‘for so many months the woman’s part.’ But he curbed his ardour, and contented himself with inditing two letters, in an imperious tone, one to ‘the Princes of Persia,’ the other to ‘the Satraps and the people.’ Towards the north and west, however, he employed his time more actively.

Khâlid takes Anbâr. Autumn, A.D. 633;

Persian detachments were posted in Mesopotamia and the outskirts of the desert at Anbâr, Ain Tamar, and other places, within easy distance of Hîra, and against these Khâlid now directed his steps. Leaving Cacâa, a warrior of the Beni Temîm, in command at Hîra, he laid siege to Anbâr, a fortress on the left bank of the Euphrates, some eighty miles above Babylon. The garrison, though galled by the Moslem archery, were secure behind their strong walls and the deep fosse by which it was surrounded, until Khâlid, by a stratagem, stormed an entrance. He slew the old and worn-out camels of his force, and casting their carcases into the ditch, thus forced his way across. and Ain Tamar.The Persian governor sued for terms, and was allowed to retire.[131] Anbâr and the richly-irrigated neighbourhood of Felûgia[132] thus secured, Khâlid went on to Ain Tamar, on the desert border, three days west of Anbâr. The Persian governor Mihrân had there, besides the imperial troops, a great following of nomad tribes, and among these the Beni Taghlib, who (a strange coincidence) were under command of Ackka, Hodzeil, and other chiefs, the captains of the prophetess Sajâh when she invaded Yemâma.[133] These, advancing to the attack, assailed Khâlid as he approached the citadel; but he repulsed them easily, taking Ackka prisoner with his own hand. Mihrân, seeing the rout from the ramparts, fled, and left the garrison and the fugitives to defend themselves as best they could. Refused terms and reduced to straits, they surrendered at discretion. Khâlid’s severity.Khâlid, angry at the persistent opposition of the Mesopotamian tribes, and also at his loss in the field (for though the victory was easy, a Companion of note and a Citizen of Medîna were among the slain), was betrayed into an unwise severity which embittered the Christian Bedouins against him.[134] Ackka was beheaded in front of the city walls; the garrison was then led forth, every adult male put to death, and the women, with the children, made over to the soldiers or sold into slavery. In a cloister, hard by the church, were forty youths, who, in their terror, barred the door upon the enemy. Forty Christian students taken captive.When their retreat was forced open, they gave themselves up, declaring that they were students, receiving there instruction in the Gospel. Their lives were spared, and, being of a superior class, they were distributed among the leaders. It is hard to record the fate of these youthful scholars snatched from the Nestorian Church to be brought up as captives in the Moslem faith. But the fate, though sad, could hardly have been singular in the rough and sanguinary tide of Saracen invasion. Special prominence has, no doubt, been given to it here because Sirîn, one of the youths, became the father of Mohammed, the famous Moslem doctor of Bussora, and Noseir, another, the father of Mûsa, the not less famous conqueror of Spain.[135]

Iyâdh hindered at Dûma.

While these events transpired in Irâc, Iyâdh, who ought long since to have joined Khâlid, was battling unsuccessfully against his foes at Dûma. The Caliph, becoming anxious, sent Welîd ibn Ocba (who had been deputed by Khâlid to Medîna in charge of royal booty) to assist him.[136] The enemy had got possession of the roads, and Iyâdh could make no head against them. ‘Counsel,’ said Welîd, as he found him in this predicament, ‘is ofttimes better than numbers: send a courier for Khâlid.’ The message reached just after the fall of Ain Tamar; and Khâlid, with no enemy to detain him in the field, replied in martial verse:

Wait but a moment, my friend,

And a legion shall appear;

Cohort upon cohort following

With glittering sword and spear.

Starting at once with the flower of his force, he crossed the intervening desert, and made good his word.[137]

Dûma stormed by Khâlid, Rajah, A.H. XII. October, A.D. 633.

He was not a day too soon. Okeidar and Judi, the chiefs of Dûma, were supported by the Beni Kelb, a tribe which pastured its flocks in the neighbourhood, and also by the Beni Bahra, from the desert west of the Euphrates; and now the Beni Ghassân were pouring down from the north, under Jabala, the Christian prince of Bostra.[138] The position of Iyâdh, thus beset, had been growing day by day more critical. The advent of Khâlid changed the scene at once. His very name was a tower of strength. Okeidar had already felt his prowess, having several years before been taken by him a prisoner to Mahomet at Medîna. Hearing now that his old enemy was advancing from the east, he was much afraid; and, failing to persuade his comrades to offer terms, he hastened forward by himself, with the view of surrendering; but Khâlid, being apprised of his approach, sent out to take him prisoner, and he was instantly beheaded.[139] Then, instructing Iyâdh to engage the Syrian troops on the farther side of Dûma, Khâlid himself attacked the enemy on the nearer, and utterly routed them, taking prisoner Judi and the Kelbite leader. The discomfited troops fled back in confusion to the fort, and when that was full, the gates were closed. Iyâdh was also on his side victorious, but Jabala effected his escape to Syria. Then the sword was drawn against the helpless crowd hemmed in between the two forces. The Beni Kelb were spared; for Acra, a Bedouin chief, had (much to Khâlid’s displeasure) given them quarter as a confederate tribe[140]; but Judi was beheaded, and all the rank and file that vainly struggled round the city walls. Even to those within, the ramparts were of small avail; the gate was battered down, and the crowded inmates put promiscuously to the sword. The women were sold to the highest bidder; and the most beautiful, the unfortunate Judi’s daughter, bought by Khâlid for his harem. Thus solacing himself for a little while at Dûma, the conqueror sent Acra with the main body back to Hîra. There they were received with outward demonstrations of joy; for the citizens, with timbrels, music, and cymbals, went forth, headed by Cacâa, to meet the returning army.[141]

Various expeditions in Irâc. Shâban, A.H. XII. November, A.D. 633.

But all was not going on smoothly in Mesopotamia. The absence of Khâlid and great part of his force encouraged the Persians and their Arab allies—specially the Beni Taghlib, smarting under the execution of Ackka—to resume offensive operations. Cacâa, though on the alert, was able, with the diminished means at his disposal, to do no more than guard the frontier and protect Anbâr from a threatened inroad. At this news, Khâlid hastened back; and, having installed Iyâdh in the government of Hîra, despatched Cacâa across the Euphrates against the Persians, while he himself appointed a rendezvous at Ain Tamar to attack the Arabs, for he had vowed that he would visit the Beni Taghlib in their homes, and crush the viper in its nest. In Mesopotamia the Persians were routed and their leaders killed; while on the western border a series of brilliant and well-planned night attacks succeeded again and again in surprising the Arabs as they slept secure in their desert homes, where they were cut to pieces, and their families carried away into dishonour and captivity. Thus Khâlid fulfilled his vow. Multitudes of women, many of noble birth, were distributed among the army. A portion of these, with a rich booty, were sent to Medîna; and one, the daughter of Bodeir, chief of the Beni Taghlib, killed in the slaughter, was purchased by Aly, and bore him a son and daughter.[142] For the time, the Bedouin confederacy was dispersed.

Battle of Firâdh; Persians, Romans, and Bedouins defeated. Dzul Cáda 15, A.H. XII. Jan. 21, A.D. 634.

Driving thus the enemy before him, Khâlid came upon the Euphrates, and, crossing it, reached Firâdh, so far advanced as to touch the frontier, within sight of a Roman post. There he rested his army on the river bank during the fast of Ramadhan, and for some weeks after.[143] The Syrian garrison on the western shore, uneasy at the prolonged and threatening encampment, made common cause with the neighbouring Persian outposts, and, joined as well from the desert by Bedouin horse, advanced an imposing force to the river. They challenged Khâlid to cross and give them battle. But the wary general bade them rather cross over to his side, which they did. A long and severe conflict ensued. The Moslems were victorious, and the cavalry pursuing the fugitives, cut to pieces an incredible multitude.[144]

Khâlid’s incognito pilgrimage. Dzul Hijj, A.H. XII. February, A.D. 634.

For the moment opposition was crushed both on the part of the Bedouins and the Persian troops. Khâlid would willingly have attacked Medâin, but the cautious policy of Abu Bekr withheld him. Besides the districts secured by treaty with the great landlords of the lower delta, Khâlid had now extended his rule on both sides of the Euphrates above Anbâr, and no enemy was anywhere in sight.[145] Things seeming thus to be quiet, Khâlid formed the singular resolve—the sacred month having now come round—of making the pilgrimage incognito, unknown even to his royal master. So, having recruited his army for ten days on the well-fought field of Firâdh, he gave orders to march slowly and by easy stages back to Hîra. Then, making as though he remained behind to bring up the rear-guard, he set out secretly with a small escort on his pious errand. Without a guide, he traversed the devious desert route with marvellous sagacity and speed. Having accomplished the rites of pilgrimage, he retraced his steps with like despatch, and entered Hîra just as the rear-guard from Firâdh was marching in. So well had he kept his secret, that the army thought he had been all the while at Firâdh, and had been journeying slowly back. Even Abu Bekr, who himself presided at the pilgrimage, was unaware of the presence of his great general. When, after some time, the surreptitious visit came to his knowledge, he was much displeased. But the action which he took in consequence belongs to the succeeding year.[146]

CHAPTER XI.
CAMPAIGN IN SYRIA.—BATTLE OF WACUSA ON THE YERMUK.
A.H. XIII. A.D. 634.

Khâlid ibn Saîd posted on the Syrian border. A.H. XII. A.D. 633.

The campaign in Syria opened under the auspices of a very different Khâlid, of the Omeyyad clan,—Khâlid ibn Saîd. Having been one of the earliest converts, and amongst those driven for refuge to Abyssinia, he held a high place amongst the confessors of Islam. He had been appointed by Mahomet to a command in the south, and though forced to retreat in the troubles which ensued on the Prophet’s death, had achieved some renown in wresting from Mádekerib’s hands the famous sword Samsât.[147] Returning from thence, he urged his claim to a fresh command; and Abu Bekr, yielding to his importunity, and against the wish of Omar, posted him at Tayma, on the Syrian border, there to rally the friendly tribes, but, unless attacked, to take no offensive step. Tidings of the movement alarmed the Romans in that quarter, who thereupon, summoning the Ghassân and other Syrian tribes, assembled a large force to protect the border. Khâlid, on this, obtained permission to advance, but cautiously, and so as to leave no enemy in his rear. Discomfits a Roman column.As he advanced, the Syrians retired; and, marching onwards, he discomfited a Roman column on the eastern shore of the Dead Sea.[148] Finding himself in a position so advanced, and the country in front roused by the inroad, Khâlid urgently demanded reinforcements from Medîna. Ikrima sent to his support;The troops were just then returning from Yemen; and so Ikrima, with Dzul Kelâa, a loyal Himyarite chief, followed by his clan, being the first to appear, were despatched to the north in haste.[149]

also Amru and Welîd. January, A.D. 634.

Two other captains of note were also deputed for the support of Khâlid; these were Amru and Welîd, who had a joint command over the Beni Codhâa, in the tract of country between Tayma and the Red Sea. Since the reduction of Dûma, this tract was now comparatively quiet, and Abu Bekr gave them the option either of remaining where they were, or engaging in a work ‘better for them, both in this present life, and in that which is to come.’ Amru, although he had, even before his deputation to Omân, had the promise from the Prophet of this district, made answer: ‘Thy servant is but an arrow in the quiver of Islam, and thou the Archer. It is for thee to pick out the fittest shaft, and whithersoever thou wilt discharge it.’ So they were despatched, Welîd to join Khâlid ibn Saîd, and Amru by Ayla to the south of the Holy Land.[150]

Khâlid ibn Saîd defeated at Marj al Soffar.