BATTLE OF YEMAMA.
END OF A.H. XI. BEGINNING OF 633 A.D.
[Sidenote: 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.
[Sidenote: 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.
[Sidenote: 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]
[Sidenote: 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.
[Sidenote: 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.
[Sidenote: 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. [Sidenote: 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] [Sidenote: 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]
[Sidenote: 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.’
[Sidenote: 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]
[Sidenote: 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]
[Sidenote: 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.
[Sidenote: 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.