CAMPAIGN OF KHALID IN IRAC.
A.H. XII. A.D. 633.
[Sidenote: 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.
[Sidenote: 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.
[Sidenote: 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_). [Sidenote: 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.
[Sidenote: 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.
[Sidenote: 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]
[Sidenote: 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.
[Sidenote: 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.
[Sidenote: 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.
[Sidenote: 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]
[Sidenote: 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.
[Sidenote: 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]
[Sidenote: ‘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.
[Sidenote: 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. [Sidenote: 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: [Sidenote:
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]
[Sidenote: 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. [Sidenote: 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]
[Sidenote: 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.’
[Sidenote: 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]
[Sidenote: 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]
[Sidenote: 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!’
[Sidenote: 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.
[Sidenote: 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]
[Sidenote: 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]
[Sidenote: 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]
[Sidenote: 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.’
[Sidenote: 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.
[Sidenote: 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.
[Sidenote: 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.
[Sidenote: 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. [Sidenote:
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.
[Sidenote: 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]
[Sidenote: 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]
[Sidenote: 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]
[Sidenote: 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.
[Sidenote: 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]
[Sidenote: 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]