The Chaliphate - Muir - The Search For Mecca

A.l). 634-5] COUXTRV REOCCUl'IED 89
string of horses for sale, arriving just as the ranks were A.H. 13-14.
being dressed, threw themselves into the battle on the Arab
side. A j'outh from amongst them darting into the centre
of the Persians, slew the leader Mihran, and leaping on his
richly caparisoned horse, rode back crying, as he passed in
triumph amidst the plaudits of the ^Muslim line: "I am of
the I^eni Taghlib. I am he that hath slain the Chief"
The loss on the Muslim side was considerable. Al- Muilim los?.
Muthanna mourned the death of a brother who, when borne
from the field mortally wounded, cried "
: Exalt your banners
ye Beni Bekr, and the Lord will exalt you, my men ; let
not my fall disturb }'ou !
" The Christian chieftain met a
similar fate. Al-Muthanna affectionately tended the last
moments of both—the Christian and the Muslim— an unwonted
sight on these fanatic fields. He performed the
funeral service over his brother and the other fallen Muslims,
and said in his panegyric "
: It assuageth my grief that they
stood stedfast ; they yielded not a step and now here
;
they lie, the Martyrs of Al-Buweib."
The spoil was great. Immense stores of grain and herds
of cattle were captured. Supplies were sent to the families
in their retreat ; but as the convoy rode up, the women
mistaking it for a hostile raid, rushed out with their wild
Arab scream, and attacked it wuth stones and staves. The
Leader soon made himself known, and praised their
courageous bearing. " It well becometh the wives of such
an army," he said, "thus to defend themselves." Then he
told of the victory ;
"and lo," pointing to the stores of grain,
" the first-fruits thereof! "
The spoil,
The country was now ravaged without let or hindrance Country
tu the very walls of Al-Medain. The enemy's garrisons '^'^""P"^'^were
driven back; and lower Mesopotamia and the Delta
occupied anew. Parties scoured the country higher up, and
many rich markets were ransacked. They penetrated to
Baghdad (then a mere village on the Tigris), and even as
far north as Tekrit. Great booty was gathered in these
plundering expeditions, to be divided in the usual wa}'.
Al-Muthanna lived but a few months after his last great
victor)-. lie never entirely recovered from his wounds
received at the battle of the Bridge, and eventually
succumbed. His merits have not been recognised as they