The Chaliphate - Muir - The Search For Mecca

A.D. 635] DEFEAT OF THE PERSIANS in
besides the special gifts for veterans and such as showed A.H. 14.
extraordinary valour. The jewels stripped from Rustem's
body were worth 70,000 pieces, although its most costl)'
portion, the tiara, had been swept away. The great banner
of the Empire was captured on the field, made of panthers'
skins, and so richly garnished with gems as to be valued
at 100,000 pieces. Thus did the needy Arabs revel in the
treasures of the East, the preciousness of which exceeded
almost their power to comprehend.
For the enemy the defeat was fateful and decisive. Little
more than thirty months had passed since Khalid set foot
in Al-'Irak ;
and already that Empire,—which fifteen years
before had humbled the Byzantine arms, ravaged Syria, Importance
and encamped triumphantly on the Eosphorus, — was ° ^'"^^oo'-
crumbling under the blows of an enemy whose strength
never exceeded thirty or forty thousand Arabs rudely armed.
The battle of Al-Kadislya reveals the secret. On one side
there was lukewarm, servile following ; on the other, an
indomitable spirit, which after long and weary hours of
fighting nerved the Muslims for the final charge. The vast
host, on which the last efforts of Persia had been lavished,
was totally discomfited ;
and, though broken columns escaped
across the river, the military power of Persia never again
gathered into formidable and dangerous shape. The country
far and wide was terror-struck. The Bedawin on either side
of the Euphrates hesitated no longer. Many of them, though
Christian, had fought in the Muslim rank.s. These came
to Sa'd and said "
: The tribes which at the first embraced
Islam were wiser than we. Now that Rustem hath been
slain, we will accept the new belief." And so, man\- of them
came over and made profession of the Faith.
The battle (which De Goeje dates the end of G^y) had Tiding?, howbeen
so long impending, and the preparations on so erand ^'l^'^'^^'^ ^y
° 'Omar.
, , , . , ,
a scale, that the issue was watched everywhere, " from Al-
'Odheib away south to Aden, and from Ubulla across to
Jerusalem," as about to decide the fate of Islam. The Caliph
used to issue forth alone from the gates of Medina early in the
morning, if perchance he might meet some messenger from
the field. At last a camel-rider arrived outside the city, who
to 'Omar's question replied shortly, "The Lord hath discomfited
the Persian host." Unrecognised, 'Omar followed