The Chaliphate - Muir - The Search For Mecca

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5(3 AI5U 15EKR [chap. Vlll.
A.II. 12. runs) that when Al-I.llra was captured she should be his
bride. Khalid insisted that the prophetic promise should
be now fulfilled. The thing was grievous to the lady's
household, but she took it lightly. " Care not for it," she
said, "the fool saw me in my youth, and hath forgotten
that youth rcmaineth not for ever." He soon found out
that it was even so, and was glad to name a ransom, which
having paid, she returned to her people.
Hira remains The occupation of Al-Hira was the first definite step in
12
t'^^ outward movement of Islam. Here Khalid fixed his
A^H.^"'
633 A.D. headquarters and remained a year. It was, in fact, the
earliest Muslim capital beyond the limits of Arabia. The
administration was left with the heads of the city, who
were at the least neutral. Khalid, indeed, expected that
being of Arab descent, and themselves long ruled by a
native dynasty, the inhabitants 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 Khalid, rallying him, "whether ye be of Arab or of
Persian blood?" "Judge by our speech; doth that betray
ignoble birth ? " " True," answered Khalid ;
" 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 thee." " Beshrew the fools ! " cried Khalid
;
" unbelief is as a trackless desert ; and the wanderer in it the
silliest of the Arabs. Here are two guides, 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 Al-Medain was near
at hand and, though in the last stage of senility, sufficiently
strong to retain its hold upon a small dependency like
Al-Hlra. 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 tributary.
Several centuries later we find the inhabitants of the
neighbourhood in considerable numbers still attached to
the Christian faith.^
Public prayer, outward symbol of the dominant faith, was
Prayer and
Service of
Victory. '
The feeling of this Christian principality in losing first their native
rulers, and then being swallowed up in the Muslim invasion, is well