The Chaliphate - Muir - The Search For Mecca

A.I). 633--I] BATTLE OF AJXADAIX 71
sent to Constantinople in disgrace, from which he did not A. II. u-i;
emerge again. Hcraclius retired upon .\ntioch. For the
Muslims a result of the victory was the reduction of Gaza
and the surrounding towns. Abu liekr lived to see the first
great step taken towards the conquest of the province he
most desired to see brought under the swa}' of the Arabs.
It was the first-fruits of the wisdom he had shown in
transferring Khalid from Al-'Irak to Syria. He died a
month later on the 22nd Jumada II.
The death of xAbu Bekr did not make much difference Towns
to the army in Syria. 'Omar, whom he nominated as '^-P""'''^^his
successor, had long had a large share in tlie supreme
authority ; and greatly as the first and second Caliphs
differed in many respects, there was no break in the
continuity of their foreign policy.^ The capture of Gaza
was followed by the siege of Sebaste (Samaria) and Xeapolis
(Shechem, Nabulus), the city of the Samaritans. Both of
these capitulated ; and other towns taken by the Muslims
at this time were Lydda, Emmaus, Jaffa, and Beit Jibrui.
The lives and goods of the inhabitants were spared ; but the
poll-tax was exacted from the men, and the land-ta.\'
{khanlj) imposed on the soil. Up to this point the Muslim
army in Syria had acted as a unit, apparently under the
chief command of 'Amr
; but now their forces divided, and
'Amr remained to complete the conquest of Palestine
(Filastln), whilst Khalid pushed forward into the province
of the Jordan. Evidence of the success which waited upon
the Muslim arms may be read in a sermon delivered by
Sophronius, Archbishop of Jerusalem, on Christmas Day,
634, in which he bewails the inability of his people to make
their wonted pilgrimage to Bethlehem on account of the
country being in the hands of the Saracens, and the scene
of the Nativity itself being (it was said) besieged by them.
Meantime the wreck of Theodore's army, reinforced by naiilcs at
fresh troops, had re - formed in the direction of Beisan
(Bethshean, Scythopolis), in the Jordan valley south of the
Sea of Galilee, having a bridge over that river in their
rear. They attempted to stay the ^Muslim advance Indamming
up the numerous mountain streams which flow
across the plain, thus turning the countr}- into a swamp, .so
'
See, however, p. 143 flf.
{J^i'^'ll'"
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