A literary history of Persia

194 THE ARAB INVASIONDisbelieving in the Prophet's claims, or, if believing them,of his ancestors to thepreferring hell-fire in the companyparadise offered to him as the reward of belief, he yet wouldnot suffer his nephew to be molested at the hands of strangers.The period extending from the hijra or Flight of theProphet (June, A.D. 622) to the death of 'Umar, the secondof the Four Orthodox Caliphs (al-K^hulafau *r-Rashidun\ inA.D. 644, may be regarded as the golden age of pious, asopposed to philosophical, Islam for ; though the ideal theocracydepicted by al-Fakhri in the passage already cited endured tillthe death of 'All (A.D. 661), who isregarded by a largesection of the Muslim world as the noblest, best, and worthiestof the Prophet's successors, discord, schism, murder, civil war,and internecine feuds entered in during the disastrous rule ofthe third Caliph, 'Uthman. Muhammad lived to see allArabia apparently submissive to his doctrine, but no soonerwas he dead than a widespread revolt against Islam broke outamongst the Arab tribes, and not till this was quenched inblood, and the "renegades" either slain or reduced toobedience, could Abu Bakr seriously turn his attention to theconquest and conversion of non-Arabian lands. Of thesePersia alone concerns us, and once more we may with advantageturn to that graphic and picturesque historian al-Fakhri,who, after detailing the signs and warnings which causedNushirwan and Khusraw Parwlz such disquietude, andremarking that " the like of these ominous portents continuallysucceeded each other until the end of the matter," continuesas follows :" And verily when Rustam went forth to do battle with Sa'd theson of Abu Waqqas he saw in his dream as it were an Angel whodescended from heaven, and gathered up the bows ofAl-Fakhrfs ., _. ,account of the the Persians, and set a seal upon them, and ascendedPere^f with them into neaven - Then there was added thereuntowhat they constantly witnessed in respect to theresolute speech of the Arabs, and their confidence in themselves,