[19] The centre and wings were commanded by three sons of Mocarran, a citizen of Medîna. These distinguished themselves on many occasions in the Persian campaign. One of them, Nomân, was killed ten years after in the decisive action of Nehâwend.
[20] For the royal Fifth, see Sura, viii. 41.
[21] There is a tradition that when Abu Bekr issued, sword in hand, to go to Dzul Cassa, Aly caught hold of his bridle, exclaiming: ‘O Caliph, I say to thee what the Prophet said to thee on the day of Ohod: Put up thy sword again and expose us not to lose thee, for, by the Lord! if we were to lose thee, the prop of Islam were gone.’ Whereupon Abu Bekr returned and went not forth.
But this probably refers to the expeditions shortly after sent out in all directions from Dzul Cassa, as narrated below, and to Abu Bekr’s return to Medîna at that time.
[22] The notion given by tradition is that these eleven columns were despatched on their several expeditions all at once from Dzul Cassa, in presence of Abu Bekr. This of course is possible, but it is very improbable. The arrangements could hardly have been so speedily cut and dry as that supposes. It is enough to know that, sooner or later, about this time, or shortly after, these eleven expeditions started. Some of the eleven, as given by tradition, seem hardly to have been separate commands.
[23] Meaning, no doubt, that as governors they would have been immediately subordinate to himself, exposed to much drudgery, and liable to be called to account for their stewardship.
[24] For an account of this marvellous system of oral tradition, see the Essay in the Life of Mahomet on the Sources for the Biography. The halo surrounding the Prophet casts something of its brightness on the lives also of his chief Companions, whose biographies are given by tradition in considerable detail; and from them we can gather something of the early history incidentally.
[25] So uncertain is the chronology of this period, that Ibn Ishâc makes the campaigns in Yemâma, Bahrein, and Yemen to be in the twelfth year of the Hegira; whereas the received, and manifestly correct, account, as ‘gathered from the learned of Syria,’ is that the operations against the apostate tribes throughout Arabia were brought practically to an end in the 11th year of the Hegira. Only one exception is mentioned (and that somewhat obscurely) of a campaign against Rabia, who was beaten by Khâlid. Amongst the spoils of the expedition is mentioned the daughter of Rabia, who, as a slave-girl, fell to the lot of Aly.
[26] Life of Mahomet, p. 427.
[27] Ibid. p. 409.