[107] Horsemen received three shares; the foot soldiers one. This was the standing rule from the time of the Prophet. Two shares were for the horse.
[108] The grade of Persian nobility was marked by the costliness of the jewelled turban.
[109] No elephant had ever been seen before at Medîna, and only one at Mecca—‘the year of the elephant’ marking the era of Abraha’s attack (Life of Mahomet, p. xxvi.). The astonishment of the women and children of Medîna was unbounded, and some inquired in childish amazement whether it was an artificial thing, or really was a work of nature.
[110] It is also called the battle of Kâtzima, a neighbouring town reduced by Khâlid.
This tale of soldiers being chained together, or tied with ropes, is commonly told both of Persian and Roman armies. How far it is founded on fact it is difficult to say. We must ever remember that the materials for our story are all one-sided, and that there is much ignorance of their enemies displayed by the annalists, as well as much contemptuous fiction regarding them.
[111] It will be more convenient hereafter (dropping the Occidental forms of Ctesiphon and Seleucia) to speak of the Persian capital by its Arabic name, Medâin.
[112] Cârin, they say, was the last noble of the first rank who took the field against the Mussulmans. The slain are put at 30,000, besides those drowned in the canal. Such numbers, always loose, are especially so in the traditions of this early period. Among the prisoners was a Christian, father of the famous jurisconsult Abul Hasan of Bussora (d. A.H. 110). Also Mâckia, afterwards the freedman of Othmân, and Abu Ziâd, freedman of Moghîra.
[113] Khâlid’s speech is quoted by Al Kindy the Christian Apologist (Smith and Elder), p. 33.
[114] The iddat (or interval prescribed between divorce and re-marriage, or before the cohabitation of a new master with his slave-girl) is not observed in respect of women taken captive on the field of battle. I can find no authority on the subject, but am told by those versed in the law that the only exception is that of women with child in which event cohabitation would be unlawful till after delivery. In all other cases, in conformity with the precedent of the Prophet’s marriage with Safia at Kheibar, the captives, whether maid or matron, are lawful to the captors’ embrace upon the spot (Life of Mahomet, p. 391).
[115] Tabari tells us that every month it was the turn of a new prince to rule as minister, and this was Bahmân’s month.