[132] Still called by that name (pl. Felâlij), meaning the district about Anbâr irrigated by channels from the Euphrates. The army is said to have passed by the plain of Kerbala, which, however, is a good deal south of the position I assign to Ain Tamar (‘The Fountain of Date-palms’).
[133] See above, p. 31. The Beni Taghlib, it will be remembered, retired into Mesopotamia with Sajâh after her marriage with Moseilama.
[134] The Companion was Omeir. He had been one of the refugees to Abyssinia in the persecution of the Coreish, and was therefore a very early convert. A citizen (Ansâr) was also buried here; it is not distinctly stated, but I infer, that he too was killed in the action. This is the first mention of anyone killed on the Moslem side in the Irâc campaign, though, as said before, loss in the rank and file of the Bedouin levies was not of such importance as necessarily to require distinct notice.
[135] Another of these youths was Hemrân, who became the Mowla, or freedman, of Othman. When surprised in their cloister, they declared themselves to be ‘hostages,’ perhaps strangers from a distance, detained to complete their education there.
[136] Welîd was the son of that Ocba who had been put to death by Mahomet after the battle of Bedr (Life of Mahomet, p. 239). We shall hear more of him by and by.
[137] The distance must have been over 300 miles, besides the detour rendered necessary by the intervening desert (the Nefûd of red sand, see Lady Blount’s Pilgrimage to Nejd); and must have taken, C. de Perceval says, not less than ten days; with any other than Khâlid, I should have said a good deal more.
[138] Jabala VI. See Life of Mahomet, vol. i. p. clxxxix.
[139] So the ordinary narrative. But there is another account that Okeidar was sent a prisoner to Medîna; and being subsequently released by Omar, settled near Ain Tamar, at a place which, in memory of his former home, he named Dûma. The name may have given rise to the tradition; though, on the other hand, the execution of Okeidar is in keeping with Khâlid’s sanguinary character. For his first encounter with Khâlid, see Life of Mahomet, p. 458.
[140] Acra was chief of the Beni Temîm, old allies of the Beni Kelb, who otherwise would have shared the common fate.
[141] The demonstration was probably forced. The citizens, we are told, murmured secretly,—‘We thought that they had passed by, like other Arab raiders; their return is the breaking out of a fresh calamity;’ and so, before long, they found it.