The scandal was the greater, because Mâlik ibn Noweira was a chief renowned for his generosity and princely virtues, as well as for poetic talent. His brother, Motammim, a poet likewise of no mean fame, commemorated his tragic end in many touching verses. Omar loved to listen to his elegies; and he used to tell Motammim that if he had himself possessed the poetic gift, he would have had no higher ambition than to mourn in such verse over the fate of his own brother Zeid, who shortly after fell at Yemâma.[46]

The affair leaves a stain on Khâlid’s fame.

The materials are too meagre to judge conclusively whether the right in this grave matter is on the side of Omar or of the Caliph, Abu Bekr. Although the hostile bias of Khâlid against Mâlik led undoubtedly to the raid upon his tribe and the harsh treatment which followed thereupon, still, with the conflicting evidence, we may hold the deeper charge unproven. But in wedding the widow of his enemy while his blood (shed as we are to believe in misconception of his order) was fresh upon the ground, Khâlid, if he gave no colour to darker suspicions, yet transgressed the proprieties even of Arab life, and justified the indictment of unbridled passion and cold-blooded self-indulgence.[47]

CHAPTER VII.
BATTLE OF YEMAMA.
End of A.H. XI. Beginning of 633 A.D.

Campaign of Khâlid against Moseilama. January, A.D. 633.[48]

But sterner work was in reserve for Khâlid. In the centre of Arabia, and right in front of his army, some marches east, lay Yemâma. There resided the Beni Hanîfa, a powerful branch of the great tribe Bekr ibn Wâil. Partly Christian and partly heathen, the Beni Hanîfa had submitted to Mahomet; but they were now in rebellion, 40,000 strong, around their prophet Moseilama. It was against these that Khâlid next directed his steps.

Moseilama’s previous story.

The beginning of Moseilama’s story belongs to the life of Mahomet.[49] Small in stature, and of a mean countenance, he had yet qualities which fitted him for command. He visited Medîna with a deputation from his people, and it was pretended that words had then fallen from Mahomet signifying that he would yet be a sharer with him in the prophetic office. Building thereon, Moseilama advanced his claim, and was accepted by his people as their prophet. When summoned by Mahomet to abandon his impious pretensions, he sent an insolent answer claiming to divide the land. Mahomet replied in anger, and drove the ambassadors from his presence. To counteract his teaching, he deputed Rajjâl, a convert from the same tribe, who had visited Medîna, and there been instructed in the Corân.[50] On returning to his people, however, this man also was gained over by the pretender to espouse his claims as founded on the alleged admission of Mahomet himself. Moseilama, we are told, deceived the people by tricks and miracles; aped, in childish terms, the language of the Corân; and established a system of prayers similar to those of Mahomet. In short, his religion, so far as we can tell, was but a wretched imitation of Islam.[51] At the period we have now reached, he had just rid himself of Sajâh, the rival prophetess, by the singular expedient of taking her to wife, and then bribing her by half the revenues of Yemâma to return from whence she came. Parties of Mesopotamian horse were still about the country collecting her dues, when Khâlid’s approach changed the scene; and Moseilama, marching out with a great army to meet him, pitched his camp at Acraba.

Ikrima suffers a reverse.

Ikrima and Shorahbîl were the commanders originally despatched by Abu Bekr to quell the rising at Yemâma,[52] and both suffered at the hands of Moseilama from a hasty and unguarded advance. Ikrima, anxious to anticipate his fellow, hurried forward, and was driven back with loss. The details (as generally the case when tradition deals with a defeat) are wanting; but the reverse was so serious that Abu Bekr, in reply to the despatch reporting it, wrote angrily to Ikrima. ‘I will not see thy face,’ he said, ‘nor shalt thou see mine, as now thou art. Thou shalt not return hither to dishearten the people. Depart unto the uttermost coasts, and there join the armies in the east of the land, and then in the south.’ So, skirting Yemâma, he went forward to Omân, there to retrieve his tarnished reputation. Shorahbîl, meanwhile, was directed to halt and await the approach of Khâlid.[53]