[286] Among the single combats, a singular one is mentioned, in which Zohra challenged Shahryâr, a mighty champion. They closed, and each slew the other. But the story, though told with some detail, is uncertain; for, according to other accounts, Zohra was killed many years after by a fanatic (Khârijite) in the time of Hajjâj.
The Arabs had twenty catapults—an instrument of war not unknown in Arabia; see the siege of Tâyif (Life of Mahomet, p. 433). In Mesopotamia, now at Sád’s command, there were ample materials for their construction. The ramparts must have been of great thickness; for, composed of sun-dried bricks, their outline can be still distinctly traced on either bank. Of buildings, however, there are, besides the Tâk i Kesra, no other remains of any kind whatever, the materials having all been carried off to build the city of Baghdad, 16 miles above it. But coins and coffins abound.
In the siege we are told that the people, reduced to the utmost distress, were driven to feed on cats and dogs. But, with the whole river front open to them by boat, and the other half of the city with plentiful supplies safe on the opposite bank, it is difficult to understand how this could have been.
[287] As many as 100,000 are said to have been thus captured and released.
[288] A touch of the marvellous affects the story of the capture of Medâin at several points. Sád’s reply was communicated orally by Abu Mocarrin—‘who spake to the king in words given to him at the moment by the Lord, but which he himself understood not, neither did those about him.’ The fact was—as they were afterwards told by the single Persian left in the western suburb—that Abu Mocarrin had delivered (without knowing it) in the Persian tongue this mysterious answer: ‘The Moslems will never make peace with thee, till they have eaten the honey of Afrîdûn, along with the citrons of Kûtha.’ ‘Alas!’ exclaimed the king, ‘what was this but an angelic message spoken through the lips of the messenger? Even the angels have turned against us!’ And so, followed by his people, he fled across the river.
[289] Salmân, ‘the Persian,’ was a convert of some standing. It was he who suggested to Mahomet the device of digging a trench to defend Medîna against the siege which the Coreish laid to it, A.H. 5. (Life of Mahomet, chap. xvii.) A Christian, native of Ispahan (according to others, of Ram Hormuz), he had been taken captive in some Bedouin raid, and sold as a slave at Medîna, where he obtained his freedom on professing Islam. We do not hear much more of him after this. He died at Medâin.
[290] This was done that the horses might the more readily follow one another.
[291] The gallant feat was repeated by Timoor, when he took Baghdad, A.D. 1392; his army, swimming across the river, ‘thereby impressed the inhabitants with an opinion that they were invincible.’ (Chesney, vol. i. p. 32.) The Tigris is more rapid, and has higher and steeper banks, than the Euphrates. It is 200 yards wide, and flows at over four miles an hour. The depth is considerable, and no fords are spoken of by travellers. According to Rich, it is low in winter, begins to rise in March from the melting of the snow on the hills, and reaches its height in May. In flood, he says, the current is over seven miles an hour. At the period of the passage, the stream must have been on the rise. Tradition says it was in full flood.
Moslem annalists may be excused for surrounding the heroic passage with many marvellous associations. For example, not only was there no loss of life, but not even of the most trifling article. A drinking jug was carried away by the current, but even that was recovered. The water reached the horses’ manes, but they trod as it were on firm ground, &c. And it is added truly: ‘In the whole history of Islam, there was no passage more wonderful than this crossing of the Tigris and the capture of the royal city.’
[292] Sura xliv. 25.