Khâlid sets out for Yemâma.
It was after the reverse of Ikrima that Khâlid, on being summoned to Medîna on the affair of Mâlik ibn Noweira, received the commission to attack Moseilama. In anticipation of serious opposition, the Caliph promised to strengthen his army by a fresh column composed of veterans from amongst the men of Mecca and Medîna. So Khâlid returned to his camp at Bitâh, and when these reinforcements came up, he marched in strength to meet the enemy. It was now that Shorahbîl, whose troop formed the vanguard, hastening forward like Ikrima, met with a like reverse, and was severely handled by Khâlid for his temerity.
Mojâa, a chief of the Beni Hanîfa, taken prisoner.
While yet a march from Acraba, Khâlid surprised a mounted body of the Beni Hanîfa under command of the chief Mojâa. They were returning from a raid against a neighbouring tribe, unaware of the approach of the Mussulman army. But they belonged to the enemy, and as such were all put to the sword, excepting Mojâa, whom Khâlid spared, as he said he promised to be useful on the coming eventful day, and kept chained in his tent under charge of Leila, his lately espoused wife.
Battle of Acraba or Yemâma.
On the morrow, the two armies met upon the sandy plain of Acraba. The enemy rushed on with desperate bravery. ‘Fight for your loved ones!’ cried the son of Moseilama; ‘it is the day of jealousy and vengeance; if ye be worsted, your maidens will be ravished by the conqueror, and your wives dragged to his foul embrace!’ So fierce was the shock that the Moslems were driven back, and their camp uncovered. The tent of Khâlid was entered by the wild Bedouins; and, but for the chivalry of her captive, who conjured his countrymen to spare a lady of such noble birth, Leila would have perished by their swords. ‘Go, fight against men,’ Mojâa cried, ‘and leave this woman;’ so they cut the tent-ropes and departed. There was danger for Islam at the moment. Defeat would have been disastrous; indeed, the Faith could hardly have survived it. But now the spirit of the Moslems was aroused. Khâlid, knowing the rivalry between the Bedouin and the city Arabs, separated them to fight apart. On this they rallied one the other; and the sons of the desert cried: ‘Now we shall see the carnage wax hot amongst the raw levies of the town. We will teach them how to fight!’ Prodigies of valour were fought all round. The heroic words and deeds of the leaders, as one after another fell in the thick of battle, are dwelt on by the historian with enthusiasm. Zeid, the favourite brother of Omar, who led the men of Mecca, singled out Rajjâl, and, reproaching his apostasy, despatched him forthwith. A furious south wind, charged with the desert sand, blew into the faces of the Moslems, and, blinding them, caused a momentary pause. Upbraiding them for their slackness, Zeid cried out: ‘I shall follow them that have gone before; not a word will I utter more, till we beat the apostates back, or I appear to clear myself before my Lord. Close your eyes and clench your teeth. Forward like men!’ So saying, he led the charge and fell. Abu Hodzeifa, another Companion of note, calling out ‘Fight for the Corân, ye Moslems, and adorn it by your deeds!’ followed his example and shared his fate. Seeing this, Abu Hodzeifa’s freedman, Sâlim, seized the banner from his dying master, and exclaiming, ‘I were a craven bearer of the Corân if I feared for my life,’ plunged into the battle and was slain.[54] Nor were the citizens of Medîna behind their fellows. Their commander, Thâbit ibn Cays, reproached them indignantly: ‘Woe be to you,’ he said, ‘because of this backsliding. Verily, I am clear of ye, even as I am clear of these,’ and he pointed to the enemy as he flung himself and perished in their midst. Animated thus, the rank and file charged furiously. Backwards and forwards swayed the line, and heavy was the carnage. But urged by Khâlid’s valiant arm,[55] and raising the grand battle-cry ‘Yâ Mohammedâ!’ the Moslem arms at length prevailed. The enemy broke and began to give. ‘To the garden!’ cried Mohakkem, a brave leader of the Beni Hanîfa; ‘to the garden, and close the gate!’ Taking his stand, he guarded their retreat as they fled into an orchard surrounded by a strong wall, and Moseilama with them. The Moslem troops, following close, soon swarmed all round the wall, but found no entrance anywhere. The Garden of Death.At last Berâa, one of the Twelve,[56] cried, ‘Lift me aloft upon the wall.’ So they lifted him up. For a moment, as he looked on the surging mass below, the hero hesitated; then, boldly leaping down, he beat right and left, until he reached the gate, and threw it open. Like waters pent up, his comrades rushed in; and, as beasts of the forest snared in a trap, so wildly struggled the brave Beni Hanîfa in the Garden of Death. Hemmed in by the narrow space, and hampered by the trees, their arms useless from their very numbers, they were hewn down, and perished to a man. The carnage was fearful, for besides the slain within the walls, an equal number were killed on the field, and again an equal number in the flight.[57] The Beni Hanîfa discomfited, with great slaughter on both sides.The Moslems, too, despite their splendid victory, had cause to remember the Garden Death and the battle of Yemâma, for their loss was beyond all previous experience. Besides those killed hand to hand in the garden, great numbers fell in the battle when their ranks wavered and gave way. The Refugees from Mecca lost 360 men, and the Citizens of Medîna 300, or nearly 700 in all; while the slaughter amongst the Bedouins, though somewhat less, raised the gross number over 1,200, besides the wounded. And amongst them were nine and thirty chief ‘Companions,’ or men of note, amongst the Prophet’s followers. At Medîna there was hardly a house, whether of Refugees or native Citizens, in which the voice of wailing was not heard.[58]
Moseilama among the slain.
Moseilama was slain by Wahshi, the same negro warrior who, swinging a javelin, after his savage style of warfare, round his head, had on the field of Ohod brought the sainted Hamza to the ground. After the battle Khâlid carried the chief Mojâa, still in chains, over the field to identify the dead. As they passed along the field of battle, turning the bodies over one after another, they came upon a stalwart figure. ‘Look, was this your master?’ said Khâlid. ‘Nay,’ replied Mojâa, ‘this was a nobler and a better man.’ It was the corpse of the brave Mohakkem, who fell covering the retreat, slain by the hand of Abdul Rahman, the Caliph’s son. Then they entered the Garden of Death. Among the heaps of the mangled dead, they stumbled on a body of insignificant mien. ‘This is your man,’ said Mojâa, as he turned it on its side; ‘truly ye have done for him!’ ‘Yea,’ replied Khâlid, ‘or rather it is he which hath done for you, that which he hath done.’
Truce with the Beni Hanîfa.
The Mussulman horse now scoured the country, and every day brought in bands of prisoners. Aware that after their crushing defeat his people were incapable of resistance, Mojâa bethought him of a stratagem. He represented them as holding their forts and fastnesses in force throughout the country, and so persuaded Khâlid to offer them their lives if they at once capitulated. Meanwhile, by his secret suggestion, the battlements were lined by every available person, even by the old men and women in armed disguise; and Khâlid’s messengers returned with the answer that they would fight to the last. The army was wearied with the hard struggle, and most of them anxious, after the long campaign, to return to their homes; and so Khâlid concluded a truce, on terms more favourable than they would have obtained but for Mojâa’s artifice. When it came to light, Khâlid reproached him for it; but in the end excused him on the pleaded ground of patriotism, and stood by the treaty. No sooner was it concluded, than he received a despatch of unwonted severity from Abu Bekr, who, to strike terror into other apostate tribes, commanded that not a single adult male of the ungodly and rebellious race should be spared. Fortunately the truce forbade the bloody edict. The Beni Hanîfa, like other prostrate tribes, were received back into the bosom of Islam, and a portion only of their number were retained in captivity.[59]