CHAPTER X.
CAMPAIGN OF KHALID IN IRAC.
A.H. XII. A.D. 633.
Collision with border tribes led to conflict with Roman and Persian empires.
Chaldæa and the south of Syria belong, as well by nature as by population, to Arabia. The tribes inhabiting that region, partly heathen, at the time we write of, but chiefly Christian, formed an integral portion of the Arab race. As these resisted the Moslem columns engaged on the frontier, they were eventually supported by their respective sovereigns—the western tribes by the Byzantine empire, and the eastern by Persia. Thus through them the struggle spread, and soon brought Islam face to face in mortal conflict with the two great Powers of the east and west.
History of Byzantine and Persian campaigns dependent exclusively on Arabian sources.
The sources of our history, being purely Arabian, throw little light on the condition of the provinces to which the scene will now be transferred. With the Roman empire, the Arabs of the peninsula had never at any time much acquaintance or concern, and the Byzantine annals of Syria are suddenly quenched by the Saracenic cataclysm. A few brief lines is all we have from them of the momentous events on which we are about to enter. Of the Eastern empire, succeeding as the Arabs did to the Sassanide dynasty, they naturally had a greater interest in the antecedents; and we have, through their historians, glimpses of the anarchy that now prevailed in Persia. But even this is, at the best, fragmentary and imperfect.
It is enough, for our present purpose, to know that in neither of the two great powers had the nerve and virtue of early days survived. Roman and Persian empires at Mahomet’s death.Luxury, oppression, religious strife, and military disaster had undermined their strength and impaired their vigour. The Roman empire, extinguished in the west by barbarian hordes, existed only in the provinces governed by the Byzantine capital. Between the Kaiser and the Chosroes war had long prevailed; and Syria or Mesopotamia had been the prize now of one, now of the other. By the last turn of fortune, Heraclius, in a brilliant campaign directed from the Black Sea, had routed the Persians on the field of Nineveh, and marched triumphantly to the very gates of Ctesiphon (Medâin). A.H. VI. A.D. 627.The Chosroes, with eighteen of his sons, was put to death by Siroes, who enjoyed but a few months the fruit of his parricidal crime; and ‘in the space of four years, the royal title was assumed by nine candidates, who disputed, with the sword or dagger, the fragments of an exhausted monarchy.’[96] Such was the condition of Persia, its court imbecile and anarchy rampant, at the time when Abu Bekr was engaged in his struggle with the apostate tribes. Nevertheless, the Arabian armies met with a fiercer and more protracted opposition on the Persian than on the Syrian side. And the reason is that Islam aimed its blow at the very heart of Persia. Constantinople might remain, with Syria gone, ignobly safe. But if the Arabs gained Irâc, Ctesiphon must fall into their hands.
Mothanna attacks the border tribes of Irâc.
Among the chiefs who aided Alâ in the reoccupation of Bahrein, Mothanna has been named.[97] Advancing up the shore of the Persian Gulf, he reduced Catîf, and carried his victorious army into the delta of the Euphrates. ‘Who is this Mothanna?’ asked Abu Bekr, as tidings of his success kept reaching Medîna; ‘and to what tribe doth he belong?’ Learning that he was of the Beni Bekr ibn Wâil, he gave him a commission to carry forward his arms, fighting in the ways of the Lord.[98] The service was just such as the Arabs loved; and Mothanna’s column was soon swelled to 8,000 men. But opposition gathered in front. The Christian and heathen tribes were roused; and Abu Bekr, anticipating a struggle strongly backed by other forces in their rear, resolved that (Khâlid being now at leisure) ‘the Sword of the Lord’ should be unsheathed there.
Abu Bekr sends troops under Khâlid and Iyâdh towards Irâc. A.H. XII. March, A.D. 633.
It was now the beginning of the twelfth year of the Hegira. Rebellion had been put down in the centre of Arabia, and the southern tribes were also in fair way to pacification. It was Abu Bekr’s policy to turn the victorious arms of the restless Arabs to similar work elsewhere. He therefore despatched two armies to the northern frontier. One of these, under command of Khâlid, joined by Mothanna, was to march on Obolla near the mouth of the Euphrates, and thence, driving the enemy up its western shore, to work its way towards Hîra, the capital of Irâc. Iyâdh, at the head of the other, was directed to Dûmat al Jendal, which had cast off its allegiance; and thence to pass also on to Hîra. Whichever of the two first reached and captured that city was to be in command of the country.[99]