‘The Lady’s Castle.’
The defeated army fled towards the capital, and Mothanna with his horse hastened after them. Crossing the Euphrates, he came upon a fortress called ‘The Lady’s Castle,’ held by a Persian princess. Leaving his brother Moänna to besiege her, he advanced to a second fort defended by the husband. This he took by storm, and put the garrison to the sword; which, when the lady heard of, she embraced Islam, and, forgetting her Persian lord, readily gave her hand to Mothanna’s brother.
Persians again defeated at Madzâr.
The ardour of Mothanna was near to causing a disaster. When Hormuz’ message reached Medâin, the King despatched Cârin, another prince of the first rank, to reinforce him. Midway he was met by remnants of the defeated army, which, with the two princes, were retreating to Medâin.[111] Here their flight was stayed, and they rallied at Madzâr, on the southern bank of the great canal, or branch of the Tigris which runs athwart the peninsula to the Euphrates. Cârin, thus strengthened, resolved on giving battle to Mothanna, who in his adventurous pursuit had reached thus far. Khâlid, apprised of the check, hastened to relieve his lieutenant, and arrived just in time. The field was fiercely contested; Cârin and both princes lost their lives, and a prodigious number of the enemy was either slain or drowned; the remainder escaped in boats.[112] The deep channel stopped farther advance; but the spoil of the enemy’s camp again was very great. Khâlid, encamped on the bank of the canal, scoured the country on either hand, killing all the people fit for war, and taking their women captive. But the Fellaheen, or unwarlike peasants, he left unharmed.
The court was now thoroughly aroused. Arab invaders, they began to say, were best met by Arabs who knew their tactics; and so the king raised a great levy of the Beni Bekr and other loyal clans, under a famous warrior of their own. Battle of Walaja. Safar, A.H. XII. April, A.D. 633.He also summoned Bahmân, a veteran general, from the provinces, to command the imperial troops. The combined army, in imposing force, encamped at Walaja, on the farther side of the Euphrates. Leaving a detachment to guard his conquests in the lower delta, Khâlid advanced with the remainder of his army to meet the enemy. The battle was long and obstinate, but was won by the tactics of the Moslem leader, who, when the enemy were exhausted, surprised them by two ambuscades in their rear. The discomfiture was complete. The Persians fled, and with them the Bedouins, but not until several of them had been taken prisoner. Flushed with success and delighted with the bounty spread around, Khâlid called his troops together and addressed them in these stirring words: Khâlid’s oration on gaining the victory.‘Ye see the riches of the land. Its paths drop fatness and plenty, so that food is scattered about, even as stones are in Arabia. Were it but as a provision for this present life, and no holy war to wage, it were worth our while to fight for these fair fields and banish care and penury for ever.’[113] Khâlid here struck a chord at which every Bedouin heart leapt for joy. Now, also, the cunning device of the Corân, with respect to the other sex, began to tell. Persian ladies, both maids and matrons, ‘taken captive by the right hand,’ were forthwith, without stint of number, lawful to the conquerors’ embrace; and, in the enjoyment of this privilege, they were nothing loth to execute upon the heathen ‘the judgment written.’ Thus religious fanaticism was kindled by martial ardour, and both riveted by incentives irresistible to the Arab—fight and foray, the spoil of war, and captive charms.[114]
Battle of Allîs. Safar, A.H. XII. May, A.D. 633.
The cup had but just touched their lips, and many a chance might yet dash it from their hand. The great family of the Beni Bekr ibn Wâil were divided in the struggle, part holding with Khâlid and part with the Persian court. The bitter feeling between the Bedouins of Mesopotamia and the levies of Mothanna was aggravated by defeat and captivity. Smarting under the injury, the Christian tribes roused their nomad brethren on both banks of the Euphrates, and urged the Court of Persia to revenge. Just then, Ardshir the king fell sick, and Bahmân was detained at court[115]; but he sent an army across the peninsula to join the Bedouins, who, from every side, were flocking to Allîs, on the south of the Euphrates, half way between Hîra and Obolla. News of this great rising forced Khâlid to fall back hastily, and recross the river. Then leaving a strong detachment at Hafîr to secure his rear, he boldly turned to meet the enemy. The Arab tribes first rushed to the attack, and Khâlid slew their leader. Then the Persians advanced, and the Moslems were hard pressed as they had never been before. The battle was fiercely contested, and the issue at one time so doubtful as to make Khâlid vow to the Lord that if he got the victory, the blood of His foes should flow in a river. At last the Persians, unable to withstand his impetuous generalship, broke and fled. To fulfil his savage oath, it was proclaimed by Khâlid that no fugitive should be slain, but that all must be brought alive into the camp. For two days the country was scoured by the Moslem horse, and a great multitude of prisoners gathered. The ‘River of Blood’.Then the butchery commenced in the dry bed of a canal, but the earth drank up the blood. Company after company was beheaded, and still the gory flux remained. At last, on the advice of an Arab chief, Khâlid had a flood-gate opened above, and the crimson tide redeemed his vow. There were flour-mills upon the spot, and Tabari tells us, with apparent satisfaction, that for three days, corn for the whole army was ground by the reddened flood. The memory of the deed was handed down in the name of the ‘River of Blood,’ by which thereafter this stream of infamous memory was called.[116]
The Persian supper on the field of battle.
When the battle was over, the army found ready spread in the camp of the enemy a sumptuous repast, to which the Persians, when surprised by Khâlid, were about to sit down. It was a novel experience for the simple Arabs, who handled the white fritters with childish delight, and devoured rich pancakes and other delicacies of an eastern table with avidity. Khâlid ate his supper leaning on the body of a stalwart hero, ‘the equal of a thousand warriors,’ whom, in single combat, he had but just cut down.’
Abu Bekr delighted at the victory.