While these events transpired in Irâc, Iyâdh, who ought long since to have joined Khâlid, was battling unsuccessfully against his foes at Dûma. The Caliph, becoming anxious, sent Welîd ibn Ocba (who had been deputed by Khâlid to Medîna in charge of royal booty) to assist him.[136] The enemy had got possession of the roads, and Iyâdh could make no head against them. ‘Counsel,’ said Welîd, as he found him in this predicament, ‘is ofttimes better than numbers: send a courier for Khâlid.’ The message reached just after the fall of Ain Tamar; and Khâlid, with no enemy to detain him in the field, replied in martial verse:
Wait but a moment, my friend,
And a legion shall appear;
Cohort upon cohort following
With glittering sword and spear.
Starting at once with the flower of his force, he crossed the intervening desert, and made good his word.[137]
Dûma stormed by Khâlid, Rajah, A.H. XII. October, A.D. 633.
He was not a day too soon. Okeidar and Judi, the chiefs of Dûma, were supported by the Beni Kelb, a tribe which pastured its flocks in the neighbourhood, and also by the Beni Bahra, from the desert west of the Euphrates; and now the Beni Ghassân were pouring down from the north, under Jabala, the Christian prince of Bostra.[138] The position of Iyâdh, thus beset, had been growing day by day more critical. The advent of Khâlid changed the scene at once. His very name was a tower of strength. Okeidar had already felt his prowess, having several years before been taken by him a prisoner to Mahomet at Medîna. Hearing now that his old enemy was advancing from the east, he was much afraid; and, failing to persuade his comrades to offer terms, he hastened forward by himself, with the view of surrendering; but Khâlid, being apprised of his approach, sent out to take him prisoner, and he was instantly beheaded.[139] Then, instructing Iyâdh to engage the Syrian troops on the farther side of Dûma, Khâlid himself attacked the enemy on the nearer, and utterly routed them, taking prisoner Judi and the Kelbite leader. The discomfited troops fled back in confusion to the fort, and when that was full, the gates were closed. Iyâdh was also on his side victorious, but Jabala effected his escape to Syria. Then the sword was drawn against the helpless crowd hemmed in between the two forces. The Beni Kelb were spared; for Acra, a Bedouin chief, had (much to Khâlid’s displeasure) given them quarter as a confederate tribe[140]; but Judi was beheaded, and all the rank and file that vainly struggled round the city walls. Even to those within, the ramparts were of small avail; the gate was battered down, and the crowded inmates put promiscuously to the sword. The women were sold to the highest bidder; and the most beautiful, the unfortunate Judi’s daughter, bought by Khâlid for his harem. Thus solacing himself for a little while at Dûma, the conqueror sent Acra with the main body back to Hîra. There they were received with outward demonstrations of joy; for the citizens, with timbrels, music, and cymbals, went forth, headed by Cacâa, to meet the returning army.[141]
Various expeditions in Irâc. Shâban, A.H. XII. November, A.D. 633.
But all was not going on smoothly in Mesopotamia. The absence of Khâlid and great part of his force encouraged the Persians and their Arab allies—specially the Beni Taghlib, smarting under the execution of Ackka—to resume offensive operations. Cacâa, though on the alert, was able, with the diminished means at his disposal, to do no more than guard the frontier and protect Anbâr from a threatened inroad. At this news, Khâlid hastened back; and, having installed Iyâdh in the government of Hîra, despatched Cacâa across the Euphrates against the Persians, while he himself appointed a rendezvous at Ain Tamar to attack the Arabs, for he had vowed that he would visit the Beni Taghlib in their homes, and crush the viper in its nest. In Mesopotamia the Persians were routed and their leaders killed; while on the western border a series of brilliant and well-planned night attacks succeeded again and again in surprising the Arabs as they slept secure in their desert homes, where they were cut to pieces, and their families carried away into dishonour and captivity. Thus Khâlid fulfilled his vow. Multitudes of women, many of noble birth, were distributed among the army. A portion of these, with a rich booty, were sent to Medîna; and one, the daughter of Bodeir, chief of the Beni Taghlib, killed in the slaughter, was purchased by Aly, and bore him a son and daughter.[142] For the time, the Bedouin confederacy was dispersed.