Numerous levies join Mothanna in Irâc.
For the previous call, made at the time of Abu Bekr’s death, was still drawing. Levies, from all directions, were daily coming in, eager (now that the ban against apostates was removed) at once to evince the sincerity of their repentance, and to share in the rewards of victory. Each band, as it came in, besought Omar that they might be sent to Syria.[214] But the late victory on the Yermûk had made him easy in that direction; and every available man must now be despatched in haste to Irâc. The Beni Bajîla, a brave and numerous levy, raised under the banner of Jarîr, urged that their ancestral relations were all with Syria; but Omar was firm, and, at last, reconciled them to set out at once for Irâc by the promise—singular in the history of the time—that they should have one fourth of the royal Fifth of all booty taken there.[215] The fugitives also, from the army of Abu Obeid, hastened back, seeking to retrieve their honour. But far the most remarkable of the levies that now gathered under Mothanna’s standard—a proof, at once of his liberality, statesmanship, and widespread influence—was from the Beni Namr, a Christian tribe of the northern desert, which, without detriment to their faith, threw in their lot with Mothanna, and brought a large contingent to his help.[216] Thus, rapidly and largely reinforced, he was soon stronger than ever, and ready for an offensive movement. These troops were massed at first well in the rear of the enemy’s country, on the edge of the Arabian desert, near Khaffân. The women and children (for the practice had now become general of carrying their families with them) were placed in security at a distance behind; some were even left with friendly citizens in Hîra, although, since the last retreat, the city had been reoccupied by a Persian satrap. Mothanna had also a trusty follower in hiding there, to give him notice of what was passing.
Mothanna advances to meet a Persian army. Ramadhân, A.H. XIII. November, A.D. 634.
From this spy, Mothanna now learned that, matters having been settled at the capital, a great army was in motion against him.[217] Sending an urgent message to Jarîr, now close at hand, to hurry on, he marched forward to Boweib, on the western branch of the Euphrates, and there, close by the future site of Kûfa, and on ground commanded by a bridge, he awaited the enemy. Omar had cautioned him not again to risk his men by crossing the river before victory was secure; so he suffered Mehrân, the Persian commander, without question to defile his troops over the bridge.[218] The armies were then marshalled. The Persians advanced in three columns, an elephant surrounded by a company of footmen, at the head of each, and all with great tumult and barbaric din. It was the fast of Ramadhân; but a dispensation was given to the troops, and they had been strengthened by a repast. Mothanna, on his favourite charger (called, by the humour of his men, the Rebel, from its docility in action), rode along the lines, and exhorted his soldiers to quit themselves like men: ‘Your valour this day will be a proverb in the mouths of all. Be still as death,’ he cried; ‘and if ye speak aught one to the other, speak it in a whisper. None shall give way amongst us this day. I desire no glory for myself, but the glory of you all.’ And they answered him in like words; for he was beloved by his men.[219]
The Battle of Boweib.
The word for the advance was to be the Takbîr, ‘Great is the Lord!’ It was to be thrice repeated; then, on the fourth cry, the rush. But Mothanna had barely shouted the first, when the Persian myrmidons bore down in great force; and the Beni Ijl, the nearest column, broke before them. Mothanna stroked his beard in trouble. Calling an officer of his staff, he bade him hasten with this message to the wavering corps: ‘The Ameer sendeth greeting, and saith, Ye will not this day shame the Moslems!’ They gave answer, ‘Yea, we shall not!’ And, as the broken ranks closed up again in sharp serried line, Mothanna smiled approvingly. The battle raged long and equally. At last, Mothanna, seeing that a desperate onset must be made, rode up to the chief of the Beni Namr, and said to him: ‘Though Christian, ye are one in blood with us; come now, and as I charge, charge ye with me.’ The Persian centre quivered before the fierce onslaught, and as the dust cleared off, it was seen to be giving way. The Moslem wings, hitherto outflanked, now took heart, and charged also. Then the Persian army fell back, and made for the bridge. But Mothanna was before them. In despair, they turned on their pursuers, and the multitude was so great that again there was a moment of danger. But the fiery zeal of the Arabs, though a handful in comparison, beat back the forlorn charge. ‘The enemy,’ says an eye-witness, ‘driven before Arfaja, were brought up by the river, and finding no escape, re-formed, and charged upon us. One cried to the leader to move his banner back; “My work,” he answered, “is to move the banner on.” So forward we drove, and cut them up, not one reaching even to the river bank.’ Mothanna reproached himself afterwards with having closed the bridge, and caused (on his own side) a useless loss of life. ‘I made a grievous error,’ he would say: ‘follow not my example herein; it behoveth us not to close the way against those who may be driven to turn upon us by despair.’[220] The carnage was almost unparalleled even in the annals of Islam, and it went on amongst the fugitives all night. A hundred warriors boasted that they had slain each ten men to his lance; and hence the battle of Boweib is sometimes called the field of Tens. There was no engagement of which the marks were wider or more lasting. For ages the bones of the slain bleached upon the plain; and the men of Kûfa had here, at their very door, a lasting proof at once of the prowess and the mercilessness of their forefathers in the faith.
Persian general slain by a Christian youth.
The victory is remarkable, not only for the unexampled loss of life, but also as secured in great part by the valour of the Beni Namr, a Christian tribe. And yet further, the most gallant feat of the day was achieved by the member of another Christian clan. A party of Beni Taghlib merchants, with a string of horses for sale, arriving just as the ranks were being dressed, threw themselves into the battle, choosing the Arab side. A youth from amongst them, darting into the very centre of the Persians, slew Mehrân, and leaping on his richly caparisoned horse, rode back upon it, amidst the plaudits of the whole Moslem line, crying, as he passed in triumph: ‘I am of the Beni Taghlib. I am he that hath slain Mehrân’[221]
Loss on the Moslem side.
The loss on the Moslem side was considerable. Mothanna had to mourn the death of his brave brother Masûd. As this hero was borne from the field mortally wounded, he cried: ‘Exalt your banners high, ye Beni Bekr.[222] The Lord will exalt you, my men; and let not my fall disturb you!’ Amr, the Christian chieftain, met a similar fate. And Mothanna affectionately tended the last moments of both together—the Christian and the Moslem—an unwonted sight on these crusading fields. He performed the funeral service over his brother and the other fallen Moslems, and said in his panegyric of their heroism: ‘It assuageth my grief that they stood stedfast; that they yielded not a step; and now they lie here the martyrs of Boweib.’