Omar will not sanction advance on Persia.
Ziâd was also the bearer of a petition from the leaders in Irâc, who chafed at the limit placed on their progress, and now asked for leave to pursue the fugitives into Khorasan and to the Caspian shore. But Omar, content with what had been already gained, forbade the enterprise. ‘I desire,’ he wrote in reply, ‘that between Mesopotamia and the lands beyond, the hills shall form a barrier, so that the Persians shall not be able to get at us, nor we at them. The fruitful plains of Irâc suffice for all our wants; and I would rather the safety of my people than spoil and further conquest.’ The conviction of a world-wide mission for Islam was yet in embryo; and the obligation to enforce its claims by a universal crusade had not yet dawned upon the nation. And, in good truth, a dominion embracing, as Islam now did, Syria, Chaldæa, and Arabia, might have satisfied the ambition even of an Assyrian or Babylonian monarch. The sound and equal mind of Omar, far from being unsteadied by the flush and giddiness of victory, cared first to consolidate and secure the prize he had already gained.
Operations in Mesopotamia. A.H. XVI. Summer, A.D. 637.
The Persian frontier, for the time, was safe. A son of Hormuzân made an inroad from Masbazân, a fortress in the mountains, two days south of Holwân; but he was defeated and beheaded; and the place, strongly guarded, became one of an established line of frontier posts. There being no further attempt upon the peace of Medâin, the ambition of Sád and his generals, checked northwards by the Caliph’s interdict, was for the present confined to the reduction of Mesopotamia. For this end, troops were sent up the verdant banks of the Tigris as far as Tekrît—a stronghold on the river, about a hundred miles above Medâin, held by a mixed garrison of Roman troops and Christian Bedouins. These bravely resisted the attack. But after forty days the Romans thought to evacuate the place, and, deserting their native allies, escape by their boats. The Bedouins, on the other hand, were tampered with, and went secretly over to Islam; so that, when a final assault was delivered, they seized the water-gate, and the Romans, taken on both sides, were put to the sword.[300] The newly converted allies then joined the force, and pressed enthusiastically forward to Mosul, which, hearing of the fall of Tekrît, at once surrendered, and became tributary. On the Euphrates, the Moslem arms had already met with equal success. The Bedouin tribes in Upper Mesopotamia having been urged by the Byzantine Court to make an attack on the invaders, who were threatening Hims, Sád was charged by Omar to effect a diversion from Irâc. Hît and Kirckesia taken. A.H. XV. A.D. 636.The fortress of Hît on the Euphrates was accordingly besieged; but they found it too strong to carry by assault. Leaving, therefore, half of the force before the town, the commander marched rapidly up the river to Kirckesia,[301] at the junction of the Khabûr, and captured it by surprise. The garrison of Hît, when they heard of this, capitulated on condition of being allowed to retire. Thus, all the southern portion of Mesopotamia, from one river to the other, was reduced; the strongholds were garrisoned, and the Bedouins either converted to the faith or brought under subjection.
Delta of the Shât al Arab occupied. A.H. XIV. A.D. 635.
Towards the south also, the rule of Islam was established from the junction of the two rivers, along the Shât al Arab down to the shores of the Persian Gulf. This tract, with varying fortune, had been exposed to the raids of the Arabs ever since the first invasion of Mothanna. On one occasion, an expedition was worsted, and the leader killed. Omar saw that, to secure Irâc, it was needful to occupy in strength the head of the Gulf as far as the range of hills on its eastern side; about the period, therefore, of Sád’s appointment he deputed Otba, a Companion of note, with a party under Arfaja from Bahrein, to capture the flourishing sea-port of Obolla. The garrison was defeated, and the inhabitants, Indian merchants and others, escaped in their ships to the Gulf. The Persians then gathered in force on the eastern bank of the river, and many encounters took place before the Arabs succeeded in securing their position. In one of these, the women of the Moslem camp turned their veils into flags, and, marching in martial array to the battle-field, were mistaken for fresh reinforcements, and contributed thus at a critical moment to the victory. At last, in a great and decisive action, the enemy was routed, and the girdle of the leader, a Persian noble, sent as a trophy to the Caliph. The messenger who carried it, in answering the Caliph’s questions, confessed that the Moslems were becoming luxurious in foreign parts:—‘The love of this present life,’ he said, ‘hath increased upon them; gold and silver have dazzled their sight.’ Concerned at the revelation, the Caliph summoned to his presence Otba, who came, having left a Bedouin chief in charge of his government. The arrangement was highly distasteful to Omar: ‘What!’ he said, ‘hast thou placed a Man of the desert over Men of the city and Companions of the Prophet? That can never be!’ So Moghîra was substituted for the Bedouin; and Otba dying on the journey back, Moghîra became governor in his stead. Thus early arose the spirit of antagonism between the Bedouin chiefs and the men of Mecca and Medîna.
The Delta subdued. A.H. XIV. A.D. 635.
On the ruins of Obolla a small town arose of huts constructed of reeds, with a Mosque of the same material; and the settlement grew in size and importance by constant accessions from Arabia. But the climate was inhospitable to the new settlers. The tide here rises close to the level of the alluvial plain, which, irrigated with ease, is surpassingly fertile, and stretches far and wide a sea of verdure. The country abounds with groves of pomegranates, acacias, and shady trees; and a wide belt of the familiar date-palm fringing the river might reconcile the immigrant of the Hejâz to his new abode. But the moisture exhaled by a soil so near the water was ill-suited to the Arabian humour; pestilential vapours followed the periodical inundations, and gnats settled around them in intolerable swarms.[302] Bussorah founded. A.H. XVII. A.D. 638.Three times the site was changed; at last the pleasant spot of Bussorah, near the river bank, and supplied with a stream of water running through it, was fixed upon; and there a flourishing city rapidly grew up. It was laid out about the same time, and after the same fashion, as its rival Kûfa. But, partly from a more congenial climate, partly from being more largely endowed with conquered lands, the sister city took the lead, as well in numbers as in influence and riches.
Kûfa founded. A.H. XVII. A.D. 638.
The founding of Kûfa was on this wise. The Arabs had been in occupation of Medâin for some months, when, a deputation visiting Medîna on certain business, the Caliph was startled by their sallow and unwholesome look, and asked the cause. They replied that the city air did not agree with the Arab temperament. Thereupon, search was ordered for some more healthy and congenial spot; such as, approaching nearer to the desert air, and also well supplied with wholesome water, would not be cut off (so the watchful Ruler stipulated) from ready help in any time of need.[303] They looked everywhere on the desert outskirts, and found no place answering these conditions so well as the plain of Kûfa, not far from Hîra, on the banks of the western branch of the Euphrates. Omar confirmed the choice, and left it in each man’s option, either to remain at Medâin, or transfer his habitation thither. The new capital suited the Arabs well, and to it accordingly they migrated in great numbers. The dwellings, as at Bussorah, were made at first of reeds.[304] October, A.D. 638.But fires were frequent; and, in the autumn, after a disastrous conflagration, the Caliph gave permission that both cities might be built of brick. ‘The flitting camp,’ he wrote, ‘is the only place for the crusader. But if ye must have a more permanent abode, be it so; only let no man have more houses than three, nor exceed the modest exemplar of the Prophet’s dwelling-place.’ So the city was rebuilt, and the streets laid out in regular lines. The centre was kept an open square for the chief Mosque, which was constructed with a portico for shade, and ornamented with marble pillars from the palaces at Hîra.[305] Another square was left clear for the market; and to every man was allotted ground proportioned to the number of his household. Sád built for himself a spacious edifice, with materials carried from the royal buildings at Hîra, and he reared in front of it a gateway to prevent intrusion from the market-place, which was hard by. The rumour of ‘the Castle of Sád’ troubled the simple-minded Caliph, and he sent Mohammed ibn Maslama with a rescript commanding that the gateway should be pulled down. Arrived at Kûfa, the envoy was invited by Sád to enter his mansion as a guest, but he declined. Sád therefore came forth, and received the letter at his hands, which ran thus:—‘It hath been reported to me that thou hast builded for thyself a palace, and people call it The Castle of Sád; moreover, that thou hast reared a gateway betwixt thee and the people. It is not thy castle; rather is it the castle of perdition. Whatsoever is needful to secure the treasury, that thou mayest guard and lock; but the gateway which shutteth out the people from thee, that thou shalt break down.’ Sád obeyed the order; but he protested that his object in building the portal had been falsely reported, and Omar accepted the excuse.