Abu Obeida then advanced straight upon Hims, and closely invested it. Heraclius, on the defeat of Theodore, retired hastily on Roha,[308] from whence he endeavoured to raise the Bedouins of Mesopotamia with the view of effecting a diversion. Dzul Cáda A.H. XIV. January, A.D. 636,This effort (as we have seen) was defeated by Sád, who, making an inroad on Hît and Kirckesia, thus recalled the tribes to the defence of their desert homes. The siege of Hims, prosecuted with vigour, was bravely resisted. But the expectation of promised succour died away; the severity of winter failed to make the Arabs retire, the courage of the beleaguered garrison fell, and their sallies became less frequent and effective. When the siege had been thus protracted many weeks, suddenly an earthquake, with successive shocks, breached the battlements. and taken, A.H. XV. Spring, A.D. 636.The governor, finding the position no longer tenable, offered to capitulate; and the Moslems, unaware of the full extent of the mischief, readily gave the same terms to the prostrate city as had been given to Damascus. In answer to the despatch announcing the capture, and forwarding the royal share of the booty, Omar bade Abu Obeida to press forward; and promising further reinforcements, counselled him to gain over the powerful Bedouin tribes on the border, and strengthen his army thus.
March continued northwards.
Leaving, therefore, a garrison in Hims under Obâda, one of the Twelve leaders,[309] Abu Obeida resumed his northward march. Hâma, and other towns of inferior note, tendered their submission.[310] The strongly fortified city of Laodicea alone showed an obstinate front; but the Arabs made a feint of withdrawing, and then, a squadron, darting suddenly back in the early morning through an open portal, seized the defences, and overpowered the garrison. Advancing still to the north, Khâlid, with great slaughter, defeated the Romans near Kinnisrîn—a stronghold which, after a short defence, was seized and dismantled.[311] In the battle we are told that a prince called Minas, in dignity second only to the Emperor, was slain. Aleppo next fell, after a brief resistance; and then Abu Obeida turned his arms westward to Antioch. Siege and surrender of Antioch.In this, the famous capital of Northern Syria, and emporium of merchandise, art, and luxury, the broken troops of the Empire rallied. And here, at length, within the great lines of circumvallation which ran along the surrounding heights, we might have expected Heraclius to make a stand; and, drawing fresh troops together, to battle against the disasters which had befallen Syria. But no effort befitting the crisis appears to have been even thought of. A heavy battle, indeed, was fought on the wooded plain outside the walls; but the garrison was driven back, and the city, surrounded on all sides, at last capitulated.[312] Such are the details, comprised within the space of a few lines, which tell us whatever we know of the loss of Northern Syria, stretching from Damascus to the hilly range of Asia Minor.
Northern Syria reduced.
Eastwards, in the direction of Aleppo, the Romans made a last but feeble attempt to regain their footing. They were again hopelessly beaten, their leader slain, and great numbers taken prisoner. The arm of the Empire was for the moment paralysed, and Syria, from the Great River to the seashore, brought entirely under the sway of Islam. The Arab tribes, as well as the settled inhabitants of towns and villages, became tributary, and bound by engagements to keep the conquerors informed of the movements of the enemy. Before long time, the Bedouins, who sit ever loose to the trammels of religion, went for the most part over to the Moslem faith. State of the Christian population.But the urban population, as a whole, resisted the inducements to abandon Christianity; and, although reduced, as the Corân demanded, to an humbled and politically degraded state, they were yet treated with moderation, their churches spared, and their worship respected. They either reconciled themselves to their unhappy fate, or retired unmolested into Roman territory.
Heraclius retires to Constantinople.
When Heraclius beheld his armies, one after another, defeated, and his efforts to rally the Bedouin tribes end only in secession and hostile risings throughout Mesopotamia, he gave up Syria as lost, and fell back from Roha upon Samsât. But he was in peril even there. For, after reducing Membij and other fortresses within the Syrian frontier, Khâlid made a dash into Cilicia, and ravaged Marásh and the country lying to the west of Samsât.[313] The Emperor, alarmed at his line of retreat being thus threatened, retired altogether from the scene; and, relinquishing the fairest provinces of his realm—provinces sacred to the Christian faith—into the hands of his enemies, resolved to recross the Bosphorus. Wending his sad way westward, he reached (so the Arabian annalists tell us) an eminence from whence a last glimpse might be had of the wooded hills and sunny plains that were vanishing in the southern horizon. Heraclius turned to gaze, exclaiming, ‘Peace be with thee, holy and blessed land! Syria, fare thee well! There is for me no more returning unto thee; neither shall any Roman visit thee for ever, but in fear and trembling, until the accursed Antichrist shall come.’[314] It was but ten years before that the same Emperor, performing on foot a pilgrimage to Jerusalem through this same beautiful province, to commemorate the recovery of the ‘true Cross’ and his own signal victories in the East, had cast aside a rude missive from the Arabian Prophet demanding his submission to Islam. What seemed then the wild phantasy of a maniac was now an accomplished fact.
Story of Jabala, the Ghassanide Prince.
A similar despatch from Mahomet had been at the same time received by Jabala, last Prince of the Ghassanide dynasty. Jabala (so the tradition runs) asked the Emperor’s leave to chastise the insolent Arab, but was bidden to swell the imperial train at Jerusalem.[315] And now Jabala was to share his Master’s fate. At the head of the Beni Ghassân, he had fought loyally by the side of the Romans, till, disheartened by the ignoble flight of Heraclius, he turned to Abu Obeida, and embraced Islam. Splendidly clad, and with a pompous following, he visited Medîna, where the people, familiar with the illustrious name, and with the panegyric of their poet Hassân on his condescension and munificence, received him with peculiar honours. He then accompanied the Caliph to perform the pilgrimage at Mecca. There a Bedouin chanced to tread, as he passed by, upon his flowing robe, causing him to stumble and fall. The haughty prince struck the offender on the face. To his amazement he was summoned before the Caliph, who ordered that the law of retaliation[316] should have its course, and that the Bedouin might have his satisfaction by returning the blow. ‘What!’ cried Jabala; ‘I, the Prince of the Ghassân, and he a common Bedouin of the desert!’ ‘Yea,’ replied Omar; ‘for in Islam all men are alike.’ Stung by the affront, Jabala disappeared during the night, and retired to Constantinople. There he returned to the profession of the Christian faith, and was hospitably entertained at the Byzantine Court. The tale has been garnished by the touch of romance; and we are even told that, pining after his old desert haunts and friends, he offered again to recant and embrace Islam, if only Omar would promise to give him one of his daughters to wife. But so much is certain, that he died an exile, and left behind him a colony at Constantinople of his Arab followers.[317]
Exchange of gifts between the Byzantine Queen and the Caliph’s wife.