Chapter XXI: Rising in Northern Syria

A.H. XVII. A.D. 638.

[Sidenote: Rising in Northern Syria.]

In the sixth year of Omar’s Caliphate, a desperate effort was made by the Byzantine power, and at one moment not without some prospect of success, to shake off the Moslem yoke and recover possession of Northern Syria.

[Sidenote: Romans by sea support attack of Mesopotamian Bedouins. A.H. XVII. A.D. 638.]

The movement is attributed by tradition to an appeal from the Christian tribes of Mesopotamia, which when the Roman army retired into Asia Minor, besought the Emperor to save them from falling under his adversary’s sway. Although the Moslem frontier on the side of Cilicia was tolerably secure, yet the seaboard to the west, and the desert border on the east of Syria, were both vulnerable. Most of the strongholds of Mesopotamia, it is true, had already fallen into the hands of Sád;[335] but the wandering Bedouins were not controlled by these, and with few exceptions the numerous Christian tribes still looked for support to the Persian or the Roman empires. The maritime power of the Romans was yet untouched. Cæsarea with its naval supports remained proof against landward attack; and the whole sea coast was kept unsettled by the hope, or by the fear, that the Roman fleet might at any time appear. The Emperor now promised the dwellers in Mesopotamia that he would second their efforts by way of the sea. An expedition was accordingly directed from the port of Alexandria upon Antioch; while the Bedouins gathered in great hordes around Hims. Thus seriously threatened, Abu Obeida called in Khâlid from Kinnisrîn, and every garrison that could be spared from the south. But the enemy was still too strong to be dispersed by the force at his disposal, and so he sent an urgent summons for assistance to Medîna. Thereupon Omar ordered Sád to despatch a strong column from Kûfa under Cacâa for the relief of Hims without a day’s delay; and likewise to effect a diversion by sending other columns against Rickka, Roha, Nisibîn, and such like strongholds in Upper Mesopotamia. Meanwhile the Romans landed from their ships. Antioch threw open her gates to them; and Kinnisrîn, Aleppo, and all the chief towns in the north, were in full revolt. Abu Obeida called a council of war; Khâlid was for giving battle, but he was alone in that view. Abu Obeida, feeling too weak to cope with the now combined forces of the Bedouins and Romans, retired within the walls of Hims, and, hemmed in by enemies, awaited the succour now advancing from Kûfa. So grave did Omar himself regard the crisis that, quitting Medîna for the second time, he journeyed to Jâbia, intending to march in person with the reinforcements northwards. But while on the journey, a change had already come over the scene. The vigorous movements in Mesopotamia so alarmed the Bedouins for the safety of their homes in the desert, that they began to forsake the Roman cause. [Sidenote: Abu Obeida puts the Romans and Bedouins to flight.]Seeing now his opportunity, Abu Obeida issued from the fortress, and after a severe engagement routed the enemy, who fled in such confusion that, even before the arrival of Cacâa, they were totally dispersed. Omar returned from Jâbia to Medîna. He was delighted at the result; and he specially commended the alacrity of the Kûfa column:--‘The Lord reward them,’ he wrote to Sád, ‘for their ready gathering and their speedy march to the succour of their beleaguered brethren.’[336]

[Sidenote: Campaign in Mesopotamia and Asia Minor. A.H. XVII. A.D. 638.]

It was the last effort of Constantinople to expel the invader from Syria, and the yoke plainly now was not to be shaken off. The expeditions undertaken for diverting the nomad insurgents had also the effect of reducing Mesopotamia to its uttermost limits. But not content with this, the infant faith, becoming conscious of its giant strength, began to stretch itself towards the north. The successes in Mesopotamia were followed up by a campaign in Asia Minor, under distinguished leaders; and the name of Iyâdh, the general-in-chief, under whom even Khâlid did not disdain to serve, begins to figure in the brief Byzantine record.[337] Nisibîn,[338] Amida, Harrân, Roha, and all the strong places lying along the northern frontier were taken or recaptured, and even Armenia was overrun.[339]

[Sidenote: Christian tribes in Mesopotamia. The Beni Iyâdh.]

Most of the Bedouin tribes in Mesopotamia embraced Islam. There were exceptions, and the story of the Beni Iyâdh is singular. They migrated to the north and found an asylum in Roman territory. But Omar, nettled at their disappearance, and fearing lest they should remain a thorn in his side, demanded their extradition from the Byzantine Court, on pain of the expulsion of all the Christian tribes living under his protection. And the Emperor, unwilling to expose these to ill-treatment, complied with the demand.[340] Equally remarkable is the tale of the Beni Taghlib. [Sidenote: Beni Taghlib allowed to pay tithe.]They tendered their submission to Welîd ibn Ocba, who, solicitous for the adhesion to Islam of this great and famous race, pressed them with some rigour to abjure their ancient faith. Omar was much displeased at this,--‘Leave them,’ he wrote, ‘in the profession of the Gospel. It is only within the bounds of the Peninsula, where are the Holy Places, that no polytheist tribe is permitted to remain.’ Welîd was removed from his command; and it was enjoined on his successor to stipulate only that the usual tribute should be paid, that no member of the tribe should be hindered from embracing Islam, and that the children should not be educated in the Christian faith. The tribe, deeming in its pride the payment of ‘tribute’ (_jazia_) an indignity, sent a deputation to the Caliph:--They were willing, they said, to pay the tax if only it were levied under the same name as that taken from the Moslems. Omar evinced his liberality by allowing the concession; and so the Beni Taghlib enjoyed the singular privilege of being assessed as Christians at a ‘double _Tithe_,’ instead of paying _Jazia_, the obnoxious badge of subjugation.[341]

[Sidenote: Fall of Cæsarea. A.H. XVII. A.D. 638.]

The last place to hold out in Syria was Cæsarea. It fell a last in the fifth year of Omar’s Caliphate. Amru had sat long before it. But, being open to the sea, and the battlements landward strong and well manned, it resisted all his efforts; and although Yezîd sent his brother Muâvia with reinforcements from Damascus, the siege was prolonged for several years. Sallies persistently made by the garrison, were driven back with equal constancy. In the end, as we are told, by the treachery of a Jew, a weak point was discovered in the defences. The city was carried by storm, with prodigious carnage of the wretched inhabitants. Four thousand prisoners, of either sex, were despatched as part of the prey to Medîna, and there distributed in slavery.[342]

[Sidenote: Khâlid brought to trial. A.H. XVII. A.D. 638–9.]

Khâlid had again the misfortune to incur the displeasure of Omar. He came back from the campaign of Iyâdh greatly enriched with the spoils of war. In expectation of his bounty, many of his old friends from Irâc flocked to him on his return to his government at Kinnisrîn; and amongst these was Asháth, chief of the Beni Kinda, to whom he gave the princely largess of one thousand pieces of gold. Again, at Amida in the east, Khâlid had indulged in the luxury of a bath mingled with wine, the odour whereof as he came forth still clung about him. On both charges he was now arraigned. About the second, there could be no question; the use of wine, even externally, was a forbidden thing, and Khâlid forswore the indulgence in it even thus. The other offence was graver in the Caliph’s eyes. Either the gift was booty of the army; or, if Khâlid’s own to give away, he was guilty, even on that supposition, of culpable extravagance. Whichever was the case, he deserved to be deposed from his command. In such terms a rescript was addressed to Abu Obeida, and sent by the hands of a courier charged to see that the command was fully carried out. Khâlid was to be accused publicly; his helmet[343] taken off; his hands bound with his head-kerchief; and so arraigned he was to declare the truth.

[Sidenote: Khâlid arraigned at Hims for malversation;]

With Abu Obeida this was an ungracious task; for to the now degraded warrior he was beholden for all his victories in Syria. But the Caliph’s word was law. And so he summoned Khâlid from his seat of government, proclaimed an assembly in the great Mosque of Hims, and, standing in the pulpit, placed Khâlid in the midst. Then the courier put his master’s question--From whence the money given to Asháth came? Khâlid, confounded at the unexpected charge, made no reply. Pressed by his friends, still he remained silent. Abu Obeida stood himself embarrassed, and a painful pause ensued. At last Bilâl, privileged as the Muedzzin of the Prophet, stepped forth, and with stentorian voice cried, ‘_Thus and thus hath the Commander of the Faithful said, and it is incumbent on us to obey_;’ so saying, he unwound the kerchief from the head of Khâlid, bound his hands therewith, and took off his helmet. The great warrior, to whom Islam owed its conquests, stood as a felon before the congregation. Bilâl repeated the question, and Khâlid at length replied, ‘The money was my own.’ At once Bilâl unbound his hands, and, replacing the helmet on his head, wound the kerchief around it as before, and said, ‘We honour thee still, even as we did honour thee before, one of our chiefest captains.’ But Abu Obeida was silent; and Khâlid, stunned by the disgrace, stood speechless and bewildered. Abu Obeida had not the heart to tell him of his deposition; but, without sending him back to his seat of government, spoke kindly to him as to one who still had his confidence. Omar understood the delicacy of Abu Obeida’s position, and himself summoned Khâlid to Medîna. [Sidenote: summoned to Medîna,]Prompt to obey, though sore at heart, Khâlid first returned to Kinnisrîn; and both there and at Hims, bidding adieu to his friends and to the people, he complained openly and bitterly of the ingratitude of a prince who scrupled not to use him in his times of difficulty, but cast him aside when, through his aid, he had reached the summit of his power. Arrived at Medîna, he reproached the Caliph: ‘I swear that thou hast treated despitefully a faithful servant to whom thou owest much; and I appeal from thee to the whole body of the Faithful.’ ‘Whence came that money?’ was Omar’s only answer. The question was repeated day by day; till at last, galled by the charge of unfaithfulness, Khâlid made answer thus: ‘I have nought but the spoil which the Lord hath given me in the days of Abu Bekr, as well as in thine own. Whatever thou findest over 60,000 pieces, hath been gained in thy Caliphate; take it if thou wilt.’ So his effects were valued, and the estimate reaching 80,000, Omar confiscated the difference. [Sidenote: and there mulcted and deposed.]But he still affected to hold the great general in honour and regard. Accordingly, he sent a rescript to the various provinces, announcing that he had deposed Khâlid, not because of any tyranny or fraud, but because he deemed it needful to remove a stumbling-block out of the way of the people, who were tempted to put their trust in an arm of flesh, instead of looking alone to the Giver of all victory.

[Sidenote: Khâlid dies in neglect. A.H. XXI.]

So closed the career of Khâlid. The first beginning of Omar’s alienation was the affair of Mâlik ibn Noweira, followed by acts of tyranny in Irâc, which grated on his sense of clemency and justice. But these acts had long since been condoned; and therefore his conduct now was ungenerous and unjust. He used the ‘Sword of God’ so long as he had need of it, and when by it victory was secured, he cast it ungratefully away. Khâlid retired to Hims, and did not long survive. His manner of life when in the full tide of prosperity may be gathered from the brief notice that in the Plague (of which mention will soon be made) _forty_ of his sons were carried off. The remainder of the family took refuge, like many others, in the desert. Soon after, in the eighth year of Omar’s Caliphate, the great general died. In his last illness he kept showing the scars which thickly covered his body all over--marks of his bravery and unflinching prowess. ‘And now,’ he said, ‘I die even as a coward dieth, or as the camel breatheth its last breath.’ His end illustrates forcibly the instability of this world’s fame and glory. The hero who had borne Islam aloft to the crest of victory and conquest, ended his days in penury and neglect.[344]