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 a statement. When Syria was subdued, all that was restored to them. When Sulaimân ibn-ʿAbd-al-Malik used to pass near this land he would not stop in it saying, "I am afraid the curse of the Prophet will follow me."

. Hishâm ibn-ʿAmmâr told me he heard it said by certain sheikhs that on his way to al-Jâbiyah in the province of Damascus, ʿUmar ibn-al-Khaṭṭâb passed by certain Christians smitten with elephentiasis and he ordered that they be given something out of the ṣadaḳahs and that food stipends be assigned to them.

. Hishâm reported that he heard it said by al-Walîd ibn-Muslim that Khâlid ibn-al-Walîd made a condition in favor of the convent known as Dair Khâlid, when its occupants offered him a ladder to climb to the city wall, to the effect that their kharâj be reduced. The condition was enforced by abu-ʿUbaidah.

. When abu-ʿUbaidah was done with Damascus, he advanced to Ḥimṣ. On his way, he passed through Baʿlabakk whose inhabitants sought to secure safety and capitulate. Abu-ʿUbaidah made terms guaranteeing the safety of their lives, possessions and churches. To that end he wrote the following statement:

"In the name of Allah, the compassionate, the merciful. This is a statement of security to so and so, son of so and so, and to the inhabitants of Baʿlabakk—Greeks, Persians and Arabs—for their lives, possessions, churches and houses, inside and outside the city and also for their mills. The Greeks are entitled to give pasture to their cattle within a space of 15 miles, yet are not to abide in any inhabited town. After Rabîʿ and Jumâda I shall have passed, they are at