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 Mesopotamia together with their frontier cities, ordering him to send Ḥabîb ibn-Maslamah-l-Fihri into Armenia. Ḥabib had left a good impression in connection with the conquest of Syria and the invasion of the Greeks. This fact was fully realized by ʿUmar, by ʿUthmân and by ʿUthman's successor. Others say that ʿUthmân wrote [directly] to Ḥabîb ordering him to make an expedition against Armenia. The former view is more authentic. Accordingly, Ḥabîb went against it at the head of 6,000, but according to another estimate, 8,000, of the people of Syria and Mesopotamia. Arriving in Ḳâlîḳala, he camped around it; and when its people came out against him, he fought them and drove them to the city. They then asked for peace, agreeing to evacuate the place and pay the tax. Many of them left the city and went as far as Asia Minor. Ḥabîb remained in the city with his men for a few months. He then learned that the patrician of Armaniyâḳus had massed a large army against the Moslems and was reinforced by troops from al-Lân, Afkhâz and from Samandar in al-Khazar. Therefore, he wrote to ʿUthmân asking for reinforcement. ʿUthmân wrote to Muʿâwiyah asking him to send to Ḥabîb a body of men from Syria and Mesopotamia interested in the "holy war" and booty. Accordingly, Muʿâwiyah sent 2,000 men who were settled in Ḳâlîḳala, given fiefs and stationed as horsemen guard to keep post in it. At the receipt of Ḥabîb's request, ʿUthmân also wrote to Saʿîd ibn-al-ʿÂṣi ibn-Saʿîd ibn-al-ʿÂṣi ibn-Umaiyah, his ʿâmil over al-Kûfah, ordering him to reinforce Ḥabîb with an army headed by Salmân ibn-Rabîʿah-l-Bâhili who bore the title "Salmân al-Khail" [the Salmân of horsemen] and who was generous, benevolent and of a warlike nature. Salmân set out at the head of 6,000 Kufites. The Greeks