Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 5 (1897).djvu/456

 434 THE DECLINE AND FALL fortable reflection that the infidels partook of their sufferings without partaking of their reward. Four thousand and thirty of the Moslems were buried in the field of battle ; and the skill of the Armenian archers enabled seven hundred to boast that they had lost an eye in that meritorious service. The veterans of the Syrian war acknowledged that it was the hardest and most doubtful of the days which they had seen. But it was likewise the most decisive : many thousands of the Greeks and Syrians fell by the swords of the Arabs ; many were slaughtered, after the defeat in the woods and mountains ; many, by mistaking the ford, were drowned in the waters of the Yermuk ; and, however the loss may be magnified,^i the Christian writers confess and bewail the bloody punishment of their sins.^^ Manuel, the Roman general, was either killed at Damascus or took refuge in the monastery of mount Sinai. An exile in the Byzantine court, Jabalah lamented the manners of Arabia and his unlucky pre- ference of the Christian cause. ^^ He had once inclined to the profession of Islam ; but, in the pilgrimage of Mecca, Jabalah was provoked to strike one of his brethren, and fled with amaze- ment from the stern and equal justice of the caliph. The vic- torious Saracens enjoyed at Damascus a month of pleasure and repose ; the spoil was divided by the discretion of Abu Obeidah ; an equal share was allotted to a soldier and to his horse, and a double portion was reserved for the noble coursers of the Arabian breed. Conquest After thc battle of Yermuk the Roman army no longer ap- A.Dr637 ■ peared in the field ; and the Saracens might securely choose among the fortified towns of Syria the first object of their attack. ^1 We killed of them, says Abu Obeidah to the caliph, one hundred and fifty thousand, and made prisoners forty thousand (Ockley, vol. i. p. 241). As I cannot doubt his veracity nor believe his computation, I must suspect that the Arabic historians indulged themselves in the practice of composing speeches and letters for their heroes. 92 After deploring the sins of the Christians. Theophanes adds (Chronograph, p. 276 [a.m. 6121I) ; nvecTTTi o ep-qfj.i.KO's IeS- ipri.iKara.TO% ' iJ.a^K tvitti^v fifxa^ Toi/ aov TOV XpKTTOv Ka'i •yi'i'tToi npwTifi (jiopn [/^^. Trpuj-nj (pofiepri] tttwo-i! toT' Pcu^i'.-tKoO (XTpaToii ri Kara to [/^^. TOi-] raflieai- Aeyio (doeS he mean Aiznadin?) Ka: 'Upiiovxat; Kal t'i}v ^eea-ijiov [leg. A<iOeirfj.ov, a fort in Palestine ; cp. Latin version of Anastasius, and text of de Boor] alpiaroxva-iav [/eg. aiixoxva-i-a]. His account is brief and obscure, but he accuses the numbers of the enemy, the adverse wind, and the cloud of dust ; jiii) SvvrtOh'Te^ (the Romans) avn.irpoa'uyrTria-o.L Jeg. afTMTrijo-atJ ixSpols ^la TOi' KOvtopTdr, riTTutt'Tai, Kal iavToi)^ /SaAAofTe? €i? ras crrevoSovi; tov 'Iep/iOx9oD ,l^g. 'lepoixovx^a] TroTa/MOv eKei aTrioAoiTO ap5rjv (Chronograph, p. 280 [-^.M. 6126)]. 93 See Abulfeda f Annal. Moslem, p. 70, 71), who transcribes the poetical com- plaint of Jabalah himself, and some panegyrical strains of an Arabian poet, to whom the chief of Gassan sent from Constantinople a gift of five hundred pieces of gold by the hands of the ambassador of Omar,