Page:William Muir, Thomas Hunter Weir - The Caliphate; Its Rise, Decline, and Fall (1915).djvu/102



he left for Syria, Khalid, seeing that with a diminished force the situation in Al-ʿIrāḳ would be somewhat insecure, sent away the sick with the women and children to their homes in Arabia. On his departure, Al-Muthanna made the best disposition in his power to strengthen the line of defences towards the Persian Capital. Fresh dangers threatened. A new Prince had succeeded to the throne, who thought to expel the invaders by an army under Hormuz 10,000 strong. Al-Muthanna at once called in the outlying garrisons; but with every help, his force was in numbers much below the Persian. The King, confident of victory, wrote to Al-Muthanna insultingly, that "he was about to drive him away by an army of fowl-men and swine-herds." Al-Muthanna answered: "Thou art either a braggart or a liar. But if this be true, then blessed be the Lord that hath reduced thee to such defenders!" Having despatched this reply, he advanced to meet Hormuz. Leaving Al-Ḥīra, the little force crossed the Euphrates and encamped north of the shapeless mounds that mark the site of Babylon. There, some fifty miles from the Capital, he chose the battle-ground; and, placing his two brothers in charge of either wing, himself at the head of the centre, awaited thus the attack of Hormuz. The Persian line was headed by an elephant, which threw the Arab ranks into confusion, and for a while paralysed their action. Al-Muthanna, followed by an adventurous band, surrounded the great creature and brought it to the ground. Deprived