Page:William Muir, Thomas Hunter Weir - The Caliphate; Its Rise, Decline, and Fall (1915).djvu/118

 634–5] string of horses for sale, arriving just as the ranks were being dressed, threw themselves into the battle on the Arab side. A youth from amongst them darting into the centre of the Persians, slew the leader Mihrān, and leaping on his richly caparisoned horse, rode back crying, as he passed in triumph amidst the plaudits of the Muslim line: “"I am of the Beni Taghlib. I am he that hath slain the Chief."

The loss on the Muslim side was considerable. Al-Muthanna mourned the death of a brother who, when borne from the field mortally wounded, cried: "Exalt your banners ye Beni Bekr, and the Lord will exalt you, my men; let not my fall disturb you!" The Christian chieftain met a similar fate. Al-Muthanna affectionately tended the last moments of both—the Christian and the Muslim—an unwonted sight on these fanatic fields. He performed the funeral service over his brother and the other fallen Muslims, and said in his panegyric: "It assuageth my grief that they Stood stedfast; they yielded not a step; and now here they lie, the Martyrs of Al-Buweib."

The spoil was great. Immense stores of grain and herds of cattle were captured. Supplies were sent to the families in their retreat; but as the convoy rode up, the women mistaking it for a hostile raid, rushed out with their wild Arab scream, and attacked it with stones and staves, The Leader soon made himself known, and praised their courageous bearing. "It well becometh the wives of such an army," he said, "thus to defend themselves." Then he told of the victory; "and lo," pointing to the stores of grain, "the first-fruits thereof!"

The country was now ravaged without let or hindrance to the very walls of Al-Medāin, The enemy's garrisons were driven back; and lower Mesopotamia and the Delta occupied anew. Parties scoured the country higher up, and many rich markets were ransacked. They penetrated to Baghdad (then a mere village on the Tigris), and even as far north as Tekrīt. Great booty was gathered in these plundering expeditions, to be divided in the usual way.

Al-Muthanna lived but a few months after his last great victory. He never entirely recovered from his wounds received at the battle of the Bridge, and eventually succumbed. His merits have not been recognised as they