Page:William Muir, Thomas Hunter Weir - The Caliphate; Its Rise, Decline, and Fall (1915).djvu/151

 122 Saʿd's campaign, he deputed ʿOtba ibn Ghazwān, a Companion of note, with a party from Al-Bahrein, to capture the flourishing seaport of Ubulla. The garrison was defeated, and the inhabitants, chiefly Indian merchants, effected their escape by sea. The Persians rallied in force on the eastern bank of the river, and many encounters took place before the Arabs succeeded in securing their position. On one occasion, the women of the Muslim camp turning their veils into flags, and marching in martial array to the battlefield, were mistaken thus for fresh reinforcements, and contributed at a critical moment to victory. ʿOtba remained at Ubulla as governor; and, as we shall see, carried on successful operations during the next three years, against Khūzistān and the Persian border. Meanwhile Ubulla gave place to the new capital of Al-Baṣra.

On the ruins of Ubulla when first captured, there had arisen a small town of huts constructed of reeds, with a Mosque of the same material. The settlement grew in size and importance by constant arrivals from Arabia. But the climate was inhospitable. The tide rises close to the level of the alluvial plain, which, irrigated thus with ease, stretches far and wide a sea of verdure. Groves of pomegranate, acacia, and shady trees abound; and a wide belt of the familiar date-palm fringing the river might reconcile the immigrant of the Ḥijāz to his new abode. But the moisture exhaled by so damp a soil was ill-suited to the Arabian humour; pestilential vapours followed the periodical inundations, and gnats everywhere settled in intolerable swarms. Three times the site was changed; at last the pleasant spot of Al-Baṣra, near the river, which supplied a stream of running water, was fixed upon; and here a flourishing city rapidly grew up. It was laid out about the same time, and after the same fashion, as its rival Al-Kūfa. But, partly from a better climate, partly from a larger endowment of conquered lands, the northern city took the lead, as well in numbers as in influence and riches.

The founding of Al-Kūfa was on this wise. The Arabs had been in occupation of Al-Medāin for some months, when a deputation visited Medīna. The Caliph, startled by their