Page:William Muir, Thomas Hunter Weir - The Caliphate; Its Rise, Decline, and Fall (1915).djvu/170

 638] feeling too weak to cope with the now combined forces of the Bedawīn and Greeks, retired to Ḥimṣ; and there, hemmed in by enemies, awaited the succour advancing from Al-Kūfa. So grave did ʿOmar himself consider the crisis, that, quitting Medīna for the second time, he journeyed to Al-Jābiya, intending to march in person with the reinforcements northwards. But while on his journey, a change had already come over the scene. Their prolonged absence in the distant north had alarmed the Bedawīn for the safety of their desert homes, so that, returning south, they began to forsake the Emperor's cause. Seeing now his opportunity, Abu ʿObeida issued from his fortress, and after a severe engagement routed the enemy, who fled in confusion, and before the arrival of Al-Ḳaʿḳāʿ were already totally dispersed. ʿOmar returned to Medīna, delighted at the result. He specially commended the alacrity of the Kūfa column:—"The Lord reward them," he wrote to Saʿd, "for their ready gathering and speedy march to the succour of their beleaguered brethren."

It was the last effort of Constantinople to expel the invader from Syria, whose yoke was now plainly not to be shaken off. The diversion attempted in Mesopotamia had also the opposite effect of reducing that province to its farthest limits. Not content with this, the infant faith, becoming conscious of its giant strength, began to stretch itself still farther north. Success in Mesopotamia was ‘followed up by a campaign in Asia Minor; and the name of ʿIyāḍ, under whom even Khālid did not disdain to serve, begins to figure as one of terror in the brief Byzantine record. Naṣībīn, Ar-Rohā, and other strong places on the frontier were taken or recaptured, and part even of Armenia overrun.

Most of the Bedawi tribes in Mesopotamia embraced Islām. There were exceptions, and the story of Beni lyād is singular. They migrated to the north, and found an asylum in Byzantine territory. But ʿOmar, nettled at their disappearance, and fearing lest they should remain a thorn in his side, demanded their extradition, on pain of expelling all Christian tribes living under his protection. The Emperor, unwilling to expose these to ill-treatment, complied with