Page:William Muir, Thomas Hunter Weir - The Caliphate; Its Rise, Decline, and Fall (1915).djvu/201

 172 fession of the faith upon the spot; and thenceforth, taking up his residence at Medīna, received a pension of high grade.

"What is the cause," inquired ʿOmar of the deputation, "that these Persians persistently break faith and rebel against against us? Maybe, ye treat them harshly." "Not so," they answered; "but thou hast forbidden us to enlarge our boundary; and the King is in their midst to stir them up. Two Kings can in no wise exist together, until the one expel the other. It is not our harshness, but their King, that hath incited them to rise against us after having made submission. And so it will go on until thou shalt remove the barrier and leave us to go forward and expel their King. Not till then will their hopes and machinations cease."

These views were also enforced by Al-Hormuzān. The truth began to dawn on ʿOmar that necessity was laid upon him to withdraw the ban against advance. In self-defence, nothing was left but to crush the Chosroes and take entire possession of his realm.