Page:William Muir, Thomas Hunter Weir - The Caliphate; Its Rise, Decline, and Fall (1915).djvu/288

 657] western bank of the Euphrates, but meeting with opposition there, was forced to cross back again into Mesopotamia. ʿAlī himself, with the main body, marched up the Tigris; then tuning short of Mosul to the west, crossed the desert of Mesopotamia, and outstripping his advanced column, reached the Euphrates in its upper course at Ar-Raḳḳa. An unfriendly population lined the banks; and it was not ithout sanguinary threats that Al-Ashtar forced them to construct a bridge. The army crossed near Ar-Raḳḳa; and then marching some little distance along the right bank, in the direction of Aleppo, met the Syrian outposts.

On learning of ʿAlī's approach, Muʿāwiya lost no time in marshalling his forces, which greatly outnumbered the enemy, and, having no desert or river to cross, were soon to the front. ʿAmr was in command, with his two sons as lieutenants. ʿAlī, desirous of averting bloodshed, had given orders that, as soon as his troops came upon the enemy, they should halt, and, confining themselves to the defensive, avoid precipitating hostilities before opportunity was given for friendly overture. The vanguards spent the first few days in skirmishing. Al-Ashtar challenged the Syrian officer to single combat; but he was told that, havinh imbrued his hands in the blood of the late Caliph, he could not claim the privileges of honourable warfare. When the main armies came in sight of each other, ʿAlī found Muʿāwiya so encamped as to cut him off from the river, and reduce his army to straits for water. He therefore brought on an engagement, in which Muʿāwiya was forced to change his ground, and occupy the memorable field of Ṣiffīn. Some