Page:William Muir, Thomas Hunter Weir - The Caliphate; Its Rise, Decline, and Fall (1915).djvu/40

632] from Medīna on the road to Nejd. The false prophet Ṭoleiḥa sent his brother to encourage the insurgents; but they still vacillated between his claims and those of Islām. At last they bethought themselves of a compromise. A deputation offered to hold by Islām and its ritual, if only they were excused the tithe. The strangers bearing this message were welcomed by the chiefs of Medīna, but by the Caliph their advances were indignantly rejected. He would relax not a tittle of the legal dues. "If ye withhold but the tether of a tithed camel," said Abu Bekr sharply, "I will fight you for it." With this refusal they retired, and also with the intelligence that the City had but few defenders left. Now was the moment, not for plunder only, but for a decisive blow upon Medīna. Abu Bekr foreseeing this redoubled his precautions. He strengthened the pickets, and set over them the only three chief men remaining with him, ʿAlī, Ṭalḥa, and Az-Zubeir. For the people at large he appointed the great Mosque a rendezvous. "The land hath rebelled against us," he said, "and they have spied out our nakedness and the weakness of our defence. Ye know not whether they will come upon you by night or come upon you by day, or which of you may be first attacked. Wherefore be ye vigilant and ready."

And so it came to pass. They tarried but three days, when a surprise was attempted from Dhuʾl-Ḳaṣṣa. The outposts were on the alert and kept the assailants at bay, while the main-guard was hurried up on camels from the Mosque. The Bedawīn, hardly prepared for so warm a reception, fled back upon their reserves. They were pursued; but the insurgents, blowing out their water-skins, cast them, thus inflated, before the camels of the Muslims, which unused to the stratagem took fright and fled back to the Mosque. None were killed or wounded, but the Rebels were emboldened by the discomfiture. Abu Bekr anticipating renewed attack, called out every man capable of bearing arms, and spent the night in marshalling his force. Next morning while yet dark, he led forth the little band himself in regular array with centre and two wings. The enemy were taken by surprise at early dawn, and as the sun arose were already in full flight! Abu Bekr drove them with