Page:William Muir, Thomas Hunter Weir - The Caliphate; Its Rise, Decline, and Fall (1915).djvu/46

632–3]

After Abu Bekr and ʿOmar, the most prominent figure in the early days of Islām is without doubt that of Khālid son of Al-Welīd. More to him than to any other is it due that the Faith so rapidly recovered its standing, and thereafter spread with such marvellous rapidity. A dashing soldier, brave even to rashness, his courage was tempered by a cool and ready judgment. His conduct on the battlefields which decided the fate of the Persian Empire, and of the Byzantine rule in Syria, ranks him as one of the greatest generals of the world. Over and again, always with consummate skill and heroism, he cast the die in crises where loss would have been destruction to Islām. From the carnage of his arms he was named The Sword of God, and so little care had he for loss of life, that he would wed the widow of his enemy on the field still sodden with his own soldiers' blood. He had already distinguished himself in the annals of Islām. While fighting on the side of Ḳoreish, the Prophet's defeat at Oḥod was due mainly to his prowess. After conversion, his was the only column which, on the capture of Mecca, disobeyed by shedding blood; and again shortly after, the cruel massacre of an unoffending tribe brought down upon him the Prophet's stern reproof. On the field of Mūta he gave signal promise of his great future when, the Muslim army having been routed by Roman legions and its leaders one after another slain, he saved the shattered remnants from destruction by skilful and intrepid tactics. It was this Khālid whom Abu Bekr now sent forth against the rebel Prophets Ṭoleiḥa and Museilima.

His column, by far the strongest, was composed of the flower both of the Refugees and of the Citizens of Medīna. To divert the enemy's attention, Abu Bekr gave out his destination as for Kheibar; and, to strike the greater terror, that the Caliph himself would join it there with a fresh contingent. Khālid, however, was not long in quitting the northern route. Striking off to the right, he made direct for the mountain range, seat of the Beni Ṭaiʾ, and not distant from the scene of Ṭoleiḥa's revolt among the Beni Asad.