Page:William Muir, Thomas Hunter Weir - The Caliphate; Its Rise, Decline, and Fall (1915).djvu/48

 632–3] used for Abu Bekr ), "thou shalt not persuade us to do homage to him." "Think better of it," replied ʿAdī; "an army approacheth which ye cannot withstand. Ye shall know full soon he is no foal but the lusty stallion. Wherefore see ye to it." Alarmed at his words, they begged for time to recall their fellows who had joined Ṭoleiḥa; "for," said they, "he will surely hold them as hostages, or else put them to death." So Khālid halted three days, and in the end the whole tribe not only tendered submission but joined him with 1000 horse, "the flower of the land of Ṭaiʾ and the bravest of them."

Thus reinforced, Khālid advanced against Ṭoleiḥa. On the march his army was exasperated by finding the bodies of two of their scouts, one a warrior of note named ʿOkkāsha, who had been slain and left by Ṭoleiḥa to be trampled on upon the road. The armies met at Al-Buzākha, and the combat was hot and long. At last the tide of battle was turned by a strange utterance of Ṭoleiḥa who was fighting in his prophetic garb of hair. ʿOyeina held on bravely with his 700 when, the situation becoming critical, he turned to Ṭoleiḥa saying, "Hath any message come to thee from Gabriel?" "Not yet," answered the Prophet; a second time he asked, and received the same reply. "Yes," cried Ṭoleiḥa a little after, "a message now hath come." "And what is it?" inquired ʿOyeina eagerly. "Thus saith Gabriel to me, Thou shalt have a millstone like unto his, and an affair shall happen that thou wilt not forget." "Away with thee!" cried ʿOyeina scornfully; "no doubt the Lord knoweth that an affair will happen that thou shalt not soon forget! Ho, every man to his tent!" So they turned to go; and thereupon the army fled.

Ṭoleiḥa escaped with his wife to Syria. The sequel is curious. At the first he took refuge with another tribe on the Syrian frontier. When the Beni Asad were pardoned he returned to them, and embraced Islām. Passing Medīna soon after on pilgrimage to Mecca, he was seized and carried to Abu Bekr who set him at liberty, saying, "Let him alone. The Lord hath now verily guided him into the right path." When ʿOmar succeeded, Ṭoleiḥa presented himself to do