Page:William Muir, Thomas Hunter Weir - The Caliphate; Its Rise, Decline, and Fall (1915).djvu/52

 632–3] no longer use in opposing this new way, but that bowing down they should suffer the wave to pass over them. "Break up your camp," he said, "and depart every man to his house." Khālid, still bent on treating the neighbourhood as enemy's land, sent forth bands everywhere to slay and plunder, and take captive all who failed to respond to the call for prayer. Amongst others, Mālik was seized with his wife and a party of his people. When challenged, they replied that they were Muslims. "Why, then, these weapons?" it was asked. So they laid aside their arms and were led as captives to the camp. As they passed by Khālid, Mālik cried aloud to him, "Thy Master never gave command for this." "Thy master," rejoined Khālid, "didst thou say? Then, rebel, by thine own admission, he is not thine!"

The captors differed in their evidence. Some averred that the prisoners had offered resistance. Others, with Abu Ḳatāda, a citizen of Medīna at their head, deposed that they had declared themselves Muslims, and at once complied with the call to prayer. So the party was remanded till morning under an armed guard. The night set in cold and stormy, and Khālid, with the view (so he averred) of protecting them from its inclemency, gave command "to wrap the prisoners." The word was ambiguous, signifying in another dialect "to slay"; and Ḍirār, commandant of the guard, taking it in that sense, began to put the prisoners, including Ibn Nuweira, forthwith to the sword. Khālid, hearing the uproar, hurried forth; but all was over, and he retired exclaiming, "When the Lord hath determined a thing, the same cometh verily to pass." But the fate of Mālik was not thus easily to be set at rest. The men of Medīna who had opposed the advance were shocked at his cruel fate. Abu Ḳatāda roundly asserted the responsibility of Khālid. "This is thy work!" he said; and though chided, persisted in the charge, declaring that never again would he serve under Khālid's banner. In company with Mutemmam, Ibn Nuweira's brother, he set out at once for Medīna, and there laid formal complaint before the Caliph. ʿOmar, with his native impetuosity, took up the cause of the Yerbūʿ chief. Khālid had given point to the allegations of his enemies by wedding Leila, the beautiful widow of his