Page:William Muir, Thomas Hunter Weir - The Caliphate; Its Rise, Decline, and Fall (1915).djvu/53

 26 victim, on the spot. From this scandalous act, ʿOmar drew the worst conclusion. "He hath conspired to slay a believer," he said, "and hath gone in unto his wife." He was instant with Abu Bekr that the offender should be degraded and put in bonds, saying, "The sword of Khālid, dipped in violence and outrage, must be sheathed." "Nay!" replied the Caliph (of whom it is said that he never degraded any one of his Commanders);—"the Sword which the Lord hath made bare against the heathen, shall I sheathe it? That be far from me!" Nevertheless he summoned Khālid to answer the charge.

Khālid obeyed the call. On reaching Medīna, he went straightway to the great Mosque and entered it in rough costume, his clothes rusty with the girded armour, and his turban, stuck with arrows, coiled rudely about the head. As he passed along the courtyard towards the Caliph's chamber, ʿOmar met him. Unable to restrain himself, he seized the arrows from the warrior's turban, broke them over his shoulder, and abused him as hypocrite, murderer, and adulterer. Khālid, unaware whether Abu Bekr might not be of the same mind, answered not a word but passed into the Caliph's presence. There he told his story, and the explanation was accepted by Abu Bekr; but he chided him roughly for having taken to wife his victim's widow, and run counter to Arab sentiment in incontinently celebrating his nuptials on the field of battle. As Khālid, thus relieved, again passed out, he lightly rallied ʿOmar in words which showed that he had been exonerated. Mutemmam then pressed his claim of blood-money for his brother's life and release of the prisoners that remained. For the release Abu Bekr gave command, but payment he declined.

ʿOmar, still unconvinced of Khālid's innocence, advised that he should be withdrawn from the command. He persevered in pressing this view upon Abu Bekr, who at last replied, "ʿOmar, hold thy peace! Refrain thy tongue from Khālid. He gave an order, and the order was misunderstood." But ʿOmar heeded not. He neither forgave nor forgot, as in the sequel we shall see.

The scandal was the greater because Mālik ibn Nuweira was a chief renowned for generosity and princely virtues, as well as for poetic talent. His brother Mutemmam, a poet