Page:William Muir, Thomas Hunter Weir - The Caliphate; Its Rise, Decline, and Fall (1915).djvu/54

 632–3] also of no mean fame, commemorated his tragic end in many touching verses which ʿOmar loved to listen to, and used to say that, "had he been himself a poet, he would have had no higher ambition than to mourn in such verse the fate of his own brother Zeid," who shortly after fell at Al-Yemāma.

The materials are too meagre for a conclusive judgment on the. guilt or innocence of Khālid. But his scandalous marriage with the widow of Ibn Nuweira whose blood was yet fresh upon the spot, if it gave no colour to darker suspicion, justified at anyrate the indictment of shameless indulgence and reckless disregard of the proprieties of life.

But sterner work was in reserve for Khālid. In the centre of Arabia, a little towards the east, lay Al-Yemāma. The Beni Ḥanīfa, a powerful branch of the great Bekr tribe, resided there. Partly Christian and partly heathen, they had submitted to Moḥammad, but now were in rebellion 40,000 strong, around their Prophet Museilima. It was against these that Khālid next directed his steps.

The beginning of Museilima's story belongs to the life of Moḥammad. Small in stature, and of mean countenance, he yet had qualities which fitted him for command. He visited Medīna with a deputation from his people, and it was pretended that words had then fallen from Moḥammad signifying that he was destined to share with him the prophetic office. On this Museilima advanced the claim, and was accepted by his people as their prophet. Summoned from Medīna to abandon these pretensions, he sent an insolent reply claiming to divide the land. Moḥammad in. anger drove the ambassador from his presence, and thereupon sent Ar-Rajjāl a convert of the same tribe, to counteract the heresy and reclaim his brethren; but Ar-Raijjāl, like the rest, was gained over by the Pretender. Museilima, we are told, deceived the people by pretended miracles, counterfeited the language of the Ḳorʾān, and