Page:William Muir, Thomas Hunter Weir - The Caliphate; Its Rise, Decline, and Fall (1915).djvu/55

 28 instituted prayers like those of Moḥammad. In short, his religion was but a wretched travesty of Islām. Though strongly supported by his own people both as their Prophet and their Ruler, he now felt that the meshes of Abu Bekr began to close round him. The Caliph’s Generals were steadily reclaiming the coast of the Persian Gulf, and Khālid whom he dreaded most was not far behind. At this juncture came tidings that the Prophetess Sajāḥ, worsted as we have seen by the Beni Temīm, was coming with troops against him. In his perplexity he sent her a friendly invitation. She came, and their sentiments were so much alike that the Prophet of Al-Yemāma took the Prophetess of Mesopotamia to wife, and celebrated their nuptials on the spot—the dower to be one-half the revenues of Al-Yemāma. After a few days, Sajāḥ departed for her northern home and, like a meteor, vanished, just as she had startled Arabia by her advent. Parties of Mesopotamian horse still ranged over the land collecting her dues when Khālid's approach at once changed the scene; and Museilima marching out with a heavy force to meet him, pitched his camp at ʿAḳrabā.

ʿIkrima and Shuraḥbīl, sent by Abu Bekr to quell the rising at Al-Yemāma, had already suffered badly at the hands of Museilima from a hasty and ill-advised advance. The reverse was so serious that Abu Bekr wrote angrily to ʿIkrima—"I will not see thy face, nor shalt thou see mine, as now thou art. Thou shalt not return hither to dishearten the people. Depart unto the uttermost coasts, and there join the armies in the east and south." So, skirting Al-Yemāma, ʿIkrima went forward to ʿOmān, there to retrieve his tarnished reputation. Shuraḥbīl, meanwhile, was directed to halt and await the approach of Khālid.

It was upon this reverse that Khālid, when summoned to Medīna about the affair of Mālik, received his commission to attack Museilima. In anticipation of severe fighting the Caliph sent with him a fresh column of veterans from amongst the men of Mecca and Medīna. Thus reinforced Khālid returned to his camp at Al-Biṭāḥ, and advanced in strength to meet the enemy.

While yet a march from ʿAḳrabā, Khālid surprised a mounted body of the Beni Ḥanīfa under command of their