Page:William Muir, Thomas Hunter Weir - The Caliphate; Its Rise, Decline, and Fall (1915).djvu/57

 30 his example and shared the common fate. His freedman seized the banner as it fell, and exclaiming "I were a craven bearer of the sacred text if I feared death," plunged with it into the battle and was slain. Nor were the men of Medīna far behind. Their Commander as they gave way reproached them thus,—"Woe to you because of this backsliding. Verily, I am clear of ye, even as I am clear of these," pointing to the apostate enemy, and so he flung himself among them and perished in their midst. Animated thus, the rank and file charged furiously. Backwards and forwards swayed the line, and heavy was the carnage. But urged by Khālid's valiant arm, and raising the battle-cry "Ya Moḥammadā!" the Muslim arms at length prevailed. The enemy broke and fled. "To the garden!" cried Al-Muḥakkam, a brave leader of the Beni Ḥanīfa; "to the garden, and close the gate!" Taking his stand, he guarded their retreat as they rushed into an orchard surrounded by a strong wall, and Museilima with them. The Muslim troops following close, swarmed round the wall but found the entrance barred. At last Al-Barā ibn Mālik cried, "Lift me aloft upon the wall." So they lifted him up. For a moment, as he looked on the surging mass below, the hero hesitated; then, boldly leaping down, he beat right and left, until he reached the gate, and threw it open. Like waters pent up, his comrades rushed in; and, as beasts of the forest snared in a trap, so wildly struggled the brave Beni Ḥanīfa in the Garden of Death, Hemmed within the narrow space, hampered by the trees, arms useless from their very numbers, they were hewn down and perished to a man. The carnage was fearful, for besides the "thousands" (as tradition puts it) slain within the walls, an equal number were killed on the field, and again an equal number in the flight. The Muslims too, despite their splendid victory, had cause to remember the "Garden of Death," for their loss was beyond all previous experience. Besides those killed hand to hand in the garden, great numbers fell in the battle. The Refugees lost 360 men, and the Men of Medīna 300, nearly 700 in all; while the slaughter amongst the Bedawīn, though somewhat less, raised the loss beyond 1200, besides the wounded. Amongst the dead were nine-and-thirty chief Companions of the Prophet. At Medīna