Page:William Muir, Thomas Hunter Weir - The Caliphate; Its Rise, Decline, and Fall (1915).djvu/58

 632–3] there was hardly a house, whether of Refugees or Citizens, in which the voice of wailing was not heard.

Museilima was slain by Waḥshi, the same negro warrior who, swinging round his head a javelin after the savage Ethiopian style, had on the field of Oḥod brought Ḥamza to the ground. After the battle, Khālid carried the chief Majāʿa, still in chains, over the field to identify the dead. Turning the bodies over, they came upon a stalwart figure. "Look, was this your Master?" said Khālid. "Nay," replied Majāʿa, "that was a nobler and a better man";—it was the brave Muḥakkam who, covering the retreat, was slain by the Caliph's son. Entering the "Garden of Death," among the heaps of mangled dead they stumbled on one of insignificant mien. "This is your man," Majāʿa said, as he turned the body of Museilima on its side;—"truly ye have done for him!" "Yea," replied Khālid, "or rather it is he that hath done for you all that which he hath done."

The Muslim horse now scoured the country and every day brought in bands of prisoners. Aware that after their crushing defeat the Beni Ḥanīfa were incapable of resistance, their chief Majāʿa bethought him of a stratagem. He represented that the forts and fastnesses were still held in force throughout the country; in proof of which he sent to tell the aged men, the women,—all that were left behind, and even the children,—to line their battlements in warrior's disguise. Persuaded thus that the inhabitants would fight to the last, and seeing the army wearied and anxious for their homes, Khālid concluded a truce more favourable than he would otherwise have given. When Majāʿa's artifice came to light, Khālid was angry; but excusing him on the ground of patriotism, in the end stood by the treaty. No sooner was it concluded than he received a despatch of unwonted severity from Abu Bekr, who, to strike terror into other apostate tribes, commanded that not a single fighting man of the rebel and ungodly race be spared. Fortunately this the truce forbade; the Beni Ḥanīfa were received back into Islām, and a portion only of the multitude were retained as prisoners. The campaign ended, Khālid sent a deputation of the tribe to Abu Bekr, who received them courteously. "Out upon you!" at first he said; "how is it that this impostor has led you all astray?" "Oh Caliph!" they