Page:William Muir, Thomas Hunter Weir - The Caliphate; Its Rise, Decline, and Fall (1915).djvu/62

632–3] effected a junction with the loyal Prince. An engagement followed, in which the Muslims, hard pressed, were near to suffering defeat, when a strong column from the tribes recently reclaimed in Al-Baḥrein appeared on the field and turned the battle in their favour. The slaughter amongst the enemy was great, and the women placed in the rear to nerve their courage, fell a welcome prize into the believers' hands. The mart of Dabā, enriched by Indian merchandise, yielded a magnificent booty, and there was at once despatched to Medīna the royal fifth of slaves and plunder.

Ḥodheifa was left behind as governor of ʿOmān. ʿIkrima, having thus reached the easternmost point of Arabia, turned to the south-west; and with an army daily swelled by levies from repentant tribes, pursued his victorious course to Mahra. This province was at the moment distracted by a breach between two rival chiefs, Espousing the cause of the weaker, who at once avowed the Faith, ʿIkrima attacked the other and achieved a great victory. Among the spoil were 2000 Bactrian camels and a vast supply of arms and beasts of burden. This quarter of the Peninsula quickly subdued and restored to order, ʿIkrima, now in great strength, advanced as he had been instructed, to join Al-Muhājir in the campaign against Ḥaḍramaut and the Yemen. But we must first take note of how things stood after the death of Moḥammad nearer home, in the west and south of the Peninsula.

While the towns of Mecca and Aṭ-Ṭāif remained tolerably secure, the country round about was rife with violence and misrule. Hordes from the lawless tribes, ready as ever for plunder and rapine, hovered close even to the Holy City. They were attacked by the Governor, and dispersed with slaughter. Order was restored by a body of 500 men quartered within the sacred limits, and by pickets throughout the neighbourhood. But from thence all the way to the Yemen, nothing was to be seen save turmoil and alarm. Troops of bandits, remnants of the false prophet's army, ravaged Nejrān; and the loyal adherents of Islām were fain to fly to mountain fastnesses. The Tihāma, or long strip of land skirting the shore of the Red Sea, was overrun by bands of Bedawīn robbers, stopping all communication between the north and south. An army at length cleared the country of these robbers,—so effectually indeed, that the