Page:William Muir, Thomas Hunter Weir - The Caliphate; Its Rise, Decline, and Fall (1915).djvu/87

 58 to defend them, and they on their part pledged allegiance, and bound themselves to give notice if danger threatened. Garrisons were quartered here and there, and the troops held ready in movable columns. Thus the country west of the Euphrates was kept in check, and also the lower Delta to the east. Throughout this region none was secure from rapine but such as had entered into engagements. Hostages were taken for the revenue; and a formal discharge given upon its payment. The tribute, as well as the booty, was all distributed amongst the army "for the strengthening of its will and emboldening of its courage."

Persia meanwhile was hopelessly distracted. Male progeny near the throne had been so ruthlessly massacred, that no heir of royal blood could anywhere be found, and a rapid succession of feeble claimants was set up by the princesses left to form the Court. Thus paralysed, the Persians did little more than protect Al-Medāin by holding in force the country opposite as far as the Nahr-shīr, a deep channel which, drawn from the Euphrates, flowed athwart the Peninsula. This line was threatened by Al-Muthanna; but Abu Bekr gave stringent orders that no advance should be made till all was secure behind. No tidings, moreover, had as yet been received from ʿIyāḍ at Dūma, with whom co-operation was imperative. Khālid fretted at remaining thus inactive, "playing," as he complained, "for so many months the woman's part." But he curbed his ardour, and contented himself with inditing two letters, in imperious tone, one to "the Princes of Persia," the other to "the Satraps and inhabitants at large."

Towards the north and west, however, aggressive measures were continued. Siege was laid to Al-Anbār, a fortress on the Euphrates some eighty miles above Babylon. The worn-out camels of the army were slain and cast into the deep fosse, which thus was crossed and the city captured. The Persian governor sued for terms, and was permitted to retire. Al-Anbār and the well-watered neighbourhood thus secured, the army attacked ʿAin at-Tamr, the Spring of the Date palm, a fortress on the desert border three days' journey farther west. The Persian troops were here supported by a great gathering of Arab tribes, and among them the same Taghlib levies which had followed their