Page:William Muir, Thomas Hunter Weir - The Caliphate; Its Rise, Decline, and Fall (1915).djvu/91



campaign in Syria opened under a very different Khālid son of Saʿīd, at least according to Seif, one of the oldest authorities. An early convert, and as such an exile to Abyssinia, he held high place as a confessor of the Faith. Employed as envoy in the south, he was forced to retreat in the turmoil following the Prophet's death, and now claimed fresh command. Although ʿOmar (whom, to be sure, he had maligned) doubted his fitness, Abu Bekr overcome by importunity, sent him to rally the friendly tribes on the Syrian frontier; but unless attacked he was to take no forward step. The Greeks, in the hope of capturing his camels, summoned their Bedawi allies and assumed a threatening attitude. Khālid was thereupon permitted to advance, yet cautiously and so as to allow no danger in his rear. Proceeding onwards to the Dead Sea, he routed there a Syrian column under the Byzantine general Bāhān (Baänes); but finding himself so far away, he called urgently for reinforcements. Just then the Muslim troops, having crushed apostasy in the south, were returning in great numbers to Medīna, and so were available for any other service. ʿIkrima, son of Abu Jahl and Al-Welīd ibn Oḳba, were despatched in haste to support Khālid in the north, whilst a Holy War was proclaimed at Medīna, and other Emirs appointed over the levies, for (according to this narrator) it was now that Abu Bekr first thought of conquering Syria. 62