# The Caliphate: Its Rise, Decline, and Fall/Chapter 16

CHAPTER XVI
BATTLE OF JALŪLĀ. REDUCTION OF MESOPOTAMIA. AL-KŪFA AND AL-BAṢRA FOUNDED
16 A.H. 637 A.D.
Persian advance.ʿOmar was satisfied, as well he might be, with the success achieved. His old spirit of caution revived, and beyond the plain skirted by the hilly range to the east, he strictly forbade a forward movement. Summer of the 16th year of the Hijra was passed in repose at Al-Medāin. The King, with his broken troops, had fled into the Persian mountains; and the people on either bank of the Tigris, seeing opposition vain, readily submitted to the conqueror.Battle of Jalūlā. In the autumn, the Persians, resolving again to try the chance of arms, flocked in great numbers to Yezdejird at Ḥolwān, about one hundred miles north of Al-Medāin. From thence part of the force advanced to Jalūlā, a fortress held to be impregnable, surrounded by a deep trench, and the outlets guarded by chevaux de frise and spikes of iron. With ʿOmar's sanction, Saʿd pushed forward Hāshim and Al-Ḳaʿḳāʿ at the head of 12,000 men, including the flower of Mecca and Medīna; and they sat down in front of the Citadel. The garrison, reinforced from time to time by the army at Ḥolwān, attacked the besiegers with desperate bravery. Fresh troops were despatched from Al-Medāin, and the siege was prolonged for eighty days. At length, during a vigorous sally, a storm darkened the air; and the Persian columns, losing their way, were pursued to the battlements by Al-Ḳaʿḳāʿ, who seized one of the gates. Thus cut off, they turned in despair upon the Arabs, and a general engagement ensued, which was not surpassed by the Night of Clangour, excepting that it was ​shorter." Beaten at every point, many Persians in the attempt to flee were caught by the iron spikes.Persians routed and Jalūlā taken, end of 16 A.H. Dec. 637 A.D. They were pursued, and the country strewn with corpses. Followed by the fragments of his army, Yezdejird fled to Ar-Reiy, in the direction of the Caspian Sea. Al-Ḳaʿḳāʿ then advanced to Ḥolwān, and defeating the enemy, left that stronghold garrisoned with Arab levies as the farthest Muslim outpost to the north.
The spoil.The spoil again was rich and plentiful. Multitudes of captive women, many of gentle birth, were distributed, a much loved prize, part on the spot, and part sent to the troops at Al-Medāin. The booty was valued at thirty million dirhems, besides vast numbers of fine Persian horses, which formed a welcome acquisition to the army, nine falling to the lot of every combatant.Ziyād sent with the Fifth to ʿOmar. In charge of the fifth, Saʿd despatched to Medīna a youth named Ziyād, of doubtful parentage (of which more hereafter), but of singular readiness and address. In presence of the Caliph, he harangued the Citizens, and recounted in glowing words the prize of Persia, rich lands, endless spoil, slave-girls, and captive princesses. ʿOmar praised his speech, and declared that the troops of Saʿd surpassed the traditions even of Arab bravery. But next morning, when distributing the rubies, emeralds, and vast store of precious things, he was seen to weep. "What!" exclaimed ʿAbd ar-Raḥmān; "a time of joy and thankfulness, and thou sheddest tears!" "Yea," replied the simple-minded Caliph; "it is not for this I weep, but I foresee that the riches which the Lord bestoweth on us will be a spring of worldliness and envy, and in the end a calamity to my people."
ʿOmar refuses an advance on Persia.Ziyād was also the bearer of a petition for leave to pursue the fugitives across the border into Khorāsān. ʿOmar, content with the present, wisely forbade the enterprise. "I desire," he replied, "that between Mesopotamia and the countries beyond, the hills shall be a barrier, so that the Persians shall not be able to get at us, nor we at them. The plain of Al-ʿIrāḳ sufficeth for our wants. I would rather the safety of my people than thousands of spoil and further conquest." The thought of a world-wide mission was yet in embryo; obligation to enforce Islām by a universal Crusade had not yet dawned upon the Muslim mind; and, ​in good truth, an empire embracing Syria, Chaldæa, and Arabia might have satisfied the ambition even of an Assyrian or Babylonian monarch. The equal mind of ʿOmar, far from being unsteadied by the flush and giddiness of victory, cared first to consolidate and secure the prize already in his hands.
Operations in Mesopotamia. Hīt and Ḳirḳīsiyā taken. Summer, 16 A.H. 637 A.D.Nothing now threatening on the Persian side, the ambition of Saʿd and his generals, checked by the Caliph's interdict, was for the present confined to the reduction of Mesopotamia. For this end, troops were sent up the Tigris as far as Tekrīt—a stronghold about a hundred miles above Al-Medāin, held by a mixed garrison of Greek troops and Christian Bedawīn. These bravely resisted attack. After forty days the Greeks thought to desert their native allies and escape by boat. The Bedawīn, on the other hand, gained secretly over by the Muslims, seized the water-gate; and so the Greeks, taken on both sides, were put to the sword. The column, joined by the newly converted allies, pressed forward to Mosul, which surrendered and became tributary. On the Euphrates, the Muslim arms met with equal success. The Bedawīn tribes in Mesopotamia, urged by the Byzantine court to attack the invaders then threatening Ḥimṣ, Saʿd was charged by ʿOmar to draw them off by a diversion from his side. The fortress of Hīt on the Euphrates was accordingly besieged; but it was too strong to carry by assault. Half of the force were left before the town, and the rest marched rapidly up the river to Ḳirḳīsiyā, at its junction with the Khābūr, and took it by surprise. The garrison of Hīt, when they heard of this, capitulated on condition of being allowed to retire. Thus, the lower half of Mesopotamia, from one river to the other, was reduced, the strongholds garrisoned, and the Bedawīn either converted to the Faith or brought under subjection.
From the junction of the two rivers also, downwards on either side of the Shaṭṭ al-ʿArab (the Arabian Stream) to the shores of the Persian Gulf, the rule of Islām was now thoroughly established.Persian Gulf; delta occupied; ʿOtba governor of Obolla, 14 A.H. 635 A.D. This tract had been exposed, with various fortune, to Arab raids ever since the invasion of Al-Muthanna. ʿOmar saw that, to secure Al-ʿIrāḳ, it was needful to occupy the head of the Gulf as far as the range of hills on its eastern side. About the period, therefore, of ​Saʿd's campaign, he deputed ʿOtba ibn Ghazwān, a Companion of note, with a party from Al-Bahrein, to capture the flourishing seaport of Ubulla. The garrison was defeated, and the inhabitants, chiefly Indian merchants, effected their escape by sea. The Persians rallied in force on the eastern bank of the river, and many encounters took place before the Arabs succeeded in securing their position. On one occasion, the women of the Muslim camp turning their veils into flags, and marching in martial array to the battlefield, were mistaken thus for fresh reinforcements, and contributed at a critical moment to victory. ʿOtba remained at Ubulla as governor; and, as we shall see, carried on successful operations during the next three years, against Khūzistān and the Persian border. Meanwhile Ubulla gave place to the new capital of Al-Baṣra.
Baṣra founded, 17 A.H. 638 A.D.,On the ruins of Ubulla when first captured, there had arisen a small town of huts constructed of reeds, with a Mosque of the same material. The settlement grew in size and importance by constant arrivals from Arabia. But the climate was inhospitable. The tide rises close to the level of the alluvial plain, which, irrigated thus with ease, stretches far and wide a sea of verdure. Groves of pomegranate, acacia, and shady trees abound; and a wide belt of the familiar date-palm fringing the river might reconcile the immigrant of the Ḥijāz to his new abode. But the moisture exhaled by so damp a soil was ill-suited to the Arabian humour; pestilential vapours followed the periodical inundations, and gnats everywhere settled in intolerable swarms. Three times the site was changed; at last the pleasant spot of Al-Baṣra, near the river, which supplied a stream of running water, was fixed upon; and here a flourishing city rapidly grew up. It was laid out about the same time, and after the same fashion, as its rival Al-Kūfa. But, partly from a better climate, partly from a larger endowment of conquered lands, the northern city took the lead, as well in numbers as in influence and riches.
and Kūfa.The founding of Al-Kūfa was on this wise. The Arabs had been in occupation of Al-Medāin for some months, when a deputation visited Medīna. The Caliph, startled by their ​sallow and unwholesome look, asked the cause. They replied that the city air did not suit the Arab temperament. Whereupon, he ordered inquiry for some more healthy and congenial spot; such as, approaching nearer the desert air, and well supplied with wholesome water, would not be cut off from ready help in any time of need. After diligent search along the desert outskirts, they found no place answering so well as the plain of Al-Kūfa, not far from Al-Ḥīra, on the banks of the western branch of the Euphrates. ʿOmar confirmed the choice, and left it open for each man either to remain at Al-Medāin, or transfer his habitation thither.x. 18 A.H. Oct. 638 A.D. The new Capital suited the Arabs well, and to it accordingly they migrated in great numbers. The dwellings, as at Al-Baṣra, were made at first of reeds. But fires were frequent; and after a disastrous conflagration, the Caliph gave permission that both cities might be built of brick. "The flitting camp," he wrote, "is the warrior's proper place. But if ye must have a permanent abode, be it so; only let no man have more houses than three for his wives and children, nor exceed the modest exemplar of the Prophet's dwelling-place." So the City was rebuilt, and the streets laid out in regular lines. The centre was kept an open square, in which was erected a Mosque with a portico for shade; and, for ornament, pillars of marble brought away from Al-Ḥīra. Saʿd built himself a spacious edifice, and reared in front of it a gateway, to prevent intrusion from the market-place hard by.ʿOmar bids Saʿd pull down the gateway of his palace. The rumour of "the Castle of Saʿd" troubled the simple-minded Caliph, and he sent a Companion with a rescript commanding that the gateway should be pulled down. Arrived at Al-Kūfa, the envoy, invited by Saʿd to enter his mansion as a guest, declined. Saʿd came forth, and received this letter at his hands:—"It hath been reported to me that thou hast builded for thyself a palace, and people call it The Castle of Saʿd; moreover thou hast reared a gateway betwixt thee and the people. It is not thy castle; rather is it the castle of perdition. What is needful for the treasury, that thou mayest guard and lock; but the gateway which shutteth out the people from thee, that thou shalt break down." Saʿd obeyed the order; but he protested that his object in building the portal had been falsely reported, and ʿOmar accepted the excuse.
​The Sawād settled with the Fellāḥīn.The settlement of the land was the next concern. The Sawād, or rich plain of Chaldæa, having been taken, with some few exceptions, by force of arms, was claimed by the Arab soldiery as prize of war. The judgment and equity of ʿOmar is conspicuous in the abatement of this demand. After counsel held with his advisers at Medīna, the Caliph ordered that cultivators who had fled during the operations in Al-ʿIrāḳ, as well as those who had kept to their holdings throughout, should be treated as Dhimmīs, or protected subjects, and confirmed in possession on moderate tribute. Royal forests and domains, lands of the nobles and of those who had opposed the Muslim arms, and the endowments of Fire-temples, were confiscated; but the demand for their division as ordinary prize was denied. Equitable distribution was impossible, and the attempt would have but bred bad blood amongst the people. The necessities also of the great system of canals, and of the postal and other services, as first charge upon the revenues, demanded that the public land should be kept intact.
The revenues of the State came from two sources, the forfeited lands of which it had taken possession, and out of which estates were bestowed upon some of the principal Companions, and from the taxes payable by the non-Muslim native cultivators of the soil. These taxes were later on of two kinds, the land or property tax (Kharāj), and the poll tax (jizya). It is usual to say that the latter was payable by non-Muslims only; but at first the two terms are often interchanged, and, in point of fact, both were paid by the non-Muslims. The Muslims did not pay taxes; but merely tithes—a tenth of the produce of their lands. On the contrary, the income of the lands conquered was divided amongst them in the shape of pensions. As long as the conquests were going on, the spoil was great and the pensioners comparatively few; and this arrangement worked very well. But, when the native cultivators began to come over to Islam in large numbers, difficulties arose.
Crown lands and endowments of Kūfa and Baṣra.The confiscated lands scattered over the province were administered by Crown agents, and the profits shared between the captors and the State. The prize domains of Al-Kūfa,—conquered by the armies of Khālid and of Saʿd,—were much more extensive than those of Al-Baṣra. Shortly ​after its foundation, the inhabitants of Al-Baṣra sent representatives to urge that their endowments should be increased, and their income made more adequate to their responsibilities. "Al-Kūfa," said their spokesman, "is a well-watered garden which yieldeth in season its harvest of dates, while ours is brackish land. Part bordereth on the desert, and part upon the sea, which laveth it with a briny flood. Compared with Al-Kūfa, our poor are many, and our rich are few. Grant us, therefore, of thy bounty." Recognising the justice of the plea, ʿOmar made substantial addition to their endowments from the Crown lands of the Chosroes. But, although Al-Kūfa was richer, it had heavier obligations to discharge than the sister City. Its government had a wider range; and the charge of garrisons at various points, as Ḥolwān, Mosul, and Ḳirḳīsiyā, had to be provided from the resources at the command of Saʿd.
Influence of the two cities on the future of Islām.Al-Kūfa and Al-Baṣra, unique in their own origin, had a singular influence on the destinies of the Caliphate and of Islām at large. The vast majority of the population were of pure Arabian blood. The tribes which, scenting from afar the prey of Chaldæa and Persia, kept streaming into Chaldæa from every corner of Arabia, settled chiefly there. At Al-Kūfa the races coming from the south of Arabia predominated; at Al-Baṣra, those coming from the north. Rapidly they grew into two great and luxurious Capitals, with an Arab population each of from 150,000 to 200,000 souls. On the literature, theology, and politics of Islām, the two cities had a greater influence than the whole Muslim world besides. There was abundance of time and opportunity. Service in the field being desultory and intermittent, the intervals were often long and frequent, but too readily spent in listless idleness. Excepting when enlivened by the fruits of some new victory, secluded harīms afforded their lords little variety of recreation or amusement. Otherwise the time was whiled away in the converse of social knots; and in these, while they discussed the problems of the day, they loved still more to live in the past, to recall the marvellous story of their Faith, and fight their battles over again. Hence Tradition, and the two great Schools of Al-Baṣra and Al-Kūfa. But the debates and gossip of these clubs too often degenerated into tribal rivalry and domestic ​scandal. The people grew petulant and factious; and both Cities became hotbeds of turbulence and sedition. The Bedawi element, conscious of its strength, was jealous of Ḳoreish, and impatient at whatever checked its own capricious humour. Thus factions sprang up which, controlled by the strong and wise arm of ʿOmar, at length broke loose under weaker Caliphs, rent the unity of Islām, and brought on disastrous days which, but for its marvellous vitality, must have proved fatal to the Faith.