Page:Muhammad Diyab al-Itlidi - Historical Tales and Anecdotes of the Time of the Early Khalîfahs - Alice Frere - 1873.djvu/57

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28

ʾILÂM-EN-NÂS.

Would that I were herding camels in Káfrah,^[1]
Or were a slave to the Rabîa or Múdhar!^[2]
Would that I had in Syria the scantiest portion,
Dwelling among my people, tho' deaf and sightless.^[3]

And when Jábalah-ibn-el-Aiham had returned to Christianity, he became a follower of Heraclius, lord of Constantinople, who allotted to him lands and money; and so he remained according to the will of God. And some time after this, ʾOmar sent a messenger to Cæsar (Heraclius) to give him his choice of professing el-Islám, or of paying the capitation tax.^[4]

↑ Káfrah means in the abstract a barren valley, but it is probable that Jábalah here alludes to some known place connected with Ghassân on the confines of Syria.
↑ Arab tribes of the ʾAdnanîyeh. Múdhar was the earliest well-ascertained ancestor of the Prophet.
↑ All this sentiment refers to his position in Syria before the Christians conquered it. And for the sake of his former home he wishes that he had, after becoming a Muslim, remained one instead of returning to Christianity. At the battle of Yermûk, which decided the fate of Syria (A.H. 15, A.D. 636), Jábalah at the head of his Christian Arabs fought for Heraclius, and it was after the signal defeat of the Greeks in this battle that Jábalah became a Muslim. Yermûk is the name of a river (in Latin Hieromax, and in Greek νερωουκα), five or six miles east of the south end of Lake Tiberias.
↑ In the infancy of Muhammadism, all the enemies of that religion taken in battle were doomed to death without mercy. But when that religion was firmly established, this sentence was

[1] Káfrah means in the abstract a barren valley, but it is probable that Jábalah here alludes to some known place connected with Ghassân on the confines of Syria.

[2] Arab tribes of the ʾAdnanîyeh. Múdhar was the earliest well-ascertained ancestor of the Prophet.

[3] All this sentiment refers to his position in Syria before the Christians conquered it. And for the sake of his former home he wishes that he had, after becoming a Muslim, remained one instead of returning to Christianity. At the battle of Yermûk, which decided the fate of Syria (A.H. 15, A.D. 636), Jábalah at the head of his Christian Arabs fought for Heraclius, and it was after the signal defeat of the Greeks in this battle that Jábalah became a Muslim. Yermûk is the name of a river (in Latin Hieromax, and in Greek νερωουκα), five or six miles east of the south end of Lake Tiberias.

[p28-4] In the infancy of Muhammadism, all the enemies of that religion taken in battle were doomed to death without mercy. But when that religion was firmly established, this sentence was

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