Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 5 (1897).djvu/393

OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 371 who invited the princes and nations of the earth to the pro- fession of Islam. On this foundation the zeal of the Arabians a.d. 629, 63o has supposed the secret conversion of the Christian emperor ; the vanity of the Greeks has feigned a personal visit to the prince of Medina, who accepted from the royal bounty a rich domain and a secure retreat in the province of Syria. i" But the friendship of Heraclius and Mahomet was of short continu- ance : the new religion had inflamed rather than assuaged the rapacious spirit of the Saracens ; and the murder of an envoy afforded a decent pretence for invading, with three thousand soldiers, the territory of Palestine that extends to the eastward of the Jordan, The holy banner was entrusted to Zeid ; and such was the discipline or enthusiasm of the rising sect that the noblest chiefs served without reluctance under the slave of the prophet. On the event of his decease, Jaafar and Abdallah were successively substituted to the command ; and, if the three should perish in the war, the troops were authorised to elect their general. The three leaders were slain in the battle ofCAntunui, ~ ^ A.D. 629] Muta,^^'^ the first military action v/hich tried the valour of the Moslems against a foreign enemy. Zeid fell, like a soldier, in the foremost ranks ; the death of Jaafar was heroic and mem- orable : he lost his right hand ; he shifted the standard to his left ; the left was severed from his body ; he embraced the standard with his bleeding stumps, till he was transfixed to the ground with fifty honourable wounds. " Advance," cried Ab- dallah, who stepped into the vacant place, "advance with con- fidence : either victory or paradise is our own." The lance of a Roman decided the alternative ; but the falling standard was rescued by Caled, the proselyte of Mecca : nine swords were broken in his hand ; and his valour withstood and repulsed the superior numbers of the Christians. In the nocturnal council of the camp he was chosen to command : his skilful evolutions of the ensuing day secured either the victory or the retreat of the Saracens ; and Caled is renowned among his brethren and his enemies by the glorious appellation of the Sword of God. [Siif-AUah] In the pulpit, Mahomet described, with prophetic rapture, the crowns of the blessed martyrs ; but in private he betrayed the 1'^ Compare the bigoted Al Jannabi (apud Gagnier, torn. ii. p. 232-255) with the no less bigoted Greeks, Theophanes (p. 276-278 [ad. A.M. 6122]), Zonaras (torn. ii. 1. xiv. p. 86 [c. 17]), and Cedrenus (p. 421 [i. p. 737, ed. Bonn]). 158 por the battle of Muta and its consequences, see Abulfeda (p. 100-102), and Gagnier (torn. ii. p. 327-343). xdAfJo^ (says Theophanes [ad. A.M. 6123]) &>' Kiyovcri. [tiji'] fxa^aipav ToO ©eoO.