The Great Arab Conquests (23 page)
Read The Great Arab Conquests Online
Authors: Hugh Kennedy
After the conquest of the city, the rough-and-ready Bedouin troops experienced for themselves the grandeur of the Persian monarchy. The tribesmen scarcely knew what to do with the luxuries that had come their way. The precious camphor that had perfumed the court was mistaken for salt by the Arabs, who had never seen it, and used in their cooking.
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Meanwhile Persian rule was being challenged in the countryside as well. One story tells of a Persian cavalry man from Ctesiphon who was in a village that belonged to him when news came of the Arab invasion and the flight of the Persians. At first he paid no attention to it, for he was a very self-confident man, and went about his business until he came to a house where he found some of his serfs (
a
c
lj lahu
), packing their clothes and preparing to leave. On being questioned they told him that they had been driven from their houses by hornets (
zanbīr
). His immediate response was to try to solve the problem; calling for a crossbow and clay bullets, and he began to fire at the insects, splattering them against the walls. He must soon have appreciated that there was more to it than met the eye and, realizing that his serfs were escaping from his control, he lost his nerve. He ordered one of them to saddle a mount for him. He had not gone far when he was met by an Arab soldier, who drove his spear into him and left him to die.
61
The defeat of Persian arms had clearly meant that the Persian ruling class were no longer respected and the peasants were no longer obeying their masters. The old order was coming to an end.
a
c
lj lahu
), packing their clothes and preparing to leave. On being questioned they told him that they had been driven from their houses by hornets (
zanbīr
). His immediate response was to try to solve the problem; calling for a crossbow and clay bullets, and he began to fire at the insects, splattering them against the walls. He must soon have appreciated that there was more to it than met the eye and, realizing that his serfs were escaping from his control, he lost his nerve. He ordered one of them to saddle a mount for him. He had not gone far when he was met by an Arab soldier, who drove his spear into him and left him to die.
61
The defeat of Persian arms had clearly meant that the Persian ruling class were no longer respected and the peasants were no longer obeying their masters. The old order was coming to an end.
As the Persian forces retreated eastwards towards the mountains, the Muslim army, about twelve thousand strong, moved up the road behind them. When the Persians reached Jalūlā, they decided to make a stand. Jalūlā was a parting of the ways: beyond here the Persians of Azerbaijan and the north-west would go one way, those of Media and Fars another. If they were to make a stand it had to be here. The king moved on up through the Zagros mountains, leaving men and money with his general, Mihrān, while he himself avoided meeting the enemy in person. The Persians took up defensive positions at Jalūlā. As often, they seem to have preferred a static, defensive style of warfare, fortifying themselves and making occasional sallies, in contrast to the much more mobile tactics of the Arabs. At Jalūlā they created an earthwork enclosure, topped with pointed wooden stakes (
hasak min al-khashab
), later replaced by iron ones.
62
The Muslims built no fortifications but launched repeated attacks on their opponents. According to one account, the fortifications were breached when the Persians made a sortie and opened breaches in the defences to let their horses back in.
63
Soon a group of Arabs had established themselves within the stockade and they opened the way for others to follow. The victory was complete and the slaughter terrible.
hasak min al-khashab
), later replaced by iron ones.
62
The Muslims built no fortifications but launched repeated attacks on their opponents. According to one account, the fortifications were breached when the Persians made a sortie and opened breaches in the defences to let their horses back in.
63
Soon a group of Arabs had established themselves within the stockade and they opened the way for others to follow. The victory was complete and the slaughter terrible.
And there was booty to be taken and divided. Among the more notable trophies was a figurine of a camel, ‘about the size of a young goat when it was stood on the ground’, made of gold or silver, decorated with pearls and rubies, on it the figure of a man, similarly decorated.
64
There was also booty of a human sort. One of the Arab soldiers recalled how he had entered a Persian tent in which there were pillows (
marāfiq
) and clothes. ‘Suddenly I sense the presence of a human form hidden under some covers [
farsh
], I tear them away and what do I find? A woman like a gazelle, radiant as the sun! I took her and her clothes and surrendered the latter as booty [to be divided up] but put in a request that the girl should be allotted to me. I took her as a concubine and she bore me a child.’
65
Such were the pleasures of victory, and the Muslims had no inhibitions about enjoying them.
64
There was also booty of a human sort. One of the Arab soldiers recalled how he had entered a Persian tent in which there were pillows (
marāfiq
) and clothes. ‘Suddenly I sense the presence of a human form hidden under some covers [
farsh
], I tear them away and what do I find? A woman like a gazelle, radiant as the sun! I took her and her clothes and surrendered the latter as booty [to be divided up] but put in a request that the girl should be allotted to me. I took her as a concubine and she bore me a child.’
65
Such were the pleasures of victory, and the Muslims had no inhibitions about enjoying them.
The victory at Jalūlā secured Arab control over the Sawād. Muslim forces penetrated north of Qarqīsiyā on the Euphrates and Tikrit on the Tigris. The big question was whether they would go further, through the passes in the Zagros mountains to the Iranian plateau and beyond.
At the same time as the Sawād was being conquered, Arab forces were making their first incursions in southern Iraq. Military activities here followed roughly the same pattern as further north, beginning with raids by local tribesmen trying to take advantage of the weakness of the Sasanian defences. Soon Umar sent a commander, Utba b. Ghazwān, from Medina with reinforcements, probably only a few hundred men,
66
to make sure that any gains made came under the authority of the Muslim leadership. We are also told that the expedition was part of a broader Muslim strategy, to divert the Persians of southern Iraq and Fars from helping their compatriots further north.
67
Their first substantial conquest was the city of Ubulla. Ubulla (known to the ancient Greek geographers as Apologos) was at that time the leading port at the head of the Gulf. We are told little about the details of the conquest except that the Arabs found a new sort of bread made of white flour there.
66
to make sure that any gains made came under the authority of the Muslim leadership. We are also told that the expedition was part of a broader Muslim strategy, to divert the Persians of southern Iraq and Fars from helping their compatriots further north.
67
Their first substantial conquest was the city of Ubulla. Ubulla (known to the ancient Greek geographers as Apologos) was at that time the leading port at the head of the Gulf. We are told little about the details of the conquest except that the Arabs found a new sort of bread made of white flour there.
From this base, expeditions went out to conquer the nearby towns and villages. As usual we have many details but no overall picture. Persian resistance was confined to local garrisons and
dehqāns
and there was no attempt to launch a major expedition against the invaders. As the various districts came under Muslim control, taxes were gathered and distributed among the conquering armies. Very few of the Bedouin could read or write and the task of keeping the accounts was entrusted to one Ziyād, ‘although he was only a boy with plaits on his head’. He was paid the substantial salary of 2 dirhams a day for his pains: it was the beginning of a glittering administrative career and the boy Ziyād grew up to be one of the founder figures of Islamic government apparatus.
dehqāns
and there was no attempt to launch a major expedition against the invaders. As the various districts came under Muslim control, taxes were gathered and distributed among the conquering armies. Very few of the Bedouin could read or write and the task of keeping the accounts was entrusted to one Ziyād, ‘although he was only a boy with plaits on his head’. He was paid the substantial salary of 2 dirhams a day for his pains: it was the beginning of a glittering administrative career and the boy Ziyād grew up to be one of the founder figures of Islamic government apparatus.
After Utba died while returning from the pilgrimage to Mecca, he was replaced by Mughīra b. Shu
c
ba. We have already encountered Mughīra as the man who dared sit with Rustam on his throne. He was chosen by Umar to lead the Muslims in southern Iraq because he was not a Bedouin but a man from the settled areas of the Hijaz. Although he had converted to Islam just two years before the Prophet’s death, he could still claim the coveted status of ‘Companion of the Prophet’. Mughīra was a tough and resourceful leader but his career was soon engulfed in a scandal that almost cost him his life.
c
ba. We have already encountered Mughīra as the man who dared sit with Rustam on his throne. He was chosen by Umar to lead the Muslims in southern Iraq because he was not a Bedouin but a man from the settled areas of the Hijaz. Although he had converted to Islam just two years before the Prophet’s death, he could still claim the coveted status of ‘Companion of the Prophet’. Mughīra was a tough and resourceful leader but his career was soon engulfed in a scandal that almost cost him his life.
He began an affair with a woman called Umm Jamīl, who was married to a man from the tribe of Thaqīf. Other members of the tribe caught wind of the affair and were determined to preserve the honour of their kin. They waited until he went to visit her and then crept up to see what was going on. They saw Mughīra and Umm Jamīl, both naked, he lying on top of her. They stole away and went to tell the caliph Umar. He in turn appointed the righteous Abū Mūsā al-Ash
c
arī to go and take over command in Basra and send Mughīra to him in Medina to be investigated. When he arrived Umar confronted him with the four witnesses. The first was emphatic about what he had seen: ‘ I saw him lying on the woman’s front pressing into her and I saw him pushing in and withdrawing [his penis] as the applicator goes in and out of the make-up [
kuhl
] bottle.’ The next two witnesses gave exactly the same testimony. Umar now turned to the fourth, the young Ziyād, who has already appeared doing the army’s accounts. The caliph hoped that his would not be the testimony to condemn a Companion of the Prophet to death. Ziyād showed a talent for diplomacy and quick thinking which was to serve him well in the rest of his life. ‘I saw a scandalous sight,’ he said, ‘and I heard heavy breathing but I did not see whether he was actually penetrating her or not.’ Since the Koran stipulates
68
that conviction for adultery requires the unequivocal testimony of four witnesses, the case collapsed, and indeed we are told that Umar ordered that the other three witnesses be flogged for making unfounded allegations.
69
The story was often repeated by Muslim lawyers, for here was the great Umar, after the Prophet himself the most important law giver in Sunni Islam, making conviction for adultery very problematic indeed.
c
arī to go and take over command in Basra and send Mughīra to him in Medina to be investigated. When he arrived Umar confronted him with the four witnesses. The first was emphatic about what he had seen: ‘ I saw him lying on the woman’s front pressing into her and I saw him pushing in and withdrawing [his penis] as the applicator goes in and out of the make-up [
kuhl
] bottle.’ The next two witnesses gave exactly the same testimony. Umar now turned to the fourth, the young Ziyād, who has already appeared doing the army’s accounts. The caliph hoped that his would not be the testimony to condemn a Companion of the Prophet to death. Ziyād showed a talent for diplomacy and quick thinking which was to serve him well in the rest of his life. ‘I saw a scandalous sight,’ he said, ‘and I heard heavy breathing but I did not see whether he was actually penetrating her or not.’ Since the Koran stipulates
68
that conviction for adultery requires the unequivocal testimony of four witnesses, the case collapsed, and indeed we are told that Umar ordered that the other three witnesses be flogged for making unfounded allegations.
69
The story was often repeated by Muslim lawyers, for here was the great Umar, after the Prophet himself the most important law giver in Sunni Islam, making conviction for adultery very problematic indeed.
It now fell to Abū Mūsā al-Ash
c
ari, pious and effective, to lead the Muslim advance in the south, and it was he who commanded the Arab armies that conquered Khuzistān. After crossing the irrigated lands around the lower Tigris, where the city of Basra was soon to be founded, the Muslim armies naturally moved forward into Khuzistān. Khuzistān, named after an ancient but long-vanished people called the Khuzis, lay between the north-east corner of the Gulf and the southern Zagros mountains. It had been the land of the ancient Elamites, and the vast ziggurat they constructed at Choga Zunbil (Basket Hill), already 2,000 years old at the time of the Muslim conquest, still remains to bear witness to their power and wealth. The landscape of parts of the province was in many ways a continuation of the Mesopotamian plain, but as the land rose slowly towards the foothills, the endless flatness of Iraq changed into rolling hills and outcrops of rock became visible. Nowadays, Khuzistān, with its unlovely capital Ahvaz, is the centre of Iran’s oil industry, but when the Arabs arrived it was agriculture and textiles which made the region among the most prosperous in the Middle East.
c
ari, pious and effective, to lead the Muslim advance in the south, and it was he who commanded the Arab armies that conquered Khuzistān. After crossing the irrigated lands around the lower Tigris, where the city of Basra was soon to be founded, the Muslim armies naturally moved forward into Khuzistān. Khuzistān, named after an ancient but long-vanished people called the Khuzis, lay between the north-east corner of the Gulf and the southern Zagros mountains. It had been the land of the ancient Elamites, and the vast ziggurat they constructed at Choga Zunbil (Basket Hill), already 2,000 years old at the time of the Muslim conquest, still remains to bear witness to their power and wealth. The landscape of parts of the province was in many ways a continuation of the Mesopotamian plain, but as the land rose slowly towards the foothills, the endless flatness of Iraq changed into rolling hills and outcrops of rock became visible. Nowadays, Khuzistān, with its unlovely capital Ahvaz, is the centre of Iran’s oil industry, but when the Arabs arrived it was agriculture and textiles which made the region among the most prosperous in the Middle East.
Khuzistān is watered not by the Tigris and Euphrates, which flow and stagnate through the plains well to the west, but by a number of smaller rivers, the most important being the Karun, which follows a winding, tortuous course through gorges in the southern Zagros to reach the plains. The melting snows on the mountains provide ample water in the spring for irrigated agriculture. In the piedmont below the steep mountains, the rivers cut deeply into the rolling hills and great weirs were necessary to raise the water level to fill irrigation canals. Some of these, like the Sasanian dam and bridge at Tustar, have left enough traces to show the massive scale of this irrigation activity.
The prosperity of Khuzistān seems to have increased significantly in Sasanian times. Cities like Tustar, Junday-shapur and Ahvaz were either founded or expanded. Rice and sugar grew well here but the area was famous above all for its linens and cottons. There was also a considerable Christian community and a number of bishoprics had been established. It was into this prosperous and well-populated area that the Arab forces moved next.
Like the history of the conquest of Iraq, the course of the conquest of Khuzistān is not at all clear, and the numerous stories about different encounters add to, rather than diminish, the confusion. There are, however, two differences. The first is that we can get a much clearer idea of the physical environment of the conquests. The cities and towns of seventh-century Iraq are little more than names to us. True, we have some idea about the topography of Ctesiphon and some fragmentary excavations from Hīra but towns like Ubulla and Qādisiya have completely disappeared, swallowed up in the alluvium of central Iraq or washed away by the constantly changing watercourses. In Khuzistān, where the rivers bite deeper into the rock, there is much more continuity and we can use the modern topography to help interpret the ancient sources. We also have a local source written shortly after the events of the conquest, which acts as some sort of check on the voluminous but very confused Arabic accounts. The so-called Khuzistān Chronicle was written in Syriac, the language of the Eastern Church, by an anonymous Christian author.
70
Most of the chronicle is very brief but the author, or one of the authors, takes some space to describe the conquest of his homeland by these new invaders. The source provides another voice, which corroborates many of the events in the Arabic sources, and thus we can be reasonably certain of the main outlines of the history of the conquest of this area.
70
Most of the chronicle is very brief but the author, or one of the authors, takes some space to describe the conquest of his homeland by these new invaders. The source provides another voice, which corroborates many of the events in the Arabic sources, and thus we can be reasonably certain of the main outlines of the history of the conquest of this area.
The defence of Khuzistān had been entrusted to the general Hurmuzān, who had gone to the province after the fall of Ctesiphon. He put up a spirited and determined resistance, making treaties when it suited him, but also defying the Arabs when he felt strong enough.
The author of the chronicle begins by describing how the invaders took most of the fortified towns very swiftly, including the major city of Junday-shapur. Junday-shapur was a city with a bishopric and a considerable Christian population, and was famous as the home town of the Bukhtishu family of doctors, physicians to generations of caliphs. Sadly, the idea of a flourishing medical school here, entertained by historians since the nineteenth century, has had to be abandoned under the withering gaze of modern scholarship: certainly the Christian community here produced families of doctors, but there was no organized academy. The site is abandoned now, but aerial photography shows traces of both a round city and a square one, Sasanian foundations superimposed on each other. There were no natural defences and the Muslims seem to have had little difficulty in taking the city.
The conquest of the city provides the setting for one of those moralistic tales that seek to illuminate the virtues of the early Muslim. According to this story,
71
the city resisted vigorously until one day, to the great surprise of the Muslims, the gates were flung open and the city was opened up. The Muslims asked the defenders what had come over them, to which they replied, ‘You have shot us an arrow with a message that safety would be granted to us. We have accepted this and set aside the tribute payments.’ The Muslims replied that they had done no such thing, but after extensive enquiries they found a slave, originally from Junday-shapur, who admitted that he had indeed written such a message. The Muslim commanders explained that this was the work of a slave with no authority to make such an offer, to which the inhabitants replied that they had no means of knowing that and finished by saying that they were going to keep their side of the bargain, even if the Muslims chose to act treacherously. The Muslims referred the matter to Umar, who responded that the promise was in fact binding, for ‘God holds the keeping of promises in the highest esteem’. The moral is clear: even the promise of a slave must be respected.
71
the city resisted vigorously until one day, to the great surprise of the Muslims, the gates were flung open and the city was opened up. The Muslims asked the defenders what had come over them, to which they replied, ‘You have shot us an arrow with a message that safety would be granted to us. We have accepted this and set aside the tribute payments.’ The Muslims replied that they had done no such thing, but after extensive enquiries they found a slave, originally from Junday-shapur, who admitted that he had indeed written such a message. The Muslim commanders explained that this was the work of a slave with no authority to make such an offer, to which the inhabitants replied that they had no means of knowing that and finished by saying that they were going to keep their side of the bargain, even if the Muslims chose to act treacherously. The Muslims referred the matter to Umar, who responded that the promise was in fact binding, for ‘God holds the keeping of promises in the highest esteem’. The moral is clear: even the promise of a slave must be respected.
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