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"Lo! We belong
to Allah and indeed to Him we shall return", said Raafe,
quoting a Quranic verse. "Then we all perish. But look once
again." The men looked again, and this time found the trunk
of a thorn tree of which the remainder had vanished. "Dig
under its roots", 1 instructed
Raafe. The men dug under the roots, and, in the words of Waqidi,
"water flowed out of the earth like a river!" 2
The men drank their fill, all the while
praising Allah and invoking His blessings on Raafe. Then the animals
were watered, and there was still water to spare. Hundreds of men
filled their water skins and set off back on the route which they
had travelled, looking for stragglers, of whom there were many.
All were found and brought in alive.
The perilous march was over. They had made it. It had
never been done before, and would never be done again. Khalid had reached
the border of Syria, leaving behind the Roman frontier and its garrisons
facing Iraq. They were now only a day's march from Suwa, where the desert
ended and habitation began. (See Map
15.)
Khalid had no doubt that he and his army
had gone through hell and come very near annihilation. But the real
extent of the peril which they had faced was not known to him until
Raafe, now smiling, came to him and said, "O Commander,
I have only alighted at this spring once, and that was 30 years
ago, when as a boy I travelled hither with my father!" 3
In later years a certain caliph wrote to
an eminent scholar and asked him for a description of the lands
under Muslim rule. The scholar wrote back and gave the required
description. When he came to Syria, he said, "Know, O Commander
of the Faithful, that Syria is a land of clouds and hills and winds
and abundance upon abundance. It freshens the body and clears the
skin, especially the land of Emessa, which beautifies the body and
creates understanding and forbearance. Its waters are pure and sharpen
the senses. Syria, O Commander of the Faithful, is a land of pleasant
verdure and large forests. Its rivers run in the right courses,
and in it camels have plenty to drink." 4
Indeed, Syria was a beautiful land-the fairest
province of the Byzantine Empire. Its temperate climate, conditioned
by the Mediterranean, provided relief from the heat of the desert
and the cold of northern climes. Antioch, now in Turkey, was the
capital of the Asian region of the Byzantine Empire, and second
only to Constantinople in glory and political importance. The great
cities of Syria-Aleppo, Emessa, Damascus-not only contined immense
commercial wealth, but were also seats of culture and civilisation.
Its thriving ports on the Mediterranean-Latakia, Tripolis, Beirut,
Tyre, Acre, Jaffa-saw ships of the entire known world and bustled
with trade and commerce.
Politically, the Syrian region consisted
of two provinces. Syria proper stretched from Antioch and Aleppo
in the north to the top of the Dead Sea. West and south of the Dead
Sea lay the province of Palestine, which included the holy places
of three great faiths and cities no less rich and sophisticated
than any in the world. The Arabs of the time also spoke of the Province
of Jordan, lying between Syria and Palestine; but this was more
of a geographical expression that a term denoting a political and
administrative unit. And all this was part of the Eastern Roman,
or Byzantine Empire. To invade Syria was to invade Rome, and this
was not an action to be undertaken light-heartedly.
The Eastern Roman Empire too was declining,
and this decline had been going on for a much longer period than
that of the Persian Empire. The latter still enjoyed a degree of
stability and strength, which was due, among other factors, to the
powerful Sasanid Dynasty that had ruled in unbroken succession for
the past four centuries. The Romans, on the other hand, had no such
ruling dynasty, nor did they subscribe to the concept of a royal
house to which the privilege of rule was confined. On the death
of a ruler, the Empire fell to the most successful general or politician
or intriguer.
1. Tabari: Vol 2. p. 609.
2. Waqidi: p. 14.
3. Tabari: Vol. 2, pp. 604, 609. For other
versions of Khalid's route, which are mistaken, see Note 9 in Appendix
B.
4. Masudi: Muruj, Vol. 2, pp. 61-2.
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