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"No, by Allah!"
he replied. "I shall not do that. I shall not trouble others
with my burden." 1
And it was under Abu Bakr that the small
army marched out to Zhu Qissa, where Numan awaited him. (This Numan
was later to achieve everlasting fame as the victor of Nihawand
in Persia.) Here Abu Bakr placed Numan and his brothers in command
of the wings and the rear guard, as he had done for his night attack,
and set out for Abraq. It was now the second week of August (third
week of Jamadi-ul-Awwal).
When the Muslims got to Abraq they found
that the enemy was already formed up in battle array. Without delay,
Abu Bakr deployed his army and attacked the apostates.
The apostate spirits now were not as high
as they had been a fortnight before. The defeated elements, which
had escaped from Zhu Qissa, had joined the apostates at Abraq, and
as is usual in such cases their arrival had had a depressing effect
on others. For some time the apostates, who were numerically superior,
resisted the Muslim attack, then they broke and fled. Abu Bakr had
won another victory.
The remnants of the apostates fleeing from
Abraq, and certain other clans from this region, travelled to Buzakha,
whither Tulaiha the Impostor had moved from Samira. But other clans
living in this area submitted to the columns that Abu Bakr sent
out after the capture of Abraq to subdue the countryside. Now more
taxes were gathered, to which the repentant clans gladly added gifts
that were as gladly accepted.
The following day the Caliph left Abraq
for Madinah. On arrival at Madinah he spent a few days in dealing
with matters of state; then he moved to Zhu Qissa with the Army
of Usama. But it had now ceased to be the Army of Usama, for Usama
had completed his work and his army was now the Army of Islam-to
be used by the Caliph as required. Usama's tenure of command was
over.
At Zhu Qissa, Abu Bakr organised the Army
of Islam into several corps to deal with the various enemies who
occupied the entire land of Arabia except for the small area in
the possession of the Muslims. This was the first time that the
Muslim Army was organised into separate corps, each with its own
commander, for independent missions under the general strategical
guidance of the Caliph. Muslim commanders, until now essentially
tacticians, would henceforth enter the higher realms of strategy
and master those realms with a sure-footedness and ease that would
astonish the world.
At Zhu Qissa, in the fourth week of August
632 (early Jamadi-ul-Akhir, 11 Hijri) Abu Bakr planned the strategy
of the Campaign of the Apostasy. The battles which he had fought
recently against the apostate concentrations at Zhu Qissa and Abraq
were in the nature of immediate preventive action to save Madinah
and discourage further offensives by the enemy, thus gaining time
for the preparation and launching of his main forces. These actions
could be described as spoiling attacks; they had enabled Abu Bakr
to secure a base from which he could fight the major campaign that
lay ahead.
Abu Bakr had no illusions about the task
that faced him. He had to fight not one but several enemies-Tulaiha
the Impostor at Buzakha, Malik bin Nuwaira at Butah, Musailima the
Liar at Yamamah. He had to deal with widespread apostasy on the
eastern and southern coasts of Arabia-in Bahrain, in Oman, in Mahra,
in Hadhramaut, in the Yemen. There was apostasy in the region south
and east of Makkah, and in Northern Arabia the Quza'a had staged
a comeback after the return of the Army of Usama.
The situation of the Muslims can be compared
with a small island of belief in an ocean of disbelief, a lamp shining
in the darkness which held every manner of danger for the Faithful.
Abu Bakr had not only to keep the flame alive, but also to dispel
the darkness and crush the forces of evil that gathered threateningly
on all sides. In numerical strength the apostates vastly outnumbered
the Muslims, though they were not united. Abu Bakr's military strength
lay in his having, among the Muslims, the finest fighting men of
the time. And he had a tremendous weapon-Khalid bin Al Waleed: the
Sword of Allah.
1. Tabari: Vol. 2, p. 476.
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