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The Muslims appear also
to have captured an elephant in the Battle of Chains, and this animal
was sent to Madinah along with other spoils. The city of the Prophet
had never before seen an elephant and there was tremendous excitement
in the capital when the behemoth arrived. The people marvelled at
this greatest of land animals; but Abu Bakr could not think of any
use for the unfamiliar beast and returned it to Khalid. What happened
to it thereafter we do not know.
While the families of the Persians and those
of the Iraqi Arabs who had supported them were taken captive, the
rest of the population of the district was left unmolested. This
population consisted mainly of small farmers, peasants and shepherds,
and they all agreed to pay the Jizya and come under Muslim protection.
For a few days Khalid remained busy with
organisational matters. Then he set his army in motion towards the
north. Ahead of the main body of the army he sent Muthanna and his
2,000 riders to reconnoitre the country and kill any stragglers
behind by the retreating Persians.
Muthanna reached a small river just north
of where Zubair stands today, on the bank of which stood a fort
known as Hisnul-Mar'at, i.e., the Fort of the Lady, so called because
a lady ruled over it. 1 Muthanna laid siege
to the fort; but in order to avoid delay in his advance, he left
his brother, Mu'anna, in charge of the siege operations with a few
hundred men and himself proceeded north with the rest of his column.
Two or three days of siege operations were
enough to convince the lady of the fort of the futility of resistance.
The Persian army of Uballa had been defeated and she could expect
no help from any quarter. Mu'anna offered to accept a peaceful surrender
without bloodshed, without plunder, without enslavement. The lady
agreed; the defenders surrendered. Mu'anna and the lady of the fort
appear to have found much pleasure in their meeting with each other.
First the lady became a Muslim, and then, without any further delay,
Mu'anna married her!
Meanwhile Khalid was advancing northwards
from Kazima with the main body of the army.
1. The river is still there and is known
as the River of the Lady, but there is no trace of the fort.
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