|
But they spurned his advice
and determined to fight it out with Khalid. Ukaidar, however, had
by now completely lost his nerve. He could not bring himself to
face another encounter with the Sword of Allah, and one night he
slipped out of the fort and set off on the road to Jordan. But it
was too late. Khalid's army had just arrived and one of his mounted
detachments, under Asim bin Amr, intercepted and captured the fleeing
chief.
Again Ukaidar stood before Khalid. If he
hoped that memories of the peaceful ending of their last encounter
would kindle a spark of kindness in the heart of Khalid, he was
mistaken. In Khalid's mind the situation could not be clearer: Ukaidar
had broken his oath of allegiance; he was a rebel. Khalid ordered
the execution of Ukaidar, and the sentence was carried out without
delay. This was the end of Ukaidar bin Abdul Malik, prince of the
Kinda, master of Daumat-ul-Jandal.
The following day Khalid took Ayadh under
command and incorporated his detachment into his own army. He deployed
Ayadh's men on the south of the fort to block the Arabian route;
positioned part of his army of Iraq to the east, the north and the
west of the fort, covering the routes to Iraq and Jordan; and kept
the remainder back as a strong reserve. Khalid appreciated that
at present the fort was strongly manned and to storm it in its present
state would prove a costly operation. He therefore decided to wait,
in the hope that the defenders, tiring of the siege, would sally
out to fight him in the open. Then he could inflict the maximum
damage upon them and storm the fort after the garrison had been
weakened. He accordingly held his forces some distance back from
the fort.
With the departure of Ukaidar the entire
Christian Arab army had come under the command of Judi bin Rabi'a.
Judi waited for the Muslims to make the first move, but the Muslims
remained inactive. When some time had passed and Judi saw that the
besiegers were making no attempt to close up on the fort, he became
impatient for a clash with Khalid. Consequently he ordered two sallies.
One group would attack Ayadh on the Arabian route while the other,
a large group comprising his own clan, the Wadi'a, operating under
his direct command, would attack Khalid's camp to the north.
Ayadh drove back the Arabs who came out
to attack him. Leaving behind many dead, they hastily returned to
the fort and closed the gate. This group was lucky. It had only
had to face an inexperienced general like Ayadh bin Ghanam and men
who were not of the calibre of the hardened veterans of Khalid.
The other and larger group-the clan of Wadi'a
operating under Judi-came out at the same time as the group against
Ayadh, and made for Khalid, who stood back from the fort and deployed
his army for battle. Seeing no move from Khalid's side, Judi became
bolder. He formed up his clan for battle and advanced to meet Khalid.
The two forces were now very close, and Judi imagined that he would
send the Muslims, reeling from the battlefield. Then suddenly Khalid
struck at Judi with the utmost violence and speed.
The Arabs never knew just what hit them.
In minutes they had collapsed like a house of cards. Judi was captured
along with hundreds of his clansmen, while the rest, losing all
cohesion and order, fled in panic towards the fort. The Muslims
were not just pursuing them; they were with them, among them, all
over them. If the first to reach the gate of the fort was a Christian
Arab, the second was a Muslim. The Arabs who had remained in the
fort saw a horde rushing towards the gate of which at least half
was Muslim. They closed the gate in the face of their comrades,
and the clan of Wadi'a which had sallied out with Judi was locked
out. Hundreds were made prisoner by the Muslims. The rest perished-some
in the short violent battle and the rest in the pursuit to and the
fighting at the gate. It was with bitterness that they recollected
the counsel of Ukaidar. Such indeed was Khalid! But now it was too
late.
The first part of Khalid's plan had been
accomplished. He next moved the army close to the fort to let the
defenders see that there was no possibility of escape, and then
called upon the garrison to surrender, but the garrison refused
to comply.
| 
