Page:Baladhuri-Hitti1916.djvu/161

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The Apostasy of the Arabs
145

only one of them, all the rest having fled away, and he could not catch up with them. This made Khârijah ibn-Ḥiṣn repeat, "Woe to the Arabs because of ibn-abi-Ḳuḥâfah [i. e. abu-Bakr]."

While abu-Bakr was at al-Ḳaṣṣah, he set Khâlid ibn-al-Walîd ibn-al-Mughîrah al-Makhzûmi in command over the people,[1] and sent over the Anṣâr Thâbit ibn-Ḳais ibn-Shammâs al-Anṣâri, who was one of those that [later] suffered martyrdom in the battle of al-Yamâmah. Thâbit, however, was subordinate to Khâlid. Abu-Bakr ordered Khâlid to direct his course towards Ṭulaiḥah ibn-Khuwailid al-Asadi, who had claimed to be a prophet[2] and was then at Buzâkhah. This Buzâkhah is a spring belonging to the banu-Asad ibn-Khuzaimah. Khâlid set out against him and sent before him ʿUkkâshah ibn-Miḥṣan al-Asadi, an ally of the banu-ʿAbd-Shams, together with Thâbit ibn-Aḳram al-Balawi, an ally of the Anṣâr. Ḥibâl ibn-Khuwailid[3] met them and was slain by them. Having heard the news, Ṭulaiḥah with his brother, Salamah, set out and, meeting ʿUkkâshah and Thâbit, slew them both. Regarding this event Ṭulaiḥah sang:

"As I saw their faces I thought of my brother Ḥibâl
and was sure that I was going to avenge his death.
It was on the evening of that day that I left ibn-Aḳram in his grave,
together with ʿUkkâshah al-Ghanmi, by the battlefield."

The Moslems and their enemy at last met and a fierce battle was fought. With Ṭulaiḥah in the fight was ʿUyainah ibn-Ḥiṣn ibn-Ḥudhaifah ibn-Badr at the head of 700 men of the banu-Fazârah. When ʿUyainah saw the swords of the

  1. Yâʿḳûbi, vol. ii, p. 145.
  2. He imitated Muḥammad by composing sajʿ or rhyming prose, see Ṭabari, vol. i, p. 1738; and Goldziher, Muhammedanische Studien, vol. ii, p. 4001.
  3. Hishâm, p. 453.