Page:Baladhuri-Hitti1916.djvu/195

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The Province of Jordan
179

proclaimed caliph and wrote to Khâlid dismissing him and assigning abu-ʿUbaidah.

Shuraḥbîl and then ʿAmr seizes Tiberias. Shuraḥbil ibn-Ḥasanah took Tiberias [Ṭabaraiyah] by capitulation after a siege of some days. He guaranteed for the inhabitants the safety of their lives, possessions, children, churches and houses with the exception of what they should evacuate and desert, setting aside a special spot for a Moslem mosque. Later, in the caliphate of ʿUmar, the people of Tiberias violated the covenant and were joined by many Greeks and others. Abu-ʿUbaidah ordered ʿAmr ibn-al-ʿÂṣi to attack them, so he marched against them at the head of 4,000 men. ʿAmr took the city by capitulation, the terms being similar to those of Shuraḥbîl. According to others, however, it was Shuraḥbîl also who conquered it the second time.

Shuraḥbîl subdues all the Jordan province. In addition to that, Shuraḥbîl took easy possession of all the cities of the Jordan with their fortifications, which, with no resistance, capitulated on terms similar to those of Tiberias. Thus did he take possession of Baisân, [Bethshean, Scythopolis] Sûsiyah, Afîḳ, Jarash, Bait-Râs, Ḳadas, and al-Jaulân, and subdue the district of the Jordan and all its land.

According to abu-Ḥafṣ on the authority of al-Waḍîn ibn-ʿAṭâʾ, Shuraḥbîl conquered Acre, Tyre and Ṣaffûriyah.

The sea-coasts reduced. It is stated by abu-Bishr, the muezzin, that abu-ʿUbaidah directed 'Amr ibn-al-ʿÂṣi to the sea-coasts of the province of the Jordan. There the Greeks became too numerous for him being recruited by men from the district under Heraclius who was then at Constantinople. ʿAmr, therefore, wrote to abu-ʿUbaidah asking for reinforcements. The latter sent Yazîd ibn-abi-Sufyân who went forth, having his brother, Muʿâwiyah, in the van of the army. The littoral of the Jordan was conquered by Yazîd and ʿAmr to whom abu-ʿUbaidah wrote regarding its con-