2 AKAB CONQUEST OF SLND Osman ibn Abu-1-Asi of the tribe of Sakif to Bahrain and Oman in the year 15 A. H. (636 A. D.). Osman sent his brother Hakam to Bahrain, while he himself went to Oman and despatched an army to Tana. When the army returned, he wrote to the Caliph Omar to inform him of it. Omar wrote in reply: " O brother of Sakif, thou has placed the worm in the wood, but I swear that if our men had been killed, I would have slain an equal number from thy tribe." Hakam despatched a force to Barauz (Broach); he also sent to the bay of Dai- bul his brother Mughira, who met and defeated the enemy. When Osman ibn Akkan became caliph, he ap- pointed Abdallah ibn Amar ibn Kuraiz to the govern- ment of Irak, and wrote to him an order to send some one to the confines of Hind in order to acquire knowl- edge and bring back information. He accordingly de- puted Hakim ibn Jaballa al-Abdi. When this man returned, he was sent to the caliph, who questioned him about the state of those regions. He replied that he knew them because he had examined them. The caliph then told him to describe them. He said: " Water is scarce, the fruits are poor, and the robbers are bold; if few troops are sent there, they will be slain; if many, they will starve." Osman asked him whether he spoke literally or metaphorically. He said that he spoke according to his knowledge. The caliph abstained from sending any expedition there. At the end of the year 38 or the beginning of the
