64
ʾILÂM-EN-NÂS.
HOW HÁSAN-IBN-ʾALY BY HIS ELOQUENCE
DISCOMFITED HIS ADVERSARIES.
From "Thamarât-el-Aurâk, or Speaking Leaves," concerning
the eloquent and pungent replies of Háshim.
TRANSLATOR'S PREFATORY NOTE.
ʾAmru-ibn-el-ʾAs, son of ʾOmeyyah of the tribe of Kuraish, was one of three Mekkan poets whose satires caused so much vexation to the Prophet that he engaged three poets of the tribe of el-Kházraj to answer them. One of the latter was Hásan son of Thâbit, of whom mention is made in the story of Jábalah (see page 34). ʾAmru fought against Muhammad under Abu-Sufyân at the battles of Bedr and Ohod. He professed el-Islám in the eighth year of el-Hijrah, and was sent by the Prophet to destroy Sâwah, the idol worshipped by the tribe of Hudhail at Rohat, a place about three miles from Mekkah. He was also sent on an embassy inviting to el-Islám two princes of the tribe of el-Azd, who were reigning at ʾOmân. In the reign of Abu-Bekr he was sent into Lower Palestine in command of a large force, and in that Khalîfah's last year, A.H. 13, ʾAmru laid siege to and took Gaza, and Theophanes asserts that he forced the inhabitants of the whole tract from Gaza to Mount Sinai and the borders of the desert, to submit to the Khalîfah. He was one of the generals who this same year, under the supreme command of Khâlid son of el-Walîd, sat down before Damascus and reduced it. On Abu-Bekr's death
