several centuries later, in spite of their subjection to a Mohammedan government.
It was in Syria that the Arabs came into contact with the Roman Empire. At first the forces of the invaders were paralysed by the confusion and jealousies of separate commands. Then Abu Bekr fetched the great General Khalid from Mesopotamia to put fresh vigour into the attack. Under his leadership a terrible battle was fought close to the Yermuk, one of the eastern tributaries of the Jordan, which resulted in a rout of the Romans (1st of September, a.d. 634). The Arab chronicler states that the beaten imperial troops were "toppled over the bank even as a wall is toppled over," and adds that over 100,000 men were lost in the chasm. The Byzantine chroniclers are discreetly silent with reference to these disasters of the empire. But after making every allowance for the Oriental habit of exaggeration, we can see that the defeat must have been complete. This astonishing event struck terror into the court at Constantinople. For a time it paralysed the opposition of the empire to the daring invasion of one of the fairest of its provinces. What was thus lost was never again permanently recovered.
The same year Abu Bekr died. He had lived in extreme simplicity—a marked contrast to the luxury and splendour of the courts of the emperor and the great king. When the treasury at Medina was opened only a single gold piece fell out of the bags. Although much wealth was now pouring in from tribute, "all shared alike, recent convert and veteran, male and female, bond and free." Abu Bekr was succeeded by his friend and counsellor, the passionate, energetic Omar, now mellowed with age, who as the second caliph proved at least an equally capable ruler. Thus to its other advantages over the corrupt and decrepit empire Islam added consummate ability in its early leaders.
The next year (a.d. 635) Damascus was stormed, but the city capitulated just in time to save the lives of its inhabitants. Half of the property of the place was seized, and,
