The Caliphate: Its Rise, Decline, and Fall/Chapter 2
CHAPTER II
EXPEDITION TO SYRIAN BORDER
11 A.H. 632 A.D.
Syrian expedition 11 A.H. 632 A.D.Abu Bekr had soon an occasion for showing his resolve to carry out to the utmost the will of Moḥammad in things both great and small.
Usāma appointed by Moḥammad to command the force.Just before he fell sick, the Prophet had given orders for an expedition to the Syrian border. It was to avenge the disaster which three years before had befallen the Moslem arms on the field of Mūta. In that reverse, Zeid ibn Ḥāritha, the bosom friend of Moḥammad, who led the army, fell; and so, distinctly to mark the object of the expedition, his son Usāma, though still young, was nominated by Moḥammad to the command, and bidden to avenge his father's death. The camp, including all available fighting men, had been formed at the Jurf, a little way outside Medīna on the Syrian road. During the Prophet's sickness the force remained inactive there, uncertain of the issue. When the fatal event took place, Usāma broke up the camp, and carrying back the banner received at the hands of Moḥammad, planted it in the court of the great Mosque, close by the door of ʿĀisha's apartment.
Abu Bekr deaf to reclamations against its despatch.The day following his inauguration, Abu Bekr took up the banner, and restoring it to Usāma, in token that he was still commander, bade the army again assemble and encamp at the Jurf as it had done before; not a man was to be left behind. Obeying his command, the fighting men of Medīna and its neighbourhood all flocked to the camp, even ʿOmar amongst the number. While yet preparing to depart, the horizon darkened suddenly. Report of the Prophet's illness, soon followed by tidings of his death, had spread like wildfire over the land. From every side came rumours of disloyalty, and of resolve to cast off the yoke of Islām. The sense of the army, and of Usāma himself, was strongly against leaving the City thus defenceless, and the Caliph exposed to risk of sudden danger. ʿOmar was deputed to represent all this to Abu Bekr, and also to urge (a request which Moḥammad already had refused) that, if the expedition must proceed, a more experienced general should command. To the first request Abu Bekr replied, calm and unmoved:—"Were the City swarming round with packs of ravening wolves and I left solitary and alone, the force should go; not a word from my Master's lips shall fall to the ground." At the second demand the Caliph's anger kindled:—"The mother be bereft of thee, O son of Al-Khattāb!" he said, seizing ʿOmar by the beard:—"Shall the Prophet of the Lord appoint a man to the command and I, deposing him, appoint another in his place?" So ʿOmar returned, with neither object gained.
He accompanies Usāma a little way on foot.When all was ready for the march, Abu Bekr repaired to the camp, and accompanied the force a little way on foot. "Be mounted," said Usāma to him, "or else I will dismount and walk by thee." "Not so," replied Abu Bekr; I will not mount; I will walk and soil my feet a little moment in the ways of the Lord. Verily, every step trodden in the ways of the Lord is equal to the merit of manifold good works and wipeth out a multitude of sins." After a while he stopped, and said to Usāma:—"If it be thy will, give ʿOmar leave that he may return for strength and counsel with me to the city." So he gave him leave, and Abu Bekr returned with ʿOmar to Medīna.
Usāma returns victorious.The ostensible object of Usāma's expedition was to avenge the death of his father upon the tribe of Ghāssān who had slain him upon the field of Mūta, and Ibn Saʿd states that he did in fact kill the man who had slain him. On the other hand the tribemen actually attacked were of Ḳoḍāʿa, and the point at which the march culminated was apparently Obna, the ancient Jabneh (Josh, xv. 11), close to the Mediterranean, between Askelon and Jaffa. The time occupied was one month or at most two, and when we deduct the days spent in marching from and back to Medīna, it will appear that this campaign was little more than a freebooters' raid. This is proved by the fact that Usāma returned to the Wādi al-Ḳora without having lost a man.
Meanwhile stirring events had been transpiring at Medīna.