William Muir

“ One cried to our Leader to hold his banner back; My work, he answered, is to move the banner on. So forward we drove, and cut them up, not one reaching even to the river bank." Al-Muthanna reproached himself afterwards with having closed the bridge, and caused useless loss of his men. "I made a grievous error," he confessed; "follow not my example herein; it behoveth us not to close the way against such as may be driven to turn upon us in despair." ”

“ But the late victories in Syria had made him easy in that direction; and every available man must now be hurried forward to Al-'Irak. A brave levy raised under the banner of Jarir, urged that their ancestral relations were all with Syria; but 'Omar was firm, and at last reconciled them to set out at once for Persia by the promise that they should have one-fourth of all the royal fifth of
1 Sura viii. 16. ”

“ I am he that hath slain the Chief."
Muslim loss.
The loss on the Muslim side was considerable. Al-Muthanna mourned the death of a brother who, when borne from the field mortally wounded, cried: "Exalt your banners ye Beni Bekr, and the Lord will exalt you, my men; let not my fall disturb you!" The Christian chieftain met a similar fate. Al-Muthanna affectionately tended the last moments of both—the Christian and the Muslim—an unwonted sight on these fanatic fields. ”

“ From the spy, Al-Muthanna now learned that, matters having been settled at the Capital, a great army was in motion against him. Sending an urgent message to Jarir, now close at hand, to hurry on, he marched forward to Al-Buweib on the western branch of the Euphrates and there, close by the future site of Al-Kufa, and on ground approached by a bridge, awaited the enemy. 'Omar had cautioned him not again to risk his men by crossing the river before victory was secure; so he suffered the enemy undisturbed to defile their troops across the bridge. ”