William Muir

“ Cæsarea with its naval supports remained proof against landward attack; and the whole sea-coast was kept unsettled by the fear, or by the hope, that a fleet might at any time appear. The Emperor now promised the dwellers in Mesopotamia to second their efforts by way of the sea. An expedition was directed from Alexandria against Antioch, while the Bedawin gathered in great hordes around Hims. Thus seriously threatened, Abu 'Obeida called in his outlying garrisons. But finding the enemy too strong to be dispersed by the force at his disposal, he sent an urgent summons for assistance to Medina. ”

“ Khalid retired to Hims, and did not long survive. His manner of life when in the full tide of prosperity, may be gathered from the brief notice that in the Plague, from which he fled with his family to the desert, he is said to have lost no fewer than forty sons. Soon after, in the eighth year of 'Omar's caliphate, he died. ”

“ Thereupon 'Omar ordered Sa'd to despatch at once a strong column from Al-Kufa under Al-Ka'ka' for the relief of Hims; and likewise to effect a diversion in Upper Mesopotamia. Meanwhile the Greeks had landed from their ships. Antioch threw open her gates to them; and Kinnasrin, Aleppo, and other towns in the north, were in full revolt. A council of war was called. Khalid was for giving battle, but Abu 'Obeida, 140
feeling too weak to cope with the now combined forces of the Bedawin and Greeks, retired to Hims; and there, hemmed in by enemies, awaited the succour advancing from Al-Kufa. ”

“ Amongst these must have been many women of gentle birth degraded now to menial office or if young and fair to look upon, reserved for a worse fate,—liable, when their masters became tired of them, to be sold into other hands. ”