ch Mahomet had displayed before the walls of Chaibar. The last
line was occupied by the sister of Derar, with the Arabian women who had
enlisted in this holy war, who were accustomed to wield the bow and
the lance, and who in a moment of captivity had defended, against
the uncircumcised ravishers, their chastity and religion. [75] The
exhortation of the generals was brief and forcible: "Paradise is before
you, the devil and hell-fire in your rear." Yet such was the weight
of the Roman cavalry, that the right wing of the Arabs was broken and
separated from the main body. Thrice did they retreat in disorder, and
thrice were they driven back to the charge by the reproaches and blows
of the women. In the intervals of action, Abu Obeidah visited the tents
of his brethren, prolonged their repose by repeating at once the prayers
of two different hours, bound up their wounds with his own hands, and
administered the comfortable reflection, that the infidels partook of
their sufferings without partaking of their reward. Four thousand and
thirty of the Moslems were buried in the field of battle; and the skill
of the Armenian archers enabled seven hundred to boast that they had
lost an eye in that meritorious service. The veterans of the Syrian war
acknowledged that it was the hardest and most doubtful of the days which
they had seen. But it was likewise the most decisive: many thousands
of the Greeks and Syrians fell by the swords of the Arabs; many were
slaughtered, after the defeat, in the woods and mountains; many, by
mistaking the ford, were drowned in the waters of the Yermuk; and
however the loss may be magnified, [76] the Christian writers confess
and bewail the bloody punishment of their sins. [77] Manuel, the Roman
general, was either killed at Damascus, or took refuge in the monastery
of Mount Sinai. An exile in the Byzantine court, Jabalah lamented the
manners of Arabia, and his unlucky preference of the Christian cause.
[78] He had once inclined to the profession of Islam; but in the
pilgrimage of Mecca, Jabalah was provoked to strike one of his brethren,
and fled with amazement from the stern and equal justice of the caliph
These victorious Saracens enjoyed at Damascus a month of pleasure and
repose: the spoil was divided by the discretion of Abu Obeidah: an equal
share was allotted to a soldier and to his horse, and a double portion
was reserved for the noble coursers of the Arabian breed.

[Footnote 73: I have read s