preserve the love and confidence of your troops. When
you fight the battles of the Lord, acquit yourselves like men, without
turning your backs; but let not your victory be stained with the blood
of women or children. Destroy no palm-trees, nor burn any fields of
corn. Cut down no fruit-trees, nor do any mischief to cattle, only such
as you kill to eat. When you make any covenant or article, stand to it,
and be as good as your word. As you go on, you will find some religious
persons who live retired in monasteries, and propose to themselves to
serve God that way: let them alone, and neither kill them nor destroy
their monasteries: And you will find another sort of people, that belong
to the synagogue of Satan, who have shaven crowns; be sure you cleave
their skulls, and give them no quarter till they either turn Mahometans
or pay tribute." All profane or frivolous conversation, all dangerous
recollection of ancient quarrels, was severely prohibited among
the Arabs: in the tumult of a camp, the exercises of religion were
assiduously practised; and the intervals of action were employed in
prayer, meditation, and the study of the Koran. The abuse, or even the
use, of wine was chastised by fourscore strokes on the soles of the
feet, and in the fervor of their primitive zeal, many secret sinners
revealed their fault, and solicited their punishment. After some
hesitation, the command of the Syrian army was delegated to Abu Obeidah,
one of the fugitives of Mecca, and companions of Mahomet; whose zeal and
devotion was assuaged, without being abated, by the singular mildness
and benevolence of his temper. But in all the emergencies of war, the
soldiers demanded the superior genius of Caled; and whoever might be the
choice of the prince, the _Sword of God_ was both in fact and fame the
foremost leader of the Saracens. He obeyed without reluctance; he
was consulted without jealousy; and such was the spirit of the man, or
rather of the times, that Caled professed his readiness to serve under
the banner of the faith, though it were in the hands of a child or an
enemy. Glory, and riches, and dominion, were indeed promised to the
victorious Mussulman; but he was carefully instructed, that if the goods
of this life were his only incitement, _they_ likewise would be his only
reward.

Chapter LI: Conquests By The Arabs.--Part III.

One of the fifteen provinces of Syria, the cultivated lands to the
eastward of the Jordan, had been