“I will ask you,” Khalid said.
He replied, “And I will answer you.”
Khalid asked, “Are you for peace or for war?”
He said, “For peace.”
Khalid continued, “Then what (1) are these fortifications that I see?”
He answered, “We built them to lock up the fool until the wise man comes and restrains him.”
Khalid thereupon invited them to Islam, or to the jizya, or to combat. They chose the jizya, agreeing to pay ninety—or two hundred (2)—thousand, as mentioned earlier.
Khalid ibn al-Walid then sent a letter to the governors of Chosroes in al-Madāʾin, to his marzbans and his ministers. Hishām ibn al-Kalbī relates, through Abū Mikhnaf, from Mujālid, from al-Shaʿbī (3):
“The sons of Buqaylah had me read Khalid ibn al-Walid’s letter to the people of al-Madāʾin:
‘From Khalid ibn al-Walid to the marzbans of Persia. Peace be upon whoever follows right guidance. To proceed: Praise be to Allah Who has shattered your servitude (4), stripped away your dominion, and weakened your stratagems. Whoever performs our prayer, faces our qiblah, and eats of what we slaughter is a Muslim—he enjoys what we enjoy and bears what we bear (5). Thereafter, when my letter reaches you, send me hostages and enter into a pact of protection with me (6); otherwise, by Him besides Whom there is no god, I shall send against you a people who love death just as you love life.’
When they read the letter they were astonished.
Sayf ibn ʿUmar (7) reported, on the authority of Ṭalḥah ibn al-Aʿlam (8), from al-Mughīrah ibn ʿUtaybah (9)—who was the judge of Kūfah—saying:
“When Khalid left al-Yamāmah for Iraq he divided his army into three detachments, not sending them along a single road. He dispatched al-Muthannā two days ahead, with Ẓafar (10) as guide. He sent ʿAdī ibn Ḥātim and ʿĀṣim ibn ʿAmr, their guides being Mālik ibn ʿAbbād and Sālim ibn Naṣr (11), one of the two detachments a day ahead of the other. Khalid himself set out last, his guide being Rāfiʿ. He appointed al-Ḥufayr as the rendezvous where they would all gather and clash with the enemy.
“Now Burj al-Hind—also called Burj al-Dhahab, the Piebald (12)—was the most formidable of Persia’s fortresses and the strongest in force. Its master, Hormuz, used to fight the Arabs on land and the Indians by sea. Khalid wrote to him, and Hormuz forwarded Khalid’s letter to Shīrā daughter of Kisrā and to Ardashīr son of Shīrā.”