—tricking his captor into releasing him—but the Muslims seized him again and refused to let him go.
They said, “This man is their commander,” and brought him to Abū ʿUbayd, pleading, “Kill him, for he is the general.”
He answered, “Even if he is their commander, I will not kill a man to whom a Muslim has granted safe-conduct.”

Abū ʿUbayd then mounted in pursuit (1) of the fugitives, who had sought refuge in the city of Kaskar (2), an estate belonging to a cousin of Kisrā named Narsī. Narsī incited them to fight Abū ʿUbayd, but Abū ʿUbayd (3) crushed them, capturing vast sums of wealth and an extraordinary quantity of provisions—praise and thanks be to Allah. He sent the statutory one-fifth of the spoils, both money and food, to ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb in Madinah. On that occasion one of the Muslims (4) composed the following verses:

By my life—though my life I deem of little worth—
Disgrace dawned upon the folk of Namāriq at first light,
Struck by the hands of men who had migrated toward their Lord,
Scouring them between Durta (5) and Bāriq (6).
We cut them down between Marj Musallaḥ (7)
And the ridges of al-Hawāfī (8) along the road of al-Tadāriq (9).

The two armies met at a spot between Kaskar and al-Saqāṭiyyah (10). On Narsī’s right wing and left wing stood his two cousins, Bindaweh and Tīrawīh (11), the sons of Niẓām (12). Rustam had already dispatched forces with Jalīnūs (13). When Abū ʿUbayd learned of this, he hastened to engage Narsī before those reinforcements could arrive. A fierce battle broke out; the Persians were routed, and Narsī and Jalīnūs fled to al-Madāʾin after an encounter between Abū ʿUbayd and Jalīnūs at a place called Bārūsma.

Abū ʿUbayd then sent al-Muthannā ibn Ḥārithah and other detachments to the borderlands of that region—such as Nahr Jūr (14) and its environs—subduing them, whether by treaty or by force, levying jizya and land tax, and taking abundant booty.