waiting for this very Battle of al-Qādisiyyah, convinced that the endurance or collapse of their dominion depended on it, and the inhabitants of every town had already sent an emissary to learn whatever news might emerge.

When the conquest actually took place, the jinn outstripped human messengers in spreading the glad tidings to the farthest reaches of the land. One night a woman in Ṣanʿāʾ, standing atop a mountain, was heard reciting:

[from the Ṭawīl metre]

Receive our greeting, O ʿIkrimah daughter of Khālid—
for what good is provision when it is scant and hoarded (1).

The sun at its rising greets you on my behalf,
and on my behalf greets you every swift lone traveller (2).

A band of Nakhaʿī tribesmen greets you for me—
men of handsome faces who have believed in Muhammad.

They stood against Kisrā, striking his soldiers
with every fine, double-edged Indian blade.

Whenever the caller (3) raised the cry they leaned forward (4),
their visors darkened by death, their blades gleaming and bare (5).

They said: The people of al-Yamāmah then heard a passer-by chanting these verses:

[from the Wāfir metre]

We found that, on the morning of dread, most of those present (6)
were the clansmen of Banū Tamīm—the greatest in number of fighting men.

They marched with a fierce, sullen leader into the swirling fray,
and left their foes (7) scattered on foot.

Seas of warriors confronted the Persian kings—
like lions of the thicket; you would have taken them for mountains (8).

At Qādis we stripped them of the pride they boasted,
and at the Twin Khayfs we kept them reeling for long days.

Their palms and shanks lay hewn away, and beardless youths (9)
lay where men had met men in battle (10).

They further related that these verses were heard throughout all Arab lands. Afterward, the whole of Iraq that Khālid had conquered broke the covenants, pledges, and treaties they had given him—except for the people of Bāniqiyā, Bārusmā, and al-Lays al-Ākhirah (11).