Hisham ibn al-ʿAs, the brother of ʿAmr ibn al-ʿAs, was mentioned earlier. (1) Ibn Saʿd (2) relates that he was killed on the day of Yarmuk.
[Then the year sixteen AH began]
The new year opened while Saʿd ibn Abi Waqqas was laying siege to the city of Bahurasir, one of Khosrow’s twin capitals situated on the western bank of the Tigris. Saʿd had arrived there in Dhuʾl-Hijjah of year fifteen AH, and when the year sixteen AH was ushered in he was still encamped before it. He dispatched detachments and cavalry columns in every direction, yet they found not a single Persian soldier; instead they gathered one hundred thousand peasants and kept them under guard until he wrote to ʿUmar to ask what should be done with them.
ʿUmar wrote back: “Whoever among the peasants remained in his village and did not assist the enemy is under our protection; as for anyone who fled and has been captured, you may deal with him as you see fit.” After inviting them to embrace Islam—which they declined, content to pay the jizya—Saʿd released them. From the western bank of the Tigris all the way to the Arab frontier (3) no peasant was left except under the obligations of jizya and land-tax.
Bahurasir itself, however, resisted Saʿd with the utmost obstinacy. Saʿd therefore sent Salman al-Farisi to summon them to Allah—Exalted is He—to the payment of jizya, or to battle. They chose nothing but battle and rebellion, set up catapults and mobile shelters, and Saʿd ordered catapults to be built for the Muslims; twenty were made and positioned against Bahurasir, and the siege tightened.
The inhabitants (4) of Bahurasir would sally out, fighting fiercely and vowing that they would never flee (5). Yet Allah proved them false and routed them: Zuhrah ibn Hawiyyah (6), though struck by an arrow, slew many (7) Persians, and they broke and ran before him, taking refuge within their city. There they were besieged even more closely (8) until they were reduced to eating dogs and cats.
One of their men then appeared on the rampart and called out to the Muslims: “The king says to you: Will you make peace on the basis that what lies on our side of the Tigris up to our mountain is ours, and what lies on your side of the Tigris up to your mountain is yours? Have you not had enough? May Allah never fill your bellies!”
At that a man named Abu Mufazzir (9) al-Aswad ibn Qutbah stepped forward, and Allah inspired him with words whose meaning he himself did not understand. The envoy then went back.