was Salman al-Farisi (may Allah be pleased with him).
Then Saʿd dispatched the statutory one-fifths of the money, captives, and mounts with Ziyad b. Abi Sufyan, Qudaʿi b. ʿAmr, and Abu Mufzar (1) al-Aswad. When they reached ʿUmar, he asked Ziyad b. Abi Sufyan about the course of the battle, and Ziyad—an eloquent man—described it. ʿUmar b. al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him) was impressed by the way he presented it and wished the Muslims to hear the account from him as well. He therefore said, “Can you address the people with what you have just told me?” Ziyad replied, “Yes, O Commander of the Faithful. There is no one on earth before whom I feel more awe than you; how, then, could I not manage it before anyone else?”
So he stood before the gathering and narrated the affair of the battle—how many were killed and how much was taken—in powerful, eloquent language. ʿUmar remarked, “This man is a thunderous orator (2)—that is, an accomplished speaker!” Ziyad answered, “It is the deeds of our army that have loosened my tongue.”
ʿUmar b. al-Khattab then swore that no roof would cover the treasure they had brought until he had distributed it. ʿAbd Allah b. Arqam and ʿAbd al-Rahman b. ʿAwf therefore spent the night guarding it in the mosque. At dawn, after ʿUmar had prayed the morning prayer and the sun had risen, he came to the people and ordered that the heaps be uncovered. When he looked upon its rubies, emeralds, yellow gold, and white silver, he wept.
ʿAbd al-Rahman said, “What makes you weep, O Commander of the Faithful? By Allah, this is a moment for gratitude.” ʿUmar replied, “By Allah, that is not what makes me weep. By Allah, never has Allah granted a people wealth but that they then envy and resent one another; and when they do, He casts enmity among them.” He thereupon distributed it as he had distributed the spoils of al-Qadisiyyah.
Saif b. ʿUmar (3) related from his shaykhs that the conquest of Jalula occurred in Dhu al-Qaʿdah of the year 16 AH, and that nine months separated it from the fall of al-Madāʾin. Ibn Jarir, citing Saif, discusses here the lands of the Sawad and their land-tax; the proper place to settle that issue is the book “al-Ahkam.”
Hashim b. ʿUtbah also said of the day of Jalula (4):
[from rajaz]
The day of Jalula, the day of Rustam (5),
The day of Kufa’s foremost charge before them,
The day we faced the river secured (6),
And days long past, now severed (7);
They have streaked my temples with hoary grey—
Like thaghām (8) blooming in the Sacred Land.