engage in the Holy War was the rarest and most blessed of all
religious virtues, and conferred on the combatant a special merit; and
side by side with it lay the bright prospect of spoil and female slaves,
conquest and glory. "Mount thy horse," said Osama ibn Zeid to Abu Bekr
as he accompanied the Syrian army a little way on its march, out of
Medina. "Nay," replied the caliph, "I will not ride, but I will walk and
soil my feet a little space in the ways of the Lord. Verily, every
footstep in the ways of the Lord is equal in merit to manifold good
works, and wipeth away a multitude of sins."[42] And of the "martyrs,"
those who fell in these crusading campaigns, Mohammed thus described the
blessed state:

Think not, in any wise, of those killed in the ways of the Lord, as
if they were dead. Yea, they are alive, and are nourished with
their Lord, exulting in that which God hath given them of his
favor, and rejoicing in behalf of those who have not yet joined
them, but are following after. No terror afflicteth them, neither
are they grieved.--Sura iii.

[Sidenote: Material fruits of Moslem crusade.]
The material fruits of their victories raised the Arabs at once from
being the needy inhabitants of a stony, sterile soil, where, with
difficulty, they eked out a hardy subsistence, to be the masters of rich
and luxuriant lands flowing with milk and honey. After one of his great
victories on the plains of Chaldea, Khalid called together his troops,
flushed with conquest, and lost in wonder at the exuberance around them,
and thus addressed them: "Ye see the riches of the land. Its paths drop
fatness and plenty, so that the fruits of the earth are scattered abroad
even as stones are in Arabia. If but as a provision for this present
life, it were worth our while to fight for these fair fields and banish
care and penury forever from us." Such were the aspirations dear to the
heart of every Arab warrior. Again, after the battle of Jalola, a few
years later, the treasure and spoil of the Persian monarch, captured by
the victors, was valued at thirty million of dirhems (about a million
sterling). The royal fifth (the crown share of the booty) was sent as
usual to Medina under charge of Ziad, who, in the presence of the Caliph
Omar, harangued the citizens in a glowing description of what had been
won in Persia, fertile lands, rich cities, and endless spoil, besides
captive maids and princesses.

[Sideno