e fervor of their primitive zeal, many secret sinners
revealed their fault, and solicited their punishment. After some
hesitation, the command of the Syrian army was delegated to Abu Obeidah,
one of the fugitives of Mecca, and companions of Mahomet; whose zeal and
devotion was assuaged, without being abated, by the singular mildness
and benevolence of his temper. But in all the emergencies of war, the
soldiers demanded the superior genius of Caled; and whoever might be
the choice of the prince, the Sword of God was both in fact and fame the
foremost leader of the Saracens. He obeyed without reluctance; [4711] he
was consulted without jealousy; and such was the spirit of the man, or
rather of the times, that Caled professed his readiness to serve under
the banner of the faith, though it were in the hands of a child or an
enemy. Glory, and riches, and dominion, were indeed promised to the
victorious Mussulman; but he was carefully instructed, that if the goods
of this life were his only incitement, they likewise would be his only
reward.

[Footnote 44: A separate history of the conquest of Syria has been
composed by Al Wakidi, cadi of Bagdad, who was born A.D. 748, and died
A.D. 822; he likewise wrote the conquest of Egypt, of Diarbekir, &c.
Above the meagre and recent chronicles of the Arabians, Al Wakidi has
the double merit of antiquity and copiousness. His tales and traditions
afford an artless picture of the men and the times. Yet his narrative
is too often defective, trifling, and improbable. Till something better
shall be found, his learned and spiritual interpreter (Ockley, in
his History of the Saracens, vol. i. p. 21-342) will not deserve
the petulant animadversion of Reiske, (Prodidagmata ad Magji Chalifae
Tabulas, p. 236.) I am sorry to think that the labors of Ockley were
consummated in a jail, (see his two prefaces to the 1st A.D. 1708, to
the 2d, 1718, with the list of authors at the end.) * Note: M. Hamaker
has clearly shown that neither of these works can be inscribed to Al
Wakidi: they are not older than the end of the xith century or
later than the middle of the xivth. Praefat. in Inc. Auct. LIb. de
Expugnatione Memphidis, c. ix. x.--M.]

[Footnote 45: The instructions, &c., of the Syrian war are described
by Al Wakidi and Ockley, tom. i. p. 22-27, &c. In the sequel it is
necessary to contract, and needless to quote, their circumstantial
narrative. My obligations to others shall be noticed.]

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