situation was critical; and if the Mohammedans had been less tenacious,
or the Persians more skilfully handled, the whole of the Sawad might
have been recovered. But Rustam allowed his troops to be defeated in
detail. Al Mothanna and Abu Obediah, in three separate engagements, at
Namarik, Sakatiya, and Barusma, overcame the Persian leaders, Jaban,
Narses, and Jalenus, and drove their shattered armies back on the
Tigris. The Mohammedan authority was completely re-established in the
tract between the desert and the Euphrates; it was even extended across
the Euphrates into the tract watered by the Shat-el-Hie; and it soon
became a question whether Persia would be able to hold the Mesopotamian
region, or whether the irrepressible Arabs would not very shortly
wrest it from her grasp. But at this point in the history the Arabs
experienced a severe reverse. On learning the defeat of his lieutenants,
Rustam sent an army to watch the enemy, under the command of
Bahman-Dsul-hadjib, or "Bahman the beetle-browed," which encamped upon
the Western Euphrates at Kossen-natek, not far from the site of Kufa.
At the same time, to raise the courage of the soldiers, he entrusted to
this leader the sacred standard of Persia, the famous _durufsh-kawani_,
or leathern apron of the blacksmith Kawah, which was richly adorned
with silk and gems, and is said to have measured, eighteen feet long
by twelve feet broad. Bahman had with him, according to the Persian
tradition, 30,000 men and thirty elephants; the Arabs under Abu Obediah
numbered no more than 9000, or at the most 10,000. Bahman is reported
to have given his adversary the alternative of passing the Euphrates
or allowing the Persians to cross it. Abu Obediah preferred the bolder
course, and, in spite of the dissuasions of his chief officers, threw
a bridge of boats across the stream, and so conveyed his troops to the
left bank. Here he found the Persian horse-archers covered with their
scale armor, and drawn up in a solid line behind their elephants. Galled
severely by the successive flights of arrows, the Arab cavalry sought
to come to close quarters; but their horses, terrified by the unwonted
sight of the huge animals, and further alarmed by the tinkling of the
bells hung round their necks, refused to advance. It was found necessary
to dismount, and assail the Persian line on foot. A considerable
impression had been made, and it was thought that the Persians would
take to flight, when A