PEOPLEthese groups the advantage they needed to bring about the fall of Arab
towns.^49 However, Arabs in the region between Kaskar and Hira
fought on the Persian side at Walaja, and afterwards Christian Arabs
of the tribes or clans of 'Ijl, Taymalliit, and Qubay'a rallied to the
Persian general jiibiin at Ullays. They were joined there by more Arabs
from the vicinity of Hira and were led by a certain 'Abd al-Aswad,
who was assisted by the TaghlibI jiibir ibn Bujayr. These Arabs gave
Khiilid more trouble than the Persians.^50
The decisive clash came at 'Ayn Tamr, where Khiilid found himself
opposed by the Christian Arab auxiliaries of the Persians from the
tribes of Bakr, 'Ijl, Taghlib, and Namir who were commanded by
'Aqqa ibn Qays ibn Bishr of the tribe of Namir.^51 The father of jiibir,
Bujayr ibn al-'Abd of the tribe of Taghlib, was in charge of 'Aqqa's
right wing.^52 The defeat of this force by Khiilid, who captured and
crucified 'Aqqa,53 resulted in the flight of the Persian garrison and the
fall of the fortress and town at 'Ayn Tamr to the Muslims. Arabs of
the tribes of Namir and Taghlib were taken captive, as were the women
and children of the Arab dihqan (probably 'Aqqa himself) who was
killed there.^54
From 'Ayn Tamr, Khiilid went to the oasis of Dumat jandal, where
Arabs belonging to the tribes of Bahrii'a, Kalb, Ghassiin, Taniikh, and
Qajii'am were gathered outside the walls of the fortress. Here the
fighting men were killed by Khiilid's force and the children were taken
captive and put under the care of adults. ss While Khiilid rested at
49 F. Donner, The Arab Tribes in the Muslim Conquest of Iraq (Ph.D. diss., Princeton
Univ., 1975), pp. 76, 96.
so Tabari, Ta'nRh, I, 2050, 2032-33.
SI Yaqiit, Buldan, I, 631-32. According to Ya'qiibi (Ta'nRh, 11, 150), Khalid met a
Sasanian force under 'Uqba ibn Abi HilaI an-Namiri at 'Ayn Tamr and beheaded him.
52 Tabari, Ta'rikh, I, 2063, 3472.
53 Yaqiit, Buldiin, I, 631-32. Dinawari (Akhbar at-tiwal, p. 118) calls him Hilal ibn
'Uqba; and Tabari (Ta'rikh, I, 2073, 2122) has a version of this account in which
Khalid crucified Hilal ibn 'Aqqa at 'Ayn Tamr; but this could hardly have been the
case since HilaI turned up later in charge of the garrison at Rudab.
54 Abii Yiisuf, Kharaj, p. 226; Dinawari, Akhbar at-tiwal, pp. 117-18. There are two
accounts of how the children were taken captive at 'Ayn Tamr. In one, according to
Ya'qiibi (Ta'nRh, 11, 151), after Khalid beheaded Hudhayl ibn 'Amran, the leader of
a group of the Bani Taghlib, he took many of them captive, including forty boys captured
in a synagogue (Ar. kanisat al-Yahud). In the other account, forty boys were taken
captive in a church (Ar. bra) at 'Ayn Tamr where they were studying the Gospels (Gk.
Injil) (Tabari, Ta'nRh, I, 2064),.
ss Tabari, Ta'nRh, I, 2065-66. At about the same time, after the fall of 'Ayn Tamr,
Khalid sent Sa'd ibn 'Amr al-Ansari to Sandawda where Christian Arabs of the tribes
of Kinda and Iyad had gathered. After a siege they agreed to pay tribute, and some of
them converted to Islam (Abii Yiisuf, Kharaj, p. 226).