BIRTH OF THE KHALIFATE 45Rustum asked one envoy if he headed up the Muslim army. The man
replied, "No, we're Muslims. Among us, there is no highest and lowest."
Rustum said, "Look, I know you Arabs are hungry and poor, and I'm
sure you've been causing trouble out of desperation. So I tell you what, I'll
give each of you rwo suits of clothing and a bag of dates. Will that con-
vince you to go back where you came from?"
The Muslim envoy said, "We're not here to take anything from you,
General. We're here to give you Islam! You are headed to hell; we offer you
an opportunity to go to heaven."
Rustum just laughed. "You remind me of the mouse that crept into the
granary through a hole in the wall and ate till he could eat no more. Then
he tried to go home, but he had grown too fat to fit back through the hole.
His greed trapped him in the granary and the cat killed him. Now, you
greedy Arabs have stolen into our granary and you're trapped. All of you
will die here, like that mouse."
Eventually, in all this back and forth, the Muslims told Rustum, "If you
don't want to convert, just pay the tax, and you won't be harmed."
"Harmed?" scoffed Rustum. "Tax?" He told his servants to give the
Muslims a bag of dirt, by which he meant to symbolize the grave.
But the Muslims received it cheerfully. "You give us your soil? We accept!"
Both sides then prepared for battle. Despite his own greedy-mouse
anecdote, Rustum made the mistake of crossing the river to attack the
Muslims, so his were the forces backed up against the river with nowhere
to flee. The battle of Qadisiya lasted four days, the Persians riding ele-
phants, the Arabs camels. On the third day, the battle went on through
the night and into the next day. When the Sassanids gave way at last,
thousands of their routed warriors tried to swim the river in heavy armor
and drowned.
Along with warriors, many poets (including some women} went to this
battlefield and generated a rich trove of stories, elevating Qadisiya to a
mythic status, like a (shorter} Trojan War.
For example, as soon as victory was certain, a courier jumped on a
horse and headed for Arabia to deliver the good news. Approaching Med-
ina, he passed a geezer by the side of the road, some simple fellow in a
patched coat, who jumped to his feet and asked the courier if he had come
from Qadisiya.