THE GREAT CONQUESTS 23It would be autumn of 636 before the new Arab leader appeared on the
Persian front. He was Saad ibn abi Waqqas. He was a thick-set and fierce
veteran, said to have been the first to draw blood in the behalf of Islam.
He may, in fact, have been a part of the first raid on the Meccan caravan
in 624. If Saad was a fierce nomadic warrior, he was also an experienced
fighting man. He possibly fought on the Syrian front against the sophis-
ticated Byzantines, and this service may have impelled him to actually
train and organize the Arab armies. What had been a simple cloud of
nomadic warriors with no organization above the clan or household, now
became a real army. It was divided into divisions to serve as advance and
rear guards, main body, and flankers. Each division was further divided
into smaller units. Thus he created a fighting machine much more re-
sponsive to its commander’s will. Of course, little had been wrong with
the earlier force—the comfort for fighting men to serve with their kinsmen
around them allowed a kind of cohesiveness that civilized armies do not
always enjoy.
In the late winter of 636, Saad moved his army forward from his desert
marshalling areas. Although the Persians had lost the last battle, they were
still strong enough to deny the line of the Euphrates, so the Arabs had
accomplished nothing of import until Saad had completed his training and
brought his army up to a strength of perhaps 30,000.
The Persians had also been active. King Yezdegird had consolidated his
power, somewhat, and General Rustem had gathered a strong army. It was
the view of the general that his nation could not be defeated while his
army was intact, and that his army could not be defeated while the river
was to its front. Since the Arabs occupied only a tiny sliver of the great
Persian Empire, there was no point in offering battle. Perhaps time or
dissension would wear down the Muslim enthusiasm. He was perfectly
correct in his strategy. Sadly, the Great King wanted the destruction of the
Arab army to be the showcase of his new reign. He ordered Rustem to
cross the Euphrates and attack.
The Arab force was drawn up in battle array near Qadasiya with the
desert at their back. The Persians advanced in their usual style, preceded
by a numerous force of elephants. Saad himself watched the battle from
a rooftop in the village. Possibly he was acting as a modern general would,
although his troops would not have appreciated this style of command.
Possibly he was ill. In any event, the battle was a heavy one, and although
the Muslims suffered deep losses on the first day, they did succeed in
driving off the great beasts that so troubled them. On the second day the
Arabs were reinforced by a strong contingent from Syria. These men, who
had been victorious against the great Byzantine army, now lunged straight