arbitration. “Do not forget that I forbade you this,” he
told his men. “This will only demolish strength, destroy
right, and bequeath lowliness. Shame on you! You are
like cowardly she-camels rooting in the muck for scraps.
You will never again see glory!”
It was less than a year since he had been acclaimed
Caliph in Medina, yet here, on the Plain of Siɽn, he
surely sensed that his reign would not be a long one. He
had been on the brink of winning the battle, and now
had begun to lose the war.