Beisân for some time held out; but the garrison, when their sallies had been repeatedly repulsed with slaughter, at last capitulated. Tiberias followed its example, and both obtained the terms of Damascus. Adzraât,[246] Ammân, Jerash, Maâb, and Bostra, all tendered their submission. And so the whole tract from the Jordan eastward to the Haurân and the desert, was brought under control, and garrisons were distributed throughout the leading towns. [Sidenote: and in Central Syria.] Yezîd extended similarly his authority from Damascus towards the desert as far as Tadmor. Westward he deputed his brother Muâvia, who, meeting little opposition, reduced Sidon and Beyrût, and pushed his conquests as far north as Arca.[247] Damascus itself, largely occupied by Arabs, quickly assumed the garb of a Moslem city. The Byzantine power and influence lingered longer on the coast; and once and again, from seaward, they retook what the Arabs had gained. It was not, indeed, until the Mussulmans began to cope with the naval forces of the Mediterranean, that their authority was riveted along the littoral, as it had long been in the interior. [Sidenote: Bareness of Syrian tradition.] The conquests of Syria have reached us, as I have before said, in a form vague and most perfunctory. With the court of Damascus, its early local traditions almost entirely disappeared; while those of the East preserved by the learned coteries of Kûfa, Bussora, and Baghdad, alone have reached us with any fulness and accuracy. In this we may see a reason for the comparative bareness of tradition in respect of the early history of Damascus and the rest of Syria under Moslem rule. Leaving for the present Abu Obeida and Khâlid to make their advance on Hims, we must return again to stirring scenes on the plains of Chaldæa. CHAPTER XVI. YEZDEGIRD SUCCEEDS TO THE THRONE OF PERSIA.--BATTLE OF CADESIYA. A.H. XIV. A.D. 635. [Sidenote: Profuseness of tradition regarding field of Câdesîya.] The desperate field of Câdesîya has been described to us with almost as profuse detail as the leading battles of the the Prophet. The length and severity of the contest, its memorable results, and the proximity of the ground to Kûfa, made it a favourite topic of discourse at that grand centre of tradition. Hence the prolixity. We shall follow the outline only of the story, avoiding the detail with which it has been overlaid. [Sidenote: Yezdegird made king of Persia. A.H. XIII. December, A.D. 634.]