For the enemy, the defeat was crushing, and decisive of the the nation’s fate. It was little more than thirty months since Khâlid had set foot upon Irâc, and already that empire, which fifteen years before had humbled the Roman arms, had ravaged Syria, and encamped triumphantly on the Bosphorus, was crumbling under the blows of an enemy whose strength never exceeded thirty or forty thousand Arabs rudely armed. The battle of Câdesîya reveals the secret. On one side there was but a lukewarm, servile following; on the other, an indomitable spirit that nerved every heart and arm, and after long weary hours of fighting enabled the Moslems to deliver the final and decisive charge. The result was, that the vast host, on which the last efforts of the empire had been spent, was totally discomfited; and, although broken columns escaped across the river, the military power of the empire never again gathered itself into formidable shape. The country far and wide was terror-struck. An important though indirect effect was that the Bedouin tribes on the Euphrates hesitated no longer. Many of them, though Christian, had fought on the Moslem side. Some of these now came to Sád and said: ‘The tribes which at the first embraced Islam were wiser than we. Now that Rustem hath been slain, all will accept the new belief.’ So there came over many tribes in a body and made profession of the faith. [Sidenote: Tidings how received by Omar.] The battle had been so long impending, and the preparations of the empire on so grand a scale, that the issue was watched all over the country, ‘from Odzeib away south to Aden, and from Obolla across to Jerusalem,’ as that which would decide the fate of Islam.[279] The Caliph used to issue forth alone from the gates of Medîna early in the morning, if perchance he might meet some messenger from the field of battle. At last a courier arrived outside the city, who to Omar’s question replied shortly, ‘The Lord hath discomfited the Persian host.’ Unrecognised, Omar followed the camel-rider on foot, and gleaned from him the outline of the great battle. Entering Medîna, the people crowded round the Caliph, and, saluting, wished him joy of the triumph. The courier, abashed, cried out, ‘O Commander of the Faithful, why didst thou not tell me?’ ‘It is well, my brother,’ was the Caliph’s simple answer. Such was the unpretending mien of one who at that moment was greater than either the Kaiser or the Chosroes. CHAPTER XVII. EVENTS FOLLOWING THE BATTLE OF CADESIYA--CAPTURE OF MEDAIN. A.H. XV., XVI. A.D. 636–7. [Sidenote: Sád re-occupies Hîra, end of A.H. XIV. January, A.D. 636.]