This force was altogether different in composition from the army of Irâc. That in the main consisted of Bedouins, who flocked in tribes or clans to the banners of Mothanna and Khâlid; the men of Mecca and Medîna were as yet in Irâc comparatively few, for they had returned in great numbers to their homes after the battle of Yemâma. In the Syrian army, on the contrary, there are reckoned at least a thousand _Companions_--men who had seen and conversed with the Prophet; and of these no fewer than one hundred of the famous Three Hundred of Bedr. They enrolled themselves at pleasure under whichever chief they chose; but, once enrolled, they yielded to their leader an implicit obedience; while he, on his part, consulted their views and wishes, not only in the set council of war, but generally on all occasions of importance. Sheikhs of renown, such as Abu Sofiân and Soheil, who but a few years before, had wielded at will the whole power of Mecca, and haughty high-born chieftains of Nejd and Yemen, now joined with alacrity and zeal the column of anyone, however young and inferior, into whose hands the Caliph was minded to present a banner of command. And the whole force, thus formed in separate detachments, held itself at the absolute disposal of the Commander of the Faithful. [Sidenote: Abu Bekr addresses the columns as they leave Medîna.] Abu Bekr was duly sensible of the gravity of the enterprise on which he now embarked--nothing short, in fact, of measuring swords with the Kaiser. He had thrown down the gauntlet, and in fact was waging war, at one and the same time, with the potentates of the East and of the West. The brigades for this service were pitched one after another on the outlying field of Jorf; and, as each was ready to march, the Caliph walked a little distance (as nearly two years before he had done with Osâma) by the side of the mounted leader, and gave him thus his farewell commands. ‘Profession,’ he would say, ‘is naught without faith. The merit of a work dependeth on the purpose of the worker. The reward set forth in the Book of the Lord for such as fight in His ways, is great. Set this ever before thee and before thy men. But when thou haranguest them, be brief, for in the multitude of words the foremost word is lost in the hindermost. So striving, ye will obtain the prize, riches and glory in the present life, and in the life to come salvation.’ Then saying ‘Fare ye well,’ he would retrace his steps and return to his simple home. [Sidenote: Advance of the four divisions.]