MARCHING OF O’THMÂN B. ABU A´ASS AND A’BDULLAH B. A´AMER TO ATTACK YAZDEJERD B. SHAHRYÂR; HIS FLIGHT TO KHORÂSÂN, AND HIS DEATH.

It is related in certain traditions that in A.H. 30* the people of Essttakhar, who obeyed the professors of Islâm, had swerved from the straight path, and had rebelled; whereon Yazdejerd joined them with some Persian troops. When O’thmân obtained cognizance of the concentration of the Persians, he despatched O’thmân B. Abu A´ass with A’bdullah B. A´amer to disperse them; some traditions, however, mention S´ad B. Abu Woqqâss instead of Othmân. When the army of Islâm started to the province of Fârs, and arrived there after traversing the distance, it attacked Yazdejerd and vanquished him, and he fled towards Khorâsan. A’bdullah B. A´amer then received a message and invitation from the Governor of Ttûs to march there, and, having found a guide, he reached that province, which he conquered, whereon he marched to Nishâbûr. At that time Yazdejerd was slain in the province of Merv, the details of which event are as follows: ‘When Yazdejerd was roaming about with the royal scions who attended on him, and arrived in Merv, the governor of that place, whose name was Mâhwy Sûry, was displeased; and as the Sasanian dynasty had been overthrown, he engaged in blamable and base machinations, writing to the Khâqân, and inviting him to take possession of Merv. Mâhwy Sûry being the son-in-law of the Khâqân, the latter willingly complied with the request, crossed the Jayhûn with a large army, arrived purposely in the night in Merv, and, the gates having been opened to him, entered the town. When Yazdejerd was apprised of this sudden calamity, he left the city alone and on foot, and, having walked about two farsakhs, reached a mill, the owner of which he requested to give him shelter that night. The miller said: ‘Give me four dirhems that I may hand them to the owner of the stone, because I owe him this sum.’ Yazde­jerd then presented him with his sword, which was in value equivalent to the tribute of a kingdom. When, however, Yazdejerd had fallen asleep, that wicked little man, greedy for the costly garments of the sovereign, killed him, and threw his body into the water:

Time resembles the wind
Which pulls the veil from the rose;
After one week in the garden
It lays its body on the ground of abasement;
Sometimes it seats thee on the steed of thy desire,
Sometimes it pulls thee under the halter of calamity.

When the morning dawned the troops and the people of Merv assailed the Khâqân, who thereon retreated by way of the desert towards Bokhara. The people searched in every direction for Yazdejerd, found his corpse in the water, and his clothes with the miller, whom they slew in the worst manner. Now Mâhwy Sûry fled, the stigma of ingratitude was branded on the pages of his circumstances, and he perished in exile. Some allege that Yazdejerd B. Shahryâr was killed A.H. 31, and that Mâhwy, having conveyed his body to Essttakhar Fârs, deposited it in the mausoleum of the kings of Persia; but there is also another tradition on the subject.

In this year Constantine, the son of Heraclius, having collected an army, started by way of the sea to attack the Musalmâns, and it is said that he had three hundred ships full of brave warriors. A’bdullah B. Sa’d put himself in motion on the sea, and Moa’wiah B. Abu Sofiân on land. A naval battle took place between the Byzantines and the Governor of Egypt, in which numerous combatants perished on both sides. At last the professors of Islâm became victorious, and Constantine having, with a number of his followers, escaped the fate of drowning, reached the island of Sicily, the people of which said to the Qayssar: ‘By thy ill-luck many Christians have perished, and not enough of them have survived to ward off the Arab forces in case they were to attack us.’ After that the people of the said island slew Constantine in the bath. During this Ghazâ Muhammad B. Abu Hudhayfah opened the mouth of calumny against O’thman, and said: ‘The son of O’ffan is in the administration of affairs acting contrary to the precedent of Abu Bakr and O’mar; he has, moreover, appointed A’bdullah B. Sarj to be a commander, although the lord of the apostolate—u. w. bl.—had made it licit to shed his blood; O’thman has removed great companions [of the prophet] from their posts and appointed to them his relatives, such as Sa’d Abu-l-a’ss, and A’bdullah B. Sa’d, and A’bdullah B. A´amer.’ Ebn Sa’d, having heard these words, threatened him with punishment and reprisals.