and abused her all night, and to aggravate their barbarity they seized his little son and cut his head off.  The poor lady took her child’s head and carried it to Mahan, and having given him an account of the outrages committed by his officers, demanded satisfaction.  He took but little notice of the affair, and put her off with a slight answer; upon which her husband, resolved to take the first opportunity of being revenged, went privately over to the Saracens and acquainted them with his design.  Returning back to the Greeks, he told them it was in his power to do them singular service.  He therefore takes a great number of them, and brings them to a great stream, which was very deep, and only fordable at one place.  By his instructions five hundred of the Saracen horse had crossed over where the water was shallow, and after attacking the Greeks, in a very little time returned in excellent order by the same way they came.  The injured gentleman calls out and encourages the Greeks to pursue, who, not at all acquainted with the place, plunged into the water confusedly and perished in great numbers.  In the subsequent engagements before Yermouk (all of which were in November, 636), the Christians invariably were defeated, till at last, Mahan’s vast army being broken and dispersed, he was forced to flee, thus leaving the Saracens masters of the field, and wholly delivered from those terrible apprehensions with which the news of his great preparations had filled them.

A short time after Abu Obeidah wrote to the Caliph the following letter: 

     “In the name of the most merciful God, etc.

“This is to acquaint thee that I encamped at Yermouk, where Mahan was near us with such an army as that the Mussulmans never beheld a greater.  But God, of his abundant grace and goodness, overthrew this multitude and gave us the victory over them.  We killed of them about a hundred and fifty thousand, and took forty thousand prisoners.  Of the Mussulmans were killed four thousand and thirty, to whom God had decreed the honor of martyrdom.  Finding some heads cut off, and not knowing whether they belonged to the Mussulmans or Christians, I prayed over them and buried them.  Mahan was afterward killed at Damascus by Nooman Ebn Alkamah.  There was one Abu Joaid that before the battle had belonged to them, having come from Hems; he drowned of them a great number unknown to any but God.  As for those that fled into the deserts and mountains, we have destroyed them all, and stopped all the roads and passages, and God has made us masters of their country, and wealth, and children.  Written after the victory from Damascus, where I stay expecting thy orders concerning the division of the spoil.  Fare thee well, and the mercy and blessing of God be upon thee and all the Mussulmans.”

Omar, in a short letter, expressed his satisfaction, and gave the Saracens thanks for their perseverance and diligence, commanding Abu Obeidah to continue