signal of Allah akbar, “God is great,” shouted by Sa’ad from his tower, the Arabs rushed to the attack.  Their cavalry charged; but the Persians advanced against them their line of elephants, repeating with excellent effect the tactics of the famous “Battle of the Bridge.”  The Arab horse fled; the foot alone remained firm; victory seemed inclining to the Persians, who were especially successful on either wing; Toleicha, with his “lions” failed to re-establish the balance; and all would have been lost, had not Assem, at the command of Sa’ad, sent a body of archers and other footmen to close with the elephants, gall them with missiles, cut their girths, and so precipitate their riders to the ground.  Relieved from this danger, the Arab horse succeeded in repulsing the Persians, who as evening approached retired in good order to their camp.  The chief loss on this, the “day of concussion,” was suffered by the Arabs, who admit that they had 500 killed, and must have had a proportional number of wounded.

On the morning of the second day the site of the battle was somewhat changed, the Persians having retired a little during the night.  Reinforcements from Syria kept reaching the Arab camp through most of the day; and hence it is known to the Arab writers as the “day of succors.”  The engagement seems for some time not to have been general, the Arabs waiting for more troops to reach them, while the Persians abstained because they had not yet repaired the furniture of their elephants.  Thus the morning passed in light skirmishes and single combats between the champions of either host, who went out singly before the lines and challenged each other to the encounter.  The result of the duels was adverse to the Persians, who lost in the course of them two of their best generals, Bendsuwan and Bahman-Dsulhadjib.  After a time the Arabs, regarding themselves as sufficiently reinforced, attacked the Persians along their whole line, partly with horse, and partly with camels, dressed up to resemble elephants.  The effect on the Persian cavalry was the same as had on the preceding day been produced by the real elephants on the horse of the Arabs; it was driven off the field and dispersed, suffering considerable losses.  But the infantry stood firm, and after a while the cavalry rallied; Rustam, who had been in danger of suffering capture, was saved; and night closing in, defeat was avoided, though the advantage of the day rested clearly with the Arabs.  The Persians had lost 10,000 in killed and wounded, the Arabs no more than 2000.

In the night which followed “the day of succors” great efforts were made by the Persians to re-equip their elephants, and when morning dawned they were enabled once more to bring the unwieldy beasts into line.  But the Arabs and their horses had now grown more familiar with the strange animals; they no longer shrank from meeting them; and some Persian deserters gave the useful information that, in order