never come to an end nor the curtains of gloom would be drawn by
the hand of Night; and they ceased not to battle with swords and
to smite till light darkened and murk starkened. Then the kettle-
drums of the Infidels beat the retreat, but Gharib, refusing to
stay his arms, crave at the Paynimry, and the Believers in Unity,
the Moslems, followed him. How many heads and hands they shore,
how many necks and sinews they tore, how many knees and spines
they mashed and how many grown men and youths they to death
bashed! With the first gleam of morning grey the Infidels broke
and fled away, in disorder and disarray; and the Moslems followed
them till middle-day and took over twenty-thousand of them, whom
they brought to their tents in bonds to stay. Then Gharib sat
down before the gate of Cufa and commanded a herald to proclaim
pardon and protection for every wight who should leave the
worship to idols dight and profess the unity of His All-might the
Creator of mankind and of light and night. So was made
proclamation as he bade in the streets of Cufa and all that were
therein embraced the True Faith, great and small; then they
issued forth in a body and renewed their Islam before King
Gharib, who rejoiced in them with exceeding joy and his breast
broadened and he threw off all annoy. Presently he enquired of
Mardas and his daughter Mahdiyah, and, being told that he had
taken up his abode behind the Red Mountain, he called Sahim and
said to him, "Find out for me what is become of thy father."
Sahim mounted steed without stay or delay and set his berry-brown
spear in rest and fared on in quest till he reached the Red
Mountain, where he sought for his father, yet found no trace of
him nor of his tribe; however, he saw in their stead an elder of
the Arabs, a very old man, broken with excess of years, and asked
him of the folk and whither they were gone. Replied he, "O my