fathers," and professed Islâm. After the arrival of ʿUmar ibn-al-Khṭṭâb in Syria, year 17, Jabalah had a dispute with one of the Muzainah and knocked out his eye. ʿUmar ordered that he be punished, upon which Jabalah said, "Is his eye like mine? Never, by Allah, shall I abide in a town where I am under authority." He then apostatized and went to the land of the Greeks. This Jabalah was the king of Ghassân[1] and the successor of al-Ḥârith ibn-abi-Shimr.
According to another report, when Jabalah came to ʿUmar ibn-al-Khaṭṭâb, he was still a Christian. ʿUmar asked him to accept Islam and pay ṣadaḳah; but he refused saying, "I shall keep my faith and pay ṣadaḳah." ʿUmar's answer was, "If thou keepest thy faith, thou hast to pay poll-tax." The man refused, and ʿUmar added, "We have only three alternatives for thee: Islâm, tax or going whither thou wiliest." Accordingly, Jabalah left with 30,000 men to the land of the Greeks [Asia Minor]. ʿUbâdah ibn-aṣ-Ṣâmit gently reproved ʿUmar saying, " If thou hadst accepted ṣadaḳah from him and treated him in a friendly way, he would have become Moslem."
In the year 21, ʿUmar directed ʿUmair ibn-Saʿd al-Anṣâri at the head of a great army against the land of the Greeks, and put him in command of the summer expedition[2] which was the first of its kind. ʿUmar instructed him to treat Jabalah ibn-al-Aiham very kindly and to try and appeal to him through the blood relationship between them, so that he should come back to the land of the Moslems with the understanding that he would keep his own faith and pay the amount of ṣadaḳah he had agreed to pay. ʿUmair marched until he came to the land of the Greeks and proposed to
