The first to pass through ad-Darb. Regarding the first one to cross ad-Darb,[1] i. e., Darb Baghrâs[2] there is a disagreement. Some assert that the first was Maisarah ibn-Masrûḳ al-ʿAbsi who was despatched by abu-ʿUbaidah ibn-al-Jarrâḥ and who met a host of Greeks accompanied by the "naturalized" [mustaʿribah] Arabs of the Ghassân, Tanûkh and Iyâd, trying to follow Heraclius [in Asia Minor]. Maisarah fell upon them and wrought a bloody massacre among them. He was later joined by Mâlik al-Ashtar an-Nakhaʿi sent as a reinforcement by abu-ʿUbaidah from Antioch.
According to others, the first to cross ad-Darb was ʿUmar ibn-Saʿd al-Anṣâri, when he was sent in connection with the case of Jabalah ibn-al-Aiham.
According to abu-l-Khaṭṭâb al-Azdi, abu-ʿUbaidah himself led the summer expedition passing through al-Maṣṣîṣah and then through Ṭarsûs whose people, together with those of the fortified cities lying beyond, had evacuated their places. Thus abu-ʿUbaidah entered the land of the [Greek] enemy and carried his campaign as far as Zandah. According to others, abu-ʿUbaidah did not himself go, but sent Maisarah ibn-Masrûḳ, who reached as far as Zandah.
Muʿâwiyah and the forts. Abu-Ṣâliḥ al-Farrâʾ from one supposed by him to have been ʿUbâdah ibn-Nusai:—When Muʿâwiyah in the year 25 invaded ʿAmmûriyah [Amorium], he found the forts between Antioch and Tarsûs all vacant. He therefore left in those forts some men from Syria, Mesopotamia and Ḳinnasrîn until he had finished his expedition. One or two years later, he sent Yazîd ibn-al-Ḥurr al-ʿAbsi at the head of the summer expedition and
