and their followers had already arrived and encamped on the Euphrates, before Ḥabîb received the reinforcement. Taking advantage of the night, the Moslems swept over them and killed their chief. That evening Ḥabîb's wife, umm-ʿAbdallâh, daughter of Yazîd of the Kalb tribe, asked Ḥabîb, "Where shall I meet thee?" To this, Ḥabîb replied, "Either at the tents of the 'tyrant',[1] or in Paradise!" When he got to those tents he found her there.
When the Moslems were done with their enemy, Salmân returned. The Kufite troops wanted to have a share in the booty but were refused, which led into a verbal dispute between Ḥabîb and Salmân. Some Moslems threatened Salmân with death, regarding which the poet said:
"If ye kill Salmân, we kill your Ḥabîb;
and if ye depart towards ibn-ʿAffân, we would also depart."[2]
ʿUthmân was communicated with, and he wrote back, "The spoils belong wholly to the Syrians by right." Meanwhile, he wrote to Salmân ordering him to invade Arrân.
It is reported by others that in the caliphate of ʿUthmân, Salmân ibn-Rabîʿah went to Armenia, made captives and plundered, returning in the year 25 to al-Walîd ibn-ʿUḳbah at Ḥadîthat al-Mauṣil. Al-Walîd received a letter from ʿUthmân informing him that Muʿâwiyah had written him to the effect that the Greeks were gathered against the Moslems in great numbers, and that the Moslems wanted reinforcements, and ordering him to send 8,000 men.[3] Accordingly, al-Walîd sent 8,000 men under Salmân ibn-Rabîʿah-l-Bâhili. Muʿâwiyah sent an equal number under Ḥabîb ibn-Maslamah-l-Fihri. The two leaders reduced many
