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gave such a cry, that the whole field resounded thereto and both armies heard it, and ran at Courejan with a heart on fire with anger, reciting the following verses:
Harkye, I’m Jemrcan, the champion stout and wight; The terror of my stroke is feared of every knight.
I take the strengths by storm and leave the fortress-walls To mourn the loss of those that held them in their might.
Wherefore, O Courejan, quit thou the erring path; Turn from the froward ways and tread the road of right;
Confess to the one true God, who spread the heavens above, Who made the streams to flow and hills to stand upright;
For, if the slave embrace the true, the only faith, Hell’s anguish shall he ’scape and win to heaven’s delight.
When Courejan heard these words, he puffed and snorted and railed at the sun and the moon and drove at Jemrcan, repeating these verses:
I’m Courejan, the chief and champion of the age! Es Shera’s[1] lions flee my shadow in affright!
I take the forts by storm and snare the beasts of prey, And all the horsemen fear to meet me in the fight.
Wherefore, O Jemrcan, if thou believe me not, Up to the middle field and try with me thy might!
Jemrcan met him with a stout heart and they hewed at each other with swords and thrust with spears, till the two hosts lamented for them and great was the clamour between them: nor did they leave fighting till the time of afternoon-prayer was passed and the day began to wane. Then Jemrcan drove at Courejan and smiting him on the breast with his mace, cast him to the ground, as he were the trunk of a palm-tree; and the Muslims bound him and haled him away with ropes like a camel.
When the idolaters saw their prince captive, a blind fury seized on them and they bore down upon the Muslims, thinking to rescue him; but the Muslim champions met them and left [many of] them prostrate on the earth,
- ↑ Es Shera, a mountainous tract in Arabia, infested with lions.
