CHAPTER I
Terms made with Nubia
ʿUḳbah leads the attack. Muḥammad ibn-Saʿd from abu-l-Khair:—When the Moslems subdued Egypt, ʿAmr ibn-al-ʿÂṣi sent to the surrounding villages, in order to overrun and pillage them, a detachment of cavalry under ʿUḳbah ibn-Nâfiʿ al-Fihri (Nâfiʿ being a brother of al-Âṣi on his mother's side). The cavalry entered the land of Nubia[1] as the summer expeditions of the Greeks do. The Moslems met in Nubia determined resistance. They were subjected to such severe showers of arrows until most of them were wounded and had to return with many wounds and blinded eyes. Therefore were the Nubians called the "archers of the eyes".
The terms made. This state of affairs continued until ʿAbdallâh ibn-Saʿd ibn-abi-Sarḥ ruled over Egypt. The Nubians asked for peace and conciliation from ʿAbdallâh, who granted their request, the terms being that they pay no tax but offer as a present three hundred slaves per annum; and that the Moslems offer them as a present food equivalent to the value of the slaves.
The Nubians as archers. Muḥammad ibn-Saʿd from a sheikh of the tribe of Ḥimyar:—The latter said, "I have been to Nubia twice during the caliphate of ʿUmar ibn-al-Khaṭṭâb, and I never saw a people who are sharper in warfare than they. I heard one of them say to the Moslem, 'Where do you want me to hit you with my arrow?' and
- ↑ An-Nâbah. See Idrîsi, Ṣifat al-Maghrib, p. 19.
