History of the Parsis : including their manners, customs, religion and present position : with coloured and other illustrations : in two volumes
20 HISTORY OF THE PARSIS. [CHAP. I.
exceeding one hundred and fifty thousand men. With these forces he decided to make a final effort to check Arab ambition. Fortune having already smiled upon Omar, he too followed up his advantages by sending large reimforcements from every part of the Arab dominions to the army in Persia; and a sanouinary battle was fought on the plains of Nahavand, a village some fifty miles from the ancient city of Hcbatana. This battle decided the fate of the Persian empire. The Arabs, kindled with enthusiasm, careless of danger, and insensible to fatigue, fought bravely with the newly-inspired zeal of their religion, which recognised the hero alone as worthy of Paradise. On the other hand, the glory of the Persian monarchy had declined, and the empire was barely recovering from a series of internal troubles when thus beset by the gravest external danger. Ruler after ruler had been dethroned and murdered, and the army of the empire, though large in point of numbers, could not be said to approach in valour and discipline the hardy Arabs of the desert. On the authority of the Zeenut-ul-Tuarikh, Sir John Malcolm thus describes the battle of Nahavand (4.p. 641) and the fate which overtook the unfortunate Yazdezard :—
“The Arabian force assembled at Kufa and from thence marched to the plains of Nahavand, on which the Persian army had established a camp surrounded by a deep entrenchment. During two months these great armies continued in sight of each other, and many skirmishes were fought. The Persian general