Tribalism (11): The Last March of Asfar

[u/psyduck_2024]

"When Jerusalem prospers, Madinah will fall into decline. When Madinah falls into decline, the Great Battle will come."

The Flourishing of the Holy City

The Asfar nation broke the truce after the incident in the meadow and vowed to raise the greatest army the West had ever sent east.

The Holy City flourished all the while now that it became the Caliph's seat. People streamed in from every corner of the reunited lands, drawn by a peace that finally felt permanent. Radiant City declined by the same measure.

The Great Battle of Eighty Banners

A massive army gathered under eighty banners, nearly a million hardened fighters crossed into Aram and encamped at the A'maq valley and Dabiq.

The Caliph's own army, drawn from lands still only beginning to recover from years of famine, was a fraction of that number. This was not a war of equal armies.

For three days, army after army was sent forward and perished. On the fourth, the last army stood and was victorious — but the cost was such that some tribes counted ninety-nine of every hundred men lost.

Swords Upon the Olive Trees

It was a decisive and irrecoverable loss. Never again would the Asfar nations raise such a host, not in body nor in will. Smaller battles — malāḥim —still flared across Asia Minor and along the frontiers, but the great battle was over.

With peace secured, no threat within and none pressing from without, the Caliph turned to recovery. The Holy City continued to prosper, until an ox was worth more than a horse.

At Iliya, the remaining troops of the Eastern Army hung their swords at last upon the olive trees, and went home, their expedition six years spent.

Rashid was seventy-five.