Note 106 — Chapter X · CAMPAIGN OF KHALID IN IRAC. A.H. XII. A.D. 633.

Beyond the general outline we must not look for much trustworthy detail at the outset of these campaigns. The narrative of them is brief and summary, often confused and contradictory. For example, Hîra is said by some to have submitted at the outset and agreed to pay tribute, which is inconsistent with the course of the narrative. The summons to Hormuz as given in the text savours too much of the set type of after days to be above suspicion; so with the constant repetition of single combats, without which the historians seem to think no Arab battle complete.

There is one point of some importance. It is the call on Hormuz to pay tribute. Now, tribute was permitted by Mahomet only to ‘the people of the Book,’ that is, to Jews and Christians. No such immunity was allowed to the heathen, who were to be fought against to the bitter end. Zoroastrians (for such was Hormuz) should strictly have been offered no terms but Islam. They had not, however, yet been thought of, for they were altogether beyond the limits and tribes of Arabia. Eventually, Omar ruled that having ‘a Book’ or Revelation, they might be admitted into the category of those to be spared on payment of tribute. But, as I have said, the summons is no doubt cast in the conventional mould of later days.