فتح الملتان وبيت الذهب

فتح الملتان وبيت الذهب

ملتان

Across the Bayas, Multan's folk fought — Za'ida ibn Umayr al-Ta'i excelled — then shut themselves in. The Muslims ate their donkeys till a protected man showed the water-intake — the spring al-Balah fed from Basmad's river — and cut it, they yielded on terms: the fighters slain, six thousand temple sadins and offspring enslaved, and gold heaped in a ten-by-eight cubit house filled through a roof hole — whence 'Multan, Faraj Bayt al-Dhahab', the frontier of the House of Gold. Its budd drew offerings and vows; Sind's pilgrims shaved heads and beards there and claimed its idol was the prophet Ayyub.