[Footnote 60: Abulfeda allows only seventy days for the
siege of Damascus (Annal. Moslem. p. 67, vers. Reiske ); but
Elmacin, who mentions this opinion, prolongs the term to six
months, and notices the use of balistae by the
Saracens (Hist. Saracen. p. 5, 32). Even this longer period
is insufficient to fill he interval between the battle of
Aiznadin (July A.D. 633) and the accession of Omar (24th
July, A..D. 634), to whose reign the conquest of Damascus is
unanimously ascribed (Al Wakidi, apud Ockley vol. i. P. 115;
Abulpharagius, Dynast. p. 112, vers. Pocock). Perhaps, as in
the Trojan war, th& e operations were interrupted by
excursions and detachments till the last seventy days of the
siege.]