But despite the problems with communication, the northward trek was not a silent one. Each tribe had its own songs, and the men were constantly singing to take their minds off their terrible plight. The desert air rang with conflicting, yet interweaving, music as Hakem Rafi’s troops marched ahead, its pattern of march constantly changing to the many different rhythms of the singers. After three weeks in this wilderness—during which many despaired of ever seeing grass or trees again—they reached the fertile lands of the kingdom of Libayy.
A caravan of desert traders had warned the Libayyan king about a vast army approaching his borders, and he rallied his own forces to face them. An army of two thousand men had never attacked Libayy from the south before—the desert had always formed a natu
