As the sun rose on the morning of November 22nd, two battles were about to begin. In the Southern Appenines, King Georgios eagerly awaited his coming battle with Count Henry. The Moreans were more than likely to crush the Beneventan army, and soon he would have even more of a stronghold in Southern Italy.
Hundreds of miles to the southwest, Zeyd's feelings towards his own approaching battle were quite different. Outnumbered two to one, things did not look good for the Tunisians. He had to formulate a plan, and fast.
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The battle between Georgios and Henry did not last long, and so we will not dwell upon it. Within the first hour of combat, the Beneventan army had been routed, pursued, and slaughtered nearly to a man. Only about twenty men, along with Count Henry, managed to escape with their lives to reinforce the garrison of Benevento. The Moreans had barely lost 200 men, and soon Benevento was under siege by nearly 5,000 men.
It is Zeyd's battle with Sheik Ali upon which we will focus our attention.
Scouts had reported to Zeyd and Ibrahim that the Palermans had taken the high ground, giving them yet another advantage.
Ibrahim told Zeyd his plan, "Zeyd, I want you to take your regiment and attack up the centre. Draw their attention to you. They will unleash volleys of arrows, and perhaps attack, and then, when I give the signal, my regiments will encircle them and crush them. Do you understand?"
Zeyd did his best to hide his anger at he and his men being used as sacrificial lambs to lure the enemy in. He knew it was necessary to lure the enemy, or there was no hope of victory, but he did not want to throw his men's lives away. Suddenly, a plan formed itself in his mind, a way to be the distraction Ibrahim needed, without losing most of his men. But... he knew that Ibrahim would not like it if a sub-general came up with a better plan. So, Zeyd decided to keep it from his commander. He merely said, "Yes, General Ibrahim. I understand."
When he was alone with his regiment, Zeyd told them his plan. "General Ibrahim wishes to send us to our deaths as a deception to the enemy, so that he may envelop them and destroy them. I do not want to lose such a fine group of men as you, but we must be this distraction. However, I have altered our mission without telling Ibrahim. He want us to eat up their arrows. I will do better, and save lives. We will march to the foot of their hill, and taunt them. With any luck, and if Allah wills it, Sheik Ali's pride will be tempted. If he feels an insult to his pride because of our taunts, he will come down from the hill and attack. When he does this, we must fight for a brief time, and them flee, as though broken. Because not even Ibrahim knows that it is a feint, both he and the enemy will think it a rout. Ali will no doubt pursue us, to prevent us from rallying. At the same time, Ibrahim will be forced into action early enough to save our lives. Now, when our fleeing regiment approaches our comrades, we must reform the ranks, and join with our brothers. This will throw the Palermans off guard, and give us the chance we need. Allah willing, this will bring victory, and save most of our lives."
The men liked this plan, and agreed to it.
So, when the Tunisian army had formed lines, Zeyd marched at the head of his regiment of 400. On the Right flank, Ibrahim waited with his regiment of 300. And on the left was another sub-general, Ibrahim's brother, Al'a'addin with 300 more men.
As Zeyd and his men marched across the field to the hill, the first volley of Palerman arrows came down upon them. Zeyd called for his men to raise shields, and they complied quickly. With their shields in the air, most of the arrows were deflected, and only a handful of Tunisians fell. Another volley came, and had the same result.
Now Zeyd had reached the foot of the hill. He and his men defended against a third volley of arrows, and then shouted taunt and insults up the hill at their enemy. It worked, in part. Sheik Ali would not let this taunt go unanswered, but he saw no need to let all 2,000 men run down the hill over a mere 400. He sent one regiment, his best, led by his only son, Yakub.
As Zeyd saw only 600 men descend the hill, he knew his plan was beginning to fall apart. But there was one way to save it. "Kill Yakub!" he shouted to his men as they braced for the impact of the 600 Palermans' charge.
Once the two forces had locked in combat, violent fighting erupted. Zeyd fought long and hard to reach Yakub. At last he did. Yakub was no warrior, and was no good with a sword. Within moments, he was slain by Zeyd's scimitar. Upon seeing Yakub fall, the Palerman regiment fled back up the hill.
Zeyd's men cheered in victory. But Ali would not let his son's death go unpunished. Now he fell into Zeyd's trap. He ordered all his men to attack, with orders to spare no one.
The two forces clashed, but within moments, according to plan, Zeyd's men broke. Zeyd ran as fast as his men, and he shouted to them to run in a scattered formation, so as to truly appear broken.
It worked. Ali's men prusued, oblivious to the trap they were falling into.
On the Tunisian side of the battlefield, Ibrahim looked on with horror, "I thought I could trust Zeyd to do better than that! The battle is nearly lost. Attack, now! ATTACK!"
The 600 Tunisians charged. As Zeyd and his men approached their brothers, they turned as one, and shouted a great war cry. The Tunisians, upon seeing Zeyd and his men reform, were filled with fresh courage. The Palermans, on the other hand, were filled with dread. They now understood that they had fallen for the feigned retreat. This realisation came too late for them. The two armies clashed, and the vicious and bloody melee began.
The Tunisian men looked to Zeyd now for courage and inspiration, and he gave it to them. He fought on and on, even as his body grew exhausted. At one point, he spotted the banner of Sheik Ali himself, and fought his way to him. Some forty Tunisians fought along with him, to protect him. By the time they were in ear-shot of Ali, nearly half of the forty were dead. Zeyd shouted to the Sheik, "It was my sword which took your son's head! Now it shall take yours as well!"
Ali let out a war cry, and shouted, "You bastard! I will kill you for what you did to my son!"
As the two leaders clashed, Zeyd's men fought desperately to keep the Palermans from interfering. By now, Zeyd had only about ten men left with him, the rest of the Tunisians were still further back at the main line of battle.
The duel between Zeyd and Ali lasted for about twenty minutes before Ali, already in his fifties, succumbed to exhaustion. In his fatigue, he let down his guard for one brief moment, which the much younger Tunisian commander took advantage of. Within moments, Ali's head was rolling on the ground. Zeyd let out a victorious cry, "ALI IS DEAD! LONG LIVE KING HASAN!"
As this cry rang through the Tunisian line, the Palermans broke and fled the field.
Zeyd looked around him. Only two of the forty men who had followed him to the heart of the Palerman army still lived. Thirty-eight of his men had died to give him the chance to kill Ali. They had done their duty.
When the dead were tallied, the Tunisian army had lost nearly 600 men, but over twice that many Palermans had died. Of Zeyd's own regiment, 136 men still lived, less than half the original number. But they all knew that had they followed Ibrahim's plan, many more would have died.
After word reached Agrigento of the victory, Emir Sha'ban sent his other thousand men to reinforce the army, and sent praise to Ibrahim for his victory, and to Zeyd for his courage and valour.
With their Sheik and his son dead, the people of Palermo surrendered without a fight to the armies of Tunisia. Now the Tunisians had a greater foothold in Sicily.