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, the operations were interrupted by excursions and detachments till the last seventy days of the siege.