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Tensors for
Data Processing
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Tensors for
Data Processing
Theory, Methods, and Applications
Edited by
Yipeng Liu
School of Information and Communication Engineering
University of Electronic Science and Technology
of China (UESTC)
Chengdu, China
Academic Press is an imprint of Elsevier
125 London Wall, London EC2Y 5AS, United Kingdom
525 B Street, Suite 1650, San Diego, CA 92101, United States
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The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford OX5 1GB, United Kingdom
Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-12-824447-0
v
vi Contents
9.4.4
Compressing the convolutional layer via TT/TR
decompositions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
9.4.5 Compressing neural networks via transform-based
decomposition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330
9.5 Experiments and future directions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333
9.5.1 Performance evaluations using the MNIST dataset . . . 333
9.5.2 Performance evaluations using the CIFAR10 dataset . 336
9.5.3 Future research directions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338
CHAPTER 10 Coupled tensor decompositions for data fusion . . . . 341
Christos Chatzichristos, Simon Van Eyndhoven,
Eleftherios Kofidis, and Sabine Van Huffel
10.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341
10.2 What is data fusion? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342
10.2.1 Context and definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342
10.2.2 Challenges of data fusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343
10.2.3 Types of fusion and data fusion strategies . . . . . . . . . . 347
10.3 Decompositions in data fusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348
10.3.1 Matrix decompositions and statistical models . . . . . . . 350
10.3.2 Tensor decompositions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351
10.3.3 Coupled tensor decompositions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352
10.4 Applications of tensor-based data fusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355
10.4.1 Biomedical applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355
10.4.2 Image fusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357
10.5 Fusion of EEG and fMRI: a case study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358
10.6 Data fusion demos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361
10.6.1 SDF demo – approximate coupling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361
10.7 Conclusion and prospects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364
CHAPTER 11 Tensor methods for low-level vision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371
Tatsuya Yokota, Cesar F. Caiafa, and Qibin Zhao
11.1 Low-level vision and signal reconstruction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371
11.1.1 Observation models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372
11.1.2 Inverse problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 374
11.2 Methods using raw tensor structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 378
11.2.1 Penalty-based tensor reconstruction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379
11.2.2 Tensor decomposition and reconstruction . . . . . . . . . . 393
11.3 Methods using tensorization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409
11.3.1 Higher-order tensorization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411
11.3.2 Delay embedding/Hankelization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413
11.4 Examples of low-level vision applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415
Contents xi
Kim Batselier
Delft Center for Systems and Control, Delft University of Technology, Delft,
The Netherlands
Yingyue Bi
School of Information and Communication Engineering, University of Electronic
Science and Technology of China (UESTC), Chengdu, China
Jérémie Boulanger
CRIStAL, Université de Lille, Villeneuve d’Ascq, France
Rémy Boyer
CRIStAL, Université de Lille, Villeneuve d’Ascq, France
Cesar F. Caiafa
Instituto Argentino de Radioastronomía – CCT La Plata, CONICET / CIC-PBA /
UNLP, Villa Elisa, Argentina
RIKEN Center for Advanced Intelligence Project, Tokyo, Japan
Jocelyn Chanussot
LJK, CNRS, Grenoble INP, Inria, Université Grenoble, Alpes, Grenoble, France
Christos Chatzichristos
KU Leuven, Department of Electrical Engineering (ESAT), STADIUS Center for
Dynamical Systems, Signal Processing and Data Analytics, Leuven, Belgium
Cong Chen
Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The University of Hong
Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong
Nadav Cohen
School of Computer Science, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
Xudong Cui
School of Mathematics, Tianjin University, Tianjin, China
André L.F. de Almeida
Department of Teleinformatics Engineering, Federal University of Fortaleza,
Fortaleza, Brazil
Aybüke Erol
Circuits and Systems, Department of Microelectronics, Delft University of
Technology, Delft, The Netherlands
xiii
xiv List of contributors
Yiming Fang
Department of Computer Science, Columbia University, New York, NY,
United States
Gérard Favier
Laboratoire I3S, Université Côte d’Azur, CNRS, Sophia Antipolis, France
Borbála Hunyadi
Circuits and Systems, Department of Microelectronics, Delft University of
Technology, Delft, The Netherlands
Pratik Jawanpuria
Microsoft, Hyderabad, India
Tai-Xiang Jiang
School of Economic Information Engineering, Southwestern University of
Finance and Economics, Chengdu, Sichuan, China
Paris A. Karakasis
School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Technical University of Crete,
Chania, Greece
Ouafae Karmouda
CRIStAL, Université de Lille, Villeneuve d’Ascq, France
Hiroyuki Kasai
Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan
Eleftherios Kofidis
Dept. of Statistics and Insurance Science, University of Piraeus, Piraeus, Greece
Christos Kolomvakis
School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Technical University of Crete,
Chania, Greece
Yoav Levine
School of Computer Science, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
Zechu Li
Department of Computer Science, Columbia University, New York, NY,
United States
Athanasios P. Liavas
School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Technical University of Crete,
Chania, Greece
List of contributors xv
Zhouchen Lin
Key Lab. of Machine Perception, School of EECS, Peking University, Beijing,
China
Xiao-Yang Liu
Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong
University, Shanghai, China
Department of Electrical Engineering, Columbia University, New York, NY,
United States
Yipeng Liu
School of Information and Communication Engineering, University of Electronic
Science and Technology of China (UESTC), Chengdu, China
Zhen Long
School of Information and Communication Engineering, University of Electronic
Science and Technology of China (UESTC), Chengdu, China
George Lourakis
Neurocom, S.A, Athens, Greece
Canyi Lu
Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, United States
Liangfu Lu
School of Mathematics, Tianjin University, Tianjin, China
Yingcong Lu
School of Information and Communication Engineering, University of Electronic
Science and Technology of China (UESTC), Chengdu, China
George Lykoudis
Neurocom, S.A, Athens, Greece
Bamdev Mishra
Microsoft, Hyderabad, India
Michael K. Ng
Department of Mathematics, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam,
Hong Kong
Ioannis Marios Papagiannakos
School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Technical University of Crete,
Chania, Greece
Bo Ren
Key Laboratory of Intelligent Perception and Image Understanding of Ministry of
Education of China, Xidian University, Xi’an, China
xvi List of contributors
Or Sharir
School of Computer Science, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
Amnon Shashua
School of Computer Science, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
Ioanna Siaminou
School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Technical University of Crete,
Chania, Greece
Christos Tsalidis
Neurocom, S.A, Athens, Greece
Simon Van Eyndhoven
KU Leuven, Department of Electrical Engineering (ESAT), STADIUS Center for
Dynamical Systems, Signal Processing and Data Analytics, Leuven, Belgium
icometrix, Leuven, Belgium
Sabine Van Huffel
KU Leuven, Department of Electrical Engineering (ESAT), STADIUS Center for
Dynamical Systems, Signal Processing and Data Analytics, Leuven, Belgium
Anwar Walid
Nokia Bell Labs, Murray Hill, NJ, United States
Fei Wen
Department of Electronic Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai,
China
Noam Wies
School of Computer Science, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
Ngai Wong
Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The University of Hong
Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong
Zebin Wu
School of Computer Science and Engineering, Nanjing University of Science
and Technology, Nanjing, China
Yang Xu
School of Computer Science and Engineering, Nanjing University of Science
and Technology, Nanjing, China
Liuqing Yang
Department of Computer Science, Columbia University, New York, NY,
United States
List of contributors xvii
Fei Ye
School of Computer Science and Engineering, Nanjing University of Science
and Technology, Nanjing, China
Tatsuya Yokota
Nagoya Institute of Technology, Aichi, Japan
RIKEN Center for Advanced Intelligence Project, Tokyo, Japan
Zhonghao Zhang
School of Information and Communication Engineering, University of Electronic
Science and Technology of China (UESTC), Chengdu, China
Qibin Zhao
RIKEN Center for Advanced Intelligence Project, Tokyo, Japan
Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou, China
Xi-Le Zhao
School of Mathematical Sciences/Research Center for Image and Vision
Computing, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu,
Sichuan, China
Pan Zhou
SEA AI Lab, Singapore, Singapore
Ce Zhu
School of Information and Communication Engineering, University of Electronic
Science and Technology of China (UESTC), Chengdu, China
Yassine Zniyed
Université de Toulon, Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS, LIS, Toulon, France
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Preface
This book provides an overview of tensors for data processing, covering computing
theories, processing methods, and engineering applications. The tensor extensions
of a series of classical multidimensional data processing techniques are discussed
in this book. Many thanks go to all the contributors. Students can read this book to
get an overall understanding, researchers can update their knowledge on the recent
research advances in the field, and engineers can refer to implementations on various
applications.
The first chapter is an introduction to tensor decomposition. In the following, the
book provides variants of tensor decompositions with their efficient and effective so-
lutions, including some parallel algorithms, Riemannian algorithms, and generalized
thresholding algorithms. Some tensor-based machine learning methods are summa-
rized in detail, including tensor completion, tensor principal component analysis,
support tensor machine, tensor-based kernel learning, tensor-based deep learning, etc.
To demonstrate that tensors can effectively and systematically enhance performance
in practical engineering problems, this book gives implemental details of many ap-
plications, such as signal recovery, recommender systems, climate forecasting, image
clustering, image classification, network compression, data fusion, image enhance-
ment, neuroimaging, and remote sensing.
I sincerely hope this book can serve to introduce tensors to more data scientists
and engineers. As a natural representation of multidimensional data, tensors can be
used to substantially avoid the information loss in matrix representations of multiway
data, and tensor operators can model more connections than their matrix counterparts.
The related advances in applied mathematics allow us to move from matrices to ten-
sors for data processing. This book is promising to motivate novel tensor theories and
new data processing methods, and to stimulate the development of a wide range of
practical applications.
Yipeng Liu
Chengdu, China
Aug. 10, 2021
xix
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CHAPTER
Tensor decompositions:
computations,
applications, and
challenges
1
Yingyue Bi, Yingcong Lu, Zhen Long, Ce Zhu, and Yipeng Liu
School of Information and Communication Engineering, University of Electronic Science and
Technology of China (UESTC), Chengdu, China
CONTENTS
1.1 Introduction..................................................................................... 1
1.1.1 What is a tensor? ............................................................... 1
1.1.2 Why do we need tensors? ..................................................... 2
1.2 Tensor operations ............................................................................. 3
1.2.1 Tensor notations ................................................................ 3
1.2.2 Matrix operators ................................................................ 4
1.2.3 Tensor transformations ........................................................ 6
1.2.4 Tensor products................................................................. 7
1.2.5 Structural tensors .............................................................. 11
1.2.6 Summary ........................................................................ 13
1.3 Tensor decompositions ....................................................................... 13
1.3.1 Tucker decomposition ......................................................... 13
1.3.2 Canonical polyadic decomposition........................................... 14
1.3.3 Block term decomposition .................................................... 16
1.3.4 Tensor singular value decomposition ........................................ 18
1.3.5 Tensor network .................................................................. 19
1.4 Tensor processing techniques............................................................... 24
1.5 Challenges ...................................................................................... 25
References............................................................................................ 26
1.1 Introduction
1.1.1 What is a tensor?
The tensor can be seen as a higher-order generalization of vector and matrix, which
normally has three or more modes (ways) [1]. For example, a color image is a third-
order tensor. It has two spatial modes and one channel mode. Similarly, a color video
is a fourth-order tensor; its extra mode denotes time.
Tensors for Data Processing. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-824447-0.00007-8
Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
1
2 CHAPTER 1 TDs: computations, applications, and challenges
FIGURE 1.1
A third-order tensor A ∈ RI1 ×I2 ×I3 .
FIGURE 1.2
The illustration of mode-1 fibers A(:, i2 , i3 ), mode-2 fibers A(i1 , :, i3 ), and mode-3 fibers
A(i1 , i2 , :) with i1 = 1, · · · , I1 , i2 = 1, · · · , I2 and i3 = 1, · · · , I3 .
Other than the aforementioned notations, there is another way to denote tensors
and their operations [5]. Taking advantage of graphical representations, tensors can
be denoted by nodes and edges in a straightforward way. Graphical representations
for scalars, vectors, matrices, and tensors are shown in Fig. 1.4. The number next to
the edge represents the indices of the corresponding mode.
4 CHAPTER 1 TDs: computations, applications, and challenges
FIGURE 1.3
The illustration of horizontal slices A(i1 , :, :) i1 = 1, · · · , I1 , lateral slices A(:, i2 , :)
i2 = 1, · · · , I2 , and frontal slices A(:, :, i3 ) i3 = 1, · · · , I3 .
FIGURE 1.4
Graphical representations of scalar, vector, matrix and tensor.
Definition 1.2.2. (p -norm [6]) For matrix A ∈ RI ×J , its p -norm is defined as
1/p
I
J
p
Ap = ai,j . (1.1)
i=1 j =1
Definition 1.2.3. (Matrix nuclear norm [7]) The nuclear norm of matrix A is denoted
as A∗ = i σi (A), where σi (A) is the i-th largest singular value of A.
1.2 Tensor operations 5
Definition 1.2.4. (Hadamard product [8]) The Hadamard product for matrices A ∈
RM×N and B ∈ RM×N is defined as A B ∈ RM×N with
⎡ ⎤
a1,1 b1,1 a1,2 b1,2 ··· a1,N b1,N
⎢ a2,1 b2,1 a2,2 b2,2 ··· a2,N b2,N ⎥
⎢ ⎥
AB=⎢ .. .. .. .. ⎥. (1.2)
⎣ . . . . ⎦
aM,1 bM,1 aM,2 bM,2 ··· aM,N bM,N
Based on the Kronecker product, a lot of useful properties can be derived. Given
matrices A, B, C, D, we have
(A ⊗ B)(C ⊗ D) = AC ⊗ BD,
(A ⊗ B)† = A† ⊗ B† , (1.4)
(A ⊗ B) = A ⊗ B ,
T T T
Similar to the Kronecker product, the Khatri–Rao product also has some conve-
nient properties, such as
(A B)T = AT BT ,
A B C = (A B) C = A (B C),
(1.6)
(A B)T (A B) = AT A BT B,
†
(A B)† = AT A BT B (A B)T .
6 CHAPTER 1 TDs: computations, applications, and challenges
FIGURE 1.5
A graphical illustration of the tensor transpose on A ∈ RI1 ×I2 ×5 .
⎛ ⎞
1 2 9 2 8 7
A(2) = ⎝ 4 8 5 6 1 5 ⎠ , (1.9)
5 7 3 2 3 6
1 2 9 4 8 5 5 7 3
A(3) = . (1.10)
2 8 7 6 1 5 2 3 6
1.2 Tensor operations 7
FIGURE 1.6
A graphical illustration of tensor mode-n matricization for A ∈ RI1 ×···×IN .
Definition 1.2.9. (Tensor n-th canonical matricization [12]) For a fixed index n =
1, 2, · · · , N, the n-th canonical matricization of tensor A ∈ RI1 ×I2 ×···×IN can be de-
fined as
(A<n> )i1 i2 ···in , in+1 ···iN = ai1 ,i2 ,··· ,iN , (1.11)
where i1 i2 · · · in , in+1 · · · iN are multiindices and A<n> ∈ RI1 I2 ···In ×In+1 ···IN .
Take the multiindex i = i1 i2 · · · iN as an example, in = 1, 2, · · · , In , n = 1, · · · , N.
It can either be defined using the little-endian convention (reverse lexicographic or-
dering) [13]
I1
I2
IN
A, B = ··· ai1 ,i2 ,··· ,iN bi1 ,i2 ,··· ,iN . (1.14)
i1 =1 i2 =1 iN =1
Definition 1.2.11. (Tensor norm [1]) The norm of a tensor A ∈ RI1 ×I2 ×···×IN is the
square root of the summation over the square of all its elements, which can be ex-
pressed as
I1 I2
IN
A = ··· (ai1 ,i2 ,··· ,iN )2 . (1.15)
i1 =1 i2 =1 iN =1
8 CHAPTER 1 TDs: computations, applications, and challenges
FIGURE 1.7
A graphical illustration of the tensor inner product.
Definition 1.2.12. (Tensor mode-n product with a matrix [1]) The tensor mode-n
product of A ∈ RI1 ×I2 ×···×IN and matrix B ∈ RK×In is denoted as
or element-wisely,
IN
xi1 ,··· ,k,··· ,iN = ai1 ,··· ,in ,··· ,iN bk,in . (1.17)
in =1
FIGURE 1.8
A graphical illustration of the tensor mode-n product.
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FOOTNOTES:
[1] Manuscripts of the whole work have, however, been
procured, and are now being published on the Continent, but not
in time to be available for this work. They will serve hereafter to
correct, perhaps, some of the doubtful points of the history on
which, from the scantiness of the material, I may have gone
astray.
[2] Geschichte der Chalifen, 3 vols., Mannheim, 1846–1851.
[3] Culturgeschichte des Orients unter den Chalifen, Wien,
1875.
[4] The date ordinarily given as that of the Prophet’s death is
the 12th Rabi I. See note p. 280, Life of Mahomet, vol. iv.
For the term ‘Companion,’ technically used to signify all who
had a personal acquaintance with the Prophet, see ibid. p. 564.
The era of the Hegira was established by Omar, five or six
years after the Prophet’s death. The first Moharram of the first
year of the Hegira corresponds with 19th April, a.d. 622. The real
hegira, or flight of Mahomet from Mecca, took place two months
later (June 20). See ibid. p. 145, and C. de Perceval, vol. iii. p. 17.
[5] Al Siddîck; ibid. vol. ii. 102, 220. He was also called ‘the
Sighing one,’ from his compassionate nature.
[6] Meaning a palm-trunk left for the beasts to come and rub
themselves upon; a metaphor for a person much resorted to for
counsel. Hobâb was the chief whom Mahomet employed to
reconnoitre the enemy at Bedr.
[7] The Arabian mode of swearing fealty. The chief held out his
hand, and the people one by one struck their hand flat upon it as
they passed.
[8] It will be remembered that the native population of Medîna
was divided into the Aus and Khazraj, and Sád belonged to the
latter. Enmity and fighting had long prevailed between them
before Mahomet’s arrival (Life of Mahomet, p. 119).
[9] The followers of Mahomet were divided into the Muhâjerîn,
or Refugees from Mecca and elsewhere; and the Ansâr or
Helpers, the citizens of Medîna (Ibid. p. 189).
[10] The tradition regarding Zobeir and Talha, perhaps arose
from their attempt at the Caliphate, and refusal to acknowledge
Aly, five and twenty years afterwards. As to Aly himself, the
traditions vary. By some he is said to have been among the first to
swear fealty to Abu Bekr. But the more general tradition is that he
did not do so till Fâtima, who had a grudge against Abu Bekr for
her father’s patrimony, died (Life of Mahomet, p. 516). There are
other tales, but they all bear the stamp of Abbasside fabrication;
such as of Omar threatening to burn Aly’s house over his head;
Zobeir rushing out with a sword, &c. We are even told that Abu
Sofiân taunted Aly and Abbâs with allowing an insignificant
branch of the Coreish to seize the Caliphate from them; likened
them to a hungry donkey tethered up, or to a tent-peg made only
to be beaten; and offered to help them with horse and foot, but
that Aly declined his offer. These stories are childish and
apocryphal. There is absolutely nothing in the antecedents of Aly,
or his subsequent history, to render it in the least probable that
during the first two Caliphates, he advanced any claim whatever,
or indeed was in a position to do so. It was not till the reign of
Othmân that any idea arose of a superior right in virtue of his
having been the cousin of Mahomet and husband of Fâtima.
It is said that as the people crowded to the hall, where Sád lay
sick, to salute Abu Bekr, one cried out: ‘Have a care lest ye
trample upon Sád, and kill him under foot.’ ‘The Lord kill him, as
he deserveth!’ was the response of the heated Omar. ‘Softly,
Omar!’ interposed Abu Bekr, ‘blandness and courtesy are better
than curses and sharp words.’ Indeed, throughout this chapter
Abu Bekr appears to great advantage.
[11] See Life of Mahomet, p. 500.
[12] Life of Mahomet, p. 498.
[13] Some others of the chief Companions, Aly, Zobeir, &c.,
appear also to have remained behind; but they may possibly not
have originally formed a part of Osâma’s army ordered to
reassemble.
[14] The chronology at this period is uncertain, and the dates
only approximate. On the Prophet’s death we plunge at once from
light into obscurity. For the next two or three years we are left in
doubt, not only as to the period, but even as to the sequence of
important events and great battles. In the narrative of this
expedition, we only know that the army started soon after Abu
Bekr’s accession, but not before the spirit of rebellion had begun
to declare itself, which last, according to one tradition, was within
ten days of the Prophet’s death.
The length of the expedition varies, according to different
traditions, from 40 days to 70.
[15] See Life of Mahomet, chapter 32.
[16] Ibid. chapter xxx. Amru hastened home through Bahrein
immediately on hearing of Mahomet’s death. Corra ibn Hobeira,
Chief of the Beni Amir, took him aside, after a hospitable
entertainment, and advised, as the only way to avoid revolt, that
the tithe upon the Bedouins should be foregone. Amru stormed at
him for this; and subsequently, on Corra being brought in a
prisoner, advised his execution as an apostate.
On reaching Medîna, Amru made known the disheartening
news to his friends, who crowded round him. Omar coming up, all
were silent, but he divined what the subject of their converse was:
‘I think,’ he said, ‘that ye were speaking of what we have to fear
from the Arab tribes?’ On their confessing, he made them swear
that they would not discourage the people by letting the matter
spread, and added: ‘Fear ye not this thing; verily I fear far more
what the Arabs will suffer from you, than what ye will suffer from
them. Verily if a company of the Coreish were to enter into a cave
alone, the Bedouins would follow you into the same. They are a
servile crew: wherefore, fear the Lord, and fear not them.’
[17] Or Abrac. For the Beni Abs and Dzobiân, see Life of
Mahomet, vol. i. pp. ccxxiv. et seq.
[18] The riding camels had all been sent away with Osâma’s
army, and the only ones now available were those used to irrigate
the fields and palmgroves. The stratagem, was curious. The
Bedouins blew out their empty water-skins (mussucks), and when
thus buoyant and full of air, they kicked them (as you would a
foot-ball) in front of the Moslem camels, which, affrighted at the
strange sight, took to flight.
[19] The centre and wings were commanded by three sons of
Mocarran, a citizen of Medîna. These distinguished themselves
on many occasions in the Persian campaign. One of them,
Nomân, was killed ten years after in the decisive action of
Nehâwend.
[20] For the royal Fifth, see Sura, viii. 41.
[21] There is a tradition that when Abu Bekr issued, sword in
hand, to go to Dzul Cassa, Aly caught hold of his bridle,
exclaiming: ‘O Caliph, I say to thee what the Prophet said to thee
on the day of Ohod: Put up thy sword again and expose us not to
lose thee, for, by the Lord! if we were to lose thee, the prop of
Islam were gone.’ Whereupon Abu Bekr returned and went not
forth.
But this probably refers to the expeditions shortly after sent
out in all directions from Dzul Cassa, as narrated below, and to
Abu Bekr’s return to Medîna at that time.
[22] The notion given by tradition is that these eleven columns
were despatched on their several expeditions all at once from
Dzul Cassa, in presence of Abu Bekr. This of course is possible,
but it is very improbable. The arrangements could hardly have
been so speedily cut and dry as that supposes. It is enough to
know that, sooner or later, about this time, or shortly after, these
eleven expeditions started. Some of the eleven, as given by
tradition, seem hardly to have been separate commands.
[23] Meaning, no doubt, that as governors they would have
been immediately subordinate to himself, exposed to much
drudgery, and liable to be called to account for their stewardship.
[24] For an account of this marvellous system of oral tradition,
see the Essay in the Life of Mahomet on the Sources for the
Biography. The halo surrounding the Prophet casts something of
its brightness on the lives also of his chief Companions, whose
biographies are given by tradition in considerable detail; and from
them we can gather something of the early history incidentally.
[25] So uncertain is the chronology of this period, that Ibn
Ishâc makes the campaigns in Yemâma, Bahrein, and Yemen to
be in the twelfth year of the Hegira; whereas the received, and
manifestly correct, account, as ‘gathered from the learned of
Syria,’ is that the operations against the apostate tribes
throughout Arabia were brought practically to an end in the 11th
year of the Hegira. Only one exception is mentioned (and that
somewhat obscurely) of a campaign against Rabia, who was
beaten by Khâlid. Amongst the spoils of the expedition is
mentioned the daughter of Rabia, who, as a slave-girl, fell to the
lot of Aly.
[26] Life of Mahomet, p. 427.
[27] Ibid. p. 409.
[28] We have met Thâbit before as a poet of renown and a
chief of influence, especially among the Beni Khazraj (Ibid. p.
449).
The strength of Khâlid’s column is nowhere mentioned, but,
adverting to the great number slain at Yemâma (although he was
reinforced meanwhile from Medîna), it could hardly have been
less than twelve or fifteen hundred, besides the 1,000 men
contributed, as we shall see immediately, by the Beni Tay.
[29] Had there been anything else in Toleiha’s teaching, there
is no reason why we should not have heard of it, as Toleiha, when
he returned to the faith, became a distinguished champion of
Islam. There may, however, have been a disinclination on his part
to dwell on this chapter of his life. Al Kindy, the Christian, speaks
in his Apology with greater respect of Moseilama’s sayings as
calculated to draw off the followers of Mahomet. But I see no
evidence of this. See the Apology of Al Kindy, p. 31 (Smith &
Elder, 1881).
[30] A name familiar to us in the Life of Mahomet, see p. 323,
&c.
[31] The Beni Jadîla and Beni Ghauth.
[32] Abu Bekr means ‘Father of the young camel,’ and they
called him by the nickname Ab ul Fasîl, ‘Father of the foal.’ Adî
answered, ‘He is not Ab ul Fasîl, but, if you like it, Ab ul Fahl,’
‘Father of the stallion,’ i.e. endowed with power and vigour.
In the Persian version of Tabari, the surname is by a mistake
given as Ab ul Fadhl, ‘the Father of Excellence,’ and is applied to
Khâlid.
[33] Okkâsha was a warrior of renown and leader of some
expeditions in the time of Mahomet.
[34] The sub-tribe of the Beni Ghatafân to which Oyeina
belonged.
[35] Kahânat, the term used for the gift possessed by the
heathen soothsayers. The sayings ascribed to Toleiha are childish
in the extreme. For example: ‘I command that ye make a
millstone with a handle, and the Lord shall cast it on whom he
pleaseth;’ and again, ‘By the pigeons and the doves, and the
hungry falcons, I swear that our kingdom shall in a few years
reach to Irâc and Syria.’
[36] For the barbarous execution of Omm Kirfa, see Life of
Mahomet, chapter xviii. The malcontents here gathered together
were from all the tribes against which Khâlid had now been
engaged in warlike operations—the Ghatafân, Suleim, Hawâzin,
Tay, and Asad.
[37] It was a vain excuse, but was founded on the principle
that no bloodshed, treachery, sin, or excess of any sort, before
conversion, cast any blot on the believer; but that apostasy,
however, repented of, left a stigma which could never wholly be
effaced. At first the Caliph would receive no aid whatever from
any tribe or individual who had apostatised; and, though when
levies came to be needed urgently, the ban was taken off, still to
the end no apostate chief was allowed a large command, or put
over more than a hundred men.
Among the Beni Suleim was Abu Shajra, son of the famous
elegiac poetess, Al Khansa. A martial piece which he composed
in reference to an engagement at this time contains the verse:—