The Great Arab Conquests (16 page)
Read The Great Arab Conquests Online
Authors: Hugh Kennedy
The Byzantine forces probably assembled in Homs and marched south through the Biqa valley, past Ba
c
albak with its great pagan temples - now almost empty of worshippers but still magnificent in their decay - and so to Damascus. In anticipation of the arrival of this force, the Arabs seem to have withdrawn from the city, allowing Byzantine forces to reoccupy it unopposed. We have no information on how they found the town but there are reports of tension between the Byzantine generals demanding supplies for their men, as was the usual Byzantine practice, and the local financial administrator, the Arab Mansūr, who maintained that the city did not have sufficient resources to feed them. Certainly the army did not use Damascus as a base but moved on south.
c
albak with its great pagan temples - now almost empty of worshippers but still magnificent in their decay - and so to Damascus. In anticipation of the arrival of this force, the Arabs seem to have withdrawn from the city, allowing Byzantine forces to reoccupy it unopposed. We have no information on how they found the town but there are reports of tension between the Byzantine generals demanding supplies for their men, as was the usual Byzantine practice, and the local financial administrator, the Arab Mansūr, who maintained that the city did not have sufficient resources to feed them. Certainly the army did not use Damascus as a base but moved on south.
The Byzantine army assembled at Jābiya in the Golan Heights. This was the traditional summer pasture of the Ghassānids. According to the most probable reconstruction, it was now August 636 and the Golan would have provided much-needed food, water and pasture for the army. Meanwhile the Muslim forces prepared to oppose the Byzantines and hold on to their newly won gains. Their army also assembled in the Golan area, to the south-east of the Byzantines. The different Muslim armies had now come together under the command of Abū Ubayda, or possibly Khālid b. al-Walīd. Yazīd b. Abī Sufyān and Amr b. al-Ās both led contingents. According to Muslim sources, the Arab army numbered about 24,000. In view of the downward revision of the numbers on the Byzantine side, it is possible that the two armies were not very different in size.
The battle that ensued between the Christian and Muslim armies is generally known as the battle of Yarmūk and conventionally dated to the summer of 636.
25
The battle of Yarmūk is, along with the battle of Qādisiya in Iraq, one of the major conflicts that has come to symbolize the Muslim victories in the Fertile Crescent. As with Qādisiya, the Arab accounts are extensive and confused and it is difficult to be clear about exactly what happened. There is no contemporary or reliable account from the Byzantine point of view. Both sides are said by the Muslim sources to have been inspired by religious zeal. As the Byzantines remained in their fortified camp, preparing for battle, ‘the priests, deacons and monks urged them on lamenting the fate of Christianity’.
26
On the other side, Khālid b. al-Walīd addressed his men: ‘This is one of God’s battles. There should be neither pride nor wrongdoing in it. Strive sincerely, seeking God in your work, for this day also has what lies beyond it [i.e. the afterlife]’, and he went on to urge them to stick together and fight in unison.
27
25
The battle of Yarmūk is, along with the battle of Qādisiya in Iraq, one of the major conflicts that has come to symbolize the Muslim victories in the Fertile Crescent. As with Qādisiya, the Arab accounts are extensive and confused and it is difficult to be clear about exactly what happened. There is no contemporary or reliable account from the Byzantine point of view. Both sides are said by the Muslim sources to have been inspired by religious zeal. As the Byzantines remained in their fortified camp, preparing for battle, ‘the priests, deacons and monks urged them on lamenting the fate of Christianity’.
26
On the other side, Khālid b. al-Walīd addressed his men: ‘This is one of God’s battles. There should be neither pride nor wrongdoing in it. Strive sincerely, seeking God in your work, for this day also has what lies beyond it [i.e. the afterlife]’, and he went on to urge them to stick together and fight in unison.
27
The River Yarmūk, a perennial watercourse, flows down from the plateau of the Hawrān to the Jordan valley, just south of the Sea of Galilee. In the course of its descent into the rift valley, it has gouged out a steep gorge, with high cliffs on each side. On the north side, it is joined by a number of smaller valleys, notably the Wadi al-Ruqqād. These steep ravines were to define the course of the battle and may have proved disastrous to the defeated when they attempted to flee from the scene. The actual site of the battle, between the Yarmūk gorge in the south and the Golan in the north, is a land of rolling, rocky hills, dotted with villages and farms. It was, in fact, good open country for cavalry manoeuvres, but it also provided some cover from rocks or trees for men to hide or set up an ambush. Since 1948 this site has been politically very sensitive, lying as it does on the border between Syria (north of the river), Jordan (south of the river) and the Israeli-occupied Golan. This has made access to the battlefield very difficult for historians. It was not always thus, however. Before the First World War, when the entire area was part of the Ottoman Empire, the battlefield was visited by the great Italian orientalist Leone Caetani, Prince of Sermoneta. He used his first-hand observations and knowledge of the Arabic sources to produce a geographical setting for the battle, which has formed the basis of the most plausible modern accounts.
28
28
The battle of Yarmūk was a series of conflicts that probably lasted more than a month and culminated in a major battle towards the end of August.
29
The first encounters took place in the Jābiya region, after which the Muslims retreated east towards Dar
c
a. There followed a period of waiting and skirmishing as the Byzantines prepared their army and tried to sow divisions in the Muslim ranks. It seems that the real fighting began when the Muslims feigned a retreat from their positions and lured elements of the Byzantine army into rough terrain, where they were ambushed. During the Muslim counter-attack, the Byzantine cavalry became separated from the infantry, enabling the Muslim cavalry to inflict great slaughter on the foot soldiers while the cavalry were making their way through the Muslim ranks.
30
Khālid b. al-Walīd is said to have organized the Muslim cavalry in a ‘battle order which the Arabs had not used before’. He divided the cavalry into small squadrons (
kards)
, between thirty-six and forty in number, apparently so that they would appear more numerous in the eyes of the enemy.
31
The Byzantines may also have been unsettled by a dust storm. The main Byzantine force was now driven west and hemmed in between the rugged valleys of the Wadi’l-Ruqqād and Wadi’l-
c
Allān, with the cliffs of the Yarmūk gorge behind them. Any prospect of retreat to the west was destroyed when Khālid b. al-Walīd took the old Roman bridge across the Wadi al-Ruqqād, and Muslim forces went on to storm the Byzantine camp at Yāqūsa on the road to the Sea of Galilee. As the enemy pressed home their advantage, the Byzantine forces were further demoralized by rumours that the Christian Arabs had defected to the Muslims. Morale broke and the Byzantine forces lost all cohesion. There are reports of exhausted and dejected soldiers sitting down, wrapped in their mantles, lamenting the fact that they had not been able to defend Christianity and waiting for death.
32
Others were driven down the cliffs into the wadis. The Muslims took very few prisoners.
29
The first encounters took place in the Jābiya region, after which the Muslims retreated east towards Dar
c
a. There followed a period of waiting and skirmishing as the Byzantines prepared their army and tried to sow divisions in the Muslim ranks. It seems that the real fighting began when the Muslims feigned a retreat from their positions and lured elements of the Byzantine army into rough terrain, where they were ambushed. During the Muslim counter-attack, the Byzantine cavalry became separated from the infantry, enabling the Muslim cavalry to inflict great slaughter on the foot soldiers while the cavalry were making their way through the Muslim ranks.
30
Khālid b. al-Walīd is said to have organized the Muslim cavalry in a ‘battle order which the Arabs had not used before’. He divided the cavalry into small squadrons (
kards)
, between thirty-six and forty in number, apparently so that they would appear more numerous in the eyes of the enemy.
31
The Byzantines may also have been unsettled by a dust storm. The main Byzantine force was now driven west and hemmed in between the rugged valleys of the Wadi’l-Ruqqād and Wadi’l-
c
Allān, with the cliffs of the Yarmūk gorge behind them. Any prospect of retreat to the west was destroyed when Khālid b. al-Walīd took the old Roman bridge across the Wadi al-Ruqqād, and Muslim forces went on to storm the Byzantine camp at Yāqūsa on the road to the Sea of Galilee. As the enemy pressed home their advantage, the Byzantine forces were further demoralized by rumours that the Christian Arabs had defected to the Muslims. Morale broke and the Byzantine forces lost all cohesion. There are reports of exhausted and dejected soldiers sitting down, wrapped in their mantles, lamenting the fact that they had not been able to defend Christianity and waiting for death.
32
Others were driven down the cliffs into the wadis. The Muslims took very few prisoners.
The defeat on the Yarmūk was catastrophic for the Byzantines and news spread far and wide. In distant France, the author of the chronicle of Fredegar recorded it twenty years later as a terrible defeat. He has the Muslim army at 200,000 strong. According to him, the night before the battle ‘the army of Heraclius was smitten by the sword of the Lord: 52,000 of his men died where they slept’. Not surprisingly, the survivors were seriously disheartened. ‘When on the following day, at the moment of joining battle, his men saw that so large a part of their force had fallen to divine judgment, they no longer dared advance on the Saracens but all retired whence they came.’
33
Towards the end of the seventh century, the ascetic St Anastasius of Sinai in his remote monastery remembered it as ‘the first and fearful and incurable fall of the Roman army’.
34
33
Towards the end of the seventh century, the ascetic St Anastasius of Sinai in his remote monastery remembered it as ‘the first and fearful and incurable fall of the Roman army’.
34
In the aftermath of the victory, the Muslims continued to reduce the cities of Syria to obedience. One force, led by Abū Ubayda and Khālid b. al-Walīd, went north from Damascus to Homs, an important city in late Roman times.
35
They besieged the city through the winter (probably 636-7) despite the bitter cold and sorties by the Byzantine garrison. The defenders were convinced that the cold would force the Arabs, shod only in sandals, to give up the siege, though when spring came and they were still there, voices were raised in the city urging peace negotiations. According to another account, the Muslims were aided when the walls were badly damaged by an earthquake, a sure sign of God’s favour to them. In the end the two sides made peace. As usual, the inhabitants were obliged to pay taxes to the Muslims, some apparently at a fixed rate, others at a variable rate according to their prosperity at the time. All their lives, property, city walls, churches and water mills were to be guaranteed to them except for a quarter of the church of St John, which was to be turned into a mosque.
36
At the same time we are also told that half the houses should be made available to the conquerors. The general leading the Muslim conquest of the city is said to have ‘divided it up among the Muslims in lots so that they might occupy them [the houses]. He also settled them in every place whose occupants had evacuated it and every abandoned garden’.
37
Homs was an important centre on the fringes of the Syrian desert and it may have been thought that this was a suitable place for the Bedouin to settle. The city was probably the first in Syria to have a substantial Muslim population.
35
They besieged the city through the winter (probably 636-7) despite the bitter cold and sorties by the Byzantine garrison. The defenders were convinced that the cold would force the Arabs, shod only in sandals, to give up the siege, though when spring came and they were still there, voices were raised in the city urging peace negotiations. According to another account, the Muslims were aided when the walls were badly damaged by an earthquake, a sure sign of God’s favour to them. In the end the two sides made peace. As usual, the inhabitants were obliged to pay taxes to the Muslims, some apparently at a fixed rate, others at a variable rate according to their prosperity at the time. All their lives, property, city walls, churches and water mills were to be guaranteed to them except for a quarter of the church of St John, which was to be turned into a mosque.
36
At the same time we are also told that half the houses should be made available to the conquerors. The general leading the Muslim conquest of the city is said to have ‘divided it up among the Muslims in lots so that they might occupy them [the houses]. He also settled them in every place whose occupants had evacuated it and every abandoned garden’.
37
Homs was an important centre on the fringes of the Syrian desert and it may have been thought that this was a suitable place for the Bedouin to settle. The city was probably the first in Syria to have a substantial Muslim population.
The clause about giving up a quarter of the church for use as a mosque may seem curious and perhaps improbable: after all, how could these two religions, whose followers had just been engaged in violent warfare, end up by sharing the main religious building in the town? We are told, however, that it also happened at Damascus, where the Muslims used half of the cathedral as the first mosque. Only at the beginning of the eighth century, sixty years after the conquest, were the Christians expelled and a purpose-built mosque constructed. Even then, compensation was paid and the Christians made a new cathedral in the church of St Mary, about half a kilometre east of the mosque, and this remains the cathedral of the Melkite (Greek Orthodox) community of Damascus to the present day. Interestingly, we find archaeological confirmation of this practice from a small town in the Negev, Subeita. Here there are two large, finely built Byzantine churches. In the narthex or porch of one are the foundations of a small mosque. We can tell it is a mosque because of the mihrab, the niche showing the direction of Mecca, which is clearly visible. All this evidence suggests that, after the political defeat of the Christian forces, the two religious communities could and did coexist, if not in harmony, at least in a measure of mutual tolerance.
The next city up the road to the north was Chalkis, which the Arabs called Qinnasrīn.
38
Whereas Homs is still one of the most important cities in Syria, Chalkis has virtually disappeared from the maps. Only recently have archaeological surveys and excavations in a little village just east of the Damascus-Aleppo road revealed the ancient site. Chalkis stood in the middle of a fertile, grain-growing plain; although an important administrative centre, it was never a very big city. The ancient acropolis can be distinguished, as can the early Islamic town, which lay outside the confines of the classical city: the Arabs settled outside the walls in what was effectively a new suburb, not in the city itself. After the fall of the city, Khālid b. al-Walīd decided to make it his home and he was joined there by his wife.
38
Whereas Homs is still one of the most important cities in Syria, Chalkis has virtually disappeared from the maps. Only recently have archaeological surveys and excavations in a little village just east of the Damascus-Aleppo road revealed the ancient site. Chalkis stood in the middle of a fertile, grain-growing plain; although an important administrative centre, it was never a very big city. The ancient acropolis can be distinguished, as can the early Islamic town, which lay outside the confines of the classical city: the Arabs settled outside the walls in what was effectively a new suburb, not in the city itself. After the fall of the city, Khālid b. al-Walīd decided to make it his home and he was joined there by his wife.
It was probably at around this time that the Muslims came into contact with one of the less desirable aspects of Syrian life at the time, the plague. Among the victims were the overall commander of Muslim forces, Abū Ubayda, and Yazīd b. Abī Sufyān, whose position was inherited by his brother Mu
c
āwiya, later to be the first Umayyad caliph.
39
c
āwiya, later to be the first Umayyad caliph.
39
Heraclius seems to have moved from Antioch after the battle of Yarmūk and settled in Edessa, where he tried to organize the defence of northern Mesopotamia and south-eastern Anatolia. He then moved on along the upper Euphrates before turning west, heading for Constantinople, the capital he had not visited for the last ten years. There is no evidence, as some have suggested, that he was disabled by senility or depression, but he must have been weary and painfully aware of the scale of the Byzantine defeat. Arab authors put a number of sad and resigned speeches into his mouth and Heraclius’s farewell to Syria was widely reported. In one he is made to say, ‘Peace be upon you, O Syria. This is the farewell after which there will be no reunion. No Byzantine man will ever return to you except in fear [as a prisoner] until the coming of the Anti-Christ. How sweet will be his deeds [because he will fight the Muslims] and how bitter their outcome for the Byzantines [because he will be defeated].’
40
In another version he just says as he goes through the passes in the Taurus mountains and looks behind him, ‘Peace be upon you, O Syria [
Sriya
]! What a rich country this is for the enemy!’
41
As he withdrew, he took with him all the garrisons from the districts along the new frontier, creating a sort of no man’s land between Byzantine and Muslim territory at the north-eastern corner of the Mediterranean.
42
A later Syriac source, deeply hostile to everything Byzantine, says that Heraclius ‘gave order to his troops to pillage and devastate the villages and towns, as if the land already belonged to the enemy. The Byzantines stole and pillaged all they found, and devastated the country more than the Arabs’.
43
40
In another version he just says as he goes through the passes in the Taurus mountains and looks behind him, ‘Peace be upon you, O Syria [
Sriya
]! What a rich country this is for the enemy!’
41
As he withdrew, he took with him all the garrisons from the districts along the new frontier, creating a sort of no man’s land between Byzantine and Muslim territory at the north-eastern corner of the Mediterranean.
42
A later Syriac source, deeply hostile to everything Byzantine, says that Heraclius ‘gave order to his troops to pillage and devastate the villages and towns, as if the land already belonged to the enemy. The Byzantines stole and pillaged all they found, and devastated the country more than the Arabs’.
43
With the departure of the emperor, the remaining Byzantine cities were left to their own devices. Antioch, the ancient capital of Syria, put up little resistance and the remaining inhabitants seem to have made no effort to use the mighty walls the emperor Justinian had built around their city less than a hundred years before to keep the attackers out: probably there were just too few of them to defend the huge circuit. They are said to have rebelled against Muslim rule later, but this may mean only that they refused or were unable to pay taxes and had to be coerced into doing so. In other small towns, the surrender to the Muslim armies had an almost carnival atmosphere. At the little town of Shayzar on a bend of the Orontes river in central Syria the inhabitants came out to meet the Muslims with players of drums and cymbals, as was customary when greeting important visitors.
44
The same happened at Ma
c
arrat al-Nu
c
mān and Apamea, once the proud capital of the Roman province of Syria II but now in deep decay after being sacked ferociously by the Persians sixty years before, in 573. It was not always as easy as that: when the people of Dar
c
a
45
in southern Syria came out to greet the caliph Umar with drumming and singing, carrying swords and bunches of myrtle, the puritanical monarch ordered that they be stopped. His general, Abū Ubayda, by now used to the customs of Syrian small towns, explained that it was their custom and if he stopped them doing it, they would think he was breaking the agreement the Muslims had made with them. Reluctantly, the grumpy caliph allowed them to continue.
44
The same happened at Ma
c
arrat al-Nu
c
mān and Apamea, once the proud capital of the Roman province of Syria II but now in deep decay after being sacked ferociously by the Persians sixty years before, in 573. It was not always as easy as that: when the people of Dar
c
a
45
in southern Syria came out to greet the caliph Umar with drumming and singing, carrying swords and bunches of myrtle, the puritanical monarch ordered that they be stopped. His general, Abū Ubayda, by now used to the customs of Syrian small towns, explained that it was their custom and if he stopped them doing it, they would think he was breaking the agreement the Muslims had made with them. Reluctantly, the grumpy caliph allowed them to continue.
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