Early Muslim Expansion - Khalid, Yarmouk, al-Qadisiyyah DOCUMENTARY

[Music] almost 1,400 years ago the ancient and prosperous lands of the Middle East were on the verge of a conflict of three empires and three religions two of them fighting a constant bloody and fruitless war for centuries warned a newcomer looking to make its mark the newcomer was the rashidun caliphate and its arrival would change the history of the region and the world forever the Roman state was almost constantly at war with the Iranian empires ever since the two entities touched borders in the 60s BC as the Parthian Empire achieved a famous victory at carrhae the Roman Republic transitioned into the Empire and then this empires western portion was lost to foreign invasions leaving only the eastern Roman Empire while the Parthian Empire was replaced by the Sassanid Empire but even then these two States continues to fight in the third century AD another factor was introduced to these conflicts the Gaza needs and the lack myths these two Arabs tribal Confederations migrated from modern Yemen and became the vassal states of the Eastern Roman Empire and the sassanids respectively they participated in the Roman sassanid Wars often as Scouts or Raiders detached from the armies or as light cavalry units within the armies while also defending both empires from the Arab tribal raids from the south the populations of these kingdoms worships traditional Arab paganism and Monophysite Christianity and the latter created tensions with their suzerainty as the sassanids were sure that any Christian influence may strengthen their Roman enemies while the Romans are dared to mere foresight Orthodox Christianity which considered monophysitism to be heretical the roman attempts to suppress monophysitism caused the gas needs to rebel against them in the late 6th to early 7th century and weakened truman support in the area on the other hand religious tensions between the lac maids and the sassanids were compounded by the attempts of Shia kasra ii to control the region directly in 602 he captured and executed feel ahmed king al Newman the third turning the kingdom into a province administered by a governor that forced the lactMed tribes to ask their Arab brethren to the south for help although the Allied forces managed to defeat the Sassanid army as Dakar in 609 the assassinates were able to keep the province under their rule this sequence of events not only created divided loyalties among the Arab tribes in the region but effectively stripped the assasinate border of its traditional buffer despite that the sassanids were still very strong in 602 they used the internal strife within the Eastern Roman Empire as a pretext to declare war the sassanids scored a number of impressive victories in the first years of the war and although the Roman noble Heraclius took the throne in 611 and started to stabilize the situation he wasn't able to slow down the enemy completely by 621 the sassanids controlled the South Caucasus the Levant Egypt and most of Anatolia which marks the largest extent of their territory even though Emperor Heraclius was forced to fight against the Avars in Europe - he was able to gain some momentum by winning two battles against the sassanids between 622 and 625 according to some sources kasra enlisted all men capable of fighting and turned the tide again in 626 an army under Shabazz besieged the capital of the Empire Constantinople supported by the avars and scrub any from Europe the Roman Empire was on the brink of destruction but the defenders of the capital persevered this was the turning point in the war as in 627 Heraclius entered an alliance with the leader of the Western Turkic cargo net Tommy AB ku and together they invaded the Iranian heartland Heraclius defeated the sassanids at Nineveh in 627 and threatened the capital tessa fun in 628 which prompted the nobles to overthrow castro his suncove at the second became the next shah and signed a peace treaty with heraclius the sassanids paid a war indemnity but otherwise the conflict achieves nothing and the two exhausted empires returned to the pre-war borders meanwhile to the south the Arabian Peninsula was going through an upheaval the population of this peninsula worshipped many religions from the traditional Arab pagan beliefs to Zoroastrianism Judaism and Christianity the sassanids controlled the province of mizune and the eastern portion of Yemen while the deserts in the central and northern parts of the region were ruled by nomadic Bedouin Arabs their brethren resided in the rich merchant city-states image as one of these city-states called Mecca was both a religious and economic center governed by the Quraysh tribe trading mostly spices with Aksum the Romans and the sassanids in 570 a boy called Muhammad was born in the Quraish tribe as a young man Muhammad spent his time as a merchant probably participating in and then leading trade caravans all over the region as is often the case with traders Muhammad would meet and converse with members of various religions on his travels [Music] according to the latest sources he started receiving divine revelations sometime in 610 soon this new prophet began spreading the message of a new religion Islam in his home city of Mecca however the meccans didn't receive it well and in 614 they started to persecute adherents of Islam all this prompted Muhammad and his followers the Muslims to emigrate to Medina in 622 this started a war between the Muslims and Mecca and by 629 the latter lost and was conquered according to the early muslim sources at this point some time in 628 Muhammad sent envoys to the neighboring states urging their leaders to join Islam and bow to the One God Allah the sassanids shocked Ostrow the second insulted the Muslim envoy while the one sent to the Romans was killed in gas-lit territory this prompted an attack by a small Muslim army which was defeated by the Gaza needs and Romans in September of 629 at muta these same sources claimed that Muhammad decided to lead a thirty thousand strong army into the byzantines territory to retaliate and took the city of Tabuk however most modern sources do not agree with this account of events in any case the conquests of Muhammad in Arabia continued by 631 most of the Arabian Peninsula was under Muslim control Muhammad passed away a year later there are conflicting sources regarding the succession process but one of the closest allies of muhammad abu bakr became his successor with the title of caliph he was the first of the rashidun caliph in the meantime give at the second who became the assassinate shower in February of 628 immediately started killing his brothers to secure the throne which resulted in deepening disagreements between the Persian and Parthian Nobles Kivar died of plague in September and although his eight-year-old son became the next shah as ardeshir the third the empire was controlled by a member of the Parthian click the Vizier matted our Jewishness this deeply concerned the Persian party so it allied with cost rose general Shar Burris the latter attacked and took the capital in April of 630 killing ardeshir and murder Jewishness and becoming the shark the assassin it realm was now in a state of civil war using all that the governors of Yemen and mizune declared their independence from Tessa phone which makes them easy prey for the rising Caliphate just 40 days after Shiraz took the throne he was killed and the leader of the Parthian faction pharaoh calmest raised cost rose daughter Boren to the throne this first queen in sassanid history was overthrown by the son of Shiraz Sapir a few months later to stop the war between the factions Farook offered a marriage between shipper and another daughter of course row as army ducked but the latter refused and the noble usurped the throne for himself in late 630 he would be killed by the supporters of his army docked in 631 after which she took the throne for herself farik's son rostam marched his troops to Tessa fought to avenge his father defeating his army Doc's armies along the way after taking the capital he restored Boreanaz the Queen the ruling alliance of Boren and Rostov managed to convince the leader of the Persian clique Pyrrhus to stop the hostilities however after rostam left the capital for the frontier Vera's an killed boron in June of 632 rah Stan then marched for the capital again according to some sources the armies of both firuzan and Rostov were tired of the bloodshed and forced their generals to reach an accord one of the last members of the House of Sasson the eight-year-old grandson of kasra ii was crowned as yes Taggert the third although the civil war was now over the Sassanid realm was extremely vulnerable as the Parthian clique basically controlled the northeastern portion of the Empire while Turkic Raiders attacked from the Caucasus and Central Asia at the same time the first caliph Abu Bakr sent a portion of his army under Saba evens aid to raid the gas nets in June of 632 possibly checking if the Byzantine frontier was well defended the death of Muhammad as the departure of his army made a big number of newly conquered Arab territories think that the Caliphate was fragile and in July all of the peninsula is safe for Hejaz rebelled against abu bakkar in what was called the Rideau war or the war of apostasy as many rebel groups were led by people who declared themselves prophets the situation was most dire around Modena as the rebels threatened the second most important city of the new realm in late July however Abubakar swiftly marched to the area and defeated the rebels in early August that gave enough time for the army which was sent north and defeated a small Gaza nude army around buta to return Abubakar proves to be a talented commander instead of uniting his armies and marching on each of the rebel groups separately which would have allowed the rebels to attack his rear with impunity he divided his army into smaller groups and these units attacks the enemies around the peninsula this strategy works to perfection and by March of 633 the caliphs rule over the entire region was restored it is difficult to assess how much the Caliphate lost in terms of manpower but the source is underlined that the generals and troops gained invaluable experience in this conflict while the Ritter Wars were going on the leader of the Arab Annie Becker tribe Madonna bin Haritha was raiding the Sassanid territories in southern Iraq the Sassanid Civil Wars made this frontier subject to attacks and Madonna who adopted Islam sometime in the 6 30s informed Abu Bakkar of this fact in early 633 the Caliph decided that it was a good time to take over Iraq and one of his main generals during the writter Wars Khalid ib'n Alwaleed was ordered to invade the region Khalid was able to recruit an army of 18,000 at his base at Yamaha and left for Iraq in late March 633 a letter was sent to the assassinate governor of dast mai-san or must demanding his surrender or most obviously didn't but sent a letter to the Capitol asking Shia a staggered the third for reinforcements this letter was probably a trick by Khalid as Hamas gathered his 20,000 and marched out of the capital of his governorship bubala to defend the crucial road from yamame near Casimir Khalid however moved his troops through the desert and threatened who fear the assassinate leader was informed of this and had to march towards who fear via Bala according to the Muslim sources that was exactly what Khalid was hoping would happen despite the civil wars sassanid armies were still stronger as their armor and weaponry made them superior and the only tangible advantage the caliphs forces had was their mobility Khalid was going to use this mobility to tire the Sassanid army this would become one of the most important elements of the early Muslim expansion their mobility and aggression were forcing their foe to defend multiple cities and fortresses as it was never clear where the Arabs would strike by the time Hawk marched reached who fair khalid started marching to casimir he could have probably taken the city with ease but didn't want to be besieged by the heavily armored sassanids so his troops waited and rested to the south of kazuma while halt must march towards him in the first days of April the tired sassanid forces approached the engagements that would occur in the area is traditionally known as the Battle of the chains due to the description of the assassin it forces in the Muslim sources according to them the assassinate infantryman were changed to each other to create a cohesive line or to prevent any retreat however this makes no sense tactically as that would have made the infantry even less mobile and each dead warrior would have burdened their companions we also never see this description in the numerous battles fought between the Romans and the sassanids most probably this stems from an incorrect reading of the Persian word silsila which can be translated as a mountain chain a bounding chain or a single line of soldiers so the word chain might be a metaphor for the discipline sassanid infantry in any case khalid wasn't going to allow halt mods as troops to rest and his preparations forced the sassanids to form up directly to the west of casimir at the end of the tiring march their formation was the traditional infantry center and cavalry wings meanwhile Kelly's army was arranged in a similar manner but for the time being stayed in the desert behind the hills dividing the two armies this delay only added to the fatigue among the sassanids as they had to stay in formation in their full panoply under the Sun however this waiting couldn't continue for long as the sassanids controlled the springs in the area so a few hours later Khalid emerged on the hills and his troops stopped some distance away from those of Hall Majd the only surviving primary sources of this engagement belonged to the Muslim historians so we will present their view of this battle as was customary for the region and traditional for the Roman sassanid and Arab battles of the era the battle started with the jewel as homage smooth forward and called Khalid to fight him one-on-one apparently homage then dismounted and Khalid followed suit as the two generals clashed and forced to a standstill a few sassanids skilled warriors attacked Khalid another Arab general catch up in Amer it will play a larger role in the future saw this and also decided to join the fray attacking colludes assailants CAC and Khalid were able to overcome the Sassanid fighters and killed hor Majd the Arab generals returned to their lines and Khalid ordered his troops forward the armies engaged each other on the wings the balance of forces didn't allow either side to gain the upper hand while in the centre the Muslim infantry charged their counterparts a few times clashing and falling back without dealing much damage however the Muslim troops were much more rested as even the infantry mode had traveled to the battle mounted the Sassanid footmen weren't able to rest after their march and each charge tied them even more during one of the charges Khalid Center managed to crack the disciplined sassanid line in a few places [Applause] the Sassanid army which was left leaderless in the wake of the jewel panicked and the commanders leading the wings Cooper's and Anoosh Chan started retreating with their horsemen their Muslim cavalry counterparts didn't chase the enemy horsemen and instead enveloped the sassanids Center soon the battle was over we don't have a clear source on the number of casualties but it is probably fair to assume that half of the Sassanid army was lost while Khaled's casualties were less than a few thousand meanwhile Shia staggered who received hormones his letter in late March decided to send an army under Karin's to reinforce his governor the speed at which it happened suggests that only the forces around the capital were gathered according to the sources Karin's had somewhere between 15 and 25 thousand men when he moved south and crossed the Tigris he was apparently moving towards rubella to help the governor but after he crossed the small river named makyo he encountered the rest of [ __ ] mud Sue's army led by ku bears and Anna's Jen some 10,000 troops caring's was told about the events of the Battle of the chains simultaneously a mobile force commanded by mu thana appeared nearby probably sent by Kalia to chase the remainder of the assassinate force and scout ahead while he was recruiting from the ranks of the Arab tribes in the area of Kasim and who fair [Music] we don't know what Karen's was thinking at this point but it is clear that the sassanids understood that they were not dealing with a minor raid and they faced a traditional Bedouin Arab army made up of light cavalry catching meth Anna's mobile force in the open field would be impossible since the shah's army was considerably slower so caring's didn't move to the strategically crucial ballot who protected likely worried that Mathon ax would be able to attack his flank and rear the Sassanid general decided to sacrifice Subala and keep his position along the river in order to prevent Khalid from crossing the Tigris and also from marching westwards to the most important city of the region Al Kyra in the meantime Khalid was informed by myth Anna that a new army was moving to the south the assassinate position left him no other way to advance using the whole army to take you Bala might have entrapped him so only a small group was sent to take it while Khalid went on and United with myth Anna [Music] the battle that is now known as the Battle of the river took place in the third week of April the sassanids had anywhere from twenty-five to fifty thousand troops depending on the sources while khalid commanded around eighteen thousand as he was able to reinforce his army by recruiting from the local arab tribes the sources for this battle are conflicted so we will try to do our best to form a coherent narrative before the armies formed up in the morning khalid personally scouted the positions of Carens his forces and was now sure that winning a set piece battle was his only option to continue the campaign he returned and the army started to get into formation both having a similar structure with infantry in the center and cavalry on the wings the Sassanid army was deeper as its commander made no attempts to widen his front and outflank the enemy probably relying on the superiority of his troops and the fact that his second rank would be fresh when the time came the battle started with Karen's calling for a duel according to the assassinate sources Jules were away for the commander's to prove to the Troops that they were ready to fall for them so a personal combat between champions was a usual sight Khalid wanted to answer the call but one of the duelists who was near him galloped towards the assassinate commander and Khalid stayed back in the ensuing duel the Arab fighter was able to defeat his opponent that demoralized the sassanids so koba's and Anna's Jan were probably forced to march forward and demand another jewel to restore their morale the Muslim Wing Commanders assumed and Andy galloped to them soon the Sassanid commanders were dead and Khalid ordered his entire army forward [Music] despite the fact that the sassanids lost all of their top commanders initially this charge was fruitless as the forces of the Caliphate fails to make any headway and were even pushed back but this pushback made the Sassanid lines disorganized as the unit's lost cohesion due to the lack of command halide was able to exploit this and his counter-attack created even more holes in the enemy formation the rear of the Sassanid army attempted to retreat while the front was still fighting however left with no support the front was soon massacred lightly equipped and fast Muslim troops were able to catch up to the fleeing sassanids with ease and the battle restarted along the river the sources do not give a clear picture of what happened here but most of the Sassanid losses occurred in that area as some were killed some drowned and some were able to cross the river by the end of the battle the shah's army lost anywhere from fifteen to thirty thousand troops while Khalid's casualties were in the hundreds after the victory at the Battle of the river Kalia didn't cross into central Iraq probably for a variety of reasons firstly he needed to create a new administration in the region and start collecting taxes secondly moving into the sassanid empire would have stretched his supply lines and would have put him into territory with no arab tribes on top of that khalid likes to fight on the edges of deserts which gave him the opportunity to outmaneuver his opponents when needed the caliphates commander established a new authority in the province with its inhabitants starting to pay the jizya tax simultaneously scouts from the local tribes were sent to the west and north to discover if the sassanids had more armies nearby as the Persian road and postal system were probably among the best of their time the Shah learned about another defeat shortly after and while Khalid was making his preparations he as the guard ordered the troops from the northern and eastern parts of the Empire to march towards the capital T so far a direct attack on the region controlled by Khalid was difficult as the Arabs now controlled the crossings so when the first army commanded by and as a gar arrived it was sent towards the city of Malaysia the first strategic target on the road between avala and al-haram it was expected that the Arabs would attack in this direction so the remnants of the assassinate forces which fought and to karyn's joined and as agar bringing his numbers to somewhere between 25 and 30 thousand troops this army took positions outside of Williger sometime in May the 2nd army was led by one of the top commanders in the Sassanid army Baumann and it was supposed to reinforce and as a gar if the Muslims indeed decided to move to al-haram for now this force of 20,000 was to be stationed along the Euphrates halfway between abala and were larger meanwhile khalid scouts being from the local tribes were able to gather information with impunity so he seemingly knew about every enemy move he decided that his smaller force needed to defeat one of the armies opposing him and he could not allow them to reinforce each other so he left a minor garrison around to Bala and marched west hoping to defeat and a cigar without alerting barman along the way Khalid reinforced his army from the Arab tribes which were now more eager to join his ranks since the tax imposed by him was lower than the one they had to pay before and that brought his numbers to around 15 to 20,000 the goal was to destroy the army under and a cigar before Baumann could reinforce it although Bauman's army noticed the movement of the Arabs they were much slower so Khalid was able to reach and as a girl well before Baumann sometime in the second half of May [Music] according to the sources and azekah had enough room to maneuver and wait for barman along the river but he was confident in his troops and kept his position for almost a day the two armies seemingly remained in their respective camps within reach of each other without attempting to start a battle the Arabs were probably resting after their forced march and the sassanids were hoping that this weight meant they might be reinforced however this weight couldn't last since Calise knew that he had to score a decisive victory before the second sassanid army arrived so on the next day both forces formed up in standard formation with a center and two wings the battle fields near will a gia was an even play stretching between two low flat ridges which were about one kilometer away from each other to the northeast was a barren desert with the river cacif running close to the eastern ridge both armies had the ridges behind them meaning that an attack from the rear was not possible to begin with the Sassanid leader was surprised to see the whole Muslim army was smaller than previously reported and that it only consisted of footmen which contradicted what he had heard about the crucial role colludes cavalry played in the previous battles despite that he was convinced that his position was impenetrable and decided to wait as both armies knew that famine couldn't be too far away indeed the Muslim commander ordered his entire army forward led by Khalid who fought in the front rank the army of the Caliphate charged into the enemy for an hour or so the two lines fought to a standstill losing few warriors but the sassanids had the numbers so they're tired frontline was replaced by the rear rank which gave them the edge despite colludes personal martial skill his troops were getting tired so and as a gas counter-attack started to push the Muslim troops back slowly but surely the sassanids advanced while the Arabs were getting dangerously close to the ridge which would have made any retreat impossible at this point Khalid gave a signal that changed the course of the battle the cavalry that he sent into the desert during the previous night appeared on the eastern ridge behind the Sassanid army this was killed' trademark move as his mobile cavalry was able to hide in the deserts with ease the advance of the assassinate army away from its fortified position meant that its rear was undefended the light our abhor ceman charged into the Sassanid lines while colludes infantry lengthen to their front to envelop the wings of and Ursa gars army minutes later the Battle of Malaga was over the Sassanid commander was dead and his army was completely destroyed with only 5,000 survivors managing to retreat from the field he leads casualties were around 3000 as co-leads troops were tired after the long march and the battle his army wasn't able to pursue these sassanid survivors those were mostly the Christian Arabs who were more mobile and they managed to find shelter in nearby Ellis the messengers from this group went to other Christian Arab tribes to the northwest asking for help and also informed the Shah in Tessa font the tribes answered the call of their kin while yes Taggert sent messengers to Berman to go towards Ellis it is not clear why as Arab and Persian sources are conflicted but according to the former barman gave command over his army to another general caused Javon who marched with the entire army to where the Christian Arabs were concentrating the Persian sources claimed that Baumann returned to Tessa phone with his entire arm meanwhile Khalid moved his troops towards the city and sometime in May fought the Allied Christian Arab and sassanid army near Ellis the details of the battle are lost but we know that's the Muslims one the sources are once again conflicted on the number of casualties with the Arab sources stating that co-leads force killed 70,000 enemies mostly through the executions after the battle while the Persian writers think that the Army facing colludes 18,000 was comparable in size and managed to retreat towards Alhurra after a minor defeat in any case in the last days of May Khalid approached al Haram which was the initial goal of his campaign again these sources are inconclusive we know that the local sassanid garrison and their Arab allies mounted resistance for a few days but eventually the sides decided to negotiate as khalid promised to spare the lives of the population in exchange for the payment of the jizya tax the locals decided to surrender the Arab commander spent the next few months building up a new administration in the region and collecting taxes at the same time raiding parties were sent to central Iraq and towards the border of the eastern Roman Empire and this raiding brought both loot and information on enemy movement some sources claim that the Caliphate gained a degree of control over central Iraq but it seems that Khalid didn't have enough troops to keep such a wide region under his authority still the caliphates raiding parties were not getting much resistance to the north and northeast while his Scouts informed him that the Sassanid Garrison's to the northwest were still intact with larger concentrations at amber and inal Tama the first one was further away and the direct route to it was through an Altima but attacking the fort of Anbar would have been more unexpected so in late June of 633 Khalid left half of his troops in Alhurra and marched west towards Anbar with a 10,000 strong army Anbar would become the first Arab attack across the Euphrates River the details of the engagement that happened here are unclear but it seems that colludes decision to attack Ambar surprised his opponents and the leader of the garrison she is add was forced to surrender after the Arab archers showed their effectiveness then the caliphates raiding parties approached the town of inal Tama from the direction of Alderaan so when Khalid engaged the assassinate troops mostly made up of Christian Arabs from the West in July he was able to win with relative ease the leader of the Christian Arabs was taken prisoner and then executed and the city surrendered to the Muslims [Music] events of the next few months between July and September are shrouded in mystery as some sources claim that cleared were staying in amber and I now tumour slowly setting up the administration of the newly acquired region which seems uncharacteristically passive for him others claim that's the last two remnants of the apostate activity of the ridah Wars were to the south so Khalid moved most of his non Garrison's troops towards doumitt agenda and helped his fellow caliphates general I had been Ganem defeats the rebels in the region this inactivity or absence gave some time to the sassanids and they started recruiting and concentrating five armies in the area between Messiah and his Sayed keggebeen Amur who was left to command the garrison at Al Araf ordered the raiding parties in central Iraq and the Garrison's of Anbar and I now tumour to take positions to the south of the Sassanid forces delay them as much as possible and not allow these four small armies to unite into one force at the end of September Khalid returned to Algeria alongside the troops he picked up around Dermott Elgin doll and ordered ketchup in Amma and Abu Lila to lead portions of the garrison to his aid and cafes respectively and take command while his troops rested in the city apparently small Muslim and sassanid Army's Fort Minor battles in October and the sassanids suffered minor defeats which compelled them to retreat towards musiah Khalid now had an open route to the Sassanid capital Tessa phone but the Sassanid army at musiah and the concentrations of the Christian Arabs in the area between Sonny and Samia were still a threat so the Caliphate commander decided against attacking Tessa phone the main sassanid army at musiah probably considered its position to be safe since it would be difficult to attack them without going through San EE and Samael at the same time Khalid knew that attacking the majority light cavalry Arab Christians could push them to the north to unite with the troops at musiah so Khalid devised a plan his army was already divided into three cores and they moved directly against the Persians using the desert to avoid sin EE and samayal this was technically very difficult as all three cos had to not only bypassed the enemy armies being detected but also arrived as the decided location simultaneously it was risky which the possible reward was also high everything worked as planned Khalid scores converged on the target at the same time and during one of the nights in the first week of November his twenty thousand attacked the sleeping sassanid army of comparable size the latter was not expecting this attack and the army of the Caliphate scored an easy victory killing more than ten thousand sasnett warriors after that defeating a smaller Christian Arab force seemed easy but instead of confronting them head-on Khalid repeated his three-pronged maneuver to avoid losses the Muslims suffered minimal losses while the Christian Arabs lost more than half of their army apparently a few recent Muslim converts were among the killed and their families sent an appeal to the caliph Abu Bakr to punish Khalid this rejected appeal were sent through the future caliph Umar and will become important for our story down the line Khalid's mobility and the inability of his opponents to consolidate their forces meant that the region between Rozier and Algeria was now under the control of the caliphate we have sparse information on the early administration of these lands the Muslim sources claimed that while the Persians living in the cities were often taken captive and enslaved the local Arab population was forced to pay the jizya tax but was otherwise allowed a degree of autonomy and even freedom of worship more raids were sent across the Euphrates in the next month while Khalid was contemplating what his next move should be attacking Tessa phone was still dangerous as that would have stretched the supply lines too much that's made an attack on the only sassanids target in the area the city of Feroz the only option Feroz was right on the border of the assassinate and eastern roman empire's Khalid and his 20,000 reached the area in December once again the sources are conflicted but a few details that have reached our Times allow us to form a coherent timeline we know that's the local assassinate and Roman Garrison's United their strength on the north side of the Euphrates while Khalid held the crossing on the other side despite the fact that the Muslim sources state that the United Roman sassanid force was large it is fair to assume that neither Empire could have a large force in the area since the sassanids needed those troops in central Iraq while the Romans were concentrating their own forces on the crucial coastal areas and urban centres already being raided by these smaller Muslim armies even with a united force and the inclusion of the local Arab tribes the Allies led by the Sassanid commander Paul Majd jde probably had between 15 as 25,000 troops for five or six weeks the armies remained opposite each other as neither side had a safe place to cross the river it seems that sometime in the third week of January Khalid slightly retreated from the positions he held perhaps baiting his counterpart into attacking indeed the Allied force crossed the river and formed up against the Muslims both sides had a similar disposition with infantry in the center and cavalry on the wings the allied army charged the Muslims probably hopeful but their heavier equipment would give them an advantage slowly but surely this charge pushed Khalid slides back simultaneously the Muslim general ordered the cavalry units from the second rank to leave the main body and take position to the far left the Roman sassanid army continued to advance and the Muslims retreated even further Khalid detached force was ordered to take the bridge and then attack the Allies from the rear this maneuver was successful and homered steady his army immediately started losing cohesion the Allies thought that there was another big was Lamar me that took the bridge and would soon surround them simultaneously Khalid's main four started their counter-attack and those units of the Allied army not killed on the spot started routing towards the northeast a certain number managed to swim across the river but more than half of the Allied army was killed Khalid lost a few hundred from his ranks Khalid was about to attack deeper into Persian territory but he soon after received a letter from the caliph Abu Bakr at the rashidun capital of Medina the letter ordered him to cease his attacks on the sassanids and to move into Syria to battle the Romans so Khalid and a small contingent of his army prepares to move west as with the Mesopotamian invasions there had probably been no better opportunity for a strike into Roman lands as the destructive quarter-century long conflict from 602 to 628 had undermined crucial defenses in both regions the Roman East with all its religious cultural financial and strategic significance was now dangerously vulnerable during 633 the Muslims sent for separate cause to invade Palestine in addition to the areas around the Sea of Galilee the River Jordan and the Dead Sea though they achieved success assaults on the large urban settlements of the region could not be considered until reinforcements were brought up so both for the additional troops and for Khaled's expertise in warfare abu bakr sent the order for him to move west to save time and to bypass Roman defenses the muslim general chose a more dangerous route through an especially desolate waterless stretch of the syrian desert much to the alarm of his sub commanders in order to survive it is reported that Khalid in his ingenuitive way ordered 20 camels be forced to drink large amounts of water so that they could be used as makeshift storage tanks the beasts were then periodically slaughtered along the journey when nourishment was needed and the water was then harvested from the camels [Music] after five grueling days of marching through this desolate landscape the nine thousand strong Muslim army emerged at sua then they swiftly inflicted a minor defeat on the Roman Arab clients the Gaza needs at modular hit while they were celebrating Easter proving his strategy correct elites improbable desert crossing had also neutralized the Byzantine defenses on the Arabian border now he turned south towards the Syrian town of Basra where the arrival of his reinforcements led to its capture by mid-july of 634 despite this success the Muslims had little time to celebrate Roman Emperor Heraclius who was now in a Messer sent his brother Theodore a and an Armenian general named warden south to war - Nadine 25 miles southeast of Jerusalem where they began to gather a large army spies reported this gathering force - the invaders and the burgeoning caliphates army marched to meet their byzantine opponents [Music] very few hard facts are known about this battle which we can reconstruct a version of the fight using the available sources Muslim accounts vastly exaggerated the number of Roman troops they faced and it is likely even that the weakened Byzantine forces in Syria 10,000 strong and commanded by war Dan and Theodore a were outnumbered by the 15,000 Muslims both armies formed up in extended lines with their camps to the rear and both sides stood ready with three divisions of infantry right left and center while each wing had a cavalry flank guard behind the Muslim Center was a small reserve and in front of their center was a small group of champions before the battle began a Christian Bishop rode over to Callie's army and attempted to negotiate a Muslim withdrawal however the rashidun general simply responded by offering the traditional choice conversion to Islam payment of the jizya tax or death in battle the fighting at Ashna deigned began when the byzantine auxilary missile units stationed ahead of the main line began to rain arrows and stones on their adversaries as the superior byzantine ranged units loosed the muslims suffered losses and were unable to respond however one Muslim warrior named Iran heavily armored and brandishing a heavy shield stolen from a Roman soldier marched directly into the arrow fire shouting his war cry after the hail of missiles ceased Dara and his entourage of fellow champions were met by their Byzantine counterparts and it is said the Muslims got the better of the fighting slaying several Roman elite warriors and two generals as the dueling came to an end the rashidun army attacked and the subsequent fighting was a slogging match with little maneuver and lasted until nightfall the next day Byzantine commander worden attempted to lure Khalid into a trap by offering a parlay but the plan went wrong and he was instead killed by the fearsome deer on aiming to exploit the confusion which this loss of leadership caused in the Roman ranks the Arabs attacked again with their flanks in front and center behind after savage hand-to-hand fighting which exhausted and depleted both armies Khalid deployed his 4,000 strong reserve in the center and drove deep wedges through the Roman formations in this area unable to withstand the pressure any further their line collapsed after this defeat Emperor Heraclius sent his brother Fayed or a back to Constantinople in disgrace at the same time the remnants of his shattered army in addition to the local Roman population withdrew to the apparent safety of the walled cities which subsequently became crowded with refugees perhaps an omen of things to come heraclius then retreated with his headquarters further north to the city of Antioch due to the fact that Muslim forces now controls the countryside and were expected to advance on the most prominent urban center in the area a [Music] week after their victory at hash Nadine the Arab forces began to march north in the direction of Damascus on their way they had to leave a mounted detachment at the city of foul ancient Pella to keep the Roman garrison there tied down while the main army marched on would after this was done the Muslims reached Yakuza on the southern bank of the Yarra River here they were opposed by a blocking force of Byzantine troops on the northern shore they were in no real position to offer serious permanent resistance but they were there to delay the invaders and to allow the great city to further prepare for a coming siege after a short battle here and another battle against 12,000 Romans at the yellow meadow otherwise known as ma Joseph AR the road was clear to Damascus when the invading Arabs neared the city the Muslim commander realized that his forces were not numerous enough to encircle it entirely instead each of the Muslim sub commanders stationed their contingents outside of the city's various gates fully blockading the crucial thoroughfares by August 21st with a total of around 20,000 soldiers 16,000 infantry and 4,000 mobile Guard cavalry Damascus immediately began starving due to the lack of supplies and unprepared nurse for a siege while the Muslims were well supplied due to their domination of the fertile and productive local countryside as the Swift Arab light horsemen were relatively useless in a siege Khalid ib'n Alwaleed sent a few hundred of them to the Eagles pass to the north in order to act as Scouts here they watched for any Byzantine relief force aiming to pass through this choke point the other half stayed near the city as a reserve ready to help repel any sortie made by the Romans in Antioch the Roman Emperor learned of the siege and sent a 12,000 strong relief force along with plentiful supplies to help Damascus on September 9th when this force reached the narrow pass where the Muslim scouts were stationed they pushed the cavalry back one of these Scouts managed to send notice to our lead and he gambling that repelling the relief attempt was more important than maintaining two tighter blockade took the remaining cavalry at night to the Eagle Pass where he managed to rout the Romans despite their apparent success the besieging Arab forces were now stretched thin by colludes withdrawal historians believe that if the Garrison's General Thomas had chosen to launch a sortie at this point the Byzantines could have broken the siege but they did not and therefore lost the opportunity it seems that our Willett realized he had put the siege in danger with his gamble and he hurriedly returned to Damascus after he attained victory at the Eagles pass as the garrison and Thomas realized that no relief was coming morale among the defenders of Damascus became weaker and weaker it was clear action would be needed so the emperor's son-in-law decided to launch a counter-offensive of his own for this first attack Thomas decided to concentrate on one specific section of the city drawing men together from all sectors of the city towards the gate of Thomas where he was faced by around 5,000 soldiers and Asherah bill after the defending soldiers gathered in the area the Byzantine commander began his sortie by ordering his archers to rain down a constant stream of arrows against their enemy to which the Arabs responded accordingly using the cover granted by the Roman Missal units the infantry rushed through the gate of Thomas and fanned out into battle formation with Thomas himself leading the assault during the subsequent skirmish it is reported that Thomas both broke through a section of the Muslim line and almost to kill with Shura bill but he was then shot in the eye by the widow of a slain Arab soldier despite some level of success the sortie had failed to break the siege and the Byzantine forces retreated into the city as they did it is said that the injured Roman leader swore to take a thousand dies in return for his own last night another plan to break the siege was devised by the defenders as a concentrated attack on one of the gates had failed Thomas would this time launch simultaneous strikes from four of the gates to large forces were gathered at the eastern gate where Khalid was in command and at the gate of Thomas where the main attack against exhausted enemy units would be undertaken the other force is at the small gate and the chipiya gate were designed to pin their procedures in place as Thomas sounded the attack a grinding battle took place at feature be a gate with both sides suffering many losses after a while of this slaughter a boa biter and his forces at this gate managed to doggedly repulse the Byzantine assault driving them back into the city the situation was far more serious at the eastern gate where the Byzantines had a larger force this larger contingent of defenders managed to break the Arab infantry and drive them back but Khalid himself then arrived with 400 elite mobile Guard cavalry and with them struck the Roman flank this weakened the sortie irreversibly and the defenders were slowly driven back inside the gates once again however the worst of the fighting occurred at the gate of Thomas here the Byzantine forces were led by the one-eyed Thomas himself and after intense fighting there was still no weakness in the Muslim ranks at this point the Roman commander seems to have realized there was no point in continuing the grinding Malay and commanded a slow steady withdrawal all the while the Arab archers continually showered his men with arrows this was the last effort by Thomas to break the Muslim siege and it had failed with the loss of thousands of men with this defeat he could no longer afford any more attempts at a breakout a Greek in Damascus known as Jonah the lover in our absorbed over the wall and informs Khalid that on the night of the 18th of September there would be eight Christian religious ceremony which would leave the walls relatively unguarded he supposedly betrayed his city because his marriage to his fiancee had been interrupted by the siege and frustrated asks for the Muslims help in obtaining said bride this man soon converted to Islam but the details are incredibly vague whatever the case details of the opportunity led Khalid to borrow ladders from a local monastery and to purchase ropes in order to form an assault party that night a 100 strong contingent led by the Muslim general himself climbed the walls dropped into the city and killed the guards at the eastern gate then the attackers flung opened the gate and let the remainder of the Muslim forces at the eastern gate inside the city the other Byzantine detachments stationed elsewhere were unaware of this surprising development and instead of helping stayed at their posts at the same time Khalid began to fight his way towards the center of the city now attempting to save the city for a final time Thomas sent envoys to Abu Aveda at the Western to be a gate offering surrender and a payment of the jizya in exchange for a capitulation by terms this was given by the supposedly peace-loving Abu Ubaidah however Khalid who had finished slaughtering his way to the center of the city was furious that a surrender had been allowed even though the city had technically been taken by storm nevertheless the many Muslim unit commanders agreed that a surrender would be honored Khalid reluctantly accepted this judgment the fall of Damascus was a shock for the Byzantines as they probably thought that the Muslim attack on the region was a massive raid and not a full-on invasion Syria and Egypt were the most important provinces of the Empire and the fall of the former would mean that's the land route - the latter was cut and it was now also vulnerable to being occupied and for a heraclius couldn't allow that so he started sending orders to the provinces in order to bring in more reinforcements to the region simultaneously the political situation in the Caliphate had also changed as caliph Abu Bakr passed away in late August of that year and was replaced by Umar the new caliph immediately started implementing administrational and military reforms creating new administrative positions in the provinces and changing the formation of the army from the one created on the tribal principle to a more centralized one immediately after his ascension humar sent a letter to the army relieving Khalid of his post and appointing Abu Ubaidah in his place we don't know if this was part of the reforms or as some sources claim it happens due to the previous animosity between the new caliph and the general in any case it seems that before the messengers could reach Damascus the three-day peace the Muslims promised Tomas had passed and Khalid alongside 5000 cavalry guided by Jonah started pursuing the Romans Thomas had around 10,000 people with him both soldiers and citizens of Damascus that instead of finding refuge in one of the nearby towns this group was heading towards Antioch and that allowed the Arab cavalry to catch up to them to the south of Latakia sometime in late September the details of the engagement now known as the Battle of mirage out the badge are scarce but according to the Muslim sources a cavalry detachment of a few hundred caught up and took position to the south of Thomas the Romans immediately noticed them deciding that they would be able to defeat this small group with ease to be surprised of the Romans as soon as the Arab cavalry and Roman infantry started fighting another group of Khaled's horsemen appeared to the east although the Romans had thousands of refugees in their midst they still outnumbered the Muslims and a portion of their infantry formed up to face the new threat however a half hour after the battle was joined here a third group of Arab cavalry started charging from the north and the Romans barely got into a defensive formation in time to prevent it from breaking through Thomas's situation was becoming dangerous as the routes to Damascus was now cut off but the Romans were still fighting on an equal footing and the battle raged on three sides an hour later Khalid himself appeared to the West with the largest part of his army and charged the Romans despite the fact that Thomas managed to get a few units to this front they were swept aside almost immediately and the Arab cavalry was now deep inside the Roman formation Thomas was soon killed the Roman resistance continued for some time but was broken within an hour some soldiers and refugees managed to slip away to the north but the majority of the Romans were either killed or captured Khalid lost just a few hundred troops immediately afterwards the Arabs headed to Damascus and reached it in early October apparently abu ubaydah already received the messenger from the caliph and informed khalid of his demotion according to sources the latter accepted it without much protest but it did change the flow of the caliph its expansion in the region abu ubaidah was much slower and more deliberate than khalid umar preferred a more hands-on approach to the armies often issuing orders after every engagement which slowed down the campaigns due to the distance to medina he even placed informers in the army which made Abu abide er even more careful in his decisions at the same time the Muslims received some reinforcements bringing the total number of their troops to 30,000 however that wasn't the only change in command made by Umar which brings us back to Iraq where Khalid left with Anna in charge of a nine thousand strong army in 634 for the next few months with Anna whose numbers weren't enough to conquer any more lands implemented the tactic of raids in order to keep the superior sassanid forces at bay the details are lost to time but the sassanids who were used to fighting in pitched battles were having a difficult time containing the raids and one of them even reached Babylon the best assassinate commander rostam who basically controlled the court of the ten-year-old Shah Yazdi GERD was reluctant to leave the capital worried that it might incite another revolt but Masada's raids were too dangerous so the general decided to take command over the forces in Iraq and marched south supported by the sasnett generals farmen jabbin and Narcy and the armenian noble of Gelinas even before this multi-pronged counter-attack began Nathanael knew that he needed reinforcements and sent a messenger to the capital by August this messenger was in Medina just in time for the Ascension of Omar the new caliph appointed Abu obeyed not to be confused with Abu Aveda to command in Iraq and gave him six thousand or so troops to reinforce Madonna the latter was now informed of the assassinate counter-attack and when jabbin got close to Al hurrah in late September the Arab commander abandoned it retreating to kapphahn by early October Abu abate joined him bringing the total strength of the caliphates force to more than 15,000 a similar number to that commanded by Devin who crossed the Euphrates and was now at NAMM Erick the details of the battle us in America not clear but it seems that jab and suffered a minor defeat and was forced to retreat beyond the river Abu abate decided to fight the approaching sassanid armies in detail and marched north towards Casca hoping to defeat the smaller army under nasty and knock him out although the Muslims won again the Persian army managed to retreat mostly intact and Abu obeyed who knew that Gelinas might cut his retreat - out there are moved his army double-time to prevent this from happening indeed the army of the caliphate reached the city before Gelinas blocked them the closest sassanid armies to our era were those of Gelinas and Burman a letter from rostam ordered them to unite their troops across the Euphrates and attack the city in late October of 634 their united armies numbering around 20,000 attempted to force the river near Kufa but Abu obeyed and his 15,000 were able to halt this crossing for some time the army stood in front of each other screaming insults until a sassanid emissary approached Abu obeyed with Bauman's message either you cross over to our side and we shall let you or we shall cross over to your side and you must let us although his officers protested it abu obeyed was eager to cross and fight in a pitched battle so he ordered his army to do that seeing this Baumann repositioned his troops slightly to the north allowing the Muslims to move across and warm up I like previous battles the Persians had a dozen or so elephants and they were placed in the vanguard with heavy cavalry between them and the infantry in the second echelon Abu evades army crossed river in two hours and started to get into formation once again with Horseman in front and the footmen in the second line Vaman continued to wait and it was a to abate who gave the order to his soldiers to attack the Arab cavalry galloped forward which their horses were scared of the elephant's probably seeing them for the first time and the charge stopped before it managed to reach the Sassanid lines in response Baumann moved his archers to the front and commanded them to shoot at the retreating Arabs the volleys killed and wounded many and when the leaders of the army of the Caliphate attempted to move their archers forward to start skirmishing the whole arab line became chaotic and disjointed the Persian commander used that and directed his cavalry and elephants to attack while the cavalry was mostly stopped the elephant's easily created wedges everywhere they struck the Arab army was slowly but surely forced back the presence of the elephants was panicking the horses so in order to stabilize the front Abdul obeyed commanded his horsemen to dismount he led a group of warriors himself killing a few elephants and their entourage is however another elephant was sent towards the Arab leader and soon he was killed by the beasts many other Muslim leaders were killed and dorami started fleeing in chaos and the sassanids started chasing them matheno was one of the last remaining commanders and he achieved some degree of discipline and organization at the crossing leading the rearguard and allowing the remainder of the army to retreat he was badly wounded during the fight but his actions saved thousands the Battle of the bridge was the first battle the Persians won in this war more than ten thousand Muslims lay dead while the Sassanid casualties were around two thousand over the following weeks famine didn't pursue math Anna who withdrew to illes and returned to Tessa phone some sources claim that there was another rebellion against rostam others that Baumann was sent to deal with the Turkic Raiders the sources are also conflicted on the events that happened in Iraq later in 634 and then in 635 with some chronicles asserting that myth Anna's army deserted and he abandoned all the previous conquests and others stating that the sassanids sent a large army and amiran and it was decisively defeated at bou Abe in April of 635 in any case this lull in action allows us to return to the Levant the Muslim army was getting used to the new command structure and using this pause Heraclius was bringing more forces into the region by land to Antioch and as the Romans had complete naval control by sea to the various ports the second group was to be commanded by Theodor a serious the treasurer of the Empire and in December of 634 it started assembling to the west of Pella which was the perfect place to launch and East would attack cutting the line of communications with Arabia it is not clear how big this army was spies hadn't formed a buoy by dura bout this threat in December and in early January of 635 he marched south towards Pella leaving a corps under Yazeed behind as soon as the small garrison of Pella learned of this it retreated towards the main army flooding the River Jordan and creating a swamp like territory dividing the Byzantine and Arab armies after occupying Pella the Arab army commanders decided to move towards besan to engage Theodore they didn't know the terrain of this area well so soon after the vanguard led by Khalid got stuck in the mud and the Muslims were forced to withdraw back to Pella Theodor waited for a week or so hoping that his foes would become less vigilant on the 23rd of January he marched his troops towards the river with a plan to attack the Muslim camp at night however the Muslims had placed Scout troops along the river so as soon as the Romans started crossing the Arab camp was informed of it and started to form up for battle we have only limited details on the battle which according to the Arab sources raged through the night and most of the next day the Romans were able to push their counterparts back to the camp using their slightly larger numbers according to one Chronicle Theodore was wounded in one of the charges and the resultant loss of morale made the Romans retreat when they began crossing a marsh the Arabs used this to their advantage they attacked killing thousands and the rest returned to base on whatever was left of the Roman army dispersed into various Garrison's to the west and south while fyodor returned to Antioch by sea there was no army to fight back against Abu Abijah so he divided his army into cause to conquer as many cities as possible sharable took basin and then Tiberias afterwards sharable and Amma bin alas went south while Abu Aveda and Khalid marched north by March of 635 the Muslims were in control of the whole region to the south of beirut safe forces area which withstood a siege reinforced by Heraclius and Jerusalem which had the strongest fortifications Heraclius probably thought that the Muslims would be busy with the sieges and he had some time so he was recruiting in order to counter attack in 636 simultaneously an alliance with yes Taggart was established Heraclius married his grand daughter to the young sassanids Shar it was planned that the Persians would attack Muslim positions from the meanwhile Abu abiders 15,000 were moving north and by November took over the territory between Damascus and a Meza putting this major city in danger Heraclius rushed reinforcements which brought the strength of the garrison commanded by Hobie's to 8,000 in early December the city was besieged [Music] ah bees hopes let the Arabs who weren't used to the cold would not be able to sustain the siege for too long at the same time a Messer was a well fortified city with walls one mile in diameter a moat surrounding it and a citadel within the walls so the defenders situation wasn't hopeless the Muslims weren't strong as the art of siege craft at that point and the lack of siege weapons made an assault impossible so for weeks and then months the sides did nothing but exchange arrow volleys by March of 636 winter began to subside and it was becoming clear that the Arab army was planning to starve the msys food supplies were getting dangerously low so Hobie's decided to sally out and kill as many foes as possible believing that it might end the siege he left small units to defend the walls and concentrated more than 5,000 near the southern gates initially this sortie was very successful the Muslims were caught unprepared and were outnumbered two to one which led to hundreds of casualties and forced them to retreat under hobbies as pressure however Khalid managed to get his cavalry together arriving to the area of battle shortly after the numbers were now on the Arab side and this was enough for the Romans to break off the fight and return to the safety of the walls [Music] the defenders were jubilant and not at all surprised when the Muslim army gathered to the south and started withdrawing our bees decided that he could score a brilliant victory and immediately marched out of the city with the same 5000 he caught up with the retreating Muslims a few miles to the south but as soon as his mounted troops started charging Abu abiders units turned back and attacked a few minutes later the Romans were surrounded from all sides hobby's was killed and only a few hundred of his soldiers escaped after a short battle the Arabs returned to the city and the garrison which was left leaderless surrendered meanwhile to the north and pura Heraclius had been preparing an army to counter-attack for some time various sources provides numbers of this army ranging from a very modest thirty thousand to the fantastical four hundred thousand it should be noted that the chroniclers who wrote on this war lived at least one or two generations after the events so their depictions weren't based on first or even second hand accounts we know that at the peak of the Byzantine sassanid war of 602 to 628 heraclius was able to raise an army of 70,000 for his attack on the sassanid empire but that army had a considerable Kirk Turk element at the same time the Byzantines has to keep some forces in Italy the Balkans and the Caucasus in order to check the encroaching long birds Slavs Avars and Kasasa in our opinion the Byzantines outnumbered their opponents at least two to one but considering the logistical situation in the area of operation their numbers were below 100,000 Eric Laius who was now in his 60s suffered from edema so he wasn't going to lead the army predominantly made of Greeks Armenians and Christian Arabs personally instead the army was divided into five colony commanded by five generals the plan was to engage and surround the Muslim forces around a Messer and to use another column to take Damascus and prevent the troops of the Caliphate operating to the south from reinforcing the northern group [Music] the army left Antioch in the middle of June unfortunately for the Romans a few days before their leading column reached a Messer the Arabs learned about the counter-attack either from their spies or from the prisoners they took while raiding shizer so Abu Ubaidah ordered his Corps to fall back initially the idea was to retreat to Damascus to preserve this conquest but the city was surrounded by open space that would have given an army with superior numbers and advantage so the Arabs started retreating towards jabya which was located between the river Yarmouk to the South Lake Tiberias to the west and the desert to the east messengers were sent to the southern group with the order to march towards jabya [Music] the Byzantines who barely missed an opportunity to crush their opponents around a Messe started chasing the Arabs slowly coalescing after taking the city they retook Damascus and continued south and sometime in the middle of July 636 their vanguard made contact with the Caliph its rear guard to the north of Juba the Arab commanders who initially liked their position now understood that they might be attacked from the southwest via the narrow passage between Lake Tiberias and the river Yarmouk the Byzantine field army could have engaged them from the front while the garrison of Caesarea might have attacked using the passage therefore AB who have either left Khalid in command of the rearguard and started repositioning his troops the latter engaged the Byzantine vanguard led by the light Christian Arab Horseman allowing the rest of the army to move on harassed the Muslims encount in the eastern part of the plane of yarmulke some distance to the east of them were the lava hills stretching from north to east of ezra and the mountains of Shabazz Druze a few days later probably in the last days of July the Roman army entered the plain and built a fortified town in its western part with the central portion of the plane left unoccupied the army started preparing for battle by scouting the enemy positions the sources mention extensive negotiations which continued for weeks but the details of the talks are convoluted in short they ended in failure and the battle was inevitable according to some sources the caliphs reinforcements consisting of 5000 famous Yemeni archers and a thousand footmen who were veterans of the earliest Muslim campaigns in Arabia joined the army sometime during this negotiation the battlefield was enclosed on its western and southern sides by deep ravines to the west where the error occurred flowed into the Yarmouk River near yakaza this stream ran northeast to southwest for 11 miles through a deep ravine with very steep banks the ravine was crossable at a few places but there was only one main crossing where the village of cafe Omar stands today south of the battlefield ran the canyon of the Yarmouk River while deserts occupied the north and east of it the plain was mostly flat save for a small hill called Sami on the 14th of august the roman army moved forward and started forming up to the east and north of allen it is debated whether the army was commanded by the armenian general van or each of the five cause had a separate leader the Byzantine army positioned itself as follows the light gas on it cavalry of chabela was stretched across the plain as the vanguard with the objective of screening the army and skirmishing with the enemy Kenna tier commanded the left flank while Grigory was on the right flank and to central cause were led by their jannat van the Romans had spear and sword infantry in the first rank archers in the second and cavalry behind them although a borough by debt was the overall commander appointed by the Caliph sources claimed that he allowed Khalid to be the one giving the orders the Muslim force matched the widths of the Roman army but as it was smaller its formation wasn't as deep Khalid moved some of his light cavalry to the vanguard to observe the Romans the infantry was divided into four cores made up of nine units each with infantry in the front and archers behind them there were three cavalry units behind each flank and center while Khalid's mobile cavalry unit served as a reserve the Arab commanders plan was to defend and tire his foe and then counter-attack when possible both armies had a southern flank secured by the river yarmulke while the northern flank bordering the desert offered a chance to outflank the enemy the Battle of Yarmouk started on August 15th 636 with the Roman light cavalry vanguard moving behind the main army mostly reinforcing the left flank cavalry the Arab vanguard did the same and joined the main cavalry units it is unusual to see a battle fought in this era which wasn't started by a clash of light skirmishes but the sources didn't mention this happening instead insisting that's the champions of both sides jewel for a few hours in any case after the screening forces pulled back a third of the Roman infantry advanced across the front as midday soon the Roman footmen clashed with their counterparts while the archers in the second rank skirmish sending volleys above the heads of the details of this first day of scares but it is possible that the byzantines decided that april connaissance in force would provide benefits their attack was slow and lacked determination after a few hours of fighting they disengaged and returns to their initial positions the first day of battle was over and the sides returned to their respective camps at night a few Roman light cavalry units moved forward but they were caught by their Arab counterparts and forced back these raids were seemingly disjointed and lacked an objective as they were not conducted by nearly enough troops to do much damage however they allowed the Romans to form up in the darkness without alerting the enemy the plan was to attack the Muslims as early as possible not giving them the opportunity to get into formation indeed the whole Roman army attacked before dawn some sources claimed they knew of the Muslim religious rites that one of their prayers happened at this time and decided to use it to their advantage unfortunately for the attackers the same light cavalry patrols who fought from during the night were ordered to remain in front and as soon as the Romans came into contact with these forward units the Arabs retreated to their main force and informed them of the impending attack to the surprise of the Romans to their foes managed to prepare for the attack however they had their orders and so the second day of the battle began [Music] the Roman plan was to tie up the Muslim army center and pressure its wings to that end the attack in the middle was relatively passive the Byzantine left attacked the Muslim right head-on the first two attempts to break through failed but the Byzantines had a numerical advantage and used it fresh troops moved to the front and the third attack pushed the Arabs back some of them started retreating towards their camp and some joined the center right this opened a way for a counter-attack by the Arab right-wing cavalry its charge wasn't strong enough to force the Romans bank but tied them up for some time allowing the infantry to retreat soon the cavalry was unable to withstand the pressure and also retreated later Muslim sources mentioned that the wives of the retreating warriors shamed them into returning to the battle we don't know if that is true but the Arab right flank reformed and started marching towards the approaching enemy meanwhile the roman rite which was probably made of the best heavy infantry in the empire was even more successful some sources mentioned that it was fighting in a test judo formation but that is probably an anachronism in any case the first or the second attack by this group drove the Muslim left flank back and they hastily retreated towards the cannon similar to what happened on the other side of the battlefield the Muslim cavalry attempted to stem the enemy advance with a counter-attack but it failed and the horsemen joined their infantry enroute to the camp the sources once again claimed that their wives urged them to return to the battle and even threw stones at their husbands as the Roman Rite was slower due to its heavier armor the Arabs had more time to rearrange their line and move towards the Romans an attentive viewer might ask why the byzantines didn't exploit these breakthroughs by pouring troops between the gaps in the bosom formations or by out flanking the enemy right by widening the front in truth we don't have answers to these questions but it can be assumed that's the fresh Muslim cavalry in the center and in the reserve probably discouraged the former while the latter was dangerous due to the fact that the Arabs have already needs deserts terrain numerous times in the past to outflank the Byzantines it was Newton and Khalid had just been watching the battle until that moment but seeing the return of the wings spurred him into action taking command of the cavalry in the center first his united cavalry force charged to the right and moments after joining up with the right wing attacked the enemy left the Romans didn't expect an attack from the flank and were forced to retreat to their original positions losing men along the way to the south the left of the caliphates army was about to engage the byzantine right initially the Arabs were getting the worst of the fight and were about to break and flee again however Khalid was on his way he sent one unit of his cavalry to exploit the gap between the enemy right and center right and charged the rest into the side of the Roman right as mentioned this was the best Roman infantry so they resisted longer than their counterparts and suffered fewer casualties but still retreated the cavalry unit sent to attack the roman center-right surprised the latter managing to break in and killing the commander of this group the romans recovered from their surprise and pushed back the attackers however seeing that their flanks were retreating the center also broke off and returned to their starting positions both parties probably suffered similar casualties with the majority of the arab losses during the early retreat the roman rite lost the most troops and that would prove to be important during the next day as this detachment started its advance alongside the whole army but stopped well short of the enemy army with arches on both sides entering a half-hearted skirmishing contest meanwhile the roman center-right engaged the arabs but this attack only served to tie up this portion of the opposing army the main attack targeted the right and center right of the Muslim army and although initially the Roman onslaught was slowed their numbers started to play a role the Muslims started to retreat especially on the right flank where their line was pressed all the way up to the camp yet again this allowed the Romans to increase the pressure on the right most units of the Muslim center-right and starts turning the line Amyas core finally reformed and returns to the battle but all their efforts only managed to stabilize the line the Arab cavalry in the second line attempted to outflank the Romans but canotary moved his own to block off this advance seeing that the Roman Rite was being passive Khalid deduced that his left was safe he moved the reserve cavalry to the right and charged the Roman flank the Byzantine commander attempted to move more troops from his second rank to widen his front and it worked for some time however the Romans now lacked their previous depth and with this advantage negated the Arabs in the other parts of the line started to push back a protein dusk the continuation of the battle became impossible and the attackers disengaged retiring to their initial light it is clear that the Romans were getting frustrated as they expected their numbers to prevail at this point in the engagement in the first three days the Romans probably lost more troops but they still outnumbered their phone meanwhile for Khalid the main worry was the losses among via many archers and on the right flank the Roman plan for the next day was to attack the right half of the Caliphate zombie to divide it and encircle each Corps separately and then do the same with the left half to that end there left attacked the Muslims and soon the right flank of Khalid Zombie was shoved back yet again but not as far as in previous days made up mostly of the Armenians the Roman center left was equally successful against the Muslim centre right this time the Roman troops were able to turn this portion of the Arab line which opened up space between their cause and the Christian Arab light cavalry which was stationed in reserve behind the center was commanded to charge into this gap the Muslims were suffering heavy casualties and it was becoming clear that Khalid needed to move to the area to stop the Romans from winning one before he did that though he sent word to the left and center left ordering them to advance and tie up the forces in front of them with that the Arab commander divided his cavalry into two halves one of them moved to the left and attacked the Armenians from the side and rear while Khalid himself moved against the Christian Arabs the arrival of the reinforcements invigorated the beleaguered Muslims and they counter attacked the fight a continued for a few hours until eventually the Muslims started gaining the upper hand engaged from three sides the more heavily armored and disciplined Armenians suffered some casualties but were still able to retreat in relative order their Christian Arab allies weren't as able to defend themselves and lost many hundreds before they were able to return to their initial position seeing that their Center had fallen back the Roman left also disengaged however the left half of the Muslim army was still in Malay initially the Arabs had the upper hand as their charge surprised the Romans but their commanders steady for troops and soon they were pushing back the small number of Arab archers proved to be their undoing as the Romans had the upper hand in skirmishes apparently the arrows did so much damage to the forces of the Caliphate that later Arab sources called it the day of lost eyes unable to withstand the volleys the Arab started to pull back shortly after they were followed by the Romans this attack had the Muslim forces on the back foot and in full flight all of them except the leftmost unit of the centre which managed to crush the enemy detachment in front of it and attacks the right side of the Roman centre eventually this group was overwhelming the Muslim withdrawal stopped around the camps but they were chased by the Romans according to the Arab sources the Muslim women joined their brethren in the fight against the attackers it is impossible to confirm it but it seems that by the end of the 4th day of the battle the Romans were either pushed back or disengaged on their own both sides were extremely tired and battered some sources mentioned that there was an attempt to negotiate from the Romans and that the Arabs refused but in any case the army spent the 19th of August resting till 8:00 made just one change to the formation all of his horsemen were drawn into one large detachment behind the right-wing infantry save for one cavalry unit which were sent north into the desert at the dawn of August 20th the sixth day of the battle both sides charged and engaged in a melee across the line after the melody Gann Khalid sent a portion of his cavalry forward with an order to attack the side of the Roman left but upon their approached Roman cavalry wheeled around their footmen and blocks their advance that was the moment the Arab commander was waiting for as the rest of his horsemen moved forth attacking the Roman cavalry from the side and rear soon the Roman horsemen were crushed and the Arabs attacks the infantry which broke under the attack from three sides and started falling back to the center the Muslim right now attacks the Roman center left from the flank and rear meanwhile the commanders of the Roman army noticed that their left-wing cavalry was being routed from the field by the consolidated Arab cavalry and they attempted to counter that by bringing their mounted troops together unfortunately for the Romans it was too late and before they were able to form up Khalid smashed into them routing them the Roman cavalry wasn't able to resist for long and promptly started to leave the field of battle back east the Armenians were defending against attacks from two sides and for now were able to hold off the assailants however after Khalid dealt with the Roman cavalry and made sure that they wouldn't return his horsemen charged into the rear of the Armenian formation they collapsed under the charge and started retreating to the southwest the Arabs repositioned to attack the center right and the right of the Roman infantry but before they did the latter fled on their own again to the Southwest towards the only crossing over the river all the while the Muslim cavalry blocked off their retreat from the north and footmen from the east the remains of the Roman army were hoping to cross where diya record which the 500 strong Arab mounted unit sent away into the desert had already been commanded to block off this crossing understanding that they were in a trap the Roman officers attempted to form up some kind of defensive line but before they could do it they were attacked by the cavalry from the north and the infantry from the east it was a slaughter and many thousands were killed in this encirclement with some units managing to cross the river by swimming around half of the Roman army lay dead on the plain of yarmulke while the Muslims lost less than a fifth of troops at this point in this story we have to leave the Syrian front as things have started heating up in Iraq in the aftermath of the decisive victory at the Battle of the bridge Persian forces made no move to capitalize on it either hoping that the attack was over or being preoccupied with other matters this gave caliph Umar time to come up with a response lacking an immediate source of manpower the pragmatic rashidun caliph raised another army from the previously untapped tribes who rebelled against the caliphate during the ridda wars including the bandit annum and punisher dealer these warriors supplemented by additional contingents mustered by umar were gathered and sent north but problems were still present quarreling between many of the tribal chiefs prompted the caliph to appoint a trusted Paragon to supreme command who was absolutely beyond reproach after being talked out of leading the army himself the Amar's commander would be sad bin ABI Waqqas the seventh person to embrace islam and a companion of the Prophet the presence of such a respected general United the army in spirit additionally many more warriors joined themselves two sides invasion force as it marched north of the Medina Hira Road in May of 636 by the time it reached the Euphrates region for a second time the Muslim army was probably the most formidable Persia had faced so far unfortunately facade resistance to his advance was soon incoming the best sassanids general Rustin who basically ruled the court of the twelve-year-olds Shah yes to get the third wanted to fight smaller battles to minimize risk but that decision was unpopular with the nobles and commoners alike as the Battle of the bridge probably made the Empire complacent therefore the general depart in the Persian capital at the head of a massive Imperial force beelining straight for the Muslims in couch near Kadisha the two opposing armies finally caught sight of one another across the span of the AL attic canal about 30 miles east of Hira after an exhausting march in the midst of Iraq's blistering summer rostam ordered his men to take up positions and in camp across from SADS army rather than immediately mounting an assault across the canal the bulk of both armies remained on their own side of the waterway for several months with the peace only punctuated by small scouting missions at rates rostam probably knew that the previous Islamic army had been defeated during a botched river crossing and was therefore content to wait and receive sides attack hoping it would happen again the Muslims meanwhile were fighting a two-front war so keeping the Mesopotamian army passive for the time being was prudent in Syria their army was engaged against the Romans in a campaign which culminated in mid-august at the Battle of Yarmouk with the Christian empires war machine broken Lamar was free to dispatch reinforcements to side's force in the hope of keeping rostam occupied the Muslim leader sent repeated embassies to treat with his Persian counterpart demanding that these are Astri UNS submit to islam in return for peace with the Sassanid commander unwilling to convert and reinforcements streaming into their camp the Muslims challenged their enemy to battle arraying their forces in formation and allowing the sassanids to cross the canal withdrawing a mile to the rear with the AL attic canal bridge occupied by Muslim guards rah stems Imperial Army spent the night hours damming the waterway with debris to enable passage at dawn rostam seated on his throne ordered his army across and had the army advance in battle formation against the arrayed Muslim forces the climactic struggle for Persia was about to begin the army under the authority of rostam Farouk said was likely made up of at most 60,000 assassinate troops even a sassanid field army at the absolute apex of the Empire's power probably would not have been able to muster such of massive numbers and it is even more unlikely that the politically divided militarily exhausted realm of 628 onwards could bring to bear anything more than 60,000 rosten's bulwark was also a multi-ethnic army having come together from regions all across the vast expanse of the territory ruled by the house of Sasson from Azerbaijan to Khurasan it included among its ranks Kurds Armenians Turks Arabic allies and units from many other people's the right and left center units of the Imperial Army were under the command of Gelinas and peers and respectively and in total comprised 30,000 warriors 20,000 Meli infantry and bowmen in the first line and 10,000 cavalry in the second among these troops were 10,000 professionally trained Persian immortals revered elite fighters who changed themselves together as a signal to the enemy that they were prepared to die rather than retreat bounded by swampland which was difficult to traverse the assassinate left and right wings were led by me ran and homas on both illustrious generals drawn from highborn Persian clans each led ten thousand infantry in their front rank backed by five thousand cavalry behind in front of Rossum's line was a screen of 33 mail-clad elephants 18 of them were deployed in the center while the remainder were split equally on either wing rostam himself donning ornate armor mounted his raised throne just behind the center accompanied by a small strategic reserve about a mile to the west SADS thirty thousand warriors threw up in a manner that mirrored their adversaries for tribally organized divisions with infantry in the first line and cavalry in the second in addition to the Muslim forces from Arabia proper Christian Arabs from the border of sassanid territory and even some captured Persian officers had joined the army after converting to Islam although sad bin ABI Waqqas was capable of deploying his army properly ailments and injury prevented him from mounting a horse and exercising effective tactical control instead the companion general appointed a trusted deputy Khalid bin a fighter to carry out his immediate orders and took up a strategic position atop the fortress of nearby who's Abe the various units were commanded by their tribal chieftains and included men such as Shura bill been sympton of the riddle Wars and Syrian campaign who led the Muslim left wing as rah stands large army continued to form up Muslim soldiers took part in their usual noon prayer donned their armor and waited by the early afternoon hours the massive Persian army was finally ready to fight raw stems plan was simple as to the point smashed both flanks of the enemy army and then smash into their exposed Center the Battle of al-qadir began with a heavy barrage of arrows loosed by the Sassanid arches who's superior bows and higher-quality arrows inflicted massive casualties on their lightly armored counterparts the Muslims attempted to return the favor but their low-powered bows and inferior arrows resulted in the missiles bouncing harmlessly off the Persian heavy armor the amused sassanids troops mocked the Muslim arches by repeating the word spindles spindles as the impotent arrows fell harmlessly with most of the Islamic front line pinned in place by Ross temps lethal storm of arrows the general ordered a seven strong elephant Corps on his left to lead a charge directly asked the Muslims opposing him followed by the rest of the troops frightened by the oncoming Titans the rashidun mounts forced their riders to scatter from their position leaving the infantry exposed beset by Moran's flank and lacking cavalry support the Muslim warriors fell back slowly suffering casualties but not breaking under the assault sad witnessing the danger his right flank was in from use Abe had two units of cavalry from the unengaged center dispatched to reinforce and shore up the line one of these contingents struck Mirren's troops in the front while the other hits them in the flank pushing the Persians back to their starting position after a fierce fight observing that his attack on the Muslim right was stalling Rosten completely changed tack he dispatched part of his immediate reserve and Oberman to keep that part of the Muslim army locked in place then ordered the Sassanid right and right center to advance fronted by elephants and covered by another deadly volley of arrows again the vanguard of elephants panicked ratcheted mounts and forced the horsemen to flee for infantry cover [Music] this state of affairs could not continue if victory for Islam was to be attained sad realizing he had to do something about the sassanids Assault beasts had orders conveyed that light troops from the Arabian Banny Taman tribe deal with them darting in and amongst the massive elephants with considerable skill and daring the agile warriors cut the cables which kept the elephants mounting platforms atop the animals and showered the occupants with missile fire a vast number of the isolated elephant riders were killed where they stood while the rest led they're exhausted warm outs back behind the main Persian line the general sasnett attack on this side of the field was also wrestled back [Music] in an attempt to take advantage of his enemy's lack of elephants sad ordered a general attack all across the front it is said that while the sassanids were equipped the Muslims were superior fighters this level of skill allowed a unit in Sarge Center to punch through the Persian line and get close to the enthroned roster descending from his position the general drew his sword and entered the fray personally along with some retainers with the Army's morale bolstered by the presence of their leader the Muslim counter-attack was repelled and the front re-established by nightfall the last of the day's fighting had come to an end this first dreadful day also known as the day of disorder by the battered Ratigan warriors was over the wounded were gathered and cared for by women in the Muslim camp and trained surgeons of the Sassanid army while the remainder rested when Dawn came both armies once again lined up for battle facing off until mid-morning at around noon a thousand reinforcements from Syria and decocker banana began streaming onto the field to reinforce the Muslim army coming 10 at a time so as to give the illusion of fast numbers this increased fee morale of the Muslim army tenfold and sad immediately ordered another charge all across the line the enemy ranks remains coherent and ungroup mainly due to the force of their heavily armored casualties increased as the fighting grew more and more brutal but after two hours of rootless fighting both sides pulled back the Muslims were trading well for dead Persians for each of their own but rostam trusting in his superior numbers was content to grind SADS force into the dust on the Muslim side Kaka displaying his energetic and restless nature used the break in fighting to cover the camels that's the rashidun army brought with wooden structures making them look to the untrained eye of a horse like unfamiliar terrifying beasts when fighting resumed not long after the disguised camels were paraded in front of the charging Persian cavalry spooking the horses into breaking ranks sensing an advantage Saad had the army attack along the entire front again this time without elephants or cavalry - both - their ranks zealous Muslim warriors sized into the Persians units viciously routing many of them towards the waterway behind and almost causing the entire sassanid army to buckle with the shock however rosten's personal intervention and unmoving confidence allowed his shattered contingents to get back into the fight [Music] throughout the evening hours Persian and rashidun troops engaged in a slugging match which as the Sun dipped beneath the horizon managed to painstakingly throw the Muslims into retreat with that both exhausted armies retired for the night when daylight came on the Thursday and the armies were arraying for battle SADS troops were met with an unwelcome surprise the enemy ranks parted briefly and through the March the mighty elephants recovered and rearmed now each surrounded by a protective ring of infantry and cavalry [Music] when mid-morning came rostam had his archers unleash another extended era volume which locks the Muslims in place as this barrage concluded the entire sassanid army fronted by the terrifying elephants began inexorably trudging onward suddenly as they approached sides line the infantry shielding each elephants front shifted aside according to plan enabling the giant war beasts to crash into the Muslim line at close range the riders were able to escape and fled without delay first the infantry weren't so lucky SADS entire army was brutally shoved back losing hundreds of men who were bought by tusks crushed by the elephant's feet or put to the sword by Persian arms Rosten caught the smell of blood in the water in order to end the battle he sent a Cavalry Division on a deep flanking attack against azeip castle itself but this was rapidly countered by a unit of Muslim riders although that attempt failed the army of Islam was visibly about to disintegrate despite the coming of even more reinforcements from the West taking advice from a defected persian soldier at the last possible moment rashid in light infantry slid through the ranks surrounded the to lead elephants and blinded them before swarming the creatures and their onboard missile troops with the elephant alphas killed other beasts along the line were overwhelmed and killed in the same manner many others driven into a rage by pain and unable to see through mutilated eyes turned 180 degrees and stampeded towards the canal crashing through the Persian ranks and disordering rostam czar me sad ordered yet another full-scale assault impacting upon the sassanids with devastating force Alka disha was devolving into a war of attrition not even darkness on the day of hardship brought the fighting to an end but the soldiers sheer exhaustion gradually led the troops to disengage at sunrise the next day both armies seems to be at breaking point but it still wasn't clear who the victor would be as both armies rested caki decided to make a decisive move under the cover of a brief sandstorm he and 700 troops launched an attack on the blinded Persian center breaking through the line and approaching Rosten isolated and disoriented the sassanids general was found by a ratcheting soldier and slave fighting continued until rumors of their commanders fate spread around to the Persian army at that point the center finally cracked and routed towards the river followed shortly after by both flanks the Imperial Army of the Sassanid Empire had been defeated the sassanids lost more than 20,000 while the Muslim losses were less than 10,000 [Music] although the Muslims seemingly scored decisive victories against two of these strongest empires of the period the war in the region was hardly over the next episodes of this series on early Muslim expansion will take us to Egypt Constantinople Central Asia Spain and France so make sure you are subscribed to our Channel and have pressed the bell button we would like to express our gratitude to our patreon supporters and channel members who make the creation of our videos possible now you can also support us by buying our merchandise via the link in the description this is the kings and Generals Channel and we will catch you on the next one

Channel: Kings and Generals

Views: 1,996,033

Rating: 4.8405647 out of 5

Keywords: Muslim Expansion, Rashidun Caliphate, Kings and generals, animated historical documentary, khalid ibn walid, khaled, Eastern Roman Empire, Byzantine Empire, Sassanid Empire, Chain, River, Wallaja, Ullais, Muzayyah, Firaz, Ajnadayn, Damascus, Maraj-al-Debaj, Pella, Emesa, Yarmouk, Bridge, Syria, Iraq, Al-Qadisiyyah, full documentary, documentary film, history documentary, king and generals, decisive battles, military history, roman empire, ancient rome, history channel

Id: r2cEIDZwG5M

Length: 113min 12sec (6792 seconds)

Published: Sun May 03 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/[deleted]]

Back then Arabs defeated a Roman army 4 times larger in 6 days. Damn how times have changed.