In the fifteenth year after the Prophet Muhammad’s
migration from Mecca to Medina - 636 in our calendar – the armies of the Rashidun caliphate
stood victorious against the Sassanid and Eastern Roman empires, but these empires were
still resisting. The second season of this series will describe
the war in Iran, Turkey, Egypt, Northern Africa and beyond, as the Muslim armies gear up for
more conquest. Welcome to our second season of videos on
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20% by clicking our link! In the previous season, we covered the first
stages of the Muslim conquest of the Middle East. It started in 633 with the campaign in Mesopotamia
against the Sassanid empire by the general of the Rashidun Caliphate Khalid ibn al-Walid. After a string of victories that brought him
to the border of the Eastern Roman Empire, Khalid entered Syria and again won a number
of decisive battles culminating at the battle of Yarmouk, which put most of the region under
the control of the Caliphate. In southern Mesopotamia though, the Sassanid
empire attempted a counter-attack which led to the battle of al-Qadisiyyah. After the battle that continued for days,
the Muslim army commanded by Sa’d Ibn Abi Waqqas defeated Rostam’s Sassanid force. Amidst the slaughter and unfolding catastrophe
at Qadissiyah, the commander of the Persian centre-right - Jalinus - assumed leadership
of the imperial army’s remnant and set about saving what forces he could. Assembling a small, elite strike force, he
thrust towards the al-Atiq dam and drove a unit of Muslim troops away before forming
a perimeter and holding it. As Sassanid stragglers withdrew across the
dam wall to the other side, Jalinus bravely repelled many attacks from the Muslims and
managed to see most of the remaining troops to safety, but it was still a painfully small
number. When the last of them were on the canal’s
far side, Jalinus had the dam destroyed and began hastily pulling his men upstream to
Najaf before the victors fully turned on him. Unwilling, however, to give the foe any breathing
room, Sa’d Ibn Abi Waqqas dispatched Qa’qa and Shurahbeel to hunt down scattered Persian
units, while cavalry commander Zuhra bin al-Hawiyya was sent after Jalinus with 300 elite Arab
horsemen. Not deterred by the dam crossing’s destruction,
Zuhra and his 300 drove their mounts into the torrent and forded it before chasing Jalinus’
column upstream. The latter realised he was being chased and
halted with his own cavalry at a nearby bridge, while the infantry carried on withdrawing
all the way to Najaf. After a short time, the horsemen of Zuhra
came across Jalinus’ valiant rear-guard and charged it, breaking the formation swiftly
and provoking its leader into yet another withdrawal. His heels constantly bit by Zuhra as he did,
Jalinus chose to turn and face the enemy in a final fight, believing that the best way
to stop the pursuit was to kill the leader. So, he halted his forces, turned about face
and arrayed for battle, before personally riding before his troops and challenging Zuhra
to single combat. Galloping forward atop their horses, the two
exhausted commanders fought one another to decide the issue once and for all, and once
again it was the Muslim who came out on top after a hard-fought struggle. Jalinus was killed and his cavalry took flight,
but many were still caught and slain by Zuhra’s riders. By sunset, the 300 reached Najaf, where they
halted for the night. With the aim of conquering prosperous Iraq,
which the Muslims believed was the ‘heart of the world’, Sa’d reorganised his 20,000
troops into five marching corps1 with Zuhra retaining his advance guard position. Two weeks after Qadissiyah, he was quickly
joined at Najaf by the remainder of the army and given the order to cross the Euphrates. Incoming Sassanid reinforcements under Nakheerjan
arrived in the area soon after, having been initially bound for Rostam’s now broken
force. Hearing of the defeat, the reinforcement group
halted east of the Euphrates and waited for new orders from Ctesiphon, which came in the
form of Firuzan, a general tasked by Emperor Yazdegerd with preventing or delaying the
seemingly unstoppable advance of the Muslims. When Firuzan appraised the situation, he decided
that his army of fresh and recently defeated forces under his command wouldn’t be enough
to throw the Arabs back. So, he instead prepared defensive actions
at a series of defensible locations and cities on the road to the Persian capital, so that
the great city would have time to fortify. As his first move, Firuzan ordered the governor
of Burs, Busbuhra, to hold his branch of the Euphrates and gave him some troops to help
with the task, while the general and his main army started massing near Babylon. When Zuhra’s advance guard neared Burs,
the city’s governor rode out to meet him. In a short battle, the holding force of Sassanid
troops was routed and Busbuhra severely wounded. During the flight, he died from his wounds. Following this defeat, the new local leader
made peace with the Caliphate, agreeing to provide information and logistical assistance. From these new allies, Zuhra learned that
the formidable main Sassanid army opposing him was indeed across the Euphrates at Babylon,
along with several high nobles. Zuhra then forwarded this crucial information
to Sa’d at Najaf, and waited for the four corps trailing his own to catch up. When they did, the Muslims advanced on Babylon
in strength and, at some point in December 636, met Firuzan along the river bank and
crushed his army in a brief but harsh battle. One of the defeated generals, Hormuzan, fled
south with his contingent to his domain in Ahwaz, while Firuzan and the remainder withdrew
north in good order, leaving garrisons at Sura and Deir Kab along the way2. Zuhra again set off in hot pursuit and, despite
fierce resistance from the defensive Sassanid armies in his way, managed to defeat them
at Sura, Deir Kab, and Kusa on his relentless drive to Ctesiphon. By early January of 637, the Muslim leader
neared Vologesocerta - just one of the cities which made up larger Ctesiphon, where he was
again rejoined by the bulk of the army. To the desert-dwelling Arabs, whose largest
urban areas were but a fraction of the size, the Persian capital was unlike anything most
of them had ever witnessed in their lives. More than just a single city, Ctesiphon had
in fact grown to encompass about seven grandiose population centres which had been constructed
and assimilated over the centuries, forming a true metropolis. Because of its unique nature, the Persian
heartland was dubbed Madain, or ‘The Cities’ in Arabic. On the Tigris’ western bank stood Seleucia,
Vologesocerta and Veh-Ardashir, while Ctesiphon proper and a number of peripheral hubs were
to the east. Perhaps the most majestic sight for those
approaching Arabs during 637 would have been the 40-meter-tall Arch of Khosrow, an architectural
marvel unique in the world at the time. Although Firuzan hadn’t managed to stop
the Muslim advance, his delaying action had worked, and now the entire western portion
of Yazdegerd’s imperial capital was fortified with a deep ditch, with manned positions at
regular intervals. The Sassanid Shah3 and his advisors also massed
a number of ballistae and catapults in the bounds of Veh-Ardashir which, as the closest
sub-city to Ctesiphon proper, was the focus of their defensive efforts. Zuhra ordered an attack on Madain shortly
after his arrival, but Yazdegerd’s artillery began launching bolts and throwing giant stones
out of Veh-Ardashir and into the Muslim ranks, causing severe losses and forcing Zuhra’s
forces to retreat out of range. Unable to reply in kind, he sent scouting
parties to probe and find a way inside, but everywhere came across the Persians’ defensive
trench and were unable to breach it. Sa’d arrived at this point and assumed command,
swiftly deciding that there was little point wasting his warriors in careless assaults
against such strong defences. So, instead he established a blockade around
all of Madain west of the Tigris and settled his forces down for a long siege. However, Sa’d wasn’t content to sit and
wait for victory, taking all measures he thought possible to secure a faster surrender of the
unbelievers, primarily by scything away the western bastion’s food supplies. To do this, he had his subcommanders conduct
raids on the neighboring hinterland, seizing cattle and sheep for the Muslims’ own uses
whilst also sapping the enemy’s resources by preventing supplies from reaching Veh-Ardashir. In the process of doing so, Arab cavalry seized
thousands of farmers as prisoners of war who, upon the intercession of a regional leader
who had submitted, were freed upon agreeing to pay the Jizya tax. In addition, security for their lives and
possessions were guaranteed, an act which won the Muslim invaders considerable good
will with the locals. Throughout the months long siege, Sa’d’s
warriors had also been continuously harried by the sophisticated Sassanid engines of war
Yazdegerd’s generals had amassed, although casualties at their hands remained relatively
light. Unfortunately for the Persians, some of their
engineers defected during the course of the siege and provided their masters with at least
20 novel artillery pieces of their own. When these contraptions subsequently began
sending their own missiles howling into Ctesiphon, the dense concentration of Sassanid soldiers
and civilians inside resulted in them causing terrible destruction. The fact that the Muslims had even acquired
weaponry of this kind, which had until then been universally in Persian hands, also badly
affected morale. By mid-March 637 western Madain’s situation
was becoming intolerable. Persian civilians starved to death in the
hundreds, while more were reduced to eating stray cats and dogs to survive. Beset by such conditions, the Sassanid troops
not manning the ditch were concentrated into a single strike force and led in a desperate
sortie beyond their defences. The Muslims arrayed to meet them in pitched
battle and a desperate struggle began. Zuhra’s corps was in the thick of the action
and he himself was wounded by an arrow. Despite his injury, the valiant Bani Tamin
chief led a counterattack and personally slew the Persian strike force commander, after
which the defenders withdrew behind their ditch. The savage fighting to repulse the Persian
attack was followed by a few hours of eerie calm, during which a Sassanid officer approached
the Muslims with an offer: each belligerent would retain whatever territory they had captured
on their respective sides of the Tigris. However, these conditions were declined with
the reply “There can never be peace between us until we get honey out of the lemons of
Kusa.” When these peace overtures were rejected,
the Persian forces in Veh-Ardashir quietly withdrew from their positions and pulled back
across the Tigris. Western Ctesiphon was now under Muslim control. Yazdegerd III also sent his family, retainers
and treasury ahead to Hulwan, where the emperor intended to move his court if the great capital
fell. Although behaving as if defeat was already
inevitable, from his seat in the White Palace Yazdegerd appointed Rostam’s brother Khurrazad
and Mihran to command the defence of the eastern city. These generals promptly redeployed their remaining
forces on the eastern bank and waited for the besiegers’ next move. That same evening, on the river’s edge of
newly occupied Veh-Ardashir, Sa’d stared across the Tigris at the glorious Arch of
Khosrow and pondered his next move, eager to claim it for Islam. As Muhammad’s former companion strategised
to himself, a Persian approached him and asked “What are you waiting for?”, followed
by the alarming revelation that “Not another two days will pass before Yazdegerd departs
with everything in Ctesiphon!” Time was now of the essence. Another sympathetic local, possibly disillusioned
by heavy Sassanid taxation or possibly even a recent convert to Islam, took Sa’d to
a known ford in the river, one which Sa’d deemed unsuitable due to the swift current
and deep water. Rather than make a hasty decision right then,
he chose to sleep on the issue and decide in the morning. During the night, Sa’d supposedly had a
strange dream in which he saw the Tigris’ waters, only they were flowing incredibly
quickly and were unrealistically deep. Still, his own Arab cavalry appeared and plunged
into the seemingly impassable torrent, reaching the other side relatively easily. The next morning, Sa’d convened a conference
of his highest generals and declared that the cavalry would swim through the river,
and asked if there were any volunteers to lead the dangerous attack. The first to put himself forward was Asim
bin Amr, Qaqa’s tribal comrade and a dashing military leader, followed by 700 of the most
reckless and brave Muslim warriors. After all necessary preparations had been
made by midmorning, Asim plunged into the water and began his crossing. Khurrazad responded by ordering his Persians
into the river to meet them, but after a hearty resistance the Sassanid cavalry who responded
were pushed back when one of their comrades from the city came, shouting “Why are you
killing yourselves, there is nobody left in Ctesiphon to defend!” He was at least partially correct. Upon receiving word that the Muslims were
crossing the Tigris, Emperor Yazdegerd had departed his capital for Hulwan, taking much
of the imperial court with him. After their resistance faltered, most of the
army defending the city followed suit4, save for a Sassanid regiment fortified in the White
Palace. On the Tigris, Sa’d took the opportunity
Asim’s lance-like advance had given him and began ferrying the rest of his warriors
across to the bridgehead, not without danger of succumbing to the raging waters. One man fell from his horse and fell into
the current, but the all-powerful Qaqa reached down in the nick of time and heaved him up. Despite the myriad dangers of the crossing,
in relatively short order the entire Islamic army was on the eastern bank of the Tigris
river. The moment Sa’d himself landed, he ordered
Asim and Qaqa to move on the core of Ctesiphon, in the process of which they encountered token
resistance, but this was quickly dealt with. The Muslims found their final opposition in
the White Palace, but chose to deal with it by sending forward yet another companion of
Muhammad - Salman. A Persian by birth, he had converted to Islam
after meeting the prophet in Arabia, and now his heritage proved a crucial boon. “I am actually one of you, I feel for you.” he said upon meeting the defenders, and outlined
the usual three choices - Jizya, conversion, or death. After a short negotiation, the hopeless palace
troops accepted the Islamic tax and surrendered. Ctesiphon - Jewel of the Sassanid imperial
superpower for over four centuries - was now in Arab hands, a people who had been a mere
afterthought only years earlier. Separate columns of Arab riders under Zuhra
and Qaqa galloped forth from the captured city almost immediately, moving in different
directions5 in pursuit of their enemy. The spoils were plenty - for example, 11 priceless
suits of armour and swords which belonged to Heraclius of the Byzantine Empire, the
Turkish Khagan, and other world leaders. Other treasures now in Sa’d’s hands included
gold, jewels, and imperial regalia. With the Sassanid capital had come the empire’s
boundless wealth, and also the first major mass conversions of Persians to Islam. Salman the Persian in particular played a
role in this religious change, preaching to his countrymen the values and beliefs of the
new faith. Although Ctesiphon and all the ‘Suwad’
was lost to the House of Sasan, the Persians’ resistance to their conquest by the Muslims
would continue in the old heartland beyond the Zagros, and more videos are on the way,
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