CAMPAIGN IN SYRIA.--BATTLE OF WACUSA ON THE YERMUK.
A.H. XIII. A.D. 634.
[Sidenote: Khâlid ibn Saîd posted on the Syrian border. A.H. XII. A.D.
633.]
The campaign in Syria opened under the auspices of a very different
Khâlid, of the Omeyyad clan,--Khâlid ibn Saîd. Having been one of the
earliest converts, and amongst those driven for refuge to Abyssinia,
he held a high place amongst the confessors of Islam. He had been
appointed by Mahomet to a command in the south, and though forced
to retreat in the troubles which ensued on the Prophet’s death, had
achieved some renown in wresting from Mádekerib’s hands the famous
sword Samsât.[147] Returning from thence, he urged his claim to a
fresh command; and Abu Bekr, yielding to his importunity, and against
the wish of Omar, posted him at Tayma, on the Syrian border, there to
rally the friendly tribes, but, unless attacked, to take no offensive
step. Tidings of the movement alarmed the Romans in that quarter, who
thereupon, summoning the Ghassân and other Syrian tribes, assembled a
large force to protect the border. Khâlid, on this, obtained permission
to advance, but cautiously, and so as to leave no enemy in his rear.
[Sidenote: Discomfits a Roman column.]As he advanced, the Syrians
retired; and, marching onwards, he discomfited a Roman column on the
eastern shore of the Dead Sea.[148] Finding himself in a position
so advanced, and the country in front roused by the inroad, Khâlid
urgently demanded reinforcements from Medîna. [Sidenote: Ikrima sent
to his support;]The troops were just then returning from Yemen; and so
Ikrima, with Dzul Kelâa, a loyal Himyarite chief, followed by his clan,
being the first to appear, were despatched to the north in haste.[149]
[Sidenote: also Amru and Welîd. January, A.D. 634.]
Two other captains of note were also deputed for the support of
Khâlid; these were Amru and Welîd, who had a joint command over the
Beni Codhâa, in the tract of country between Tayma and the Red Sea.
Since the reduction of Dûma, this tract was now comparatively quiet,
and Abu Bekr gave them the option either of remaining where they were,
or engaging in a work ‘better for them, both in this present life,
and in that which is to come.’ Amru, although he had, even before his
deputation to Omân, had the promise from the Prophet of this district,
made answer: ‘Thy servant is but an arrow in the quiver of Islam, and
thou the Archer. It is for thee to pick out the fittest shaft, and
whithersoever thou wilt discharge it.’ So they were despatched, Welîd
to join Khâlid ibn Saîd, and Amru by Ayla to the south of the Holy
Land.[150]
[Sidenote: Khâlid ibn Saîd defeated at Marj al Soffar.]
Emboldened by these reinforcements, Khâlid hastened forward to gain
the first laurels of the campaign; and, forgetful of his master’s
injunctions, suffered himself to be decoyed by the Roman general Bahân
towards Damascus, away from his supports. [Sidenote: Moharram, A.H.
XIII. March, A.D. 634.] Unprotected behind, the enemy closed in upon
his rear, and cut off his retreat. He was routed at Marj al Soffar, to
the east of the Sea of Tiberias; his son was slain, and, losing heart,
he fled, leaving his camp in the enemy’s hands, and Ikrima to retrieve
the disaster. That able general rallied the retreating force, and with
a sufficient remnant, including the brave Himyarite band under Dzul
Kelâa, took up a strong position on the frontier, until help should
come. Khâlid continued his flight, but was stayed at Wady al Cora.--‘By
my life!’ wrote the indignant Caliph, ‘thou shalt come no further; thou
pratest bravely when secure, but in battle thou art a coward. I have
no patience with thee!’ And he said to those about him: ‘Truly Aly and
Omar knew the man better than I. Had I listened to them, this mishap
had not been.’ We hear no more of Khâlid ibn Saîd.[151]
[Sidenote: Reinforcements despatched to Syria. Beginning of A.H. XIII.
Spring, A.D. 634.]
In the present emergency, it was fortunate for Abu Bekr that the south
of the peninsula was by this time entirely pacified. He was able,
therefore, as the columns returned from thence, to hurry them off to
Syria, there to retrieve the fortunes of Islam. Four battalions were
now sent forward. First, _Shorahbîl_, returning at that moment
from Irâc, was appointed to supersede Welîd, who shared in the
disgrace of Khâlid’s defeat.[152] Rallying the scattered fragments
of the discomfited force, he carried the greater part back again to
the front, and there took up a position in advance of Ikrima. Then
followed _Yezîd_, son of Abu Sofiân, with a great levy from Mecca,
including many famous chiefs of the Coreish, roused by the Caliph’s
call and the stirring news from Syria. His brother, Muâvia, shortly
after joined him, bringing up the remaining fragments of the runaway
army. _Abu Obeida_, already known to the reader as a trusted
Companion of the Prophet, led a third column, and posted himself near
to _Amru_, who commanded the fourth brigade in the Wady Araba,
to the west of the others. Many of the new troops, especially the
levies from the south, travelled, after the Bedouin fashion, with
their families, ready to settle house and home in the north; for
the marvellous success of the army in Irâc suggested the still more
inviting prospect of establishing themselves in the Land of Promise,
flowing with milk and honey.[153]
[Sidenote: Composition of the Syrian force.]
This force was altogether different in composition from the army of
Irâc. That in the main consisted of Bedouins, who flocked in tribes
or clans to the banners of Mothanna and Khâlid; the men of Mecca and
Medîna were as yet in Irâc comparatively few, for they had returned
in great numbers to their homes after the battle of Yemâma. In the
Syrian army, on the contrary, there are reckoned at least a thousand
_Companions_--men who had seen and conversed with the Prophet;
and of these no fewer than one hundred of the famous Three Hundred of
Bedr. They enrolled themselves at pleasure under whichever chief they
chose; but, once enrolled, they yielded to their leader an implicit
obedience; while he, on his part, consulted their views and wishes,
not only in the set council of war, but generally on all occasions
of importance. Sheikhs of renown, such as Abu Sofiân and Soheil, who
but a few years before, had wielded at will the whole power of Mecca,
and haughty high-born chieftains of Nejd and Yemen, now joined with
alacrity and zeal the column of anyone, however young and inferior,
into whose hands the Caliph was minded to present a banner of command.
And the whole force, thus formed in separate detachments, held itself
at the absolute disposal of the Commander of the Faithful.
[Sidenote: Abu Bekr addresses the columns as they leave Medîna.]
Abu Bekr was duly sensible of the gravity of the enterprise on which
he now embarked--nothing short, in fact, of measuring swords with the
Kaiser. He had thrown down the gauntlet, and in fact was waging war,
at one and the same time, with the potentates of the East and of the
West. The brigades for this service were pitched one after another
on the outlying field of Jorf; and, as each was ready to march, the
Caliph walked a little distance (as nearly two years before he had
done with Osâma) by the side of the mounted leader, and gave him thus
his farewell commands. ‘Profession,’ he would say, ‘is naught without
faith. The merit of a work dependeth on the purpose of the worker. The
reward set forth in the Book of the Lord for such as fight in His ways,
is great. Set this ever before thee and before thy men. But when thou
haranguest them, be brief, for in the multitude of words the foremost
word is lost in the hindermost. So striving, ye will obtain the
prize, riches and glory in the present life, and in the life to come
salvation.’ Then saying ‘Fare ye well,’ he would retrace his steps and
return to his simple home.
[Sidenote: Advance of the four divisions.]
The four battalions now gathered on the Syrian border numbered 30,000,
besides the reserve of 6,000 under Ikrima.[154] In their first advance
these columns met with little to oppose them. [Sidenote: Moharram,
A.H. XIII. March, A.D. 634.] Abu Obeida marched through the Belcâa.
The Arab settlement at Maâb[155] resisted, but, after an unsuccessful
skirmish, submitted to his terms; and he then marched on to Jâbia.
From the south of Palestine a Roman force advanced on the Araba below
the Dead Sea; but it was easily discomfited by Yezîd, who pursued it
to Dâthin, and slew the patrician in command.[156] The four divisions
eventually took up ground in a sort of échelon, threatening the
chief garrisons in the south of Syria. Abu Obeida, advancing towards
Damascus, held a position the furthest east, near to Ikrima and the
scene of the recent disaster. Next came Shorahbîl, overawing the Ghôr,
or depressed valley of the Jordan and Tiberias. Yezîd in the Belcâa,
threatened Bostra; and Amru, in lower Palestine, Hebron. Each of these,
at last, found himself confronted by a Roman force.
[Sidenote: Heraclius sends four battalions to oppose them.]
Heraclius now, at last, was thoroughly aroused. It was but a few years
before that he had gloriously repulsed the Chosroes; but after that
he had relapsed into the inactivity of earlier years. Tidings of the
invasion--a fresh irruption, as it would seem, of barbarians from
the south instead of from the north--awakened him from his lethargy.
Repairing to Hims, he gathered together an immense force, and sent
it, in separate divisions, to stem the advancing tide. The largest of
these, numbering (tradition tells us) 90,000 men, was commanded by his
brother Theodoric.[157] The Moslems were alarmed at the formidable
array, and they consulted how to meet it. Amru urged his brother
generals to gather all into one body.--‘For how,’ he sent to say, ‘can
our scanty numbers, divided and apart, encounter these mighty hosts?’
[Sidenote: The Saracen generals resolve to draw together.]To this they
agreed, and Abu Bekr, who had constant tidings of their progress, was
of the same mind. ‘Draw ye all together,’ was his command, ‘by the
banks of the Yermûk. Ye are the Lord’s host, and shall surely put the
enemy to flight. Such as you shall not be discomfited by reason of
the fewness of your numbers. Tens of thousands are smitten in battle
because of their sins. Wherefore, do ye eschew sin. Let every man stand
close by his fellow. So shall the Lord give you the victory.’
[Sidenote: Romans and Moslems face each other at _Wacûsa_ on the
Yermûk. Safar, A.H. XIII. April, A.D. 634.]
Acting on this counsel, the four columns concentrated to the south
of the Yermûk, near where it was crossed by the military road from
Damascus. The Romans, suiting their tactics to the change, also drew
together, and, under command of Theodoric, pitched their camp on the
northern bank of the river. The place was singular. The Yermûk, taking
its rise in the high lands of the Haurân, and fed by many affluents,
is a large and swift stream. In its lower course it runs, far below
the level of the plain, in a deep and rugged gorge, through which its
waters, rapidly descending to the Ghôr, fall into the Jordan at Gadara,
below the Lake of Galilee. The battle-ground was probably 30 or 40
miles above the junction. Here the stream, fetching a compass, formed
on the northern bank a great plain,--the plain of WACÛSA,
bounded on three sides by a sheer precipice. The remaining side was
hemmed in by a ravine which nearly closed the circuit. A narrow neck
was left for entrance, across which the military road passing, formed
the key of the position. The Romans were tempted by the wide expanse of
level ground, which offered room for their great camp, and was secure
on every side. Advancing, therefore, from the north, they entered this
plain, and spread themselves out upon it. Thereupon the Moslems crossed
the river, and encamped also on the northern bank, upon another plain
adjoining the neck; thus they commanded the road, and threatened the
exit of the enemy. Amru, seeing this, rejoiced and said: ‘Be of good
cheer, my friends; the Romans are shut in, and few that are shut in
escape.’[158] A desultory warfare ensued without any definite result.
The Romans often formed up in force, and as often were driven back; but
the ravine was to them a strong protection, and the Arabs gained no
material advantage. In such indecisive skirmishing two months passed
away, and the armies remained still facing one another.[159]
[Sidenote: Khâlid transferred to Syria.]
Abu Bekr became anxious at the delay, and at the urgent appeals that
came to him for reinforcements. It was not so much the poverty of
numbers, as the lack of fire and military genius that disquieted
him. Abu Obeida was mild and kindly even to timidity; Amru an able
counsellor, but lacking military dash. The mettle of none of the
generals had yet been fully tested; and their independence one
of another, in the absence of a general-in-chief, while it gave
opportunity to each, had a paralysing effect on all. When, therefore,
the cry reached Medîna for help, the Caliph exclaimed: ‘Khâlid, son
of Welîd, is the man for this! By him, with the help of the Lord,
shall the machinations of Satan and the Romans be overthrown.’ The
stealthy pilgrimage of Khâlid had come to his knowledge, and he now
marked his displeasure by indirectly hinting at it in the order for his
deputation to Syria, which ran as follows: ‘Depart and join thyself
unto the armies of the Faithful on the Yermûk, for they are downcast
and forlorn. But beware that thou return not again to do what thou hast
done. The Lord helping, thy removal shall not dishearten thy followers
in Irâc. Go forward then, Father of Suleimân, high resolve and success
attend thee! Fill up the measure of the Lord’s benefits upon mankind,
and He shall fulfil the same unto thee. Have a care lest the world and
the flesh ensnare thee, so that thou stumble and thy works perish. The
Lord doth recompense!’[160]
[Sidenote: Khâlid, with reinforcements from Irâc, sets out for Syria.]
This order at the first disconcerted Khâlid. He set it down to Omar,
who, envying him the conquest of Irâc, would thus, on the eve of
accomplishment, snatch it from his hand. There was too much reason
for the fear; but had Abu Bekr lived, it would have been otherwise,
for his order continued thus:--‘Take with thee half the army, and
leave Mothanna half. [Sidenote: Safar, A.H. XIII. April,
A.D. 634.]When the Lord shall have given thee victory in
Syria, then thou shalt return with the troops to thy command in Irâc.’
Reconciled by this assurance, and loyal to his chief, Khâlid set to
work at once, and began by selecting the ‘Companions’ and flower of
the force to accompany him. Mothanna insisted that the division should
be equal both in kind and number, and protested that he would not be
responsible for the safety of Irâc unless it was effected fairly. He
was conciliated by getting back a goodly portion of the veterans. The
strength of either moiety is put at 9,000.[161] The spring was far
advanced when Khâlid marched. Mothanna accompanied him to the border of
the desert, and, taking a last farewell of the great general whom he
had served so loyally, retraced his steps to Hîra.
[Sidenote: Khâlid marches across the Syrian desert;]
The Syrian desert lay between Khâlid and his new sphere of action. He
could not take the northern route, because of hostile tribes and Roman
garrisons; therefore, turning south by Ain Tamar, he crossed the second
time the Nefûd--that strange and tumbled red sea of sand--to the north
of the mountains of the Beni Tay, and halted at Dûma.[162] Thence he
took the direct road to Syria, along the Wady Sirhân; and surprising
Corâcar, a settlement of the Beni Kelb lying half way, he plundered it.
Keeping the same route, he would in a few days have reached Bostra. But
he feared the Roman garrisons, lest they should check him on that road,
and hinder his junction with the Moslem army. He formed, therefore,
the bold design of striking right across the Syrian desert to the
north, emerging at Tadmor, and so turning the Roman flank. A council
of war was held, and a Bedouin, well versed in the desert, set before
them. ‘There is but one track,’ said the guide, ‘a track so bare, and
for five days so waterless, that even single horsemen shun it, lest
they perish by the way.’ ‘By the same way shall we go,’ was Khâlid’s
prompt resolve; and when expostulated with on the wild and perilous
attempt, he answered that, with Divine aid and firm resolve, nothing
was wild and nothing perilous. The words fired his followers with the
same adventurous zeal, and the project was by acclamation carried.
‘Do this then,’ said the guide, ‘if ye be bent upon the enterprise.
Gather as many camels as ye can; make them thirsty by withholding
water for a while; then let them drink plentifully, and again a second
time; afterwards, bind their ears and slit their lips so that they
ruminate not. So haply may your water last.’ At each stage across the
wilderness, ten such camels were slain for every troop of a hundred
lances. The water drawn from them was mixed with milk for the horses.
The men were given but a single draught each day. On the fifth day a
shudder crept over the host. The supply was at an end. They had reached
the neighbourhood, marked by two hills on the right hand and on the
left, where water should have been, but the signs were wanting, and the
guide was at fault. After casting anxiously about in all directions,
he cried in despair--‘Search for the bramble bush; the bramble should
be here; if ye find it not, we are lost.’ So they searched all around.
At last they came upon a half-concealed root, and raising the Takbîr,
shouted ‘Great is the Lord!’ Rushing to the spot, they dug down into
the ground, and found a plentiful supply of water.[163]
[Sidenote: and effects a junction with the Syrian army. Rabi II. or
Jumâd I. June or July.]
They were now on the Syrian side of the desert, about a hundred miles
to the east of Damascus. Early next morning, Khâlid fell on the
astonished tribes in the neighbourhood, scattering terror all around,
and securing submission either willingly or by the sword. Tadmor, after
a slight resistance, yielded. Then fetching a circuit, he skirted
the Haurân within sight of Damascus, and emerged at Adzraât. Having
achieved this marvellous journey in the course of a few weeks, and
reopened communications with the south, he sent tidings to Abu Bekr of
his safety, with the Fifth of the spoil he had taken by the way. He was
now close to the combined army of the Moslems, which still lay inactive
on the Yermûk; and he effected a junction with them in the month of
June, or perhaps July.[164]
[Sidenote: The two armies compared.]
Fresh reinforcements from the Emperor, under the renowned Armenian
general Bahân (the same who discomfited the other Khâlid), had just
arrived and raised the flagging spirit of the Romans. Their army, we
are told, numbered 240,000 men, of whom a great body are stigmatised as
felon-prisoners released for the occasion, and others are said (like
those of the Persians) to have been chained together that they might
not run away, or in token that they were bound to die. The idea, no
doubt, is fanciful and cast in the contemptuous style of Mussulman
tradition. But so much we may readily accept, that the army with which
Heraclius sought to stay the tide of Saracen invasion, must needs
have been very large.[165] We may also believe that though devoid of
union, loyalty, and valour, it was well appointed, and elated by its
achievements in the Persian war, of which many veterans were still
present in the ranks. In discipline and combined movement, and in the
weight and style of his equipment, the Roman, no doubt, surpassed the
Arab. But the armament of the Roman did not so greatly excel as to
give him a material advantage. It had no analogy, for example, with
the superiority which in these days crushes the barbarian before the
sanguinary appliances of modern art and science. It is strange to
reflect how a single Gatling might have changed the day and driven
Islam back to wither and die in the land of its birth. On the other
hand, the Bedouin horse excelled in celerity and dash. Their charge, if
light, was galling, and so rapidly delivered that, before the surprise
was recovered from, the enemy might be out of sight. The Romans, it is
true, had themselves Bedouin auxiliaries, as numerous, perhaps, as
the whole Moslem army. But the spirit of the two was widely different.
The fealty of the Syrian Arab was lax and loose. Christian in name,
the yoke of his faith sat (as it still sits) lightly on him. Indeed,
throughout the empire, Christianity was eaten up of strife and rancour.
With Bahân came a troop of monks and bishops, who, bearing banners,
waving aloft their golden crosses, and shouting that the faith was
in jeopardy, sought thus to rouse the passion of the army. But the
passion roused was too often the scowl of hatred. Bitter schisms rent
the Church, and the cry of the Orthodox for help would strike a far
different chord than that of sympathy in the Eutychian and Nestorian
breast. Lastly, the social and ancestral associations of the Syrian
Bedouin, while alien from his Byzantine masters, were in full accord
with his brethren from Arabia; and of this instinctive feeling, the
invaders knew well how to take advantage. With these lukewarm and
disunited multitudes, compare now the Moslem force in its virgin
vigour, bound together as one man, and fired with a wild fanatical zeal
to ‘fight in the ways of the Lord,’ and so win at once heavenly merit
and worldly fortune;--their prize, the spoil of the enemy, and the fair
maidens of Syria ravished from their homes; or, should they fall in
battle, the reward of the martyr, heaven opened and beautiful virgins,
black-eyed Houries, beckoning, with all the wanton graces of paradise,
to their warm embrace.[166] Of warriors nerved by this strange
combination of earth and heaven, of the flesh and of the spirit, of
the incentives both of faith and rapine, of fanatical devotion to the
Prophet and deathless passion for the sex, ten might chase a hundred
half-hearted Romans. The forty thousand Moslems were stronger far than
the two hundred and forty thousand of the enemy.
[Sidenote: The Moslems paralysed by separate commands.]
The Roman army, swollen by the battalions of Bahân, and spreading over
the plain, began to overlap the Moslems and force them back into a
straitened place. But with Khâlid’s energy, things soon began to mend.
In a series of encounters, the enemy, being worsted, retired behind
the intrenched ravine. But in other ways the situation remained the
same. The five battalions of the Moslem host were separately pitched;
the conduct of public prayer (mark of supreme command) was separate
in each; the attacks were separately made; and so, from want of
combination, they failed in delivering a decisive blow. The issue hung
fire. A month passed, and Khâlid became impatient. To secure success,
command must be vested in a single hand. He saw the fault, and set
himself to remedy it.
[Sidenote: Khâlid obtains supreme command for a day.]
Opportunity soon offered. Unusual preparation and busy movement on
the Roman side led to a council of the Moslem chiefs, and Khâlid laid
his views before them. The Caliph, it was true, had given to each
a separate and distinct command to meet the separate Roman armies.
But the field had changed, and Abu Bekr would surely now approve the
assumption of absolute command by a single general. The merit in the
Caliph’s eyes would be the same for all; the merit in the sight of the
Lord, the same. ‘Come now,’ he added, to disarm their jealousy, ‘and we
shall vary the supreme command, each taking it in succession for the
day, and, if ye will, let the first be mine.’ The success of Khâlid in
Irâc added weight to his words. The proposal thus adroitly made was
unanimously agreed to. The Chiefs expected that, when the occasion
passed, the old system would be reverted to. But the change, once made,
stood good; and the supreme command in Syria was thenceforward vested
in a single hand.[167]
[Sidenote: A Roman general gained over by Khâlid.]
Meanwhile Khâlid had sown dissension in the enemy’s camp, and gained
over at least one of their leading officers. The facts are obscure,
and the episode, as told by tradition, strange. But so much appears,
that a general, Jâreja by name, perhaps of Arab blood and imbued with
Bedouin sympathies, was persuaded by Khâlid to embrace his cause, and
to promise that, at the decisive moment, he would leave the Roman and
join the Moslem side.[168]
[Sidenote: Moslem army arranged in battalions.]
The powers conferred on Khâlid were soon put to the test, and that to
good purpose. His first care was to organise the army as a whole. ‘The
Romans,’ he said, ‘are a vast and imposing multitude, and we but few to
look at. Now no disposition swelleth numbers to the eye like that of
separate battalions.’ So he divided the troops into forty battalions,
each about a thousand strong and under a trusted leader.[169] These
he arranged so that one half formed the centre, under Abu Obeida. Ten
battalions were then assigned to each wing, of which one was led by
Amru and Shorahbîl; the other by Yezîd, whose aged father, Abu Sofiân,
was bid to go from troop to troop, and rouse their ardour by martial
declamation.[170]
[Sidenote: The Roman army advances;]
It was soon manifest that the Byzantine captains were preparing to
deliver a general and decisive charge. Issuing from their defences,
they rolled up in dense volume along both sides of the plain. A
bystander, gazing at the moving field, exclaimed, ‘How many the Romans,
how few the Moslems!’ ‘Nay,’ cried Khâlid, ‘say rather “How many the
Moslems, how few the Romans”; for, if ye count aright, numbers wax by
the help of the Lord, but when He withdraweth His face, then they wane.
I would that the Romans were double the number they now appear, if I
had but under me my good Arab steed!’--for the hoofs of his favourite
bay had been worn down by the rapid marching from Irâc. Still the
Romans kept rolling up in dense columns. The fate of Syria depended on
the day.
[Sidenote: but is kept in check.]
As the enemy drew near, Khâlid called upon Ikrima, who had brought
his reserve upon the field, and Cacâa with his warriors from Irâc,
to advance and check them. Just then a messenger rode up in haste,
carrying a despatch from Medîna. To the inquiry of those who flocked
around, he answered: ‘All is well, and reinforcements on the way.’ But
in Khâlid’s ear he whispered a secret message, and he delivered a
letter which, hastily glanced at, Khâlid slipped into his quiver. Then,
bidding the messenger keep close by him throughout the day, he rode
forth to meet Jâreja.
[Sidenote: Battle of Wacûsa, on the Yermûk. Rajab, A.H. XIII. Sept.,
A.D. 634.]
The defection of this general was a calamity to the Romans, but at
the first it caused an unexpected issue. He had probably a troop, or
escort, which followed him, as he rode forth towards the Arab general;
but whether or no, a Roman battalion, mistaking his movement for a
desperate attack upon the enemy, advanced to his support with such
an energetic charge that the Moslem front was broken and thrown into
confusion. Ikrima stood firm. He who in the days of Ignorance had
measured arms even with the Prophet of the Lord, should he flee before
the infidel! ‘Who now,’ he cried, ‘will join me in the covenant of
death?’ Four hundred, with his own son, and the hero Dhirâr, took the
fatal pledge.[171] He charged, and the battalion which had created the
surprise, bewildered at the treachery of Jâreja, fell back. The ground
now clear, Khâlid ordered the whole line to move forward. The Romans
too advanced, and the charge was met on both sides with the sword.
All day the battle raged. Fortune varied; and the carnage amongst the
Moslems, as well as the Romans, was great. Ikrima’s gallant company,
holding their ground firm as a rock in front of Khâlid’s tent, bore
the brunt of the day; they were slain or disabled almost to a man. So
fierce were the Arabs, that even the women joined their husbands and
brothers in the field; and Huweiria, daughter of Abu Sofiân, inheriting
the spirit of her mother Hind, was severely wounded in an encounter
with the enemy.[172]
[Sidenote: The Moslem victory.]
Towards evening the Romans began to falter. Khâlid, quickly perceiving
that their horse were declining from the infantry, launched his centre
as a wedge between the two. The cavalry, with nothing behind them
but the precipice, made a fierce charge for their lives; the Moslem
troops opened to let them pass, and so they gained the open country
and never again appeared. The Moslems then turned right and left upon
the remaining force cooped up between the ravine and the chasm; and,
as they drove all before them, the Romans on both hands ‘were toppled
over the bank even as a wall is toppled over.’ The battle drew on
into the night, but opposition was now in vain. Those that escaped
the sword were hurled in a moving mass over the edge into the yawning
gulf. ‘One struggling would draw ten others with him, the free as well
as chained.’ And so, in dire confusion and dismay, the whole multitude
perished. The fatal chasm YACÛSA engulfed, we are told, 100,000
men.[173] Ficâr, the Roman general, and his fellow-captains, unable to
bear the sight, sat down, drew their togas around them, and, hiding
their faces in despair and shame, awaited thus their fate.
[Sidenote: Its importance.]
Morning found the Moslems in silent possession of the great plain. They
flocked into the Roman entrenchment, and Khâlid took possession of
Theodoric’s royal tent. The camp and its rich equipage yielded a booty
of 1,500 pieces to each horseman. More than this, the fearful fate of
the army struck such terror into the Byzantine court and the people
of the land, that the fate of Syria was sealed. Unlike the Persian
campaign, the opposition that remained was poor and feeble.
[Sidenote: Heavy loss.]
The victory was purchased at a heavy cost. Three thousand were buried
on the field, besides a great multitude wounded; and among the fallen
we read many distinguished names. Of Ikrima’s forlorn hope few
survived. The famous Dhirâr, badly wounded, recovered to signalise
himself on other fields. But Ikrima and his son both sank under their
wounds. In the morning, when near their end, they were carried to the
royal tent of Khâlid. He laid the head of the father on his breast, and
of the son upon his thigh, tenderly wiped their faces and moistened
their lips with water. And as they passed away, he kept fondly saying:
‘Alas, alas! the father and the son; who would have thought of a
martyr’s death for both!’
[Sidenote: Khâlid deposed by Omar.]
But Khâlid was no longer in command. The messenger in the field had
whispered in his ear the news of Abu Bekr’s death; and the letter which
he then slipt into his quiver brought the new Caliph’s order that
Khâlid should deliver up command into the hands of Abu Obeida.[174]
[Sidenote: Date of the battle.]
The battle was fought in the end of August, or the beginning of
September, A.D. 634.[175]
Before narrating the sequel of this great victory, we must turn for a
little to what was passing elsewhere.