CAMPAIGN IN NORTHERN SYRIA.
A.H. XV. A.D. 636.
[Sidenote: Abu Obeida’s advance on Northern Syria. End of A.H. XIV.
A.D. 635.]
To recover the thread of events in Syria, it is necessary to go back
so far as the battle of Fihl. At the close of the fourteenth year
of the Hegira, Abu Obeida, leaving Amru to follow up the victory in
Palestine, and Yezîd as governor to hold Damascus, marched with the
remainder of his forces northward upon Hims, from whence the emperor
had been watching the progress of his enemies. He carried with him
Dzul Kelâa, who, posted with his Himyar column beyond Damascus, had
been, ever since the siege, covering the city from attack by the
Romans on the north. They had advanced but a little way, when they
were stopped by two Roman armies under Theodore and Shanas.[307]
Dividing his forces, Abu Obeida took Shanas himself in hand, and left
Khâlid to deal with the other. Damascus no longer covered, Theodore
thought to make a sudden dash upon it. But Yezîd, with his garrison,
was ready to confront him; and Khâlid, with a flying column, was
immediately in pursuit. Taken thus before and behind, Theodore’s army
was cut to pieces, but few escaping. Abu Obeida had meanwhile engaged
Shanas and put him to flight. Meeting no further opposition, the Arabs
continued their march, and attacked Báalbek, which after a short siege
capitulated.
[Sidenote: Hims [EMESSA] besieged.]
Abu Obeida then advanced straight upon Hims, and closely invested it.
Heraclius, on the defeat of Theodore, retired hastily on Roha,[308]
from whence he endeavoured to raise the Bedouins of Mesopotamia with
the view of effecting a diversion. [Sidenote: Dzul Cáda A.H. XIV.
January, A.D. 636,]This effort (as we have seen) was defeated by Sád,
who, making an inroad on Hît and Kirckesia, thus recalled the tribes
to the defence of their desert homes. The siege of Hims, prosecuted
with vigour, was bravely resisted. But the expectation of promised
succour died away; the severity of winter failed to make the Arabs
retire, the courage of the beleaguered garrison fell, and their sallies
became less frequent and effective. When the siege had been thus
protracted many weeks, suddenly an earthquake, with successive shocks,
breached the battlements. [Sidenote: and taken, A.H. XV. Spring, A.D.
636.] The governor, finding the position no longer tenable, offered
to capitulate; and the Moslems, unaware of the full extent of the
mischief, readily gave the same terms to the prostrate city as had been
given to Damascus. In answer to the despatch announcing the capture,
and forwarding the royal share of the booty, Omar bade Abu Obeida to
press forward; and promising further reinforcements, counselled him to
gain over the powerful Bedouin tribes on the border, and strengthen his
army thus.
[Sidenote: March continued northwards.]
Leaving, therefore, a garrison in Hims under Obâda, one of the Twelve
leaders,[309] Abu Obeida resumed his northward march. Hâma, and
other towns of inferior note, tendered their submission.[310] The
strongly fortified city of Laodicea alone showed an obstinate front;
but the Arabs made a feint of withdrawing, and then, a squadron,
darting suddenly back in the early morning through an open portal,
seized the defences, and overpowered the garrison. Advancing still
to the north, Khâlid, with great slaughter, defeated the Romans near
Kinnisrîn--a stronghold which, after a short defence, was seized and
dismantled.[311] In the battle we are told that a prince called Minas,
in dignity second only to the Emperor, was slain. Aleppo next fell,
after a brief resistance; and then Abu Obeida turned his arms westward
to Antioch. [Sidenote: Siege and surrender of _Antioch_.]In this, the
famous capital of Northern Syria, and emporium of merchandise, art,
and luxury, the broken troops of the Empire rallied. And here, at
length, within the great lines of circumvallation which ran along the
surrounding heights, we might have expected Heraclius to make a stand;
and, drawing fresh troops together, to battle against the disasters
which had befallen Syria. But no effort befitting the crisis appears
to have been even thought of. A heavy battle, indeed, was fought on
the wooded plain outside the walls; but the garrison was driven back,
and the city, surrounded on all sides, at last capitulated.[312] Such
are the details, comprised within the space of a few lines, which tell
us whatever we know of the loss of Northern Syria, stretching from
Damascus to the hilly range of Asia Minor.
[Sidenote: Northern Syria reduced.]
Eastwards, in the direction of Aleppo, the Romans made a last but
feeble attempt to regain their footing. They were again hopelessly
beaten, their leader slain, and great numbers taken prisoner. The
arm of the Empire was for the moment paralysed, and Syria, from the
Great River to the seashore, brought entirely under the sway of
Islam. The Arab tribes, as well as the settled inhabitants of towns
and villages, became tributary, and bound by engagements to keep the
conquerors informed of the movements of the enemy. Before long time,
the Bedouins, who sit ever loose to the trammels of religion, went
for the most part over to the Moslem faith. [Sidenote: State of the
Christian population.]But the urban population, as a whole, resisted
the inducements to abandon Christianity; and, although reduced, as the
Corân demanded, to an humbled and politically degraded state, they were
yet treated with moderation, their churches spared, and their worship
respected. They either reconciled themselves to their unhappy fate, or
retired unmolested into Roman territory.
[Sidenote: Heraclius retires to Constantinople.]
When Heraclius beheld his armies, one after another, defeated, and
his efforts to rally the Bedouin tribes end only in secession and
hostile risings throughout Mesopotamia, he gave up Syria as lost, and
fell back from Roha upon Samsât. But he was in peril even there. For,
after reducing Membij and other fortresses within the Syrian frontier,
Khâlid made a dash into Cilicia, and ravaged Marásh and the country
lying to the west of Samsât.[313] The Emperor, alarmed at his line of
retreat being thus threatened, retired altogether from the scene; and,
relinquishing the fairest provinces of his realm--provinces sacred
to the Christian faith--into the hands of his enemies, resolved to
recross the Bosphorus. Wending his sad way westward, he reached (so
the Arabian annalists tell us) an eminence from whence a last glimpse
might be had of the wooded hills and sunny plains that were vanishing
in the southern horizon. Heraclius turned to gaze, exclaiming, ‘Peace
be with thee, holy and blessed land! Syria, fare thee well! There is
for me no more returning unto thee; neither shall any Roman visit thee
for ever, but in fear and trembling, until the accursed Antichrist
shall come.’[314] It was but ten years before that the same Emperor,
performing on foot a pilgrimage to Jerusalem through this same
beautiful province, to commemorate the recovery of the ‘true Cross’ and
his own signal victories in the East, had cast aside a rude missive
from the Arabian Prophet demanding his submission to Islam. What seemed
then the wild phantasy of a maniac was now an accomplished fact.
[Sidenote: Story of Jabala, the Ghassanide Prince.]
A similar despatch from Mahomet had been at the same time received
by Jabala, last Prince of the Ghassanide dynasty. Jabala (so the
tradition runs) asked the Emperor’s leave to chastise the insolent
Arab, but was bidden to swell the imperial train at Jerusalem.[315]
And now Jabala was to share his Master’s fate. At the head of the
Beni Ghassân, he had fought loyally by the side of the Romans, till,
disheartened by the ignoble flight of Heraclius, he turned to Abu
Obeida, and embraced Islam. Splendidly clad, and with a pompous
following, he visited Medîna, where the people, familiar with the
illustrious name, and with the panegyric of their poet Hassân on his
condescension and munificence, received him with peculiar honours. He
then accompanied the Caliph to perform the pilgrimage at Mecca. There
a Bedouin chanced to tread, as he passed by, upon his flowing robe,
causing him to stumble and fall. The haughty prince struck the offender
on the face. To his amazement he was summoned before the Caliph, who
ordered that the law of retaliation[316] should have its course, and
that the Bedouin might have his satisfaction by returning the blow.
‘What!’ cried Jabala; ‘I, the Prince of the Ghassân, and he a common
Bedouin of the desert!’ ‘Yea,’ replied Omar; ‘for in Islam all men are
alike.’ Stung by the affront, Jabala disappeared during the night, and
retired to Constantinople. There he returned to the profession of the
Christian faith, and was hospitably entertained at the Byzantine Court.
The tale has been garnished by the touch of romance; and we are even
told that, pining after his old desert haunts and friends, he offered
again to recant and embrace Islam, if only Omar would promise to give
him one of his daughters to wife. But so much is certain, that he died
an exile, and left behind him a colony at Constantinople of his Arab
followers.[317]
[Sidenote: Exchange of gifts between the Byzantine Queen and the
Caliph’s wife.]
I may notice here an interesting tradition, showing that friendly
relations subsisted at times between the Caliph and the Byzantine
Court. Omar’s wife, Omm Kolthûm, the daughter of Aly, sent to the
Empress a royal gift of frankincense, and precious things fit for the
toilet of a lady; and the Empress sent by the hands of the envoy in
return a beautiful necklace. Thereupon Omar gave command to call a
general assembly.[318] Then he propounded the question of the necklace.
Some said, ‘The Queen is not a subject; she hath sent a present for Omm
Kolthûm; let her keep it;’ other some, ‘It is but a gift in return for
a gift.’ But Omar said: ‘The envoy was the envoy of the Moslems, and
they have got this in return for his journey.’ So he commanded, and it
was made over to the treasury; but he gave his wife the value of it
from his privy purse.[319]
In this campaign, the chivalry of Khâlid made such an impression
upon Omar that he received him back into favour, and bestowed on
him the command of Kinnisrîn. ‘Verily,’ he said, in announcing the
appointment, ‘Khâlid hath proved himself a prince among men. Blessed be
the memory of Abu Bekr, for verily he knew mankind better than I.’ The
reconcilement, however, was not of long duration.[320]