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85-513: The origins of the Judham are not clear. They may have been descendants of the northern Arabs , though the tribe itself claimed Yamanite (southern Arab) origins, perhaps in order to associate themselves with their Yamanite allies in Syria . Before the advent of Islam in the early 7th century, the Judham nomads roamed the desert frontier areas of Byzantine Palestine and Syria , controlling places such as

170-429: A skirmishing force, screening the main army until its arrival. Early Muslim sources mention that the army of Gregory had used chains to link together its foot soldiers, who had all taken an oath of death. The chains were in 10-man lengths as a proof of unshakeable courage on the part of the men, who thus displayed their willingness to die where they stood and not to retreat. The chains also acted as an insurance against

255-516: A breakthrough by enemy cavalry. However, modern historians suggest that the Byzantines adopted the Graeco-Roman testudo military formation in which soldiers would stand shoulder-to-shoulder with shields held high and an arrangement of 10 to 20 men would be completely shielded on all sides from missile fire, each soldier providing cover for an adjoining companion. The Byzantine cavalry was armed with

340-513: A call to arms for the invasion of Syria in February 634. The Muslim invasion of Syria was a series of carefully planned and well-co-ordinated military operations, which employed strategy, instead of pure strength, to deal with the Byzantine defensive measures. The Muslim armies, however, soon proved to be too small to handle the Byzantine response, and their commanders called for reinforcements. Khalid

425-469: A council of war to launch his attack just before dawn, to catch the Muslim force unprepared as they conducted their morning prayers. He planned to engage his two central armies with the Muslim centre in an effort to stall them while the main thrusts would be against the wings of the Muslim army, which would then be driven away from the battlefield or pushed towards the centre. To observe the battlefield, Vahan had

510-405: A decisive battle forced the Byzantines to concentrate their five armies in response. The Byzantines had for centuries avoided engaging in large-scale decisive battles, and the concentration of their forces created logistical strains for which the empire was ill-prepared. Damascus was the closest logistical base, but Mansur, leader of Damascus, could not fully supply the massive Byzantine army that

595-521: A letter to the Himyarite king ordering him to assemble an army of Himyarite soldiers and from Ma'add under the leadership of a king of the nation of Ma'add named " Kaisus " (Qays), in order to attack the borders of the Sasanian Empire , and then approved the leader of Ma'add as a king on the region. In pre-Islamic Arabic poetry , extending from Ghassanid and Christian authors and to compositions in

680-401: A long sword, known as the spathion . They would also have had a light wooden lance , known as a kontarion and a bow ( toxarion ) with forty arrows in a quiver, hung from a saddle or from the belt. Heavy infantry, known as skoutatoi , had a short sword and a short spear. The lightly armed Byzantine troops and the archers carried a small shield, a bow hung from the shoulder across the back and

765-404: A mile apart. It is recorded in Muslim chronicles that before the battle started, George, a unit commander in the Byzantine right centre, rode up to the Muslim line and converted to Islam; he would die the same day fighting on the Muslim side. The battle began as the Byzantine army sent its champions to duel with the Muslim mubarizun . The mubarizun were specially trained swordsmen and lancers, with

850-399: A quiver of arrows. Cavalry armour consisted of a hauberk with a mail coif and a helmet with a pendant: a throat-guard lined with fabric and having a fringe and cheek piece. Infantry was similarly equipped with a hauberk, a helmet and leg armour. Light lamellar and scale armour was also used. Khalid's strategy of withdrawing from the occupied areas and concentrating all of his troops for

935-783: A simultaneous counterattack in Iraq , in what was meant to be a well-coordinated effort. When Heraclius launched his offensive in May 636, Yazdegerd could not co-ordinate with the maneuver, probably owing to the exhausted condition of his government, and what would have been a decisive plan missed the mark. Byzantine preparations began in late 635 and by May 636 Heraclius had a large force concentrated at Antioch in Northern Syria. The assembled Byzantine army contingents consisted of Slavs , Franks , Georgians , Armenians , Christian Arabs , Lombards , Avars , Khazars , Balkans and Göktürks . The force

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1020-464: A subgrouping of the northern Arab tribes, who collectively (including those in Iraq and Syria ) descend from Ma'add's father, Adnan. By contrast, the tribes of South Arabia have their ancestry traced to Qahtan . The word remained in use after the early Muslim conquests and into the Umayyad period . However, during the eighth century, the use of this word in a communal sense was gradually replaced with

1105-480: Is Theophanes, who wrote a century later. Accounts of the battle vary, some stating it lasted a day, others six days. During a council of war, the command of the Muslim army was transferred to Khalid by Abu Ubaidah, Commander in Chief of the Muslim army. After taking command, Khalid reorganized the army into 36 infantry regiments and four cavalry regiments, with his cavalry elite, the mobile guard, held in reserve. The army

1190-614: Is reported to be Adnan's first-born son, born in 598 BCE. When the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II attacked the Qedarite Arabs during the time of Adnan , Ma'add was sent away by his father, and after the defeat of the Qedarite and the death of both Adnan and Nebuchadnezzar II , many Adnanites who were not forced to live in Mesopotamia have fled away to Yemen , but Ma'add, as

1275-756: Is retained, but this time it is used with reference to Udad (the grandfather of Ma'add, and the father of Adnan) instead of Ma'add. By the tenth century, the hadith placing Ma'add at the terminus of Arab genealogy is almost entirely forgotten. The dominant model in later periods traces the ancestry of all Arabs back to Ishmael , the son of Abraham , who is said to have lived between ten and forty generations before Ma'add. This model, too, lost dominance, to yet another new model that traced all Arabs back to one of two figures: Ishmael or Qahtan (the latter specifically for southern Arabs). The word Ma'add continued to be used in early Islam, including in early Islamic poetry. Umayyad rulers occasionally adopted epithets making use of

1360-751: The Arab advance and to recover lost territory, Emperor Heraclius had sent a massive expedition to the Levant in May 636. As the Byzantine army approached, the Arabs tactically withdrew from Syria and regrouped all their forces at the Yarmuk plains close to the Arabian Peninsula , where they were reinforced, and defeated the numerically superior Byzantine army. The battle is widely regarded to be Khalid ibn al-Walid 's greatest military victory and to have cemented his reputation as one of

1445-620: The Banu Sakhr tribe inhabiting the province of al-Karak in modern Jordan belonged to the Judham, though in the Banu Sakhr's modern-day oral traditions, they claim descent from an 18th-century tribe of the Hejaz which entered modern Jordan in the 19th century. Their presence in Egypt is also reported by David E. Millis, Reuven Aharonia and others in the form of the al-Ayed/Aydeh clan the head of which married

1530-683: The Caucasus and Armenia , Heraclius launched a winter offensive against the Persians in Mesopotamia in 627, winning a decisive victory at the Battle of Nineveh , thus threatening the Persian capital city of Ctesiphon . Discredited by the series of disasters, Khosrow II was overthrown and killed in a coup led by his son Kavad II , who immediately sued for peace and agreed to withdraw from all occupied territories of

1615-529: The Circassian maternal founder of Egypt's Abaza family during the reign of the Circassian Mamluks . Ma%27add Maʿadd , in pre-Islamic sources, refers to a particular class of Arabs who shared common features in terms of their social organization, cultural tradition, geopolitical range, and more. It was used alongside other regional identities in pre-Islamic Arabia , such as Ghassan (a member of

1700-517: The Ghassanids ), Himyar, Tayyi', etc, prior to when a singular pan-Arab identity came to largely designate inhabitants of the peninsula. In pre-Islamic Greek and Syriac writings, Ma'add describes militarized camel-herding Bedouin in north Arabia. The word can also be found in the Namara inscription (328 CE), the earliest dated source using the term. The Namara inscription says that Imru al-Qays I ibn Amr

1785-615: The Madh'hij . According to Islamic genealogical sources, the origins of the Ma'add go back to an eponymous figure named Ma'add, the son of Adnan , the father of a group of the Ishmaelite Arabs who inhabited West and Northern Arabia. Adnan is believed by Arab genealogies to be the father of many Ishmaelite tribes along the Western Hijaz coast of the Arabian Peninsula and Najd . Ma'add

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1870-756: The Madyan , Amman , Ma'an , Adhruh , Tabuk as far south as Wadi al-Qura . On the eve of the Muslim conquests , they dominated the territory extending from the environs of Tabuk northward to the areas east of the Wadi Araba valley and the Dead Sea , including the Balqa region around modern Amman. The origins of the Judham are obscure. They were a brother tribe of the Lakhm and Amila , with whom they dwelt and were closely allied. According to

1955-447: The Mu'allaqat , Ma'add is a prominent figure, moreso than his father Adnan. For some poets, it was a "disgrace" not to descend from either Ma'add or Adnan and Ma'ad's glory alone outweighed the rest of that of the history of Arabia. Some poems imply that the Ma'add tribe were the vast majority of pre-Islamic Arabis. Other poems celebrate Ma'ad's victory against a tribe of South Arabia called

2040-473: The Namara inscription . Such views are also supported by the Classical Arabic writings. The nation of Ma'add was mentioned by the Byzantine historian Procopius of Caesarea (c. 500 CE – c. 565 CE) in his historical record of the wars of Justinian I . He mentioned that a Saracen nation named " Maddeni " (Ma'ad) were subjects with the kingdom of the " Homeritae " ( Himyarites ), and that Justinian sent

2125-483: The 8th-century genealogist Muhammad ibn Sa'ib al-Kalbi declared the tribe to be autochthonous descendants of the Biblical Midianites . The Judham served as foederati (tribal confederate troops) of the Byzantines and through their contact with the latter became Christians, albeit superficially. However, their Christianity was disputed by the 9th-century historian Hisham ibn al-Kalbi who asserted that during

2210-532: The Amila other than they were an ancient tribe. The Judham emerged as a tribe later than its two counterparts but was considerably larger than both. Nonetheless, it probably incorporated elements of much older populations in the southern Syrian region, according to Caskel. Although supporting evidence is lacking, a saying attributed to the Islamic prophet Muhammad declares the Judham to be the people of Shu'ayb ( Jethro ) and

2295-755: The Byzantine Empire. Heraclius restored the True Cross to Jerusalem with a majestic ceremony in 629. Meanwhile, there had been rapid political development in the Arabian Peninsula, where Muhammad had been preaching Islam and, by 630, had successfully annexed most of Arabia under a single political authority. When Muhammad died in June 632, Abu Bakr was chosen as caliph and his political successor. Troubles emerged soon after Abu Bakr's succession, and several Arab tribes openly revolted against him. He declared war against

2380-516: The Byzantine army in the Balqa. A certain leader of the Judham in the area of Amman or Ma'an, Farwa ibn Amr , embraced Islam and was consequently crucified by the Byzantine authorities, though the historian Fred Donner holds the story of Farwa "may be merely a pious legend". After the death of Muhammad in 632, the Dhubayb defected from the nascent, Medina -based Muslim state and was the target of an assault by

2465-566: The Byzantine army. On Khalid's advice the Muslim forces retreated to Dara'ah (or Dara) and Dayr Ayyub, covering the gap between the Yarmuk Gorges and the Harra lava plains, and established a line of camps in the eastern part of the plain of Yarmuk. This was a strong defensive position, and the maneuverers brought the Muslims and Byzantines into a decisive battle, which the latter had tried to avoid. During

2550-480: The Byzantine assault lacked determination; many Byzantine soldiers were unable to press the attack against the Muslim veterans. The fighting was generally moderate although in some places, it was especially intense. Vahan did not reinforce his forward infantry , two thirds of which was kept in reserve with one third deployed to engage the Muslims, and at sunset, both armies broke contact and returned to their respective camps. Phase 1: On 16 August, Vahan decided in

2635-463: The Byzantine battle line at 13 kilometres (8.1 mi). The centre of the army was under the command of Abu Ubaidah ibn al-Jarrah (left centre) and Shurahbil bin Hasana (right centre). The left wing was under the command of Yazid and the right wing was under Amr ibn al-A's. The centre, left and right wings were given cavalry regiments, to be used as a reserve for a counterattack if they were pushed back by

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2720-498: The Byzantine era, the Judham worshiped the pagan idol al-Uqaysir. Some sections were also inclined towards Judaism, however, few actually converted to the faith. The Jewish tribe of Banu Nadir in Yathrib (Medina) descended from the Judham. During the lifetime of the Islamic prophet Muhammad , the Judham rejected Islam and remained loyal to the Byzantine Empire. They blocked Muhammad's northward expansion into Syria by fighting alongside

2805-401: The Byzantines at the Battle of Mu'ta in 629. One of their clans, the Dhubayb, afterward converted to Islam, but the tribe as a whole still opposed the Muslims, who launched punitive expeditions against them under the command of Zayd ibn Haritha and Amr ibn al-As . The Islamic prophet's expedition to Tabuk in 630 was partly a response to reports that the Judham and Lakhm were mobilizing with

2890-415: The Byzantines or the Muslims. Though the Judham and Lakhm converted to Islam as the Muslim conquest of Syria proceeded, their earlier service with Byzantines was likely the reason Caliph Umar ( r.  634–644 ) excluded the two tribes from the distribution of war spoils during a summit of the Muslim armies at Jabiya in 637 or 638. In the Muslim military administration of Syria , the Judham became

2975-499: The Byzantines, who fearing that the Muslims with such reinforcements would grow powerful, decided that they had no choice but to attack. The reinforcements that were sent to the Muslims at Yarmuk arrived in small bands, giving the impression of a continuous stream of reinforcements to demoralize the Byzantines to compel them to attack. The same tactic would be repeated again during the Battle of Qadisiyah . The battle began on 15 August. At dawn, both armies lined up for battle less than

3060-524: The Byzantines. Behind the centre stood the mobile guard under the personal command of Khalid. If Khalid was too occupied in leading the general army, Dharar ibn al-Azwar would command the mobile guard. Over the course of the battle, Khalid would repeatedly make critical and decisive use of that mounted reserve. Khalid sent out several scouts to keep the Byzantines under observation. In late July, Vahan sent Jabalah with his lightly armoured Christian-Arab forces to reconnoitre-in-force, but they were repulsed by

3145-530: The Judham infantry led by Maslama ibn Mukhallad al-Ansari . Natil belonged to the Judham's preeminent clan, the Sa'd ibn Malik, and was referred to in the sources as sayyid Judhām bi-l-Shām (leader of the Judham of Syria). Rawh was younger than Natil and hailed from the Sa'd ibn Malik's brother clan, the Wa'il ibn Malik. The Sa'd traditionally provided the chiefs of at least a large part of the Judham and there are no indications in

3230-721: The Judham under Natil allied with Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr , a rival, Mecca -based claimant to the caliphate, while Rawh supported the Umayyad Marwan I . Following Marwan's victory over the supporters of Ibn al-Zubayr at the Battle of Marj Rahit in 684, the Quda'a and the Kalb changed genealogical affiliation to the Qahtan and formed the Yaman (Yemenite) confederation in opposition to the pro-Zubayrid Qays tribes of northern Syria. The Judham remained allies of

3315-701: The Kalb and together the two tribes formed the linchpin of the Yaman confederation in Syria during the struggle with the Qays . Natil fled Palestine or was killed and by the reign of Caliph Abd al-Malik ( r.  685–705 ), Rawh became the undisputed leader of the Judham. The tribe remained closely allied with the Umayyads until their demise in 750. A branch of the Judham called the Banu Bayadh or al-Bayyadhiyin were recorded as inhabiting

3400-454: The Monophysite and Chalcedonian factions, of negligible direct impact, certainly inflamed underlying tensions. The effect of the feuds was decreased coordination and planning, one of the reasons for the catastrophic Byzantine defeat. The battle lines of the Muslims and the Byzantines were divided into four sections: the left wing, the left centre, the right centre and the right wing. Note that

3485-621: The Muslim forces were geographically divided, Heraclius sought to exploit that situation and planned to attack. He did not wish to engage in a single pitched battle but rather to employ central position and fight the enemy in detail by concentrating large forces against each of the Muslim corps before they could consolidate their troops. By forcing the Muslims to retreat, or by destroying Muslim forces separately, he would fulfil his strategy of recapturing lost territory. Reinforcements were sent to Caesarea under Heraclius' son Constantine III , probably to tie down Yazid's forces, which were besieging

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3570-452: The Muslim general Usama ibn Zayd at the beginning of Caliph Abu Bakr 's reign (632–634). The Judham formed part of the Arab contingents of Byzantine emperor Heraclius 's army at the Battle of Yarmouk in 636, but were defeated. A number of Judham clans also fought in the Muslims' ranks at Yarmouk, suggesting political divisions within the tribe played a role determining a clan's allegiance with

3655-485: The Muslim troops concentrated there, the hill gave a good view of the plain of Yarmuk. The ravine on the west of the battlefield was accessible at a few places in 636 AD, and had one main crossing: a Roman bridge ( Jisr-ur-Ruqqad ) near Ain Dhakar Logistically, the Yarmuk plain had enough water supplies and pastures to sustain both armies. The plain was excellent for cavalry maneuvers. Most early accounts place

3740-517: The Muslims encamped at the Yarmuk plain, the Byzantine army, preceded by the lightly armed Ghassanids of Jabalah, moved forward and established strongly fortified camps just north of the Wadi-ur-Ruqqad. The right flank of the Byzantine army was at the south end of the plains, near the Yarmuk River and about a mile before the ravines of Wadi al Allan began. The left flank of the Byzantines was at

3825-410: The Persians from Anatolia but was decisively defeated in 613 when he launched a major offensive in Syria against the Persians. Over the following decade, the Persians were able to conquer Palestine and Egypt . Meanwhile, Heraclius prepared for a counterattack and rebuilt his army. In 622, Heraclius finally launched his offensive. After his overwhelming victories over the Persians and their allies in

3910-631: The Qanas branch of the Ma'add tribe or the Banu Asad , another branch of the Ma'add. As Rawh sought to forge stronger ties to the Banu Kalb, he petitioned Yazid to recognize the Judham as descendants of Ma'add and thus kinsmen of the Quda'a; Natil opposed Rawh's initiative and insisted on affiliation with Qahtan, the progenitor of the Yemenite tribes. Following the death of Yazid's son and successor Mu'awiya II in 684,

3995-526: The Rashidun stronghold of Najd, if retreat became necessary. Instructions were also issued to return jizya (tribute) to people who had paid it. However, once concentrated at Jabiyah, the Muslims were subject to raids from pro-Byzantine Ghassanid forces. Encamping in the region was also precarious as a strong Byzantine force was garrisoned in Caeseara and could attack the Muslim rear while they were held in front by

4080-589: The Roman gladius and Sassanid long swords were used; long swords were usually carried by horsemen. Swords were hung in baldrics . Bows were about 2 metres (6.6 ft) long when unbraced, similar in size to the famous English longbow. The maximum useful range of the traditional Arabian bow was about 150 m (490 ft). Early Muslim archers, while being infantry archers without the mobility of horseback archer regiments, proved to be very effective in defending against light and unarmoured cavalry attacks. A few days after

4165-805: The Yarmuk (also spelled Yarmouk ) was a major battle between the army of the Byzantine Empire and the Arab Muslim forces of the Rashidun Caliphate . The battle consisted of a series of engagements that lasted for six days in August 636, near the Yarmouk River (also called the Hieromyces River), along what are now the borders of Syria–Jordan and Syria-Israel , southeast of the Sea of Galilee . The result of

4250-587: The Yarmuk River, a tributary of the Jordan River , on its south. The stream had very steep banks, ranging from 30 m (98 ft)–200 m (660 ft) in height. On the north is the Jabiyah road and to the east are the Azra hills although the hills were outside the actual field of battle. Strategically, there was only one prominence in the battlefield: a 100 m (330 ft) elevation known as Tel al Jumm'a , and for

4335-400: The battle was a decisive Muslim victory that ended Roman rule in Syria after about seven centuries. The Battle of the Yarmuk is regarded as one of the most decisive battles in military history, and it marked the first great wave of early Muslim conquests after the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad , heralding the rapid advance of Islam into the then-Christian/Roman Levant . To check

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4420-485: The battle, on Vahan's invitation, Khalid came to negotiate peace, with a similar end. The negotiations delayed the battles for a month. On the other hand, Umar, whose forces at Qadisiyah were threatened with confronting the Sassanid armies , ordered Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas to enter negotiations with the Persians and to send emissaries to Yazdegerd III and his commander Rostam Farrokhzād , apparently inviting them to Islam. That

4505-675: The caliphs' courts. The other tribes in Syria sought to join or oust the Quda'a from its position of power. From the pre-Islamic period until the end of the Sufyanid period in 684, the Quda'a claimed genealogical descent from the Ma'add , a northern Arabian tribe mentioned in the 4th-century Namara inscription . During the Sufyanid period, the Judham (along with the Lakhm and Amila tribes) were held by most sources to be of Yemeni (south Arabian) descent, though there were also sources which claimed they were descendants of

4590-466: The descriptions of the Muslim and the Byzantine battle lines are exactly each other's opposite: the Muslim right wing faced the Byzantine left wing (see image ). Vahan was instructed by Heraclius not to engage in battle until all avenues of diplomacy had been explored, probably because Yazdegerd III 's forces were not yet ready for the offensive in Iraq . Accordingly, Vahan sent Gregory and then Jabalah to negotiate, but their efforts proved futile. Before

4675-426: The genealogical ancestry of the Arabs. He would stop after reaching Ma'add, and then say "the genealogists lie". In other words, Ma'add was the oldest remembered Arab ancestor, removed from the generation of Muhammad by twenty generations. By the late ninth century, the family tree of the Arabs had grown beyond Ma'add. In Al-Balādhurī 's Genealogies of the Nobles ( Ansāb al-ashrāf ), the phrase "the genealogists lie"

4760-402: The greatest tacticians and cavalry commanders in history. In 610, during the Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628 , Heraclius became the emperor of the Byzantine Empire, after overthrowing Phocas . Meanwhile, the Sasanian Empire conquered Mesopotamia and in 611 they overran Syria and entered Anatolia , occupying Caesarea Mazaca (now Kayseri , Turkey). In 612, Heraclius managed to expel

4845-409: The historian Werner Caskel , the three tribes were not actually related. Rather, their genealogical relationship was forged to seal their political alliance, either after they entered Palestine in the mid-7th century or before, when their abodes were concentrated east of the Dead Sea and Arabah Valley . The Lakhm emerge in the historical record no later than the 3rd century CE and little is known of

4930-414: The largest tribe in Jund Filastin (the military district of Palestine). In the First Muslim Civil War , the Judham fought in the army of Syria's governor, Mu'awiya I , against the Iraq-based forces of Caliph Ali ( r.  656–661 ). At the Battle of Siffin in 657, they formed the following contingents: the Judham of Palestine led by Rawh ibn Zinba , the Judham and Lakhm under Natil ibn Qays , and

5015-413: The left by Qanatir. The centre was formed by the army of Dairjan and the Armenian army of Vahan, both under the overall command of Dairjan. The Byzantine regular heavy cavalry , the cataphract , was distributed equally among the four armies, each army deploying its infantry at the forefront and its cavalry as a reserve in the rear. Vahan deployed Jabalah's Christian Arabs , mounted on horses and camels, as

5100-421: The maneuvers, there were no engagements except for a minor skirmish between Khalid's elite light cavalry and the Byzantine advance guard. The battlefield lies in the plain of Jordanian Hauran , just southeast of the Golan Heights , an upland region currently on the frontier between Jordan and Syria, east of the Sea of Galilee . The battle was fought on the plain east of Raqqat stream ravine. That ravine joins

5185-749: The mobile guard. After the skirmish, no engagement occurred for a month. Helmets used included gilded helmets similar to the silver helmets of the Sassanid empire. Mail was commonly used to protect the face, neck, and cheeks as an aventail from the helmet or as a mail coif. Heavy leather sandals, as well as Roman-type sandal boots, were also typical of the early Muslim soldiers. Armour included hardened leather scale or lamellar armour and mail armour . Infantry soldiers were more heavily armoured than horsemen. Large wooden or wickerwork shields were used. Long-shafted spears were used, with infantry spears being 2.5 m (8.2 ft) long and cavalry spears being up to 5.5 m (18 ft) long. Short infantry swords like

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5270-425: The north, a short distance before the Hills of Jabiyah began, and was relatively exposed. Vahan deployed the Imperial Army facing east, with a front about 13 kilometres (8.1 mi) long, as he was trying to cover the whole area between the Yarmuk gorge in the south and the Roman road to Egypt in the north, and substantial gaps had been left between the Byzantine divisions. The right wing was commanded by Gregory and

5355-430: The northern Sinai Peninsula by the 10th-century geographer al-Hamdani and later inhabiting the Syrian Desert oasis of Qatya in the 13th-century. At least part of the Judham eventually fused with the Amila in the Galilee area, and in the early 11th century, they moved into southern, present-day Lebanon. In the Mamluk era in the 13th–15th centuries, the historians Ibn Fadlallah al-Umari and al-Qalqashandi mention that

5440-402: The objective to slay as many enemy commanders as possible to damage their morale. At midday, after losing a number of commanders in the duels, Vahan ordered a limited attack with a third of his infantry forces to test the strength and strategy of the Muslim army and, using their overwhelming numerical and weaponry superiority, achieve a breakthrough wherever the Muslim battle line was weak. However

5525-413: The operation from Antioch. Byzantine sources mention Niketas, son of the Persian general Shahrbaraz , among the commanders, but it is not certain which army he commanded. The Rashidun army was then split into four groups: one under Amr in Palestine, one under Shurahbil in Jordan, one under Yazid in the Damascus - Caesarea region and the last one under Abu Ubaidah along with Khalid at Emesa. As

5610-504: The rebels. In what became known as the Ridda wars of 632–633, Abu Bakr managed to defeat his opponents and unite Arabia under the central authority of the caliph at Medina . Once the rebels had been subdued, Abu Bakr began a war of conquest, beginning with Iraq . His most brilliant general, Khalid ibn al-Walid , conquered Iraq in a series of successful campaigns against the Sassanid Persians. Abu Bakr's confidence grew, and once Khalid had established his stronghold in Iraq, Abu Bakr issued

5695-406: The series of setbacks, Heraclius prepared for a counterattack to reacquire the lost regions. In 635 Yazdegerd III , the Emperor of Persia , sought an alliance with the Byzantine Emperor. Heraclius married off his daughter (according to traditions, his granddaughter) Manyanh to Yazdegerd III, to cement the alliance. While Heraclius prepared for a major offensive in the Levant, Yazdegerd was to mount

5780-410: The size of the Muslim forces between 36,000 and 40,000 and the number of Byzantine forces between 60,000 and 70,000 (This number has been estimated by taking into account the logistical situation of the Empire and with the view that they could never have mustered such troops when the Empire was at its apex but especially not with the especially weak and exhausted realm of 628 onwards). Modern estimates for

5865-430: The sizes of the respective armies vary: some estimates for the Byzantine army are around 40,000 at most, while other estimates are 15,000 to 20,000. Estimates for the Rashidun army are between 15,000 and 40,000, most likely around 36,000. Original accounts are mostly from Arab sources, generally agreeing that the Byzantine army and their allies outnumbered the Muslim Arabs by a 2 to 1. The only early Byzantine source

5950-407: The sources of a rivalry between the Sa'd and Wa'il clans during the pre-Islamic period . Rivalries for leadership of the tribe between Natil and Rawh developed during the caliphate of Mu'awiya I (661–680). During the reigns of Mu'awiya I and Yazid I ( r.  680–683 ), the Quda'a tribal confederation, of which the Banu Kalb were the leading component, obtained high ranks and privileges in

6035-432: The successor of his father, ordered them to return to Hijaz and Northern Arabia . The defeat and displacement of the people of Ma'add seemed to be viewed by Pre-Islamic Arabs as a disastrous event, so that it was used as a proverbial measure in describing the horror of their later defeats. Ma'add is said to have fathered four sons: Nizar , Quda'a , Qunus and Iyad. Quda'a was the first-born and so Ma'add ibn Adnan

6120-865: The term. For example, the caliph Hisham was addressed as "the Lord of Maʿadd and non-Maʿadd" ( rabb Maʿadd wa-siwā Maʿadd ), and his entourage was described as the "elite of Maʿadd" ( ʿulyā Maʿadd ). In later Islamic periods, Ma'add was replaced with the word Arab. Battle of Yarmouk This is an accepted version of this page The Levant Egypt North Africa Anatolia & Constantinople Border conflicts Sicily and Southern Italy Naval warfare Byzantine reconquest Ridda Wars Conquest of Sasanian Persia Conquest of Byzantine Syria Campaigns in Africa Campaigns in Armenia and Anatolia The Battle of

6205-415: The town. The Byzantine imperial army moved out from Antioch and Northern Syria in the middle of June 636. The Byzantine imperial army was to operate under the following plan: The Muslims discovered Heraclius' preparations at Shaizar from Byzantine prisoners. Alert to the possibility of being caught with separated forces that could be destroyed, Khalid called a council of war and advised Abu Ubaidah to pull

6290-441: The troops back from Palestine and Northern and Central Syria and concentrate the entire Rashidun army in one place. Abu Ubaidah ordered the concentration of troops in the vast plain near Jabiyah , as control of the area made cavalry charges possible and facilitated the arrival of reinforcements from Umar, so that a strong, united force could be fielded against the Byzantine armies. The position also benefited from close proximity to

6375-523: The various Byzantine commanders were also fraught with tension. There was a struggle for power between Trithurios and Vahan, Jarajis, and Qanatir (Buccinator). Jabalah, the Christian Arab leader, was largely ignored, to the detriment of the Byzantines given his knowledge of the local terrain. An atmosphere of mistrust thus existed between the Romans, Armenians and Arabs. Longstanding ecclesiastical feuds between

6460-791: The word "Arab". Ma'add was mentioned by name in the Namara inscription as a nation that was conquered by the Lakhmid king Imru' al-Qays ibn 'Amr , along with other Arab nation from North, Central-West and South Arabia. From some of the reports of about the relations between the Lakhmids and the nation of Ma'ad, it can be concluded that the kings of the Northern Arab kingdoms feared them and viewed them as mighty opponent because of their powerful war tactics, even when they conquered them, they treated their kings with high respect as important people, and gave them large conquered colonies to rule, as reported in

6545-446: Was "King of the Arabs" ( malik al-ʿarab ) and "King of Maʿadd" ( malik maʿadd ). In pre-Islamic Arabic poetry , "Ma'add" was a communal identity and ethnonym functioning in the way that the word "Arab" does today. Ma'add encompassed "all the peoples", both northern and southern Arab tribes. The poems trace the group Ma'add to an eponymous founder named Ma'add ibn Adnan. In Islamic genealogical accounts, "Ma'add" more narrowly describes

6630-434: Was a citizen army , in contrast to a mercenary army, the age of the soldiers ranged from 20 (in the case of Khalid's son) to 70 (in the case of Ammar). Three of the ten companions promised paradise by Muhammad , namely Sa'id, Zubayr and Abu Ubaidah, were present at Yarmuk. Umar, apparently wanting to defeat the Byzantines first, used the best Muslim troops against them. The continuing stream of Muslim reinforcements worried

6715-431: Was gathered at the Yarmuk plain. Several clashes were reported with local citizens over supply requisition, as summer was at an end and there was a decline of pasturage. Greek court sources accused Vahan of treason for his disobedience to Heraclius' command not to engage in large-scale battle with Arabs. Given the massing of the Muslim armies at Yarmuk, however, Vahan had little choice but to respond in kind. Relations between

6800-486: Was known by his Kunya "Abu Quda'a." According to the Al-Sirah al-Nabawiyyah of Ibn Ishaq , Muhammad's lineage can be traced back to Ma'ad. The earliest Islamic genealogical accounts in the eighth and early ninth centuries describe Ma'add as the earliest derivable Arab ancestor. In hadiths that can be found in the writings of Ibn al-Kalbi , Ibn Sa'd , Khalīfa ibn Khayyāt , and Ibn Wahb , Muhammad would describe explain

6885-981: Was most probably the delaying tactic employed by Umar on the Persian front. Meanwhile, he sent reinforcements of 6,000 troops, mostly from Yemen, to Khalid. The force included 1,000 Sahaba (companions of Muhammad), among whom were 100 veterans of the Battle of Badr , the first battle in Islamic history, and included citizens of the highest rank, such as Zubayr ibn al-Awwam , Abu Sufyan , and his wife Hind bint Utbah . Also present were such distinct companions as Sa'id ibn Zayd , Fadl ibn Abbas , Abdul-Rahman ibn Abi Bakr (the son of Abu Bakr ), Abdullah ibn Umar (the son of Umar ), Aban ibn Uthman (the son of Uthman ), Abdulreman ibn Khalid (the son of Khalid), Abdullah ibn Ja'far (the nephew of Ali ), Ammar ibn Yasir , Miqdad ibn Aswad , Abu Dharr al-Ghifari , Malik al-Ashtar , Abu Ayyub al-Ansari , Qays ibn Sa'd , Hudhayfah ibn al-Yaman , Ubada ibn as-Samit , Hisham ibn al-A'as , Abu Huraira and Ikrimah ibn Abi Jahl . As it

6970-495: Was organised in the Tabi'a formation, a tight, defensive infantry formation. The army was lined up on a front of 12 kilometres (7.5 mi), facing west, with its left flank lying south on the Yarmuk River a mile before the ravines of Wadi al-Allan began. The army's right flank was on the Jabiyah road in the north across the heights of Tel al Jumm'a , with substantial gaps between the divisions so that their frontage would match that of

7055-622: Was organized into five armies, the joint leader of which was Theodore Trithyrius . Vahan, an Armenian and the former garrison commander of Emesa, was made the overall field commander, and had under his command a purely Armenian army. Buccinator (Qanatir), a Slavic prince, commanded the Slavs and Jabalah ibn al-Aiham , king of the Ghassanid Arabs, commanded an exclusively Christian Arab force. The remaining contingents, all European, were placed under Gregory and Dairjan. Heraclius himself supervised

7140-474: Was replaced by Abu Ubaidah . Having secured southern Palestine, Muslim forces now advanced up the trade route, and Tiberias and Baalbek fell without much struggle and conquered Emesa early in 636. The Muslims then continued their conquest across the Levant . Having seized Emesa, the Muslims were just a march away from Aleppo , a Byzantine stronghold, and Antioch , where Heraclius resided. Seriously alarmed by

7225-573: Was sent by Abu Bakr from Iraq to Syria with reinforcements and to lead the invasion. In July, the Byzantines were decisively defeated at Ajnadayn . Damascus fell in September, followed by the Battle of Fahl , in which the last significant garrison of Palestine was routed. After Abu Bakr died in 634, his successor, Umar , was determined to continue the Caliphate 's expansion deeper into Syria. Though previous campaigns led by Khalid had been successful, he

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