GENERAL EDITOR DAVID G. CHANDLER CAMPAIGN SERIES 31 OSPREY MILITARY YARMUK 636AD THE MUSLIM CONQUEST OF SYRIA DAVID NICOLLE DAVID NICOLLE was born in 1944, the son of the illustrator Pat Nicolle. He worked in the BBC Arabic service for a number of years, before going 'back to school', gaining an MA from the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, and a doctorate from Edinburgh University. He later taught world and Islamic art and architectural history at Yarmuk University, Jordan. He has written many books and articles on medieval and Islamic warfare, and has been a prolific author of Osprey titles for many years. David lives and works in Leicestershire, UK. First published in (Great Britain in review, as permitted under the ISBN 1-85532-414-8 For a catalogue of 1994 by Osprey, an imprint of Reed Copyright Designs and Patents Act, all books published by Consumer Books Limited. Michelin 1988, no part of this publication may Produced by DAG Publications Ltd Osprey Military, House, 81 Fulham Road, London be reproduced, stored in a retrieval for Osprey Publishing Ltd SW 3 6RB and Aukland, Melbourne. system, or transmitted in any form or Colour bird's eye view illustrations by please write to The Marketing Manager, Singapore and Toronto. by any means electronic, electrical, Peter Harper chemical, mechanical, optical, Cartography by Micromap. Consumer Catalogue Dept., © 1994 Reed International Books photocopying, recording or otherwise Wargaming Yarmuk by Ian Drury. Michelin House, 81 Fulham Limited. All rights reserved. Apart without prior permission of the Mono camerawork by M&E. Road, London SW 3 8RB. from any fair dealing for the purpose copyright owner. Enquiries should be Reproductions North Fambridge, of private study, research, criticism or addressed to the Publishers. Essex. CONTENTS Origins of the Campaign 7 The Muslim Commanders 19 Byzantine Syria: the Arena of Conflict 7 The Opposing Armies 22 The Arabs: the Neglected Neighbours 11 Byzantine Recruitment 22 The Coming of Islam 13 The Organization of Byzantine Armies 23 The Opposing Leaders 17 Byzantine Tactics 27 The Byzantine Commanders 17 Byzantine Weaponry 29 The Size of Byzantine Armies 32 Muslim Recruitment 32 Muslim Military Organization 33 Tactics of the Muslim Forces 34 Weaponry of the Muslim Forces 39 The Size of Muslim Forces 43 The Opposing Plans 44 The Campaign 46 Ajnadayn, Pella and Damascus 46 The Byzantine Counter-Attack 61 The Battle of Yarmuk 65 The Fall of Byzantine Syria 85 Aftermath and Reckoning 87 Performance of the Byzantine Army 87 Performance of the Muslim Army 88 The Battlefields Today 90 Chronology 93 A Guide to Further Reading 94 Wargaming Yarmuk 95 ◄ The area of the battle of Ajnadayn is a sparsely populated part of modern Israel. The old Arab villages north of the battlefield, through which the defeated Byzantines fled, are all abandoned. Only this mysterious ruined 'Tomb of the Prophet Paul' watches over some scattered Israeli fields. (Author's photograph) ORIGINS OF THE CAMPAIGN The Middle East in 634 Muslim campaigns during Riddah Wars of 632-3 Heraclius campaigns against Sassanians. with dales Sassanian Empire Muslim Caliphate Byzantine Empire ORIGINS OF THE C A M P A I GN The battle of Yarmuk in 636 was a turning point in distinct zones a westward-looking Mediterranean history. If the Byzantines had won, Graeco-Roman coast, a rich agricultural hinterland and a much domination of the Middle East could have larger region of semi-desert. The coast was largely continued and medieval Europe might have been Greek speaking; Syriac and Aramaean speaking denied the cultural contacts with eastern Asia that Semitic peoples inhabited the agricultural zone; Islamic civilization opened up. while the semi-desert steppes were already Arab. Yet the whole process of 7th century Muslim Big cities were dominated by Greek speakers, Arab expansion remains little understood outside a though their citizens were as mixed as the country small circle of specialists. Few contemporary itself, with large Jewish populations plus groups of accounts survive, although there are highly detailed Georgians and Armenians as well as Latin-speaking descriptions dating from a generation or so later. It Europeans. Use of the Greek language did not, is also difficult to separate fact from pious myth. however, prove a sense of identity with the Today, however, the 'pendulum of credibility' has Byzantine Empire and the effectiveness of swung back from the almost total disbelief of early Byzantine rule in this remarkably complex region is 20th century Western historians to what might be open to doubt. described as a 'twilight of historical reality'. ▼ The fortifications of Syrian titles to fall to the Umm al Rasas, a deserted Muslim Arabs and Byzantine Syria: the Arena of Conflict city in southern Jordan continued to flourish into known in Byzantine the 9th century. (Author's A great deal is known about Syria in the last decades times as Kastron Mefaa. photograph) of Byzantine rule. As now, it consisted of three It was one of the first ORIGINS OF THE CAMPAIGN North of the Yarmuk river (modern-day Syria Natural features and man-made communi­ and Lebanon), Byzantine local government and cations played a vital role in the Muslim Arab defence were based upon cities, some of which had conquest of Syria. In the north, mountains were the existed (or thousands of years. Southern Syria and only real barriers, running parallel to the coast and what are now Jordan, Israel and the occupied then eastwards along the Anatolian foothills. In the territories of Palestine included huge Byzantine centre and south deep valleys cut through the Imperial estates as well as flourishing cities and plateau. All ran east-west except for the church lands. Syria also had a very military north south Jordan and Biqa'a valleys. Emesa appearance, all cities being strongly walled and (Hims) was the most important communications some having large permanent garrisons. In the and military centre in Byzantine mirth-central north these faced the threat of Persian invasion, Syria, Caesarea Maritima (Qaysariya) being the while in the south any political disruption could main defensive base in Palestine. The Roman road encourage raiding by bedouin tribes. system was still in reasonable repair, vet it still took several days to get infantry from Caesarea to Gaza Syria, along with much of the rest of the (Ghazzah). Cavalry, who were now the most Byzantine Empire. had suffered a series of blows important part of the army, moved faster by riding since the mid 6th century: earthquakes, plagues, on cleared areas on each side of the paved Roman economic decline, Sassanian Persian invasions and a roads. The most important such road ran from generation of Sassanian occupation. Worst of all Egypt to Damascus. North of al Lajjun in Palestine were earthquakes and plagues. A series of epidemics starting in 540 cut the population b\ a third in the towns infested with plague-carrying rats. Mean­ ▼ Among many mosaics town has a defensive wall while the tented nomads escaped virtually in Jordan are these with towers and a church, stylized views of fortified usually with a dome. unscathed. There was, in fact, a large Arab- towns dating from around ( Museum store, Mt. speaking population within Byzantine Syria, many 650, a few years after the Nebo, Jordan; author's being Christian while others were Jewish or pagan. battle of Yarmuk. Each photograph) BYZANTINE SYRIA: THE ARENA OF CONFLICT ► The aqueduct of ancient Caesarea Maritima on the Mediterranean coast of Palestine brought water from north of the city. Caesarea was the main Byzantine military base as well as being a vital port on the otherwise bleak southern coast. (Author's photograph) this split into two, one branch continuing across the Golan plateau, the other taking a less direct route along the upper Jordan valley to meet the main road from Tyre to Damascus, or crossing the Jordan to rejoin the first road on the Golan. Despite a thousand years of alien Greek and Roman rule, Syria still retained its own distinctive Semitic culture. This was particularly apparent in religion. In addition to non-Christian minorities, the bulk of the population in some provinces belonged to churches regarded as heretical elsewhere in the Empire. Palestine was largely Orthodox Christian, but central and northern Syria were Monophysite a theological difference that meant a very great deal in those days! The deeply anti-Jewish Orthodox Church hierarchy regarded Syria as a hotbed of 'Judaizers, Jewish-Christians and Jews'. In return the large Jewish minority had little love for its Orthodox rulers, particularly after the Emperor Heraclius decreed that all Jews must convert to Christianity in 630. But the most alienated community was that of the Samaritans ► Fragment of 7th helmet with a long neck- century carved ivory; guard wears a scale or provincial Byzantine mail cuirass. He does not workmanship from a use stirrups. (Mus. Lombardic tomb at dell' Alto Medio Evo, Nocera Umbra in Italy. A Rome) cavalryman in a crested ORIGINS OF THE CAMPAIGN ◄ Umm al Jimal, an almost deserted 'dead city' on the edge of the desert in northern Jordan, was probably controlled by the Christian Arab Ghassanids in Byzantine times. This tower in what is popularly called the 'barracks' is decorated with Christian crosses. It was built around AD 412 and includes two early examples of machicolations from which rocks could be dropped on an attacker. (Author's photograph) ▼ Left and right: The story of 'David and Goliath' on a sequence of 6th century Coptic Egyptian reliefs. On the left Saul is flanked by guardsmen, one with a spear and shield, the other with a shield and a sword hung from a baldric. On the right Goliath is portrayed twice, on both occasions wearing scale or stylized mail armour and a large helmet. (Coptic Mus., Cairo; author's photographs) THE ARABS: THE NEGLECTED NEIGHBOURS who, persecuted by Christians and Jews alike, had The Arabs: the Neglected Neighbours risen in support of the Sassanian Persian invaders and would soon help the Muslim Arabs. Paganism The Arabic-speaking peoples of the Arabian would survive in Syria for another century and a peninsula and neighbouring areas followed many half under Muslim rule. The ancient Maiumas religions and different ways of life. Some lived in 'water festival' was still held at Gerasa (Jarash) as towns as merchants or craftsmen, but most were late as 535, though the old orgies involving dancing fallahin peasant farmers in the oases of Arabia, the girls and public nude bathing had been toned down fertile hills of Yemen or the villages of Byzantine and given a new Christian guise. Syria and Sassanian Iraq. Even among the nomads there were important distinctions between the During the Sassanian Persian invasion of the camel-raising true badw (bedouin) of the deep Byzantine Empire the old Byzantine army collapsed desert, the sheep- and camel-raising swayih of the and a new Emperor, Heraclius, had to rebuild it grassy steppes, and the ra'w semi-nomads on the from shattered fragments. This he did with fringes of the cultivated zone. Recent research remarkable success. Ironically, he set out on his epic shows that there were plenty of small villages or reconquest of the Middle East in the same year, 622, farms well beyond the Romano-Byzantine frontier that an obscure Arab religious leader fled from his in what are now Syria and Jordan. Nor were Arab home town of Makka to seek sanctuary in the nomads ever excluded from the settled areas, while neighbouring town of Yathrib (later to be known as the degree of conflict between nomad and farmer Madina). That year of 622 would become year 1 AH has been greatly exaggerated, often for modern in a new Muslim calender, the year in which the political reasons. Within the desert, tribes normally Prophet Muhammad made his Hijra or escape to set migrated across each other's territory by peaceful up the new religious community of Muslims. agreement rather than constantly fighting each The early 7th century was also a time of other. quickening military change in the Byzantine Empire after centuries of stagnation, and Byzantium was One technological development had an immense certainly not in a state of collapse when it faced the impact on the balance of power in the steppes and new challenge from Arabia. On the other hand, the desert. This was the wood-framed North Arabian Byzantine army was unprepared for an attack from camel saddle, which was secured on top of the such an unexpected direction. animal's hump - the older so-called South Arabian