Battle of the Yarmuk
| Battle of Yarmouk | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Muslim conquest of the Levant | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||||
| Rashidun Caliphate | Byzantine Empire | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
|
Khalid ibn al-Walid Abu Ubaydah ibn al-Jarrah |
Vahan Theodore Trithyrius | ||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
| 25,000–40,000 | 100,000–150,000 (estimates vary) | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| ~4,000 | ~50,000–70,000 | ||||||||
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The Battle of the Yarmuk (also spelled Yarmouk; Script error: The function "langx" does not exist.) was a major battle between the Byzantine Empire and the Rashidun Caliphate near the Yarmouk River in Byzantine Syria that marked a crucial point in the Muslim conquest of Syria. The result of the battle was a decisive Arab victory that effectively ended Byzantine rule in Syria.
The battle consisted of a series of engagements that lasted for six days in August 636, near the Yarmouk River (called the Hieromykes River by the Greeks), along what are now the borders between Syria and Jordan and Syria and Israel, southeast of the Sea of Galilee. To check 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 of the Yarmuk is regarded as one of the most decisive battles in military history.[6][7] It was also Khalid ibn al-Walid's greatest military victory and cemented his reputation as one of the greatest tacticians and cavalry commanders in history.[8] The battle marked the culmination of the first great wave of early Muslim conquests after the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, which witnessed the rapid advance of the Rashidun Caliphate into both the Sasanian Empire and the Byzantine Empire.
- ↑ Nicolle 1994, pp. 64–65.
- ↑ Akram 2004, p. 425.
- ↑ "Battle of Yarmouk". Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Retrieved 2025-06-05.
Losses: Byzantine allied, 40,000; Arab, 5,000.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Bolshakov (2002), p. 67.
- ↑ "Khālid ibn al-Walīd". Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Retrieved 2025-06-17.
Early in 636 he withdrew south of the Yarmūk River before a powerful Byzantine force that advanced from the north and from the coast of Palestine. The Byzantine armies were composed mainly of Christian Arab, Armenian, and other auxiliaries, however; and when many of these deserted the Byzantines, Khālid, reinforced from Medina and possibly from the Syrian Arab tribes, attacked and destroyed the remaining Byzantine forces along the ravines of the Yarmūk valley (Aug. 20, 636).Almost 50,000 Byzantine troops were slaughtered, which opened the way for many other Islamic conquests.
- ↑ Nafziger & Walton 2003, p. 30.
- ↑ Nicolle 1994, p. 6.
- ↑ Nicolle 1994, p. 19.
