显示双语:

The Early Muslim expansion changed the fate of the Middle East and the world. 00:06
In our first season, we have covered the very early campaigns mostly led by Khalid ibn al-Walid 00:11
in Iraq and Syria. 00:17
This second documentary will describe the Arab incursions into Anatolia, Egypt, Iran 00:19
and North Africa, showing how the Rashidun Caliphate became the dominant power in the 00:24
wider region. 00:30
These long videos are extremely time-consuming and difficult to make, so consider liking, 00:32
commenting, and sharing! 00:37
It is probably a good idea to start our video with the description of the early Muslim army. 00:40
From Ajnadayn in 634 to Alexandria in 641, Islamic armies of seemingly miniscule size 00:46
picked apart the veteran armies of two separate, massive empires in battle after battle. 00:54
The question remains: how did these earliest Muslim soldiers fight and how did they forge 01:00
the caliphate with such speed? 01:05
Akin to most other regions and centers of civilisation within the ancient and medieval 01:08
world, Arabia was a violent place in its own unique fashion. 01:13
Far from being comparable to the large, hegemonic empires which bordered and often puppeteered 01:18
its many tribes to further their own agendas pre-conquest, the barren desert of the Arabian 01:23
Peninsula and most of its people are more accurately balanced against the fearsome nomadic 01:29
folk of the great Eurasian steppe. 01:35
Fighting against rival tribes and defending one’s own kin from attack were a central 01:37
part of life, a fact which played a key role in creating the local culture. 01:43
Motivated in part by vicious terrain that was untenable to larger military campaigns, 01:48
the dominant tactic was the so-called razzia - a raiding expedition designed to plunder, 01:54
pillage and take slaves. 02:00
Such a wealth of common martial experience meant that most Bedouin Arabs were, especially 02:02
compared to the agriculturalists and urban citizens of the near-east, a veteran military 02:08
population. 02:14
This pre-Islam tribal society provided a solid foundation for the development of a conquest 02:15
army, but until the prophet’s lifetime and possibly afterwards as well, there was no 02:21
‘army’, as such. 02:27
With very few exceptions, every single adult male in Bedouin life was a warrior, compensated 02:28
for their endeavours with booty, honour or the defence of their own kin-group from enemies 02:35
who were attempting to do the same. 02:40
With the advent of Islam, leadership of Muhammad and the subsequent unification of the Arabian 02:43
Peninsula under the first Rashidun caliph, its weapon-rich cities and Bedouin-inhabited 02:48
hinterland alike came under one rule, and one religion. 02:53
This warlike population, who until recently were occupied fighting one-another in small-scale 02:58
struggles, could now be directed en masse to attack the settled, exhausted and unready 03:04
empires beyond the desert frontier. 03:09
Although now turned to a single purpose; to expand the Dar al-Islam, the early Islamic 03:13
armies remained in many ways what they had been before - tribal raiders. 03:19
As the assault on Byzantine and Sassanid territory began, it quickly became clear that the established 03:24
empires were not going to be met on their own terms. 03:30
It was to be a mobile war of razzia which the two emperors and their armies, each bent 03:34
towards attacking the other, simply could not match. 03:39
To this purpose, a primary strategic weapon of war utilised by the conquering Arabs was 03:43
the unassuming camel. 03:49
Accustomed to travelling across incredibly arid terrain with essentially no water, these 03:52
workhouse pack animals were used to lethal effect on campaign. 03:57
Camel-mounted armies of Muslim infantry would frequently strike Byzantine or Sassanid territory 04:02
from unexpected, undefended angles, bleeding the empires of manpower and money before fading 04:07
back into the desert, where their enemies simply could not go. 04:14
Imagine playing a game of Civilization and possessing an area of apparently impassable 04:18
terrain near your key resource-producing regions, so you naturally do not fortify the area, 04:24
because you don’t need to. 04:30
After all, if no powerful enemy can get there, they can’t attack it anyway. 04:31
However, one of your underdog opponents then starts cheating and bypassing the impassable 04:36
to strike at the heart of your most crucial land. 04:41
Worse still, you can’t chase them back through that terrain. 04:45
If you try, you give them the opportunity to strike elsewhere. 04:48
This is what the established empires must have felt when the Muslims started attacking. 04:53
Khalid ibn Al Walid - arguably the greatest early Muslim general, exploited this prodigious 04:59
mobility to frustrate and exhaust a Sassanid imperial army in what is perhaps the greatest 05:04
example of its use. 05:10
During an attack in 633, Khalid planted his Arab army in front of Hufair and tempted Persian 05:12
general Hormuz, then stationed at Kazima to approach him. 05:18
His heavily-armoured force embarked on a tiring march to do so. 05:22
When the commander got there however, he discovered that the Muslims had ghosted into the desert 05:27
and were beelining back towards Kazima. 05:33
Bound to march in the defence of such a strategically vital place, Hormuz forced his unruly, exhausted 05:36
troops on a countermarch. 05:42
By the time Hormuz arrived back near the city, his army was near mutinous, barely in a fit 05:44
state to move, let alone fight, and in a terrible situation. 05:49
Meanwhile, Khalid’s well-mounted, leisurely stroll back to Kazima had allowed his forces 05:54
to prepare adequately. 05:59
In the subsequent Battle of Chains, rejuvenated Muslim forces soundly thrashed Hormuz’ thoroughly 06:02
outmaneuvered, physically drained army. 06:08
The average Arab warrior of the early Islamic conquest period would’ve been far less standardised 06:11
in form than a soldier from the Byzantine or Sassanid Empires. 06:17
Infantry and cavalry were both prominent, despite Arabia’s prominent lack of viable 06:22
horse-rearing ground. 06:27
Moreover, the distinction between foot and mounted troops was often blurred. 06:28
Changing with the situation, cavalry might dismount and fight as infantry while what 06:33
might be dubbed mobile infantry were frequently carried to battle on horses or camels. 06:39
Equipment, relatively similar between both cavalry and infantry, was purchased and provided 06:45
by the individual warrior or tribesman, rather than being issued by the Rashidun Caliphate 06:51
as a state. 06:56
However, potential combatants who were indeed too poor to assemble equipment of their own 06:57
might be assisted by wealthy kinsmen, neighbors or other benefactors. 07:03
Even for the well-to-do in Muslim society, however, good quality equipment was scarce 07:08
in the early days. 07:13
There was nothing overly unique about Muslim weaponry during their wars of expansion. 07:15
Spear, sword and bow were the primary methods of assault, but it is said that the Arabs 07:20
possessed particularly long spears and remarkably short swords when compared to their enemies. 07:25
As this short sword was carried in a shoulder-baldric rather than a belt at the waist, it is likely 07:32
that this style was copied or inspired by the old Roman gladius, which was kept in a 07:37
similar manner. 07:42
Metal armour seems to have struck both hot and cold in the Arab mindset from the very 07:44
beginning, as is evident in a saying of the second caliph Umar. 07:49
He describes mail armour as ‘Keeping our horseman busy, a nuisance for our infantry 07:53
and yet always a strong protection’. 07:58
Originating from the scalding hot and sun-bleached deserts of Arabia, heavy armour must have 08:01
seemed anathema to Arab warriors at first, due to the sheer discomfort it must have brought 08:07
on when worn, not to mention its encumbering effect. 08:12
We can imagine the more well-off Arab warriors investing in a coat of mail, only to speak 08:15
to their comrades about it and be met with traditionalist derision at wearing such a 08:21
burdensome thing. 08:26
Therefore, it may have been that use of armour was based upon both a warrior’s ability 08:27
to obtain it, in addition to the willingness to don it in battle and on the march. 08:32
Conversely, it might also have been the case that mail was reserved for frontline troops, 08:38
while rear-line infantry and archers went without. 08:44
Whatever the case, a notable and repeated occurrence during the Rashiduns’ expansion 08:47
was trouble facing enemy archers. 08:53
It became so bad that, whilst fighting the Byzantines in the eventual victory at Yarmouk, 08:55
Islamic warriors suffered what became known in legend as the day of lost eyes. 09:01
It might have been that this, in addition to other such occasions, was brought on by 09:06
a reluctance to wear heavy armour and helmets. 09:12
Two other crucial ‘units’ which partially made up early Rashidun armies have come to 09:15
symbolise the Muslim style of war during this period - the ‘mobile guard’ cavalry strike 09:20
force and Mubarizun. 09:26
Rather than being a default part of the Islamic army of expansion as an institution, however, 09:29
the mobile guard in particular was in fact a circumstantial reorganisation enacted by 09:34
the great general Khalid Ibn al-Walid in the middle of his invasion of Syria. 09:40
After the commander’s triumph at Ajnadayn in late 634, it was clear that the next stage 09:45
of the Muslim invasion would have to pierce deep into Syria. 09:50
So, sifting through the 8,000 strong army under his leadership, Khalid extracted the 09:54
most veteran, most elite and deadliest fighters to form a 4,000 man-strong band of horsemen 10:00
which was known as the ‘Army of Movement’, or more commonly the mobile guard. 10:07
In an army whose warriors were already battle-hardened veterans, these paragons were the crème de 10:12
la crème. 10:18
One of those handpicked 4,000 was the near mythical warrior-captain Qa’qa bin Amr. 10:19
Not only did this ferocious lieutenant supposedly play a crucial role in both the Battle of 10:24
Chains and the Battle of Yarmouk, but he was also personally chosen by the caliph to lead 10:29
Arab reinforcements to the Battle of al-Qadissiyah. 10:35
If our sources are to be believed, he also played a key role in winning this domino-toppling 10:38
clash as an energetic cavalry commander. 10:44
That was the sheer quality of soldiers assembled together in Khalid’s elite unit. 10:48
As a coherent and unified force, the mobile guard was frequently used by the legendary 10:53
sword of Allah as a lethal mounted reserve which could be used wherever it was seen fit. 10:59
The unit could plug a hole in allied lines by riding swiftly to where aid was most needed, 11:05
or it could sweep around the flanks of an enemy to roll up their battle line and win 11:11
the battle. 11:15
Under Khalid’s generalship, it played both of these roles during the battle at Yarmouk. 11:17
Despite its fame and flashy style of warfare, the Rashidun mobile guard was an incredibly 11:22
short-lived entity, which nevertheless served its purpose. 11:28
When Khalid was dismissed from his post by Umar, the regiment as a unified entity was 11:32
simply disbanded and its members dispatched to other fronts in Islam’s ongoing wars 11:37
of conquest. 11:43
Many more of its warriors apparently passed away during the plague of 639/640, and those 11:45
few who survived accompanied Amr Ibn al-As to Egypt. 11:51
The Mubarizun, translated as ‘duelists’ or ‘champions’ served the purpose one 11:55
would expect of a warrior bearing their title. 12:00
The bravest men in all the Arab armies, Mubarizun would step forward alone and battle a Byzantine 12:03
or Persian champion in the ritualised single combat which was so common in that period. 12:10
Arab champions were particularly deadly, gaining victory in most battles. 12:16
As victors they would bring pride to their religion and caliphate, morale to the army 12:21
and conversely demoralise the enemy force. 12:27
Still, despite their successes, Muslim forces frequently found themselves on the sharp end 12:30
of heavy casualty figures and manpower replenishment rapidly became an issue that the caliphs needed 12:36
to deal with. 12:42
Part of this shortfall was made up by non-Arab deserters who took up with the invaders and 12:43
quickly became key cogs in the overall machine of expansion out of the Arabian Peninsula. 12:49
As early as the Battle of Al-Qadissiyah, 4,000 soldiers from the army of Rostam Farrokhzad 12:55
went over to the Muslim side. 13:01
So great was this coup that the defecting warriors were able to demand from the Arabs 13:03
land of their own choosing, to closely associate themselves with an Arab band of their own 13:09
preference and to be paid salaries sometimes even in excess of regular Arab warriors. 13:14
These and other such traitors to the Sassanid shah’s cause were known as the Hamra, or 13:20
‘red people’. 13:26
This phenomenon became so prevalent that, during the Muslim invasion of Khuzestan and 13:27
the Siege of Shushtar, a famous unit of elite Persian soldiers known thereafter as the Asawira, 13:32
led by one of Yazdegerd’s most senior and trusted commanders, also went over to the 13:38
caliph’s side. 13:43
Not only did these most capable of soldiers convert to the new and rising religion of 13:45
Islam, but they were given in exchange the highest possible level of pay, dwellings in 13:50
the new town of Basra and a position of honour within the Bani Tamim tribe. 13:56
While a massive amount of Byzantine territory was lost to the Arabs, it paled to the annihilation 14:02
which they inflicted on the Sassanid state, almost certainly in large part due to this 14:08
lack of faith in their leadership. 14:14
Persian civilians and soldiers alike seemed all too eager to defect and join the invaders 14:17
at the slightest opportunity, perhaps due to instability within the royal house, weakness 14:22
of leadership or oppressive taxes. 14:28
Conversely, Arab soldiers were, as soldiers go, relatively well behaved. 14:31
Atrocities still, no doubt, occurred in great quantities, as they do in the vast majority 14:37
of military conflicts. 14:42
However, Islamic rules of military conduct, known as siyar, mandated that some sense of 14:43
civilisation remained even at the darkest points of war. 14:50
Enemy envoys were to be safeguarded and inviolate, non-combatant civilians were to be treated 14:54
as neutral parties and truces were to be accepted wherever possible. 15:00
‘Do not kill women or children, or an aged infirm person-’ once proclaimed caliph Abu 15:05
Bakr ‘Do not cut down fruit-bearing trees. 15:11
Do not destroy an inhabited place. 15:14
Do not slaughter sheep or camels except for food. 15:16
Do not burn bees and do not scatter them. 15:19
Do not steal from the booty and do not be cowardly.’ 15:22
This kind of attitude, which ideally would result in minimal damage to ‘enemy’ civilian 15:26
occupations and populations, is likely to have garnered the invading Arabs incredible 15:32
favour. 15:37
In the previous season, we covered the first stages of the Muslim conquest of the Middle 15:40
East. 15:45
It started in 633 with the campaign in Mesopotamia against the Sassanid empire by the general 15:46
of the Rashidun Caliphate Khalid ibn al-Walid. 15:53
After a string of victories that brought him to the border of the Eastern Roman Empire, 15:56
Khalid entered Syria and again won a number of decisive battles culminating at the battle 16:01
of Yarmouk, which put most of the region under the control of the Caliphate. 16:06
In southern Mesopotamia though, the Sassanid empire attempted a counter-attack which led 16:10
to the battle of al-Qadisiyyah. 16:16
After the battle that continued for days, the Muslim army commanded by Sa’d Ibn Abi 16:19
Waqqas defeated Rostam’s Sassanid force. 16:24
Amidst the slaughter and unfolding catastrophe at Qadissiyah, the commander of the Persian 16:28
centre-right - Jalinus - assumed leadership of the imperial army’s remnant and set about 16:34
saving what forces he could. 16:40
Assembling a small, elite strike force, he thrust towards the al-Atiq dam and drove a 16:42
unit of Muslim troops away before forming a perimeter and holding it. 16:48
As Sassanid stragglers withdrew across the dam wall to the other side, Jalinus bravely 16:53
repelled many attacks from the Muslims and managed to see most of the remaining troops 16:59
to safety, but it was still a painfully small number. 17:03
When the last of them were on the canal’s far side, Jalinus had the dam destroyed and 17:07
began hastily pulling his men upstream to Najaf before the victors fully turned on him. 17:13
Unwilling, however, to give the foe any breathing room, Sa’d Ibn Abi Waqqas dispatched Qa’qa 17:19
and Shurahbeel to hunt down scattered Persian units, while cavalry commander Zuhra bin al-Hawiyya 17:26
was sent after Jalinus with 300 elite Arab horsemen. 17:33
Not deterred by the dam crossing’s destruction, Zuhra and his 300 drove their mounts into 17:37
the torrent and forded it before chasing Jalinus’ column upstream. 17:43
The latter realised he was being chased and halted with his own cavalry at a nearby bridge, 17:50
while the infantry carried on withdrawing all the way to Najaf. 17:56
After a short time, the horsemen of Zuhra came across Jalinus’ valiant rear-guard 18:00
and charged it, breaking the formation swiftly and provoking its leader into yet another 18:05
withdrawal. 18:11
His heels constantly bit by Zuhra as he did, Jalinus chose to turn and face the enemy in 18:12
a final fight, believing that the best way to stop the pursuit was to kill the leader. 18:17
So, he halted his forces, turned about face and arrayed for battle, before personally 18:24
riding before his troops and challenging Zuhra to single combat. 18:31
Galloping forward atop their horses, the two exhausted commanders fought one another to 18:36
decide the issue once and for all, and once again it was the Muslim who came out on top 18:41
after a hard-fought struggle. 18:47
Jalinus was killed and his cavalry took flight, but many were still caught and slain by Zuhra’s 18:49
riders. 18:57
By sunset, the 300 reached Najaf, where they halted for the night. 18:59
With the aim of conquering prosperous Iraq, which the Muslims believed was the ‘heart 19:04
of the world’, Sa’d reorganised his 20,000 troops into five marching corps1 with Zuhra 19:08
retaining his advance guard position. 19:15
Two weeks after Qadissiyah, he was quickly joined at Najaf by the remainder of the army 19:17
and given the order to cross the Euphrates. 19:23
Incoming Sassanid reinforcements under Nakheerjan arrived in the area soon after, having been 19:28
initially bound for Rostam’s now broken force. 19:34
Hearing of the defeat, the reinforcement group halted east of the Euphrates and waited for 19:38
new orders from Ctesiphon, which came in the form of Firuzan, a general tasked by Emperor 19:42
Yazdegerd with preventing or delaying the seemingly unstoppable advance of the Muslims. 19:48
When Firuzan appraised the situation, he decided that his army of fresh and recently defeated 19:54
forces under his command wouldn’t be enough to throw the Arabs back. 20:00
So, he instead prepared defensive actions at a series of defensible locations and cities 20:04
on the road to the Persian capital, so that the great city would have time to fortify. 20:10
As his first move, Firuzan ordered the governor of Burs, Busbuhra, to hold his branch of the 20:18
Euphrates and gave him some troops to help with the task, while the general and his main 20:24
army started massing near Babylon. 20:29
When Zuhra’s advance guard neared Burs, the city’s governor rode out to meet him. 20:31
In a short battle, the holding force of Sassanid troops was routed and Busbuhra severely wounded. 20:37
During the flight, he died from his wounds. 20:44
Following this defeat, the new local leader made peace with the Caliphate, agreeing to 20:47
provide information and logistical assistance. 20:52
From these new allies, Zuhra learned that the formidable main Sassanid army opposing 20:57
him was indeed across the Euphrates at Babylon, along with several high nobles. 21:02
Zuhra then forwarded this crucial information to Sa’d at Najaf, and waited for the four 21:08
corps trailing his own to catch up. 21:13
When they did, the Muslims advanced on Babylon in strength and, at some point in December 21:16
636, met Firuzan along the river bank and crushed his army in a brief but harsh battle. 21:22
One of the defeated generals, Hormuzan, fled south with his contingent to his domain in 21:29
Ahwaz, while Firuzan and the remainder withdrew north in good order, leaving garrisons at 21:34
Sura and Deir Kab along the way2. 21:39
Zuhra again set off in hot pursuit and, despite fierce resistance from the defensive Sassanid 21:43
armies in his way, managed to defeat them at Sura, Deir Kab, and Kusa on his relentless 21:50
drive to Ctesiphon. 21:56
By early January of 637, the Muslim leader neared Vologesocerta - just one of the cities 21:58
which made up larger Ctesiphon, where he was again rejoined by the bulk of the army. 22:04
To the desert-dwelling Arabs, whose largest urban areas were but a fraction of the size, 22:12
the Persian capital was unlike anything most of them had ever witnessed in their lives. 22:18
More than just a single city, Ctesiphon had in fact grown to encompass about seven grandiose 22:23
population centres which had been constructed and assimilated over the centuries, forming 22:29
a true metropolis. 22:34
Because of its unique nature, the Persian heartland was dubbed Madain, or ‘The Cities’ 22:36
in Arabic. 22:42
On the Tigris’ western bank stood Seleucia, Vologesocerta and Veh-Ardashir, while Ctesiphon 22:43
proper and a number of peripheral hubs were to the east. 22:49
Perhaps the most majestic sight for those approaching Arabs during 637 would have been 22:53
the 40-meter-tall Arch of Khosrow, an architectural marvel unique in the world at the time. 22:58
Although Firuzan hadn’t managed to stop the Muslim advance, his delaying action had 23:05
worked, and now the entire western portion of Yazdegerd’s imperial capital was fortified 23:13
with a deep ditch, with manned positions at regular intervals. 23:18
The Sassanid Shah3 and his advisors also massed a number of ballistae and catapults in the 23:23
bounds of Veh-Ardashir which, as the closest sub-city to Ctesiphon proper, was the focus 23:28
of their defensive efforts. 23:34
Zuhra ordered an attack on Madain shortly after his arrival, but Yazdegerd’s artillery 23:37
began launching bolts and throwing giant stones out of Veh-Ardashir and into the Muslim ranks, 23:43
causing severe losses and forcing Zuhra’s forces to retreat out of range. 23:49
Unable to reply in kind, he sent scouting parties to probe and find a way inside, but 23:54
everywhere came across the Persians’ defensive trench and were unable to breach it. 24:00
Sa’d arrived at this point and assumed command, swiftly deciding that there was little point 24:06
wasting his warriors in careless assaults against such strong defences. 24:11
So, instead he established a blockade around all of Madain west of the Tigris and settled 24:16
his forces down for a long siege. 24:22
However, Sa’d wasn’t content to sit and wait for victory, taking all measures he thought 24:24
possible to secure a faster surrender of the unbelievers, primarily by scything away the 24:32
western bastion’s food supplies. 24:38
To do this, he had his subcommanders conduct raids on the neighboring hinterland, seizing 24:40
cattle and sheep for the Muslims’ own uses whilst also sapping the enemy’s resources 24:45
by preventing supplies from reaching Veh-Ardashir. 24:51
In the process of doing so, Arab cavalry seized thousands of farmers as prisoners of war who, 24:54
upon the intercession of a regional leader who had submitted, were freed upon agreeing 25:01
to pay the Jizya tax. 25:06
In addition, security for their lives and possessions were guaranteed, an act which 25:08
won the Muslim invaders considerable good will with the locals. 25:13
Throughout the months long siege, Sa’d’s warriors had also been continuously harried 25:20
by the sophisticated Sassanid engines of war Yazdegerd’s generals had amassed, although 25:25
casualties at their hands remained relatively light. 25:30
Unfortunately for the Persians, some of their engineers defected during the course of the 25:34
siege and provided their masters with at least 20 novel artillery pieces of their own. 25:39
When these contraptions subsequently began sending their own missiles howling into Ctesiphon, 25:45
the dense concentration of Sassanid soldiers and civilians inside resulted in them causing 25:50
terrible destruction. 25:56
The fact that the Muslims had even acquired weaponry of this kind, which had until then 25:58
been universally in Persian hands, also badly affected morale. 26:02
By mid-March 637 western Madain’s situation was becoming intolerable. 26:10
Persian civilians starved to death in the hundreds, while more were reduced to eating 26:16
stray cats and dogs to survive. 26:21
Beset by such conditions, the Sassanid troops not manning the ditch were concentrated into 26:24
a single strike force and led in a desperate sortie beyond their defences. 26:29
The Muslims arrayed to meet them in pitched battle and a desperate struggle began. 26:35
Zuhra’s corps was in the thick of the action and he himself was wounded by an arrow. 26:40
Despite his injury, the valiant Bani Tamin chief led a counterattack and personally slew 26:46
the Persian strike force commander, after which the defenders withdrew behind their 26:51
ditch. 26:58
The savage fighting to repulse the Persian attack was followed by a few hours of eerie 26:59
calm, during which a Sassanid officer approached the Muslims with an offer: each belligerent 27:04
would retain whatever territory they had captured on their respective sides of the Tigris. 27:10
However, these conditions were declined with the reply “There can never be peace between 27:16
us until we get honey out of the lemons of Kusa.” 27:21
When these peace overtures were rejected, the Persian forces in Veh-Ardashir quietly 27:25
withdrew from their positions and pulled back across the Tigris. 27:30
Western Ctesiphon was now under Muslim control. 27:34
Yazdegerd III also sent his family, retainers and treasury ahead to Hulwan, where the emperor 27:38
intended to move his court if the great capital fell. 27:45
Although behaving as if defeat was already inevitable, from his seat in the White Palace 27:51
Yazdegerd appointed Rostam’s brother Khurrazad and Mihran to command the defence of the eastern 27:56
city. 28:02
These generals promptly redeployed their remaining forces on the eastern bank and waited for 28:03
the besiegers’ next move. 28:08
That same evening, on the river’s edge of newly occupied Veh-Ardashir, Sa’d stared 28:10
across the Tigris at the glorious Arch of Khosrow and pondered his next move, eager 28:16
to claim it for Islam. 28:21
As Muhammad’s former companion strategised to himself, a Persian approached him and asked 28:23
“What are you waiting for?”, followed by the alarming revelation that “Not another 28:28
two days will pass before Yazdegerd departs with everything in Ctesiphon!” 28:34
Time was now of the essence. 28:39
Another sympathetic local, possibly disillusioned by heavy Sassanid taxation or possibly even 28:44
a recent convert to Islam, took Sa’d to a known ford in the river, one which Sa’d 28:50
deemed unsuitable due to the swift current and deep water. 28:55
Rather than make a hasty decision right then, he chose to sleep on the issue and decide 28:59
in the morning. 29:05
During the night, Sa’d supposedly had a strange dream in which he saw the Tigris’ 29:06
waters, only they were flowing incredibly quickly and were unrealistically deep. 29:11
Still, his own Arab cavalry appeared and plunged into the seemingly impassable torrent, reaching 29:16
the other side relatively easily. 29:23
The next morning, Sa’d convened a conference of his highest generals and declared that 29:25
the cavalry would swim through the river, and asked if there were any volunteers to 29:30
lead the dangerous attack. 29:35
The first to put himself forward was Asim bin Amr, Qaqa’s tribal comrade and a dashing 29:37
military leader, followed by 700 of the most reckless and brave Muslim warriors. 29:43
After all necessary preparations had been made by midmorning, Asim plunged into the 29:51
water and began his crossing. 29:56
Khurrazad responded by ordering his Persians into the river to meet them, but after a hearty 29:59
resistance the Sassanid cavalry who responded were pushed back when one of their comrades 30:04
from the city came, shouting “Why are you killing yourselves, there is nobody left in 30:10
Ctesiphon to defend!” 30:14
He was at least partially correct. 30:15
Upon receiving word that the Muslims were crossing the Tigris, Emperor Yazdegerd had 30:18
departed his capital for Hulwan, taking much of the imperial court with him. 30:23
After their resistance faltered, most of the army defending the city followed suit4, save 30:29
for a Sassanid regiment fortified in the White Palace. 30:34
On the Tigris, Sa’d took the opportunity Asim’s lance-like advance had given him 30:40
and began ferrying the rest of his warriors across to the bridgehead, not without danger 30:45
of succumbing to the raging waters. 30:50
One man fell from his horse and fell into the current, but the all-powerful Qaqa reached 30:53
down in the nick of time and heaved him up. 30:58
Despite the myriad dangers of the crossing, in relatively short order the entire Islamic 31:01
army was on the eastern bank of the Tigris river. 31:06
The moment Sa’d himself landed, he ordered Asim and Qaqa to move on the core of Ctesiphon, 31:10
in the process of which they encountered token resistance, but this was quickly dealt with. 31:15
The Muslims found their final opposition in the White Palace, but chose to deal with it 31:23
by sending forward yet another companion of Muhammad - Salman. 31:28
A Persian by birth, he had converted to Islam after meeting the prophet in Arabia, and now 31:31
his heritage proved a crucial boon. 31:38
“I am actually one of you, I feel for you.” 31:40
he said upon meeting the defenders, and outlined the usual three choices - Jizya, conversion, 31:43
or death. 31:50
After a short negotiation, the hopeless palace troops accepted the Islamic tax and surrendered. 31:51
Ctesiphon - Jewel of the Sassanid imperial superpower for over four centuries - was now 31:57
in Arab hands, a people who had been a mere afterthought only years earlier. 32:03
Separate columns of Arab riders under Zuhra and Qaqa galloped forth from the captured 32:12
city almost immediately, moving in different directions5 in pursuit of their enemy. 32:16
The spoils were plenty - for example, 11 priceless suits of armour and swords which belonged 32:22
to Heraclius of the Byzantine Empire, the Turkish Khagan, and other world leaders. 32:28
Other treasures now in Sa’d’s hands included gold, jewels, and imperial regalia. 32:34
With the Sassanid capital had come the empire’s boundless wealth, and also the first major 32:40
mass conversions of Persians to Islam. 32:45
Salman the Persian in particular played a role in this religious change, preaching to 32:49
his countrymen the values and beliefs of the new faith. 32:53
Although Ctesiphon and all the ‘Suwad’ was lost to the House of Sasan, the Persians’ 32:58
resistance to their conquest by the Muslims would continue in the old heartland beyond 33:05
the Zagros. 33:10
We last left the Muslims’ Syrian campaign in the aftermath of Abu Ubaidah and Khalid 33:15
Ibn al Walid’s triumph over the Romans at Yarmouk. 33:20
Exhausted from that long six-day struggle, the Muslims remained camped around Jabiya 33:23
for a month, collecting the bounties of war and recuperating their strength. 33:29
The scant few of Heraclius’ warriors who survived the massacre fled north to the relative 33:34
safety of Northern Syria, leaving Palestine at the mercy of the Islamic forces. 33:39
Without an army to check his progress, Abu Ubaidah assembled his generals in October 33:47
636 to decide how best to exploit the situation. 33:52
Some argued for an attack on the strategic lynchpin of Caesarea - a coastal fortress 33:57
whose garrison could be indefinitely reprovisioned by the Roman navy if besieged, but which could 34:02
also serve as a potential beachhead for a counterattack if not taken. 34:08
If the Muslims got it, the campaign for Palestine would be over. 34:13
However, other commanders pointed inland towards a much simpler and symbolically enticing target 34:17
- Jerusalem. 34:23
Not only could this isolated city be strangled into submission with relative ease, but the 34:25
loss of their holiest place would be a crushing blow to Roman Christian morale. 34:31
Unable to come to a decision, Abu Ubaidah sent a message to Caliph Umar asking his opinion. 34:37
The reply was simple - take Jerusalem. 34:42
So, Abu Ubaidah led the Muslim army straight at the holy city. 34:45
Realising what was about to happen, Jerusalem’s patriarch Sophronius secretly sent the holiest 34:50
Christian relics, including the true cross, off to Constantinople by sea. 34:56
The raiding Arab mobile guard under Khalid reached Jerusalem sometime in November, just 35:04
before the rest of the army, and this prompted the Roman garrison to pull back inside. 35:10
Discovering to their chagrin that its fortifications had been reinforced after Yarmouk in anticipation 35:16
of just such a siege, the five commanders - Abu Ubaidah, Khalid, Yazid, Amr and Shurahbil, 35:21
nevertheless blocked off all passage in and out of Jerusalem. 35:28
This state of affairs continued for four months in a relatively uneventful siege of which 35:34
few details survive. 35:39
The situation in the city must have become unbearable though, because in March 637 Sophronius 35:42
offered to surrender Jerusalem if Umar himself came and personally signed the treaty with 35:48
him. 35:53
When these terms became known, Shurahbil suggested that Khalid, whose appearance was relatively 35:54
similar to that of the caliph, should impersonate their leader and secure a quick surrender. 36:00
However, this attempt at deception failed the next morning because Khalid was far too 36:06
well known in the Levant by this point. 36:11
When it did, Abu Ubaidah instead dispatched a message to Medina explaining the situation. 36:15
A few weeks later, having made the long journey from Arabia, Caliph Umar arrived near Jerusalem. 36:23
Khalid and Yazid greeted him, both dressed in fine silk clothing, but this annoyed Umar 36:30
- a firm enemy of luxury and a proponent of the Spartan way of life. 36:35
Seeing his generals in such a state of apparent excess, the caliph picked up some pebbles 36:41
and threw them at the two stunned men, shouting “Shame on you, that you greet me in this 36:46
fashion. 36:51
It is only in the last two years that you have eaten your fill!”. 36:52
The caliph’s rage was quickly sated when Khalid and Shurahbil revealed that they were, 36:55
in fact, still carrying armour and weapons beneath their fine outer garments. 37:00
Drama aside, he quickly got down to business and negotiated with Sophronius, with the result 37:07
that Jerusalem was opened to the Muslims by late April. 37:13
It is said that the pact between Umar and Sophronius recognised Christians as a ‘protected 37:17
people’ with the right to practice their own religion in return for the Jizya, but 37:23
this ‘Covenant of Umar’ is probably apocryphal. 37:28
Now that the holy city of Christendom was in his hands, the caliph conferred with his 37:32
commanders and then went back to Arabia. 37:36
The Syrian army then split into thirds, with Amr and Shurahbil moving to reoccupy and secure 37:42
Palestine, Yazid besieging Caesarea, while Khalid and Abu Ubaidah moved to begin the 37:48
conquest of Northern Syria. 37:53
With the situation in the region seemingly hopeless after the Yarmouk disaster, Emperor 37:56
Heraclius sailed from Antioch and withdrew back into Anatolia, intent on consolidating 38:01
Byzantine military strength and protecting the remainder of his empire. 38:06
Once the ship departed, it is said that Heraclius said the words: “Farewell, a long farewell 38:11
to Syria, my fair province. 38:18
You are an enemy’s now. 38:20
Peace be with you, o’ Syria, what a beautiful land you will be for the enemy’s hands.” 38:22
Despite this effective abandonment, some of the Roman garrisons were still determined 38:27
to resist the Arab advance. 38:32
From Jerusalem, a 17,000 strong force under Khalid and Abu Ubaidah marched unopposed to 38:35
Damascus, and then even further north to Emesa. 38:41
From there, Khalid was dispatched with his elite mobile guard to Chalkis - modern Qinnasrin 38:47
- but was intercepted on a plain at nearby Hazir by 7,000 men under the town’s Roman 38:52
commander - Menas. 38:59
He deployed his limited forces in three divisions - a centre and two wings, placing himself 39:01
at the forefront. 39:06
Khalid charged with his Arab cavalry and soon enough a fearsome mounted engagement was underway. 39:08
After only a short amount of time, however, Menas was slain amidst heavy fighting, and 39:15
his troops, who loved their general, went wild with fury. 39:20
Despite their numerical inferiority, the Roman troops matched the Muslims pound-for-pound 39:24
in the head-on clash, pushing them back a little but committing themselves too much. 39:29
To exploit the opportunity, Khalid detached a unit of cavalry from one of his wings and 39:35
led it around the Byzantine line, attacking his enemy from the rear and defeating them. 39:40
It is said that not a single Roman survived this engagement at Hazir. 39:46
Following this victory, in June 637, Khalid moved on Chalkis itself, where the garrison 39:53
was stubbornly fortified in the town’s citadel. 39:59
Rather than launching an assault, the Muslim general merely demanded those inside and the 40:02
defenders surrender, which they did soon after. 40:07
Abu Ubaidah rejoined Khalid at this point and the pair moved north to Aleppo, where 40:11
they defeated a minor Byzantine force commanded by Joachim in a pitched battle outside the 40:16
city. 40:21
Much like at Chalkis, the Romans retreated into their fortifications - a hilltop citadel 40:22
outside Aleppo itself. 40:27
Joachim sallied out a few times in an attempt to break the siege, but failed, and by October 40:29
637 the city was in Arab hands. 40:35
The greatest Roman city in Syria - Antioch, was now close. 40:41
To precipitate an attack on it, Ubaidah sent a strike force to deal with the garrison at 40:45
Azaz in the north, so that no Roman units could hit them from the flank as they were 40:50
taking Antioch. 40:55
This was done swiftly, and when the strike force returned Ubaidah’s advance on Antioch 40:57
began. 41:02
When the Muslim army was 12 miles from one of the urban jewels of the Byzantine Empire, 41:03
they were met at an iron bridge over the Orontes River by a powerful Roman army who had come 41:08
from Antioch. 41:14
Although the details of this ‘Battle of the Iron Bridge’ are also unknown, it is 41:15
clear that Khalid used his mobile guard to superb effect, crushing the Romans in a battle 41:20
whose casualties were only exceeded by Ajnadayn and Yarmouk. 41:26
In the wake of thousands of fleeing enemy soldiers, the Muslims approached and besieged 41:30
Antioch, but taking the illustrious capital of the east was an anticlimax. 41:35
Only a few days into Abu Ubaidah’s investment - October 30th, the weakened city surrendered 41:41
on terms and its defenders were permitted to withdraw north unmolested. 41:47
Having cleaved the Eastern Roman Empire into two disconnected pieces, Abu Ubaidah dispatched 41:54
Khalid on a daring cavalry raid across the Taurus Mountains and into the Tarsus region, 42:00
while the supreme commander himself thrust south down the Mediterranean coast, capturing 42:06
seaports such as Laodicea, Gibala, Antarados and Tripoli making it impossible for emperor 42:11
Heraclius to use the superior Roman navy to bring armies into the Levant. 42:17
Although fighting in the area was far from over, by late 637 most generals of Syrian 42:23
campaign settled down to rule their respective regions as governors1. 42:29
At Hulwan, Yazdegerd III was still eager to salvage his crumbling empire after the loss 42:34
of Ctesiphon. 42:43
To do this, he ordered the main Persian army under Mihran and Khurrazad to halt their retreat 42:44
and turn to face the invaders near Jalula. 42:50
Armies attempting to push north past the riverside town were forced to march through a narrow 42:56
gap between the Tigris’ Diyala tributary to the west side and an area of barely passable 43:01
broken ground to the east. 43:07
If Mihran’s 20-30,000 could hold this position, the remainder of the northern Suwad and Sassanid 43:10
territory east of the Zagros Mountains would be unassailable. 43:16
With the aim of converting Jalula into an impenetrable fortress able to resist any enemy 43:21
thrust, Mihran immediately started digging in. 43:26
A ditch was excavated three miles to the south which connected the broken ground to the river, 43:30
blocking the gap. 43:35
Behind this trench were a number of other fortifications, artillery and thousands of 43:37
Persian archers, while in front were placed an array of wooden anti-cavalry caltrops. 43:42
Recruits were mustered, armed and trained from the local area, and provisions were gathered 43:48
from around the nearby countryside. 43:53
Jalula was to be a crucial battle. 43:56
The moment Sassanid defensive works began around Jalula, word reached Sa’d in Ctesiphon 44:01
that this was happening. 44:07
As the Muslim general was just as keen to seize the fertile northern Suwad as his Persian 44:08
enemies were to keep hold of it, and wanting to push the defensive frontier eastwards, 44:13
Sa’d sent his nephew Hashim bin Utba with 12,000 troops to reduce the Persian position. 44:18
In order to prevent reinforcement or retreat, Sa’d also dispatched 5,000 men to deal with 44:25
Persian governor Intaq’s garrison at Mosul. 44:31
After several attempts at taking that city by storm, Muslim spies managed to secure the 44:35
defection of a Christian Arab contingent in a betrayal which led to the fall of Mosul. 44:40
In the main force heading for Jalula during March 637, Hashim brought with him many companions 44:49
of Muhammed, as well as the ever-ferocious Qaqa ibn Amr. 44:55
Also in the Muslim ranks were several thousand Persian troops along with Sassanid officers 45:00
who had joined them after Ctesiphon. 45:05
When the Arabs and their Persian units approached the Jalula gap after a day’s march from 45:08
the former Sassanid capital, Hashim constructed his camp and deployed along the southern arc 45:12
of Mihran’s protective trench, unwilling to launch an outright assault against it. 45:18
So, the situation remained in this manner for many months, during which reinforcements, 45:23
provisions and money was channeled into the fortified city from Hulwan, where Emperor 45:29
Yazdegerd was continuously rallying additional forces. 45:33
Aware that his situation was only going to worsen with time, Hashim ordered several attempts 45:40
at storming the fortified ditch. 45:45
Despite the disconcerting failure of Mihran’s wooden caltrops to stop Arab cavalry, Persian 45:48
missile troops managed to overwhelm and repel these attacks. 45:54
Afterwards, the Sassanids replaced the wooden obstacles with more effective iron ones. 45:58
Demoralised due to their lack of success in breaking the Persian line, the Muslims ceased 46:05
offensive actions for a while, and that gave Mihran an opportunity of his own. 46:09
Utilising the constant steady stream of reinforcements coming his way, the Persian general began 46:14
launching sorties against Hashim’s positions, inflicting losses and gaining confidence as 46:20
he did. 46:25
Although the Muslim army was easily able to fight up to 80 of these attacks off when they 46:26
arrived and pushed Mihran back into his fortifications repeatedly, there was still no way to break 46:31
the deadlock. 46:37
With little other option, Hashim sent word back to Ctesiphon that he required reinforcements. 46:39
Sa’d initially sent 600 infantry and 400 cavalry to bolster the army at Jalula, but 46:45
this total was barely enough to replace the losses suffered during eight months of battle 46:53
and light siege. 46:58
So, soon after, another 500 cavalry reinforcements were dispatched which included many competent 46:59
Arabic tribal chiefs who had fought against the Caliphate in the Ridda Wars. 47:06
The Persians, having been themselves reinforced by Yazdegerd and emboldened by Muslim inability 47:11
to break their defences, now decided to go on the attack before Hashim was further reinforced. 47:17
Mihran also realised that simply waiting wasn’t going to win him the battle - the only way 47:23
to make the Muslim invaders leave was to inflict a decisive defeat on them. 47:28
Deployment for an assault began with haste. 47:36
Such Sassanid preparations for a major attack could not be concealed, and it immediately 47:38
attracted Hashim’s attention. 47:44
This state of affairs was, however, also favourable to the Muslims, who were utterly sick and 47:46
tired of sitting helplessly outside Mihran’s fortifications, So, to facilitate a pitched 47:51
battle, Hashim withdrew his forces a short distance to the south and allowed his Persian 47:57
adversaries to cross their own entrenchments, thereafter arraying for battle opposite. 48:03
The actual order of battle at Jalula is obscure to us, but we do know that two former ‘apostate’ 48:09
chiefs - Amr bin Madi Karib of the Zubaid family and Tuleiha bin Khuleiwad of the Banu 48:14
Asad, were given command of the cavalry and infantry respectively. 48:21
Now that the Persian rear was anchored by their own ditch, the only direction to move 48:28
was forwards, and that is just what happened. 48:32
At Mihran’s command, the Battle of Jalula proper began with a full-scale Sassanid attack 48:36
along the entire front, with archers and javelineers loosing their projectiles before melee troops 48:41
made contact. 48:47
The charge struck with devastating impact, but Hashim’s Muslims nevertheless resisted 48:49
stalwartly for a time, refusing to give an inch of ground. 48:54
This didn’t last long however, as the ferocious assault, fired up by constant shouts swearing 48:58
vengeance for Qadissiyah and Ctesiphon, began punching small holes in various places along 49:04
the Muslim line. 49:09
These successful thrusts endangered the integrity of the entire Muslim front, and it was immediately 49:13
clear to Hashim that the danger of total collapse was very real, and perhaps imminent. 49:18
To resolve the problem, Sa’d’s nephew rode along his buckling line to speak inspirationally 49:25
to those units which were weakening, proclaiming that if they persisted, this was the last 49:30
battle they would have to fight. 49:35
The present clash between Sassanid and Muslim troops became increasingly brutal as both 49:37
sides’ missile units ran out of javelins and arrows, instead taking up melee weapons 49:43
and charging into the slog themselves. 49:48
Both armies had units battered into non-functionality by the extended fighting, but when this happened 49:50
the Persians were able to replace them, while Hashim had no such luxury. 49:57
Because of this numerical disadvantage, one Islamic unit gave way and routed to the rear 50:04
at about noon, leaving a potentially fatal vacuum in the Muslim line. 50:10
However, either because Mihran did not notice the opportunity or due to his soldiers’ 50:14
exhaustion, an attack on the position was not ordered and Hashim scraped together some 50:20
men to fill the position. 50:25
Witnessing the flight of this unit, Qaqa rode back and restored order, returning it to the 50:27
battle. 50:32
Almost unbearable desert heat and the brutal fighting led to the Persians halting their 50:34
offensive just after this, and both sides disengaged. 50:38
After a short rest, Mihran planned to keep piling on the pressure, but Hashim had other 50:43
plans. 50:48
As his enemy had before, the Muslim general ordered his warriors to charge across the 50:50
entire front, spoiling Mihran’s assault and initiating another gruelling clash which 50:54
lasting for over an hour without a decisive moment. 51:00
Just before sunset, however, the wind whipped up and a storm rolled in from the south, a 51:04
weather phenomenon which affected the Persians more than the hardy desert nomads. 51:10
As the wind was now at the Muslims’ back, granting them momentum in the advance, Hashim 51:17
signalled Qaqa ibn Amr to embark on a maneuver they had prepared beforehand. 51:22
While his general kept Mihran occupied in front, the buccaneering Arab warrior took 51:27
a regiment away from the left wing unnoticed and managed to circle around the Persian rear. 51:32
Instead of attacking immediately, Qaqa left most of his outflanking force in a sheltered 51:39
area to stop them being seen, then took a few outriders and a man with an incredibly 51:43
strong voice close to the main crossing point over the Persian trench. 51:48
Following the call, multiple things happened at once. 51:56
First, the Muslim army, deceived by their own into believing that their general had 51:59
reached the trench alone, attacked with renewed vigour and peak morale. 52:04
At the same time, worried that large numbers of Muslims were now behind them, individual 52:09
Sassanid units, who did not have a strategic overview of the field, panicked, lost cohesion 52:15
but did not break. 52:21
The coup de grace was administered by Qaqa himself, whose flanking force charged upon 52:22
hearing the shout, whirling into Mihran’s flank like a thunderbolt. 52:27
At the impact, the Sassanid line was rolled up before being encircled entirely. 52:32
Still, however, the Persian forces were stalwart, refusing to collapse utterly despite their 52:37
unwinnable situation. 52:43
Muslim forces continued attacking the encircled but still resistant forces of Mihran all day, 52:45
losing troops as they did. 52:52
However, the Sassanid soldiers were only human. 52:53
At sunset, as the sky began to darken, everything fell apart and the Persians routed, only to 52:56
be cut down as they fled. 53:03
A great mass of them, driven into the ditch and their own iron stakes by Hashim’s army, 53:05
perished terribly. 53:09
Up to half of the Sassanid army perished at Jalula, while the remainder, including the 53:10
town garrison, fled in the direction of Hulwan, and the town itself fell in December 637. 53:19
Shortly after, Qaqa rode in pursuit of the retreating enemy and defeated them first at 53:25
Khaniqeen, before besieging and capturing Hulwan in January 638. 53:32
Emperor Yazdegerd retreated beyond the Zagros. 53:37
When Qaqa subsequently wrote to the caliph asking permission to operate deeper in Persia, 53:41
Umar would have absolutely none of it. 53:46
Forbidding the operation, he replied “I wish that between the Suwad and the hills 53:49
were a wall which would prevent them from getting to us and prevent us from getting 53:54
to them. 53:58
The fertile Suwad is sufficient for us, and I prefer the safety of the Muslims to the 53:59
spoils of war.” 54:04
Expansion to the east was halted, but the Muslims were now looking towards the jewel 54:09
in the Roman imperial crown - Egypt. 54:13
Despite winning all of Syria and Iraq for Islam in a series of stunning victories, the 54:19
caliphate’s military situation remained unstable. 54:25
Fierce Persian resistance continued in the mountainous to the northeast, while Emperor 54:28
Heraclius was hindering the Muslim advance as much as he could. 54:33
To stall for time while he created an impenetrable dead-zone between the Anatolian plain and 54:37
enemy-occupied Syria, Heraclius sent envoys to his Christian Arab allies in the Jazeera 54:44
area , requesting that they attack the Muslim army in Syria. 54:50
They obeyed the emperor’s orders, crossing the Euphrates and arriving outside Emesa in 54:54
March 638, where Abu Ubaidah had concentrated his forces to meet them. 55:00
However, Umar, in his typically hands-on fashion, reacted to this news by sending orders to 55:06
Sa’d, in Persia, for three columns to invade Jazeera from Iraq. 55:15
When this group of Muslim warriors launched their attack and began plundering, the Christian 55:21
Arabs retreated. 55:26
In the aftermath, forces under Sa’d turned and annexed Jazeera completely. 55:28
At the same time, multiple mounted raiding parties were sent by Abu Ubaidah into Roman 55:36
lands. 55:42
Khalid, the commander of one of these contingents, captured Marash in Autumn 638, and hauled 55:43
vast quantities of loot back to his base at Qinnasrin. 55:49
However, Khalid wasn’t a man accustomed to hoarding wealth, routinely distributing 55:54
his personal share of battle spoils to others. 55:59
On one occasion after his raid on Heraclius’ lands, an Arab chief and excellent poet - Ash’as 56:03
bin Qais - recited a beautiful piece for Khalid, and in return was given 10,000 dirhams. 56:09
Unknown to the poet’s benefactor, this act of generosity was in fact to herald the end 56:17
of his peerless military career. 56:23
Caliph Umar had been concerned about Khalid for years by 638, specifically that his personal 56:28
brilliance and constant victories were enticing the Muslims to worship him, rather than god. 56:35
So, when Umar received reports of his general’s extravagance, Umar used it as an excuse to 56:41
dismiss the Sword of Islam from his post and bring him to Medina. 56:48
When the two formidable men came face to face, the caliph spoke the words: “You have done, 56:53
and no man has done as you have done. 56:59
But it is not people who do; it is Allah who does.” 57:02
After this, Khalid left Arabia for Chalkis, where he lived just four more unhappy, unremarkable 57:06
years before finally passing away in 642. 57:13
As the undefeated victor of hundreds of clashes leaves our story, another bold but historically 57:20
unappreciated Arab general enters the limelight. 57:27
That was the forty-eight-year-old Amr ibn al-As, who won distinction during the battles 57:31
at Ajnadayn, Yarmouk, and many others. 57:37
When Abu Ubaidah appointed the conquered regions to his subordinates, Amr received all of Palestine. 57:40
Upon moving into the area, he forced the surrender of Gaza and several other Roman garrisons 57:47
which had remained unconquered after the Fall of Jerusalem. 57:53
In early 639, plague spread rapidly throughout the Levant. 57:59
The Arabs, unaccustomed to this kind of terrible disease because of their nomadic lifestyle, 58:04
died in the thousands, including generals Yazid, Shurahbil, and Abu Ubaidah himself. 58:10
It is worth noting that upon Yazid’s death, his younger brother Muawiya was appointed 58:16
as governor in his place. 58:22
Amr, who survived, was given command of the army, and this gave him a golden opportunity 58:24
to propose an idea to the caliph : Having visited Alexandria multiple times earlier 58:30
in his life, Amr was well aware of just how prosperous the Nile region was, and believed 58:36
it would be easy to conquer. 58:42
The new commander put forward his plan to seize Roman Egypt for Islam, confidently declaring 58:45
to the caliph: “It is the richest of lands, and the weakest in defending itself!” 58:51
Although Umar, who wished to consolidate Muslim gains after years of incessant warfare and 58:57
plague, was initially reluctant, believing Amr was underestimating the task, his eloquence 59:03
and persistence eventually led the caliph to relent. 59:09
Restricted to just 4,000 troops, mainly cavalry, Amr set forth from Jabiya that same night 59:16
in total secrecy, under the condition that he would withdraw if instructions to turn 59:22
back reached him before he crossed into Egypt. 59:28
However, if Amr’s army was already inside Egypt when these instructions arrived, it 59:30
could keep going. 59:37
Convinced almost immediately that this expedition was too risky, Umar sent a camel rider off 59:39
to Amr carrying a sealed letter, ordering him to pull back. 59:44
When it reached the general at Rafah, just a few miles from Egypt, Amr understood that 59:49
the letter would doom his expedition before it even began. 59:54
So, Amr left the message unopened and moved into Egypt and only then opened the letter, 59:58
and since the army was already in Egypt when Umar’s orders were revealed, Amr reasoned 00:04
that it could keep going. 00:10
The timeless province of power and riches was incredibly vulnerable, weakened by years 00:14
of military laxity and alienated from the imperial authorities in Constantinople by 00:20
long-standing cultural and religious differences. 00:27
The primary factor was that the Copts - Egypt’s native population - adhered to a different 00:31
form of Christianity to the empire at large . Emperor Heraclius in particular persecuted 00:37
any perceived heretic in a manner that made religious division inevitable. 00:43
The Roman authorities in Alexandria were alerted to Amr’s presence, responding by raising 00:51
troops and sending some of them to reinforce Pelusium - the ‘key to Egypt’. 00:57
Setting forth from Arish in late December 639, the Caliphate’s small army of veterans 01:03
soon reached Pelusium, besieging it by land. 01:09
However, Roman naval superiority meant that the city garrison could be reinforced and 01:13
supplied, and this led to a two-month-long siege which was only brought to a conclusion 01:19
when the Muslims repulsed a sortie and stormed the city in mid-February 640. 01:25
After taking Pelusium, to the alarm and astonishment of the government in Alexandria, Amr marched 01:34
unopposed along the Nile Delta’s eastern fringe until he reached the citadel of Bilbeis. 01:40
The defenders resisted under blockade for a month, giving the Romans time to shift their 01:47
forces around. 01:52
Aware that the marauding 4,000 Arabs were aiming for the Memphis area , Egypt’s prefect 01:54
and Patriarch of Alexandria, Cyrus, marched a 20,000 strong army to reinforce the nearby 02:00
fortress called Babylon. 02:07
Commanded by Augustalis Theodorus and garrisoned by 5,000 soldiers, Babylon was one of the 02:09
Nile’s strongest defensive bastions, standing 60 feet high in places and possessing walls 02:18
up to six feet thick. 02:25
By the time Amr starved the Bilbeis defenders into surrender in the spring of 640, the Romans 02:27
were prepared for his inevitable assault. 02:34
Bypassing Heliopolis on their left, the Muslims arrived outside Babylon in May. 02:38
Due to its sheer size, only some of Theodorus’ army were manning the battlements, while most 02:42
were encamped outside of the northern wall of the fortress, protected by a deep arcing 02:49
ditch. 02:55
Fortifying this secondary protection even further were spikes in front and undug sections 02:56
around the perimeter to act as sally points. 03:02
Shortly after arriving and witnessing the Roman strength arrayed inside Babylon, Amr 03:09
launched his 4,000 against the Roman units directly in front of the trench. 03:14
After a hard-fought skirmish, the Muslims were repulsed with relative ease and set about 03:19
finally making camp. 03:25
Observing that his plan to keep Theodorus on the defensive was paying off, Amr mounted 03:27
daily raids against the Roman positions all along the ditch. 03:33
Furthermore, in an attempt to conceal just how tiny his forces were, the Muslim commander 03:37
split and spread it over a large area. 03:43
This state of affairs lasted for two months - the Muslims constantly assailing the Roman 03:47
positions and the Romans remaining hunkered down behind the ditch, presumably believing 03:52
they would be able to win without fighting. 03:58
By July, no opportunity to gain a decisive victory had shown itself to Amr and his men 04:01
were slowly tiring. 04:09
So, having put the eventuality to the back of his mind, the man who had proclaimed that 04:11
taking Egypt would be simple, wrote to the caliph asking for reinforcements. 04:17
Rather than chiding his overly optimistic general, Umar mustered and sent him 4,000 04:23
reinforcements to conclude the campaign, who reached Amr a few weeks later. 04:29
With these new forces, the Muslim attacks on Babylon were renewed with even greater 04:34
force, killing large numbers of Roman soldiers but failing to break the bastion’s resistance. 04:40
Even more hesitantly than the first time, Amr sent another request for Umar’s aid. 04:47
This time, a further 4,000 troops were dispatched under the leadership of Zubayr bin Al-Awwam 04:53
who, despite being offered Amr’s command by the irritated caliph, merely stated that 04:59
he wished to help the Muslims engaged in Egypt. 05:05
These new troops arrived in late September. 05:09
After conducting a personal reconnaissance mission around the area, Zubayr pointed something 05:15
out to Amr which the general seems to have missed: still present about 10 miles behind 05:20
the Muslim army was the Roman-garrisoned city of Heliopolis. 05:26
If coordinated correctly, these troops could smash into the Muslims from behind if Theodorus 05:31
launched any attack from Babylon. 05:37
To remove this potential threat, Amr led a large portion of his 12,000 total soldiers 05:40
to Heliopolis, leaving just enough at the fortress to keep the Romans on their toes. 05:46
Upon approaching the walls, however, some of the garrison’s cavalry contingent emerged 05:52
from the city and beat some of Amr’s horsemen in a brief engagement. 05:57
Nevertheless, they were forced to pull back inside the walls as the city was besieged. 06:01
Only a short time after investing Heliopolis, Zubayr and a small unit of handpicked warriors 06:08
scaled the walls in a dashing maneuver and breached the city. 06:14
Seeing this, and realising that the result of the clash was inevitable anyway, Heliopolis’ 06:19
garrison sued for peace and paid the Jizya, after which Amr and Zubayr returned to Babylon. 06:25
In their absence, the Romans had driven away the Muslim detachments closest to the trench 06:35
and re-established their positions beyond it. 06:39
Theodorus, likely realising that he wasn’t going to have the luxury of simply waiting 06:43
the invaders out, began employing the Muslims’ own tactics against them, launching daily 06:48
raids through the Roman bridgeheads. 06:53
Although the Romans generally lost more men in these scattered engagements, they could 06:56
afford to, while Amr could not. 07:01
The stalemate went on relatively unchanged until a revered Arab officer - Kharija bin 07:04
Huzafa - approached Amr with a risky but potentially decisive plan to win the battle. 07:10
That night, Kharija was given a cavalry regiment and ordered to lay his trap, which he did 07:19
by riding around to the southern spur of a featureless ridge on the eastern side of the 07:25
field. 07:31
After quietly taking up a concealed position relatively close to the Romans’ ditch, the 07:32
Muslim cavalry waited. 07:38
As Huzafa suspected, when morning came the Roman forces crossed the trench in force and 07:40
deployed for battle - the Muslims arrayed opposite them. 07:46
When both sides were ready, Theodorus launched his attack across the front, pushing Amr, 07:50
who ordered his army to retreat from Babylon with suspicious ease. 07:56
It was, in reality, a feigned retreat. 08:01
When the melee had moved far beyond Babylon’s defensive trench, Kharija’s mounted contingent 08:06
galloped out from their hiding place behind the ridge and occupied the crossing areas 08:12
which Theodorus would have to use for any retreat. 08:17
Amr, seeing that his horsemen were in place, countercharged with immense ferocity, driving 08:20
the Romans back towards their own fortifications. 08:26
Hearing the given signal, Kharija also launched his assault, crashing straight into Theodorus 08:30
rear, hemming the Romans in and then encircling them. 08:36
Many defenders were killed, but a few Roman units turned and burst through Huzafa’s 08:40
cavalry, managing to resecure the crossing points. 08:46
The remnants of the Roman army at Babylon retreated across the trench, pursued closely 08:52
by Amr’s forces, who continued their attack up to the very walls of the fortress. 08:57
Fighting continued in the space between the ditch and the citadel proper until the gate 09:03
was closed from inside. 09:08
Those who got in were the lucky ones, as not a single Roman soldier remained alive on the 09:10
field of battle . The morale of Cyrus, who was not a military man by profession, and 09:16
the Roman soldiery as a whole, was completely shaken by this stark defeat, and to the prefect 09:23
it was clear that peace had to be concluded. 09:30
To make matters even more dire, Amr somehow got his hands on a few catapults and used 09:34
them to launch deadly boulders, softening up the defences. 09:40
When this began happening, Cyrus departed Babylon with a small escort and took up residence 09:45
on the midriver island of Rauda, from which the fortress was being resupplied. 09:50
Then the Coptic prefect dejectedly sent word to the Muslims that he wished to treat with 09:56
them. 10:02
Envoys were exchanged back and forth between the two sides, and Heraclius’ viceroy attempted 10:04
to offer Amr a lavish bribe if the Muslims left Egypt, but the Arab commander responded 10:10
by giving 3 options - conversion to Islam, payment of the Jizya, or death. 10:17
Cyrus favoured capitulating in some form, but his Egyptian colleagues wouldn’t have 10:23
any of it, so the stalemate continued outside the impenetrable fortress. 10:28
Since coming to terms with Cyrus was impossible, Amr went into Babylon with a few companions 10:34
in order to speak with Theodorus. 10:39
However, when he was entering the fortress, a Roman soldier muttered to him scornfully 10:41
“You have entered, now see how you get out.” 10:47
Correctly believing orders had been given for him to be killed upon exiting the conference, 10:51
Amr tricked his way out of the fortress, convincing Theodorus that he was going to bring even 10:56
more of his generals unwittingly into the trap. 11:02
These attempts at ending the siege failed and the gridlock outside Babylon continued. 11:08
But finally, in mid-December, the observant Zubayr noticed that, since most of the fighting 11:13
had taken place on Babylon’s northern side, the riverside Gate of Iron and its two guard 11:19
towers were relatively undefended. 11:26
Just like that, the Muslims had found a key to Theodorus’ citadel. 11:28
Swiftly putting his infiltration plan into action with Amr’s blessing, Zubayr assembled 11:37
a unit to conduct the operation. 11:42
On the moonless, clear night of December 20th 640, most of the Muslim army arrayed quietly 11:45
outside the Gate of Iron while Zubayr and his comrades climbed ladders up the wall. 11:51
Then, when some of his men were gathered on top, a deafening Islamic battle cry was sounded 11:57
and echoed by the entire army, causing shock and panic amongst defenders who had no idea 12:03
what was happening. 12:09
Amidst the chaos, Zubayr slew the gatehouse sentries and broke the chain which held the 12:11
gate closed, allowing Amr and the Muslim army to flood inside. 12:16
While some of the more elite Roman formations made a brave last stand, most of their comrades 12:22
routed towards the Nile. 12:28
Once they reached the riverbank, the soldiers crossed to the safety of Rauda on pre-prepared 12:30
boats, which ferried soldiers back and forth throughout the night. 12:35
Among those who fled was Theodorus, who managed to escape Amr’s grasp and run back to Alexandria. 12:40
The next day, Cyrus sued for and obtained peace for the Copts on Muslim terms, agreeing 12:49
to pay the Jizya and submit the entire country to Islamic rule. 12:55
The Romans in Egypt could either accept and remain, or reject and depart. 13:00
Unsurprisingly, when Heraclius received a letter from Cyrus seeking the imperial stamp 13:07
of approval for his peace with Amr, the emperor was furious and categorically refused, responding 13:12
with a message full of scorn and insults. 13:19
To ensure that an active defence of Egypt continued despite the prefect’s treachery, 13:23
Heraclius had other messages ordering firm resistance delivered to all of his Roman generals 13:29
in Egypt, who obeyed their sovereign without question. 13:34
Cyrus, disavowed by the Romans, put himself and the Copts under Amr’s command, promising 13:38
the Muslims administrative and engineering assistance. 13:45
Memphis was now secure, and the push towards Alexandria could begin. 13:49
After the fall of Babylon to Rashidun forces in December 640, Amr Ibn al-As kept his army 13:58
stationed in the area for a while, dispatching word to caliph Umar of his triumph and requesting 14:04
permission to continue the conquest towards Alexandria. 14:10
This pause also gave his army a much-needed rest. 14:14
In Constantinople, the elderly and sickly Emperor Heraclius reacted to the latest Muslim 14:18
victory by ferrying several thousand more imperial reinforcements to Egypt over the 14:24
Mediterranean. 14:30
They had clear orders - protect Alexandria at all costs. 14:31
Upon making landfall at the provincial capital, these reinforcements and the existing Alexandrian 14:36
garrison, possibly under Theodorus’ command, began working to strengthen the city fortifications 14:42
and fanning out to defensible positions en route to the city. 14:48
Reports of these preparations made it south to Amr. 14:55
At about the same time, a messenger arrived from Arabia with the caliph’s order to advance 14:59
and seize Alexandria. 15:04
So, leaving a small garrison to hold down Babylon and keep the Memphis region in check, 15:06
Amr gave orders for his men to break camp. 15:13
The 12,000 strong Muslim army headed northwards in February 641. 15:16
Marching along the Nile Delta’s western fringe immediately adjacent to a familiar 15:22
desert climate, the Muslims overcame light Roman resistance at Tarnut and Kaum Shareek 15:27
before turning northwest, away from the river. 15:32
After subsequently capturing Sulteis, Amr then won a bloody victory at Kiryaun, just 15:36
12 miles away from Alexandria, and chased the defeated Roman forces to the city’s 15:42
eastern approach. 15:48
The march to the sea had taken just 22 days. 15:49
Alexandria had been built by Alexander the Great and his Ptolemaic successors on a relatively 15:54
narrow strip of land, bounded to the north by the Mediterranean Sea and in the south 15:59
by Lake Maryut. 16:04
Since the main transportation routes ended east of the city, the only truly vulnerable 16:06
approach was the northeastern one. 16:11
The Muslims made camp outside weapon range and then deployed for battle, slowly advancing 16:16
towards the recently reinforced Alexandrian walls. 16:21
Unfortunately for Amr, such a careless preliminary move allowed the expert Roman artillerists 16:26
to disrupt and scatter his units with volley after volley of massive catapult stones. 16:32
This bombardment sent Amr and his warriors back to camp, dodging missiles all the way. 16:38
Such attacks continued with intermissions, and in these intermissions the Roman defenders 16:44
would instead launch sorties out of the city and attack the Muslim army, aiming to throw 16:49
it back and end the siege. 16:54
Despite the ferocity and competence of the men carrying them out, these attempts failed 16:57
consistently and ended up being pushed back into the city. 17:02
At some point during the first months of indecisive action, the defenders sortied out against 17:09
a section of the front manned by the Arabian Mahra tribe and a fierce clash began. 17:15
It seems to have concluded as an indecisive draw, but the Mahra lost a man whose head 17:21
was subsequently cut off and taken away by the Romans, much to the Arabs’ fury. 17:27
The next morning, the same thing happened. 17:33
A Roman officer, probably made confident by the previous day’s action, launched an attack 17:35
on the Mahra, but this time the outcome was very different. 17:41
After being killed in the fighting, his head was taken by the Arab warriors and used as 17:46
a bargaining chip to get their comrade’s head back. 17:51
After a brief negotiation, both sides made an exchange and buried their kinsman with 17:55
honours. 18:01
At the height of summer, around two months after Amr initially constructed his camp, 18:04
the Sahmi tribal commander decided to shift it forward for reasons which we are not aware 18:10
of. 18:15
However, as his forces were moving, the Roman defenders sensed an opportunity and mounted 18:16
a daring cavalry attack, which nevertheless was easily repulsed. 18:21
A reckless Muslim cavalry detachment set out in hot pursuit of the fleeing Romans and actually 18:27
got inside the city just before the defenders could close the gates behind them. 18:32
Heavily outnumbered, they fought a fierce skirmish at the so-called Church of Gold. 18:38
in which some of them were killed and the rest were pushed out of Alexandria. 18:43
Heraclius, who maintained constant contact with Alexandria, was all too aware that the 18:48
Muslims were gaining momentum. 18:56
Worried that all of Egypt was about to be lost, he gathered a formidable army from across 18:59
what remained of the empire, together with equipment and supplies. 19:04
Just before this giant, emperor-led relief armada was about to set sail, Heraclius died 19:09
in Constantinople at the age of 66, leaving his eldest sons, Constantine III and Heraklonas, 19:15
as joint-heirs. 19:23
This initiated a round of imperial politicking which didn’t allow the empire to react at 19:25
the worst possible moment. 19:30
As senior emperor, Constantine attempted to get ahold of the increasingly dire situation 19:33
in Egypt. 19:38
His untimely death only a short time later derailed those plans entirely. 19:40
If that wasn’t bad enough, some Byzantine generals, including one Valentinus, took up 19:45
arms in support of Constantine’s son Constans II, believing that Heraklonas’ mother - Martina, 19:51
had poisoned Constantine. 19:58
This dynastic struggle would not conclude until late 641, ensuring that no reinforcements 20:00
would be sent to Alexandria. 20:08
Politicking also infected the soldiers defending the Egyptian capital, causing infighting and 20:14
massive morale loss. 20:19
When the siege had dragged into its sixth month with no sign of ending, Amr received 20:21
a letter from the caliph chastising him for taking so long. 20:27
So, after conferring with his generals, Amr selected the experienced Ubada bin As-Samit 20:31
to lead an assault. 20:37
In late October 641, the entire Muslim army assembled for midday prayer and then deployed 20:39
for battle. 20:45
Then, led by Ubada, Amr’s forces finally captured Alexandria by storming a gate near 20:46
the Church of Gold. 20:53
Of Muslim achievements to this point - 20 years since Hijra - the seizure of Alexandria 20:55
ranked alongside events such as Yarmouk and Al-Qadissiyah in its importance. 21:01
The caliphate acquired an invaluable naval base while diminishing Roman seapower and 21:06
conquered a land of immense riches and culture. 21:12
Perhaps most importantly for the future, possession of Egypt allowed the Islamic armies to penetrate 21:15
even further south and west into Africa. 21:21
The wealth, beauty, and luxury of Alexandria ensnared the Arabs and their general in equal 21:27
measure, but Amr could not make his headquarters there without the caliph’s permission. 21:33
So, he sent an emissary back to Medina asking Umar whether or not he could stay in the metropolis. 21:38
Unfortunately for the conqueror of Egypt, one of the Rashidun ruler’s many quirks 21:45
was the absolute contempt and distrust in which he held large expanses of water, such 21:50
as the Nile. 21:56
The single occasion on which Umar allowed one of his commanders - a governor of Damascus 21:58
known as Muawiyah, to embark on a naval operation, the entire force had been destroyed. 22:03
So, Umar refused Amr’s request, explaining: “I do not wish the Muslims to take up their 22:09
abode where water intervenes between them and me, in winter or summer.” 22:15
Disappointed, Amr moved south and laid the foundations for his new city, the first capital 22:20
of Islamic Egypt - Misr al-Fustat - the City of the Tents, or Fustat for short. 22:28
The country’s new governor was occupied for the next few months attending to the administration 22:36
of the Caliphate’s newest territory. 22:41
As 641 gave way to 642, Amr settled grievances among his warriors and the locals, revitalized 22:44
previously abandoned pieces of infrastructure, including canals, and even dispatched food 22:53
aid to famine-ridden Medina at Umar’s request . To extinguish any remaining embers of resistance 22:58
against Muslim rule, Amr sent out three columns to the areas around Damietta, Heliopolis, 23:05
and Fayyum, while a fourth ensured that the remainder of lower Egypt was obedient. 23:10
All of them had an easy time, accomplishing their task without bloodshed by mid-642. 23:17
With Egypt firmly in his grip, the adventurous Amr Ibn al-As turned his focus towards a Christianised 23:26
Nubian kingdom called Makuria to the south. 23:33
Makuria, ruled by a king called Qalidurut from his great citadel at Dongola, was a rising 23:36
and expansionist power in Subsaharan Africa. 23:43
In fact, its monarch had only recently annexed a former regional rival Nobatia. 23:47
A literate society with a vibrant culture of their own, the Nubians were renowned as 23:52
hardy, ferocious warriors. 23:58
In particular, their formidable reputation for horsemanship and archery was known around 24:01
the Mediterranean world. 24:06
At some point during the scorching African summer of 642, Amr sent his cousin Uqba bin 24:11
Nafe and 20,000 horsemen into Nubia, where they quickly began suffering at the hands 24:18
of the local inhabitants. 24:23
Unable to resist the Muslims in a pitched battle, lethal but unarmoured Makurian archers 24:26
- mounted and on foot, launched constant hit and run attacks which gradually sapped Uqba’s 24:31
strength before darting back unharmed into the wilderness. 24:38
As the Islamic army pushed deeper into Nubia and encountered guerilla-style attacks in 24:44
increasing numbers and ferocity, the hawk-eyed Makurian archers would frequently call out 24:49
to the Arab invaders: “Where would you like me to put an arrow in you?” 24:55
When one of the Muslim warriors skeptically pointed at an area of their body, our sources 25:00
state that an arrow would indeed strike there, injuring or killing the man in question. 25:04
When Uqba and his diminished forces finally neared the Makurian capital at Dongola, they 25:11
found a smaller enemy army of around 10,000 waiting for them, forced into defending their 25:17
central city by Uqba’s movements. 25:22
Eager to destroy the Nubians’ fighting potential now that he had them all in one place, Amr’s 25:25
cousin began arraying his troops for battle. 25:31
As the Muslim advance towards Qalidurut’s line began, it was almost instantaneously 25:36
hit by an utterly merciless barrage of Makurian arrows that struck the attacking army with 25:42
pinpoint accuracy. 25:47
Uqba’s assault was stalled in its tracks by the hail of missiles just as soon as it 25:49
began and his soldiers, 250 of whom had lost at least one eye in the battle, suffered terribly. 25:54
Unable to close with the Nubian archers and swiftly losing men to grievous injury, Uqba 26:03
withdrew his warriors from the field. 26:08
Forever after, Muslims would call the Nubians ‘the archers of the eye’ because of their 26:11
penchant for loosing arrows with deadly accuracy into the eyes of their enemies. 26:16
Unwilling to continue such a difficult campaign in a land which promised them little gain 26:22
from plunder or future land, the Muslims continued retreating all the way back to Fustat. 26:27
Although not exactly a decisive defeat, an army of the Caliphate had been defeated for 26:36
one of the first times in history. 26:41
After a month or two of recuperation, Amr assembled his armies from their bivouacs and 26:44
personally led them west into the desert during September of 642. 26:50
After a month of hard marching, the Muslims eventually arrived at a still-Roman city known 26:55
as Barca which, having no arrangements for defence, quickly surrendered. 27:00
This was the first act of the decades’ long Islamic conquest of a region which is now 27:06
called the Maghreb. 27:11
Amr had Uqba ride inland from the coast, where he successfully pacified the area of arid 27:13
desert between Barca and Zawila without violence. 27:22
The poor population quickly proved law-abiding and reliable in their payment of taxes, so 27:26
Amr decreed that part of the revenues coming in from the entire Fezzan region would be 27:31
spent to alleviate poverty there. 27:37
Then in spring 643, the Muslim army advanced on and blockaded the Roman-garrisoned city 27:40
of Tripoli. 27:46
Amr set up his camp on an elevated section of terrain east of the city and waited, realising 27:50
that such a coastal settlement could be navally resupplied for an extended period of time. 27:55
Lacking siege weapons, he also lacked the ability to reduce fortifications. 28:02
After two months of relative inactivity, eight of Amr’s warriors galloped off west of the 28:08
city for a hunting trip. 28:13
When these hunters began making their way back around noon, the sheer heat of the day 28:15
led them to ride back along the coast. 28:21
All of a sudden, they came upon Tripoli’s western boundary, where the city wall met 28:24
the sea, and discovered that the section was only thinly protected. 28:28
In a display of bravery or foolishness, these eight intrepid opportunists used Tripoli’s 28:34
vulnerable flank to infiltrate their way inside the city. 28:40
Before the defenders even realised what was happening, the Muslim group reached the city 28:46
centre and began slaying enemies. 28:51
Such unexpected violence triggered a bout of extreme panic within the city, both among 28:54
the civilians and Tripoli’s defending forces. 28:59
In fact, a large number of the armed soldiers within the city believed that a large enemy 29:02
contingent had somehow gotten inside and, because of this, took refuge aboard a number 29:08
of anchored ships in the harbour. 29:14
Amr caught wind of the pandemonium taking place inside the city and so quickly set about 29:16
exploiting the weakness. 29:22
Arraying his warriors with haste, the Arab commander ordered a full-scale assault to 29:24
scale Tripoli’s enfeebled walls. 29:29
In yet another action of which we have left no detail, the Muslims managed to get inside 29:32
and joined their eight-strong vanguard. 29:38
Unwilling to fight any further, the Roman defenders took whatever they could carry and 29:41
departed aboard their ships, leaving Tripoli to Amr’s army. 29:46
While most of the army stayed in the city for a while, the conqueror of Egypt sent a 29:52
swift detachment of cavalry about 40 miles to the west, where the population of a town 29:57
known as Sabrata were still carefree. 30:03
They had heard rumours of fighting for neighboring cities, but it would be a while before the 30:06
war reached them, if ever. 30:11
The next morning, Sabrata’s Roman guards opened the gates of their city as its population 30:14
began leading animals out to graze for the day. 30:19
Unfortunately for them, it was at this moment that the Islamic cavalry unit struck completely 30:23
by surprise, getting through the gates, killing the majority of defending troops, and sacking 30:29
the town. 30:34
With that done, they returned to Tripoli. 30:36
Having succeeded, Amr longed for more, and eagerly penned another letter to Caliph Umar 30:41
containing both the good news of victory and request to continue his conquest. 30:47
This was rejected, as the caliph was worried about overextending his forces. 30:53
And this time, there was no loophole or clever ploy that Amr could use to bypass Umar’s 30:59
decree and continue his relentless campaigning. 31:05
Therefore, after allowing his army to recuperate in Tripoli for a time, Amr travelled back 31:09
to Fustat and remained there, quietly administering his Egyptian domain and dealing with whispers 31:15
of future rebellion. 31:22
Although Umar had spared the rest of Byzantine Africa for the time being, that wouldn’t 31:24
last long. 31:32
However, as the combat in North Africa was winding down, the situation on the Persian 31:33
front was becoming heated again. 31:38
Sa’d army was eager to pursue Yazdegerd across the mountains, however, Umar’s refusal 31:42
halted any further eastward expansion for the time being. 31:51
At the Caliph’s command, Sa’d began combing Iraq for a place where he could establish 31:54
a permanent military garrison. 31:59
Eventually, after receiving guidance from the locals, Sa’d found a promising area 32:02
of land in Suristan ‘where the land is both dry, well-watered, and is overgrown with thistles 32:07
and constructed a colony that would eventually grow into the city of Kufa. 32:13
Far to the southeast, another Arab raiding force of 800 led by Utba bin Ghazwan began 32:19
searching for a base of their own and came across an arid area covered in rocks, and 32:27
it was there that Utba began work on a settlement which eventually developed into modern Basra. 32:32
It seemed as though the frontier between the caliphate and the Sassanid Empire would calcify 32:39
at the Zagros mountains, allowing Sa’d and Umar a brief time to consider administrative 32:44
questions. 32:50
However, the post-Jalula status quo wouldn’t last for long. 32:51
Unwilling to accept the permanent loss of their Mesopotamian heartland due to haughty 32:56
imperial pride, the Sassanids continued backing military action against the Caliphate led 33:01
by Hormuzan, head of one of Persia’s premier families. 33:07
During the retreat from Qadissiyah, Hormuzan had split off from the main column with his 33:13
personal levy of survivors and marched back to his estates in Khuzestan. 33:19
This territory formed a vulnerable bulge, being the only remaining imperial Sassanid 33:24
territory west of the Zagros Mountains. 33:29
With little chance of resisting a concerted Muslim invasion of his lands, Hormuzan decided 33:33
to go on the attack. 33:38
From a forward base at the greatest city of his province - Ahwaz - the Persian general 33:40
began launching quick raids into the area of Maysan in 638. 33:45
As these attacks increased in frequency, Hormuzan established two additional bases even further 33:50
west near Manazir. 33:56
Utba was unable to deal with the Persian attacks with his mere 800 troops and appealed to Sa’d 33:58
for aid. 34:04
In response, the commander-in-chief ordered Nu'man bin Muqarrin with a few thousand warriors 34:05
to bolster Utba’s strength. 34:11
The combined Muslim force launched a lightning campaign that defeated Hormuzan’s army in 34:14
its forward bases and pushed the frontier east to the Karun River. 34:19
Suitably chastened by the reverses his soldiers had suffered, the Persian general concluded 34:24
an unstable peace with his two Muslim counterparts, claiming to submit to the Caliphs’s suzerainty. 34:30
The remainder of 638 passed without further warfare on the Persian front except for a 34:39
single act elsewhere - the so-called Fiasco of Fars. 34:44
One of Sa’d rivals and governor of the uneventful province of Bahrain - Ula bin Al Hadrami - sought 34:49
to increase his own status and launched a reckless amphibious assault across the Persian 34:55
Gulf. 35:00
Landing on the coast of Fars, the Arab force headed towards Persepolis, managing to defeat 35:02
a small militia in a costly battle before being surrounded and trapped by the Sassanids. 35:07
The naval warfare despising caliph found out what Hadrami had done and was furious, but 35:13
nevertheless sent Utba to rescue the beleaguered governor, after which he was dismissed from 35:19
the position. 35:25
Hormuzan used the respite granted by his truce with the Muslims to levy more soldiers and, 35:29
in that time, also received imperial reinforcements from Hulwan. 35:34
Now reinforced, he took advantage of the treaty’s unclear boundary terms as an excuse to reinitiate 35:39
hostilities in early 639. 35:46
The new governor of Basra - Abu Musa - was aware of his caliph’s command to avoid taking 35:49
any further Persian territory, so he wrote to Umar explaining the situation and asking 35:55
for guidance. 36:01
Umar responded with an order to take Ahwaz and stop Hormuzan’s attacks. 36:02
This prompted Musa to march his forces to the river Karun and face off against the Persian 36:10
Lord across its breadth. 36:16
Feeling confident about his chances, Hormuzan invited the Arab army across the river with 36:18
the aim of facing and crushing it in a pitched battle. 36:23
Musa gladly accepted, crossing by a bridge north of the city, defeating the Sassanid 36:26
provincial force in a grueling fight and forcing Hormuzan into flight to Ram Hormuz. 36:32
A typically aggressive pursuit force of Arab cavalry forced the overwhelmed Persian commander 36:38
to retreat even further east. 36:43
From a strong position behind yet another river, Hormuzan parleyed for peace with the 36:46
Muslims, offering to recognise their conquest of Ahwaz while retaining a remnant of his 36:51
own district. 36:56
Still, the Sassanid reinforcements were pouring into northern Khuzestan in such large numbers 36:59
that the preparations for another military campaign could no longer be kept secret. 37:05
At this point, Sa’d was replaced as governor at Kufa by Ammar bin Yasir, who sent troops 37:11
to Musa to subdue the Persian threat without delay. 37:17
From Ahwaz, Musa launched his thrust against Hormuzan’s forces at Ram Hormuz, defeated 37:21
them in a brisk engagement and subsequently captured most of eastern Khuzestan. 37:27
Hormuzan retreated north to the Sassanid concentration point at Shushtar - a highly fortified, walled 37:33
city in the Zagros foothills. 37:38
Unsure about his ability to take on such a stronghold with his current strength, Musa 37:41
had a thousand fresh warriors sent to him from Kufa. 37:47
With these additional warriors, Musa advanced north, captured Shushtar and Hormuzan along 37:50
with it, followed relatively quickly by the truly ancient city of Susa. 37:56
Returning to Basra after this victory, Musa sent a subordinate to capture the final garrison 38:02
in Khuzestan; this was Junde Shapur, who succeeded by late 641. 38:07
With the seizure of this final city, all of Khuzestan and Sassanid territory west of the 38:13
Zagros was now under Muslim rule. 38:18
Despite the loss of Iraq, Sassanid Persia east of the rocky barrier was still a cohesive 38:24
and powerful empire with loyal territories as far off as India. 38:29
After the fall of Khuzestan to Musa’s army, Yazdegerd1 dispatched urgent orders to all 38:35
of his remaining provinces to raise troops and send them to Nahavand, a city on a primary 38:40
transportation artery west. 38:46
Throughout the later part of 641, contingents from cities across Iran and beyond, such as 38:49
Isfahan, Rayy, Hamadan, and many others arrived at Nahavand, until, at the turn of 642, an 38:55
army of around 60,000 had come together. 39:02
At the same time, this fearsome force was Yazdegerd’s final chance to turn the war 39:06
in his favour. 39:11
If he lost now, he would lose everything. 39:12
A Sassanid general named Mardanshah was appointed to lead the army, who quickly warned the men 39:16
that Umar “Is coming for you if you do not go for him. 39:22
He has already destroyed the seat of your empire and plunged into the land of your emperor.” 39:26
A Persian frontier commander in service to the Caliphate noticed this massive military 39:30
buildup and, alarmed, sent word to Ammar bin Yasir in Kufa, who immediately forwarded the 39:37
information to Umar. 39:43
Addressing the people of Medina on the issue, the caliph’s pronouncement that “This 39:44
is the day on which the future depends” left no doubt as to the importance of the 39:49
upcoming clash. 39:54
The ever-active caliph declared his intention to oversee the battle but was talked out of 39:58
it by his advisors, who pointed out that this was unnecessary. 40:04
A more contentious issue was the assignment of military resources. 40:08
Uthman wanted the whole army of the caliphate concentrated, but Muhammad’s son-in-law 40:12
- Ali Ibn Abi Talib - disagreed, reminding Uthman that depriving the other frontiers 40:18
would just invite the Byzantines, Ethiopians, and others to retake their old provinces. 40:24
Instead, he suggested the troops at Kufa, Basra, and along the Persian border form the 40:30
core of a field army, supplemented by a fresh levy of raw recruits and veterans from Arabia. 40:35
Umar concurred with Ali and gave command of the preemptive strike to the veteran of Qadissiyah 40:41
and conqueror of Susa - Nu'man bin Muqarrin. 40:47
Upon enthusiastically receiving the caliph’s decree, Nu'man assembled his troops, marched 40:51
east from Kufa, and crossed the Tigris, rendezvousing with a number of other frontier units along 40:57
the way. 41:02
Trekking northeast from Ctesiphon along the Diyala River, the Muslims pivoted at Qasr 41:04
Shereen and dove into the Zagros Mountains, eventually reaching a concentration point 41:09
at Tazar in December 641. 41:14
With 30,000 Muslim warriors assembled, Nu'man sent a scouting detachment into the Nahavand 41:17
Valley to establish where exactly the Persians were. 41:25
By nightfall it returned having observed little to no sign of Sassanid activity in the rocky, 41:29
uneven terrain between Tazar and the Persian base. 41:35
Nu'man immediately seized the opportunity and decamped, marching his entire army to 41:38
a small town known as Isbeezahan, just ten miles northwest of Nahavand itself, and its 41:43
Persian occupants. 41:49
When, not long after, Mardanshah learned that the invader was closing in, he responded by 41:51
bringing the entirety of his own army out of the city. 41:58
In preparation for the final battle, he deployed Sassanid Persia’s great retribution field 42:02
force in an L-shaped hook formation, ‘wrapped’ around a high terrain feature known as the 42:07
brown ridge. 42:13
While his soldiers advantageously faced down the slope, Mardanshah himself took up a position 42:15
atop the heights, where the imperial commander had a brilliant view of the entire area. 42:21
This adroitly selected defensive position had multiple terrain features amplifying its 42:26
strength: in front of the Sassanid front line was a small stream, along the bank of which 42:32
Mardanshah placed a minefield of cavalry-crippling caltrops. 42:37
Furthermore, his right2 - the short edge of the reverse L formation - was anchored on 42:42
a fortified village and the 3,000-foot-high Ardashan ridge, while the longer, southeast-facing 42:47
left flank3 was protected by a fork in the stream. 42:54
Confronted by this natural fortress and with few other options, Nu'man drew up his warriors 42:59
along Mardanshah’s entire front, just across the stream and facing up the slope. 43:07
The Muslim general’s brother Nueim led the L’s short section, Hudayfah bin Al-Yaman 43:13
commanded the right, and Qaqa bin Amr headed the Caliphate’s cavalry reserve. 43:19
Nu'man himself was in the centre. 43:23
The Caliphate’s deployment gave Mardanshah a potential opportunity to launch a preemptive 43:26
assault at the unprepared Muslim lines. 43:31
However, either due to overconfidence in his prepared fortifications or cautious of leaving 43:34
them due to the previous defeat at Jalula, the empire’s field commander remained where 43:40
he was, allowing Nu'man to finish bringing his forces up. 43:45
This inaction likely did not seem like a blunder - the Muslims were far away from their bases 43:49
in Iraq and could either smash their heads against the dangerous Persian fortifications 43:55
or wait, chew through their supplies and retreat in deadly conditions. 44:01
An hour after the Islamic noon prayer, as the sun reached its highest point in the sky, 44:07
the entire Muslim army began its attack straight at Mardanshah’s defensive belt. 44:14
Upon reaching the Wadi stream, the attackers’ infantry and cavalry alike were met with a 44:20
deadly rain of Persian arrows, loosed by archers who had the luxury of shooting downhill. 44:25
Worse still, Qaqa’s horsemen galloped headlong into the caltrops, leading to the maiming 44:30
and immobilisation of many horses. 44:36
Nevertheless, Nu’man’s men pushed on across the entire front, weakened all the way by 44:39
arrow fire. 44:45
Then, charging uphill, the Muslims crashed into the Sassanid ranks and the two sides 44:46
met in ferocious melee combat. 44:51
A grinding clash of attrition began with little room for flair or tactical brilliance, only 44:54
numerical weight, personal prowess, strength, and discipline. 45:00
On some sections of the line, perhaps those under Nueim’s command where the slope was 45:07
more gradual, the Muslims managed to temporarily push Mardanshah’s soldiers back, but each 45:12
time were counterattacked and shoved to their original positions by the Persians. 45:18
In other areas - near Zarrameen where the slope was steepest - the Persians even managed 45:23
to haul the Caliphate’s forces back across the Wadi, but they in turn counterattacked 45:28
and fought back to where they were. 45:34
The battle’s outcome rested on a knife-edge, with dead and dying of both sides littering 45:36
the field - either laying still or shouting in terrible agony. 45:41
This mass slaying continued until nightfall when the Muslims, with no prospect of breaking 45:46
the Persian line that night, pulled away and withdrew to their camp. 45:52
The night hours passed without contact, with both sides recovering their fallen comrades 45:57
and tending to the wounded. 46:02
When dawn broke on the second day, however, Nu'man formed his army up and, somewhat inexplicably, 46:05
launched another frontal assault across the stream lasting all day. 46:11
After what historian Akram poetically described as a ‘tragic harvest of death’, the Muslims 46:16
again retreated, unsuccessful and badly bloodied. 46:22
Both armies formed up again at dawn on the third day, but a mixture of the horror, tactical 46:26
sanity, and possible mutiny kept the Muslim general from attempting his human wave assault 46:34
for a third time. 46:40
Instead, he waited for the Persians to emerge from their fortifications and launch an attack 46:42
of their own, but Mardanshah was a wily commander aware that time was his champion, and refused 46:47
to budge. 46:54
After a tense two-day standoff, the Sassanid regimental commanders began raiding the Muslim 46:56
line with small contingents. 47:01
These limited attacks would inflict damage on personnel and supplies before swiftly pulling 47:04
back behind their defences, leaving the Islamic forces frustrated. 47:09
While constant assailment and the cold conditions struck blow after blow to Muslim morale and 47:14
strength, Mardanshah began absorbing a steady stream of reinforcements and provisions from 47:21
nearby Hamadan. 47:25
The situation could not continue as it stood, and so Nu'man called a council of war only 47:29
a few days after his previous attack. 47:35
The eldest companion present4 advised that the Muslims ought not to attack at all, and 47:38
to merely destroy those raiding parties which came to attack them. 47:43
As all the officers were eager to get stuck in properly, this proposal was met with disapproval. 47:48
Another more gung-ho leader suggested that the frontal attacks actually be resumed regardless 47:55
of consequences. 48:00
This too was quickly shot down. 48:01
Then spoke Tuleiha bin Khuleiwad - a former enemy of Islam and one of the architects of 48:05
Jalula - who put forward a clever stratagem. 48:10
The Muslims, he said, should “Put the cavalry in a position to outflank them, and show a 48:13
weak front, making as if to withdraw. 48:19
Let the Persians hope for victory and advance against us. 48:21
Then we turn and fight them.” 48:25
This plan was approved by most of those present, and put into motion. 48:27
With the purpose of making the illusion of weakness more convincing, at Tuleiha’s proposal 48:32
the Muslims also began circulating false rumours that Caliph Umar was dead. 48:37
Over the next few days, word of Umar’s ‘death’ proliferated around the overjoyed Persian 48:45
army like a kind of virulent mental plague, provoking hopes of an offensive against their 48:51
now surely demoralised enemy. 48:56
The Friday after Nu’man’s last attack, Sassanid sentries began observing the abandonment 48:59
of Muslim positions across the stream: tents being pulled down in the Muslim camp, baggage 49:04
being loaded, and small contingents of men marching west. 49:10
Everything Mardanshah could see appeared to suggest that the invading army was vulnerable 49:15
and about to retreat. 49:20
So, the general opened a series of gaps in the caltrop belt on his right flank according 49:22
to a pre-prepared plan and began having his soldiers cross to the outside5. 49:27
Lead elements halted just beyond the caltrop field, waiting for the rear ranks, and began 49:32
forming up there. 49:38
According to our sources, Mardanshah might have restored the caltrop field so his troops 49:39
could not run. 49:44
The ‘retreating’ Muslim infantry span around upon seeing that they were about to 49:48
be struck from behind and hastily deployed for battle, somewhat further back than before. 49:53
Of course, this was all a part of Tuleiha’s plan - the Persian general had swallowed the 49:59
bait hook, line, and sinker. 50:04
Unbeknownst to the Sassanid army, Qaqa and his cavalrymen were concealed in a gap behind 50:06
the Ardashan ridge, ready to attack. 50:12
Two hours before noon, Mardanshah ordered his army to advance slowly towards the stationary 50:15
enemy line. 50:21
When the Persians entered missile range, they began loosing arrow volleys with the aim of 50:23
softening the Muslims up at a greater range than Arab bows could operate at. 50:28
Forced to defend themselves with only their shields, many of the Caliphate’s warriors 50:34
were chomping at the bit to close with the Sassanids and fight them in melee, but Nu’man, 50:38
with a wider view of the strategic situation, ordered them to remain steady. 50:43
After a while weakening the Muslims with missile fire, Mardanshah launched a full-on charge. 50:51
This was the key moment of the battle, as this attack finally un-anchored the imperial 50:56
right flank from the Ardashan ridge and its nearby fortified village. 51:02
Remaining on the defensive, Nu’man restrained his forces from effectively pushing back, 51:08
withdrawing slowly in a similar manner to Hannibal’s centre at Cannae. 51:13
Then, after some time of suffering this, Nu’man ordered a counterattack just after midday 51:17
and, at the same time, Qaqa’s cavalry swept out from behind the ridge and drove a wedge 51:23
between the Persians and their obstacles. 51:29
However, Mardanshah detached a unit of reserves that met and held the Muslim cavalry before 51:32
the encirclement was completed. 51:40
On the front line, Persian forces were gradually pushed back under the weight of Nu’man’s 51:42
counterattack. 51:48
But then, the Muslim general was struck by an arrow, fell from his horse, and was spirited 51:49
away from the fight, with Nueim impersonating him to maintain morale. 51:54
Although Sassanid resistance was absolutely unwavering, by late afternoon the Muslim forces, 51:59
half encircling their foe, were clearly in the superior position. 52:05
Suddenly, as the sky began to darken, the majority of Mardanshah’s army collapsed 52:09
and routed, able to do so because the forces opposing Qaqa were still resisting. 52:15
Amidst this chaos, Tuleiha was also slain. 52:20
A relatively large number of Persian troops managed to escape the battlefield, but many, 52:25
including Mardanshah, were killed by their Muslim pursuers, fell victim to the re-strengthened 52:31
caltrop belt, or were taken prisoner. 52:36
Hudayfah took command of the Caliphate’s army after Nu’man’s death and advanced 52:40
the following morning, defeating the Sassanid remnant at Darazeed. 52:46
Part of the defeated army retreated into Nahavand itself after the second defeat, where the 52:51
new imperial commander, Dinar, surrendered the city unconditionally. 52:56
Nahavand was the final great battle between Islam and Persia, making the point at which 53:01
there was no longer any doubt - the Sassanid Empire would fall. 53:07
For this, Nahavand is known to Muslims as the ‘victory of victories’. 53:11
It would take another decade to subdue all of the far-flung Persian territories in Central 53:17
Asia and Eastern Iran, but by late 644 as author Peter Crawford states, Yazdegerd III 53:22
was effectively “a king without a kingdom.” 53:30
On the Egyptian front, after Amr returned from his expedition against the so-called 53:32
Pentapolis in late 643, he travelled back to Medina in order to meet with Umar, with 53:41
whom he already had a somewhat tense relationship. 53:47
Mistrusted by the caliph, Amr received a frosty reception from the very start. 53:51
The tension between the two men wasn’t helped by the fact that Umar, who always kept a close 53:57
eye on his governors via an internal spy network, suspected Amr of unjustly appropriating Egypt’s 54:03
wealth. 54:10
So, when the latter returned to his province, the caliph dispatched a trusted inspector 54:11
- Muhammad bin Maslama - to appraise Amr’s assets. 54:16
The latter produced an account of his assets and he was found guilty of taking too much. 54:20
The excess was confiscated and taken back to Medina. 54:27
That wasn’t the end of the caliph’s incessant prodding. 54:34
A short while thereafter, unsatisfied at the lacklustre revenues flowing into the treasury 54:37
from Egypt, Umar had a heated debate with Amr by letter. 54:43
After that ended in a deadlock, a Copt was sent to Medina to inform the caliph of his 54:47
province’s financial situation. 54:53
He bluntly informed Umar that previous rulers of Egypt had seen to the land’s prosperity 54:55
before taking anything from it, while Muslim governors only extracted. 55:01
In response, Umar carved Egypt into two separate administrative districts during late 644, 55:06
giving Amr Lower Egypt to govern from Fustat, while Upper Egypt would be ruled from Fayyum 55:13
by Abdullah ibn Sa’d ibn Abi Sarh, the foster brother of Uthman. 55:19
Predictably, Amr was, once again, infuriated at this deliberate diminishing of his authority. 55:24
Back in Medina a deadly plot had formed, centring around Hormuzan, who had converted to Islam 55:34
and used his vast experience in Sassanid administration and governance to become one of Umar’s key 55:41
advisors. 55:48
Despite this, the Persian noble never forgot the injury done to his home. 55:49
It seems that Hormuzan made contact with Firuz, a Sassanid soldier who was enslaved after 55:54
Qadisiyyah or Nahavand and brought to the Caliphate’s capital, and in November of 56:00
644 Firuz knifed Umar. 56:05
Before passing away three days after, the second caliph appointed a shūrā - or “counsel” 56:09
of six men1 - to appoint his successor from among their ranks. 56:15
After deep debate, they decided that Uthman would become the third Rashidun caliph. 56:20
It is worth noting that while Sunni Islam views Uthman as one of the rightly guided 56:26
caliphs, Shia Muslims believe this election should not have occurred at all and Ali was 56:31
to be the next in line. 56:36
Shortly after, Amr Ibn al-As visited Uthman in order to lobby for his Upper Egyptian colleague’s 56:39
removal. 56:47
The new caliph refused outright, prompting him to declare that he wouldn’t return to 56:48
Egypt until Abdullah ibn Sa’d was removed. 56:53
In response to this threat, Uthman appointed his foster brother governor of all Egypt2, 56:57
further deepening the dispute between the two men. 57:03
The Romans in Egypt were not happy with Amr’s policies, but Abdullah’s attempts to increase 57:09
the incomes from the province were even less popular. 57:14
Alexandria in particular bore the brunt of this new lust for revenue, leading its notoriously 57:18
riotous population to undertake drastic measures. 57:24
A group of prominent Romans dispatched messages to the new emperor Constans II. 57:27
These letters outlined the outrages of Muslim rule and its jizya tax, but also pointed out 57:34
that Abdullah had let the Nile realm’s defence slip into a pitiful state and the city was 57:41
only garrisoned by a paltry thousand men, and could be easily taken. 57:47
Perceiving an opportunity to regain control of Egypt and remedy the wound which its loss 57:52
had dealt to his empire and his pride, Constans began secretly amassing a great strikeforce 57:58
of 300 ships and many thousands of soldiers, command of which he bestowed on a eunuch known 58:04
as Manuel. 58:11
Constans’ fleet was ready after almost a year. 58:12
Because the reduced Byzantine Empire was still the dominant naval power in the Mediterranean 58:19
- the Caliphate having not yet developed any seaborne capacity - there was nothing to stop 58:24
this fleet from unexpectedly sailing straight into the harbour at Alexandria in early 646. 58:29
As the Roman sympathisers predicted, the thousand strong Muslim garrison was no adequate defence 58:36
against this shock assault from the sea. 58:42
When Roman forces landed almost unopposed, Alexandria’s population simultaneously rose 58:45
up against the occupying Arabs. 58:51
Most of the city’s garrison was slain in the brief clash that followed. 58:53
However, while the invasion army began ravaging the vicinity around Alexandria, some of the 58:57
Muslims that escaped travelled to Fustat and informed the governor what was happening. 59:03
Abdullah ibn Sa’d didn’t even have a chance to react. 59:08
Lacking confidence in their new viceroy’s martial ability, the Muslims of Egypt sent 59:14
a delegation to Caliph Uthman, urging him to send Amr back so that he could put an end 59:19
to the crisis. 59:25
Understanding that Amr was both a man of formidable military talent and feared by the Romans, 59:27
Uthman bit his tongue and asked Amr to take his post back. 59:33
Wasting no time, the man who had conquered the Romans once before travelled to Fustat 59:40
as quickly as possible with the aim of emulating his previous achievement. 59:45
Upon his arrival, the morale of Islam’s warriors was boosted significantly and they 59:51
prepared for war eagerly, while Amr started planning. 59:56
Informed by spies and agents that the Romans were advancing leisurely from Alexandria to 00:01
Fustat, many of Amr’s brash officers pressed for their commander to attack and confine 00:05
the enemy to the treacherous Mediterranean metropolis before all Egypt revolted against 00:11
the Muslim regime. 00:16
Amr did not agree with this appraisal, as he believed that this advance would stretch 00:18
Roman supply and communication lines to the limit. 00:23
Manuel and his army marched under the close observation of Amr’s informants, who constantly 00:26
reported the Romans’ position and strength. 00:32
The land forces made their way up the eastern bank of the Nile accompanied by a large flotilla 00:35
of supporting warships sailing parallel to them on the river itself. 00:40
Byzantine indiscipline began causing problems almost immediately. 00:46
Roman soldiers moved from town to town and the population was not happy with their behaviour. 00:50
When Manuel neared the halfway point between Alexandria and Fustat, Amr began a countermarch 00:57
with 15,000 warriors of his own, moving on a direct collision course with the Romans. 01:04
Both armies finally came into contact with one another near a large town known as Nikiou, 01:10
or Naqyus. 01:16
After resting for the night in their respective camps, the Romans and Muslims deployed on 01:18
the cultivated, featureless, and flat terrain just south of Nikiou. 01:22
Amr’s left - a cavalry regiment under the command of Shareek bin Sumayy, rested on the 01:27
Nile River, as did the Roman right. 01:33
In addition to their organisation in neat formations, a large number of Roman archers 01:36
also embarked on the riverine ships. 01:41
Once his preparations for battle were complete, Manuel ordered the Byzantine ground forces 01:44
into effective bow range before coming to a halt and unleashing a destructive barrage 01:49
of arrows against the Muslim position. 01:55
On the river, Manuel had prepared a clever stratagem. 02:00
His ships continued sailing until they passed by Amr’s flank, at which point their on-board 02:04
archers struck the Muslims in the flank as well. 02:09
Amr’s men had already been struggling to deal with the frontal volley, and so suffered 02:13
terribly from the multidirectional bombardment. 02:18
Sumayy’s regiment in particular was almost totally decimated, having been positioned 02:21
closest to the river, but even Amr had a horse shot out from under him. 02:26
Despite this punishment, however, the Muslims were unwilling to surrender the battlefield, 02:32
and so endured the storm with considerable tenacity. 02:37
Once Manuel believed that his enemy was sufficiently weakened, he called back the flanking vessels 02:43
and had their on-board troops fall into ranks behind the main army, and then began yet another 02:49
arrow attack against the Muslim line. 02:55
The moment after the Byzantine eunuch general ordered a halt to his preliminary barrage, 02:58
he directed his infantry to advance into spear and sword range. 03:03
Although early Muslim armies were generally portrayed as being most comfortable in this 03:07
kind of close quarters engagement, the Roman soldiers nevertheless impacted Amr’s battered 03:12
host with considerable ferocity, cracking their already faltering line. 03:17
Sumayy’s regiment, which had endured the brunt of Manuel’s seaborne missile attack, 03:22
actually did break and run. 03:28
Amr hastily pulled the remainder of his men away from the Romans’ attack and halted 03:30
only a short distance away, in order to regroup as best he could. 03:37
However Manuel, believing that the Muslims were already beaten, did not advance and finish 03:42
his enemy off, instead simply waiting where they were. 03:48
After a brief, eerie pause in the fighting, a magnificently dressed Roman champion, clad 03:52
in gold-studded armour, rode out into the open space between the two armies and challenged 03:58
the Muslims to single combat. 04:03
This would give the latter time to take a breath, reform and reorganise. 04:05
So, one of Amr’s favoured mubarizun - an Arab known as Haumal - accepted the Roman 04:11
offer and strode out to meet the enemy fighter. 04:17
With the remainder of both armies bearing witness, their respective champions initially 04:21
clashed with spears, and neither combatant was able to score a decisive blow. 04:26
Dropping their polearms after a certain amount of time had gone by, the champions clashed 04:32
with sword and shield, but again neither warrior could get an edge over the other. 04:37
This continued until the larger Roman duelist managed to disarm and severely wound Haumal 04:43
with a series of fierce thrusts. 04:49
As the hulking Roman was about to finish Haumal off, the Arab champion unsheathed his short 04:51
dagger and plunged it into his unsuspecting counterpart’s throat with prodigious speed. 04:58
Although Haumal managed to win the duel by the skin of his teeth, he died of his wounds 05:04
a few days later, much to Amr’s sorrow. 05:08
This traditional single combat had given the Muslim general time to get his army back in 05:14
order, and by the time Haumal had won, Amr was ready - Sumayy’s routed regiment even 05:20
returned to the battlefield and formed up. 05:26
When the whole Muslim army was ready, they charged and engaged in a grinding melee with 05:29
Manuel’s forces, combat which they were far better suited to. 05:34
After a few hours of Roman resistance, the eunuch’s soldiers broke and ran, pursued 05:39
and hunted all the way to Alexandria. 05:44
Amr brought up a number of catapults and launched boulders at the recalcitrant city, whose own 05:47
artillerists fired back. 05:56
The defences nevertheless held firm under such bombardment, until one of the gatekeepers 05:58
- Ibn Bassana - offered to let Amr’s troops inside if he, his family, and property were 06:03
retained, terms which the Muslim commander found agreeable. 06:09
Therefore, at some point in the middle of 646, Alexandria’s gates were opened and 06:13
the Islamic army poured inside. 06:19
Any Roman unit opposing the incursion was swiftly dealt with, and even those coming 06:22
up to reinforce the breach were pushed away. 06:27
As the rebellious city began falling victim to a sacking, the surviving imperial soldiers 06:31
withdrew to their ships and sailed away. 06:36
Before the vengeful Arabs could truly wreak havoc on the ancient Mediterranean metropolis 06:42
and its vanquished inhabitants, an unknown Muslim approached Amr and beseeched him to 06:47
stop the violence. 06:52
Although the conqueror of Egypt was by no means a merciful man by nature, his kinsman’s 06:53
words had such an impact that Amr immediately ordered the cessation of hostilities. 06:59
At the very spot where this was proclaimed, a mosque was constructed known as the ‘Mosque 07:04
of Mercy’. 07:07
Still, large numbers of Romans including Manuel died in the battle and the revolt was quelled. 07:08
In the aftermath of the Second Siege of Alexandria, Amr ripped down the walls and made the city, 07:09
in his words “Like the house of an adultress, accessible from all sides.” 07:15
The neglect of Egypt’s defence was also remedied with the new division of its Muslim 07:20
garrison into four parts - two in Fustat, and one each in Alexandria and on the northern 07:26
coast to be moved around where necessary. 07:32
It would also be rotated and the troops replaced every six months. 07:34
Not only had Amr ibn Al-As both conquered and reconquered Egypt in difficult circumstances, 07:43
he had built the foundations of a rule that would secure Muslim hegemony over the fruitful 07:48
country. 07:54
For this, Amr well expected to be rewarded by Uthman, but he was to be disappointed. 07:55
Uthman wanted his tax fiend of a brother to occupy the plum position, but was aware that 08:01
Amr probably deserved some reward for his deeds. 08:08
So, summoning the conqueror to his place of residence, Uthman enquired if he would like 08:12
to remain in military command of Egypt while Abdullah ibn Sa’d managed civilian administration. 08:17
Amr responded with the witty barb: “In that case I would be like the man holding the horns 08:24
of the cow while another milks it.” 08:30
For the remainder of Uthman’s caliphate, Amr would bear a potent grudge and even oppose 08:33
him publicly. 08:38
This mutual resentment was to have serious consequences for Islamic history in the near 08:40
future. 08:46
By the end of 646AD, the entire near-east had been transformed into a completely different 08:49
geopolitical entity than it was just two decades before, and had been for many centuries prior. 08:56
On its eastern wing, a four-century-old dynasty - the Sassanids - were now all but dust, its 09:04
last true Shah1 pursued across Iran by eastward driving Muslim armies and its ancient territory 09:11
devoured. 09:18
In the north, Rashidun forces reached the Caucasus Mountain barrier, enclosing the once 09:19
insurmountable Byzantine Empire within its Anatolian heartland in the process. 09:24
Now that all major battles against Rome and Persia were at an end, Islam’s armies began 09:30
seeking another direction in which to conquer. 09:36
Once Constans II’s counterattack against Egypt was decisively repelled, Caliph Uthman’s 09:42
foster brother Abdullah ibn Sa’d began launching raids into the Roman-Berber lands west of 09:48
his new province. 09:54
These small expeditions quickly proved a stunning success, returning with vast quantities of 09:56
slaves, cattle, and other riches. 10:02
Judging that Roman Africa would yield an easy and generous bounty if squeezed, the Egyptian 10:04
governor wrote to Uthman, asking for permission to launch a major campaign to the west. 10:10
Uthman agreed with Abdullah’s assessment and decreed the formation of a 10,000 strong 10:15
force in Arabia composed of warriors from various tribes. 10:21
It was a relatively young army, and in its ranks marched one son of Amr, two sons of 10:25
Umar and two sons of Umayyad chief Al-Hakam - one of whom was the future Marwan I. 10:31
The freshly mustered Arab force was ready for war in early 647 and marched for Egypt2, 10:41
joining Abdullah ibn Sa’d at Fustat a few weeks later. 10:47
There, the 10,000 newly arrived Arabic fighters were merged with a further 10,000 from the 10:51
governor’s Egyptian army, resulting in a total strength of 20,000. 10:58
With this mostly camel and horse-mounted invasion force at his back, Abdullah marched west. 11:03
This part of the Mediterranean seaboard bore witness to some of the ancient world’s most 11:10
dramatic events during the course of several centuries. 11:15
Emperor Heraclius’ father had previously served as ruler of this sizeable ‘Exarchate 11:19
of Africa’ before his son’s ascension to the Byzantine throne in 610, upon which 11:25
the elder governor died. 11:31
Close to the emperor’s death in 641, Heraclius himself appointed as Exarch a patrician known 11:33
as Gregory, However, dynastic chaos following the death of Heraclius, and Constans II’s 11:39
inability to repel Muslim attacks, particularly in nearby Egypt, were all too much for Gregory. 11:46
In 647, as Uthman’s army was in the process of readying to attack him, the Exarch declared 11:53
independence from Constantinople amid a surge of popular support from Romanised Africans 12:00
and native Berbers alike. 12:06
Abdullah ibn Sa’d meanwhile, crossed the Nile from Fustat and took his army up the 12:08
west bank until he neared Alexandria, at which point he drove northwest and cut across the 12:15
desert as a shortcut. 12:21
After a few more days, the viceroy’s 20,000 hit the Mediterranean coastal road and marched 12:23
along its course until, finally, after a six-week journey, Abdullah reached Barca - the city 12:29
which his predecessor Amr seized years before. 12:36
The Muslims then marched a further seven hundred miles along the Mediterranean coast around 12:39
the Bay of Sirte, enduring the scorching privations of a North African summer. 12:45
The Arabs were used to such arid conditions and thrived in them, an advantage which helped 12:51
them conquer the Near-East. 12:56
When the Rashidun army finally reached Tripoli, closer to the heart of Gregory’s realm, 12:58
its warriors found the heavily fortified city barred against them, contrary to the friendly 13:04
reception they’d received in Cyrenaica. 13:09
As Amr did half a decade earlier, Abdullah blockaded Tripoli on its landward flank and 13:14
placed it under siege. 13:20
In order to slow or prevent any resupply or reinforcement by ship, Abdullah stationed 13:22
artillery at both points where the city wall met the water, They were ordered to strike 13:27
any enemy vessel which attempted to enter the harbour and effectively rendered the seaport 13:33
unusable. 13:38
Gregory, who was readying the main Exarchate army at his inland capital of Sufetula, had 13:39
a naval reinforcement armada dispatched from Carthage to Tripoli. 13:45
However, rather than disembarking at the port on arrival as they would have liked, the transport 13:50
ships were forced to disgorge their human cargo on segments of the beach which were 13:56
outside of Abdullah’s artillery range and outside the wall’s protection. 14:01
Although this prevented Rashidun catapults and ballistae from carving bloody holes into 14:06
their ranks, it made the tired and disorganised soldiers easy prey for Muslim infantry, which 14:11
charged at them from two different angles. 14:18
Exhausted from the long sea voyage and without any time to deploy adequately, Gregory’s 14:21
reinforcements were scythed down to a man on the beaches of Libya. 14:27
Remaining vigilant against any further attempts to prop Tripoli up, Rashidun forces nevertheless 14:33
were unable to breach the well-provisioned, nigh impregnable fortress. 14:39
As his army languished outside the walls, Abdullah ordered riders to scout in the direction 14:45
of Sufetula to observe any military activity going on there. 14:50
A few weeks later two things were clear to the Muslim governor. 14:57
First: Tripoli was still a long way aways from opening its gates to him and remaining 15:02
static outside its walls seemed pointless. 15:07
Second: reports from his scouts made it apparent to Abdullah that the newly independent Roman 15:11
Exarch was readying for a fight. 15:17
Possibly convinced Tripoli was just a delaying action which only served to grind down his 15:20
own army’s strength and will to push on, the Muslim governor lifted his siege and spirited 15:26
away to the west. 15:31
The Rashidun army and its thrifty commander plundered their way through the wealthiest 15:33
region of Roman Africa, unmoored from any supply train and therefore unconcerned about 15:38
the Tripoli garrison behind them. 15:44
At Sufetula, Gregory was made aware of the Muslims’ location the moment they passed 15:47
through Gabes and reacted to the news immediately, with the intent of engaging his enemy well 15:53
away from his interim inland capital. 15:59
To do this, the Exarch ponderously shifted his heavily-equipped, primarily infantry-based 16:02
army, which probably matched that of the Muslims in size, to a blocking position at Faiz - 30 16:08
kilometres from Sufetula - and set up a camp there. 16:14
Part of the Exarchate’s army was placed slightly forward of the camp as a covering 16:18
force. 16:22
However, only a short time after Gregory’s force went into camp, the Rashidun light cavalry 16:23
advance guard fell on its Roman counterpart, sending it reeling back to the main camp in 16:29
flight. 16:35
Unnerved by such strength of the Muslim mounted units, Gregory ordered his army to withdraw 16:36
all the way to Sufetula, believing his position at Faiz was too vulnerable. 16:42
About four miles east of his capital the Exarch turned and readied for battle. 16:47
Such close proximity to its base granted the Roman army logistical supremacy, prevented 16:53
wide flanking maneuvers from the mobile opposing army, and permitted them a safe retreat inside 16:59
if they needed it. 17:05
The Muslims arrived soon after and made their own camp a short way from Gregory’s front 17:07
line. 17:11
One rejected emissary later, both sides deployed for battle on the arid plain about four miles 17:15
from Sufetula. 17:21
The Roman army’s posture was defensive, its line anchored to the north and south by 17:22
two high ridges. 17:28
Abdullah, realising the observation potential of these terrain features, successfully sent 17:30
forces to occupy them. 17:36
Unlike his more iron-willed predecessor, Abdullah ibn Sa’d was considered personally weak 17:38
by the warriors under his command, an accountant and bureaucrat rather than general or soldier. 17:44
Lacking Amr’s bravery, Abdullah retreated to a safe position behind the line where he 17:51
was not likely to suffer any personal threat once the army was deployed to his liking. 17:56
Fortunately, Gregory was a kindred spirit in that he wasn’t a bold frontline commander 18:02
either, choosing to oversee the clash from a throne inside the walls of Sufetula. 18:07
Subordinates and lower-level officers fought the battle for him on a tactical level. 18:14
At the dawn the next day, fighting commenced. 18:21
Details about the first days of Sufetula are unclear and sparse in our sources, but it 18:25
is evident that the combat was incredibly fierce, uninterrupted, and bloody. 18:30
Although the actual battlefield was a flat plain, the ridges on either flank prevented 18:36
any outflanking maneuvers or fancy tactical flair. 18:41
Moreover, the uninvolved nature of both army’s skittish commanders further paralysed the 18:45
situation. 18:51
After a few days of such indecisive fighting, Gregory decided to attempt an assassination 18:53
of the enemy leader in order to sever the head from the Muslim serpent, but obviously 18:59
wasn’t going to do the deed himself. 19:04
Instead, he offered to wed his legendarily beautiful, intelligent, and valiant daughter 19:06
to the Roman warrior who killed Abdullah. 19:13
Morale in the Exarch’s army skyrocketed at this news, with each warrior - whether 19:16
they were Roman, Vandalic, Greek or Berber, steeling themselves with the aim of gaining 19:21
the princess’ hand. 19:26
Word of this also spread throughout the Muslim army and in particular to Abdullah himself. 19:29
Not at all comfortable with being a marked man, his confidence suffered an even further 19:37
decline. 19:42
To counter Gregory’s offer, the Muslim commander announced to his army that he would grant 19:43
the Exarch’s daughter to any warrior who personally killed her father, before withdrawing 19:49
to his tent. 19:54
Still however, the next few days continued as a deadly stalemate of bitter violence, 19:56
brought to a crescendo by the offer and counteroffer between generals. 20:02
This continued without end until one of Abdullah’s officers - Zubayr - was approached by a Berber 20:09
defector from Gregory’s army. 20:15
He told the Muslim captain that because fighting had until that point been quite far from the 20:17
walls, the Exarch’s position, near Sufetula’s northern gate, was actually very thinly defended. 20:23
Alerted to this crucial information and the best route which he should take in order to 20:30
exploit the opportunity, Zubayr put forward his plan to the demoralised Muslim commander, 20:35
and was granted leadership over the army’s mobile reserve - about 2,000 strong. 20:41
The invaders’ spirits were buoyed due to the dynamism and boldness of this dashing 20:48
young officer, who spent the remainder of the day setting his scheme into motion. 20:53
Swarmed by warriors who desired to embark on the risky venture with him, the younger 20:58
Zubayr eventually selected thirty of the fiercest, most capable, and valiant combatants his army 21:03
could offer as an attack squad. 21:09
When asked what they were to do, Zubayr replied - “I am attacking, defend me against those 21:12
who assail me from the rear and I shall defend you from the front!” 21:18
During the near soundless hours of night, after issuing all necessary orders, Zubayr 21:24
positioned himself, his 30 stalwarts, and the mobile reserve horsemen behind Sufetula’s 21:30
northern ridge. 21:36
Then when morning came, both armies closed with one another and fought as though nothing 21:38
had changed. 21:42
At noon, with an especially hot day weighing down on them heavily, both armies broke contact 21:43
and withdrew - the Romans quickly, the Muslims suspiciously sluggishly. 21:50
Distracted by the din of war, Gregory, his attendants, and guards did not notice as Zubayr 21:56
and his band of daredevils galloped into the city through what became known as the ‘gate 22:02
of treachery’. 22:07
Realising what was happening, the Exarch’s guard formed a hasty line, but the 30 Muslim 22:09
warriors broke it and allowed Zubayr a clean run at the African ruler. 22:14
In the confusion, Gregory initially believed this lone mounted figure to be an envoy, and 22:19
so did not react. 22:25
Gregory was killed and his head sliced from his body. 22:26
Word of their leader’s death quickly reached the retreating Roman infantry, causing terrible 22:31
confusion and disheartening the soldiers. 22:38
Then, at the perfect moment, Zubayr’s large mounted reserve crested the North Ridge, rode 22:41
at a gallop and charged into the disorganised Exarchate army’s left wing with saber and 22:47
lance before wheeling around the battlefield. 22:53
Simultaneously, the bulk of the Muslim infantry turned about and advanced, locking their tenacious 22:56
enemy into an unwinnable fight. 23:02
Pressured from the front by Arab infantry and outmanuevered by swift Muslim horsemen 23:04
all around, the Roman army collapsed and its soldiers scattered in all directions in their 23:09
attempts to flee. 23:14
Zubayr’s cavalry reaped an especially bloody toll and, within a short time, the battered 23:16
corpses of Romans, Berber, Vandals, and Greeks littered the plain outside Sufetula. 23:21
Despite the slaughter, several thousand of Gregory’s soldiers managed to retreat intact 23:31
towards the capital, believing its walls would grant them safety. 23:36
It wasn’t their lucky day. 23:40
Zubayr, having handily dealt with the Exarch, sent small squadrons to hold each of Sufetula’s 23:43
gates, preventing entry or exit. 23:49
When the retreating columns of exhausted Roman soldiers reached the city therefore, they 23:52
were viciously attacked by Muslim cavalry coming the other way and cut to pieces. 23:57
The Rashidun triumph at Sufetula is frequently touted as the point at which Roman Africa 24:06
was forever lost to the Empire, and while it was a back-breaking moment for the province, 24:12
this is far from true. 24:18
Once the vast quantity of captured silver, gold and cattle was accumulated and distributed, 24:20
Abdullah ibn Sa’d moved on the Exarchate’s real capital - Carthage. 24:25
Upon putting the millennia old city to siege, the Muslim commander and local leaders within 24:31
the city came to an impasse. 24:36
There was no chance that the besiegers would be able to take Carthage with their overextended 24:39
supply lines and barely functional siege train, but at the same time, there was no way for 24:44
the inhabitants of Carthage to make them go away. 24:50
However, with exaggerated reports of Gregory’s fate fresh in their minds, they asked for 24:53
terms after only a few days. 24:59
Always with income on his brain, Abdullah ibn Sa’d accepted a vast quantity of Roman 25:02
gold as payment to leave Africa alone keeping only what they had so far conquered. 25:07
After a subsequent eastward journey of about three months, the Muslim army arrived back 25:16
in Fustat by late 647, bringing with it a vast hoard of wealth which further swelled 25:22
the treasury in Medina. 25:28
Regardless of the gathered loot, Abdullah had effectively won a victory and then given 25:31
up the ghost before the conquest was concluded. 25:36
At about this time - late 648 - the governor of Syria Muawiya launched a naval expedition 25:40
of unknown scale on Cyprus in order to neutralise any potential threat that it posed as a staging 25:47
point for future Byzantine attacks. 25:53
Muawiya landed on the Mediterranean island and seized it without opposition, exacting 25:56
a tribute of 7,000 dinars annually. 26:01
With the North African front winding down, most expansionist movement within the Rashidun 26:05
Caliphate came to a halt. 26:11
Three years passed in relative quiet until Abdullah ibn Sa’d led another attempt to 26:13
conquer Nubia in 652, failing once again due to the country’s ‘Archers of the Eye’ 26:19
. 26:28
Because the situation on land between Eastern Rome and the Caliphate had calcified at the 26:29
Taurus Mountains, both sides began looking to the sea for an advantage. 26:33
If Constantinople maintained its naval supremacy, it would have the ability to land a force 26:39
in Syria, Egypt, or Africa at will. 26:44
However, if the Caliphate usurped this control, they could make the Mediterranean a Muslim 26:47
lake and even threaten the great imperial city. 26:53
To that end, both the Egyptian governor and Roman emperor refocused their efforts on constructing 26:57
vast fleets of ships with which to dominate the sea. 27:03
In 654AD, the Arab and Roman fleets met off the Lycian coast at what became known as the 27:07
Battle of the Masts. 27:14
Abdullah ibn Sa’d revealed himself to be a veritable sea wolf compared to his feeble 27:16
reputation on land, crushing Constans II’s navy in the first true Muslim naval triumph 27:21
and clearing the way for an attack on Constantinople. 27:28
From the status of a subjugated, scorned, and irrelevant people of the desert, the Arabs 27:34
burst forth from their ancient homeland in a manner akin to an irresistible sandstorm, 27:40
blowing away everything in their path in the course of just two decades. 27:45
The third season of the Early Muslim Expansion will come in late 2021, and we will cover 27:52
the famous battles like Talas, Tours, Guadelete, Constantinople, and much more, so make sure 27:58
you are subscribed and have pressed the bell button. 28:04
Please, consider liking, commenting, and sharing - it helps immensely. 28:06
Our videos would be impossible without our kind patrons and youtube channel members, 28:10
whose ranks you can join via the links in the description to know our schedule, get 28:15
early access to our videos, access our discord, and much more. 28:19
This is the Kings and Generals channel, and we will catch you on the next one. 28:23

– 英语/中文 双语歌词

📚 别只跟着唱 "" — 进 App 练听力、学词汇,变身高手!
作者
观看次数
5,663,692
语言
学习这首歌

歌词与翻译

即将推出!

我们正在更新此部分,敬请期待!

重点词汇

开始练习
词汇 含义

army

/ˈɑːrmi/

A2
  • noun
  • - 军队

battle

/ˈbætl/

B1
  • noun
  • - 战斗

conquer

/ˈkɒŋkər/

B2
  • verb
  • - 征服

empire

/ˈɛmpaɪər/

B1
  • noun
  • - 帝国

caliph

/ˈkeɪlɪf/

C1
  • noun
  • - 哈里发

general

/ˈdʒɛnərəl/

A2
  • noun
  • - 将军

Muslim

/ˈmʊzlɪm/

B1
  • adjective
  • - 穆斯林的
  • noun
  • - 穆斯林

Roman

/ˈroʊmən/

B1
  • adjective
  • - 罗马的
  • noun
  • - 罗马人

Persian

/ˈpɜːrʒən/

B2
  • adjective
  • - 波斯的
  • noun
  • - 波斯人

defeat

/dɪˈfiːt/

B1
  • verb
  • - 击败
  • noun
  • - 失败

victory

/ˈvɪktəri/

B1
  • noun
  • - 胜利

siege

/siːdʒ/

B2
  • noun
  • - 围攻

expansion

/ɪkˈspænʃən/

B2
  • noun
  • - 扩张

city

/ˈsɪti/

A1
  • noun
  • - 城市

fight

/faɪt/

A2
  • verb
  • - 战斗
  • noun
  • - 战斗

led

/lɛd/

A1
  • verb
  • - 领导

attack

/əˈtæk/

A2
  • verb
  • - 攻击
  • noun
  • - 攻击

charge

/tʃɑːrdʒ/

B1
  • verb
  • - 冲锋
  • noun
  • - 冲锋

fierce

/fɪrs/

B1
  • adjective
  • - 凶猛的

veteran

/ˈvɛtərən/

B2
  • noun
  • - 老兵
  • adjective
  • - 经验丰富的

“army、battle、conquer” — 你都弄懂了吗?

⚡ 来 App 做词汇练习,听完歌立刻巩固记忆!

重点语法结构

即将推出!

我们正在更新此部分,敬请期待!

相关歌曲