Battle of Ajnadayn
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| Battle of Ajnadayn معركة أجنادين | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Muslim conquest of Syria and the Arab–Byzantine Wars | |||||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
| Byzantine Empire |
 Rashidun Caliphate | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
|
Vardan (Governor of Emesa) Unknown Cubicularius Theodore |
Khalid ibn al-Walid Amr Ibn al-As Abu Ubaidah ibn al-Jarrah]Shurahbil Ibn Hasanah Yazid ibn Abu Sufyan | ||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
|
9,000 - 90,000 (modern estimates) 90,000 - 100,000[3] (primary sources) |
15,000[4] – 20,000[5] | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
|
50,000 (Al-Waqidi),[6][7] modern estimates unknown. | 575 (Al-Waqidi)[6][7] | ||||||||
The Battle of Ajnadayn (Arabic: معركة أجنادين), fought on July 30, 634, in an unknown location possibly south of Beit Shemesh in present day Israel; it was the first major pitched battle between the Roman (Byzantine) Empire and the army of the Arabic Rashidun Caliphate. The result of the battle was a decisive Muslim victory. The details of this battle are mostly known through Muslim sources, such as 9th century historian Al-Waqidi.
Background
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According to David Nicolle, the Rashidun army left the capital Medina probably in the autumn of 633, but possibly at the beginning of 634. They first engaged and defeated the Romans at Dathin on February 4; after that Emperor Heraclius, then stationed in Emesa (now Homs, Syria), had reinforcements sent south to protect Caesarea Maritima. As a possible reaction commander Khalid ibn al-Walid was ordered to interrupt operations against the Sassanian Empire and reach Syria, which brought him to engage and defeat the Roman-allied Ghassanids by April 24, permitting him to enter almost unopposed in Bosra. At this point Khalid converged with several armies led by generals such as Yazid ibn Abu Sufyan, Amr ibn al-A'as and Shurahbil Ibn Hasanah.[8]
Khalid united with Amr's forces in a place known traditionally as Adjnadayn.[8] No geographer has attested such a place, which probably originates from a conflation of the Arab plural adjinad (i.e. "armies").[9] All the same due to Arab sources the location of the battlefield has been found to have taken place in the wadi l'Samt at 9 km from modern Beit Guvrin, Israel.[1]
According to primary sources Arab army consisted of up to 20,000 men, while in contrast the Roman army had 100,000 men.
Notes
- ^ a b W. E. Kaegi, Byzantium and the Early Islamic Conquests, 1992, p. 98
- ^ Irfan Shahid (1996). Review of Walter E. Kaegi (1992), Byzantium and the Early Islamic Conquests. Journal of the American Oriental Society 116 (4), p. 784.
- ^ Muslim historian Al-Waqidi places the army's strength at around 90,000 - 100,000.
- ^ D. Nicolle, Yarmuk 636 AD - The Muslim Conquest of Syria, 1994, p. 43: gives 15,000-18,000
- ^ David Morray "Ajnadain, battle of" The Oxford Companion to Military History. Ed. Richard Holmes. Oxford University Press, 2001. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press: gives 20,000.
- ^ a b c Al-Waqidi, Book 1, page 42.
- ^ a b c Lieutenant-General Agha Ibrahim Akram (1970). The Sword of Allah: Khalid bin al-Waleed, His Life and Campaigns, page 467. Nat. Publishing House. Rawalpindi. ISBN 978-0-7101-0104-4.
- ^ a b D. Nicolle 1994, p. 46
- ^ H. A. R. Gibb, s.v. "Adjanadayn", pp. 208-209, in H. A. R. Gibb, J. H. Kramers, E. Lévi-Provençal & J. Schacht (eds.), The Encyclopaedia of Islam, vol. 1, Brill, Leiden, 1986.
References
- Akram, Agha Ibrahim (1970). The Sword of Allah: Khalid bin al-Waleed, His Life and Campaigns. Rawalpindi.
{{cite book}}: Check|first=value (help)CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - Morray, David (2001). "Ajnadain, battle of". In Richard Holmes (ed.). The Oxford Companion to Military History. Oxford University Press.