The Battle of Bosra was fought in 634 CE between the Rashidun Caliphate army and the Byzantine Empire over the possession of the city of Bosra, in Syria. The city was one of the Islamic forces' first significant captures and was at the time the capital of the Ghassanids, Arab vassals of the Byzantines. The siege took place between June and July.
Most traditional Islamic accounts place the battle in the year 634 CE, under the caliph Abu Bakr; other sources place it later, with the chronicles of Theophanes the Confessor placing it during the caliphate of Umar.[1] According to Islamic accounts, including those found in works of al-Baladhuri, four corps under Khalid ibn Walid, Abu Ubaidah ibn al-Jarrah, Shurahbil ibn Hasana, and Yazid ibn Abi Sufyan gathered together outside the town. After a field engagement in which the Byzantine forces were forced to retreat inside the town,[2] a siege followed, with the town surrendering and agreeing to pay jizya to the caliphate.[3]
The battle was given special significance in later Islamic works, including the epic legend Futuh al-Sham, which presents it as the first Byzantine center conquered by Arabs and a sign of the divine mission of Islam.[4]
Islamic accounts state that Khalid ibn Walid reached the city of Bosra in June of 634 CE, after capturing several Syrian towns. According to his instructions, Abu Ubaidah ibn al-Jarrah, who had already occupied the District of Hauran, which lay north-east of the river Yarmouk, was to remain at his position until Khalid arrived at Bosra. Abu Ubaidah ibn al-Jarrah had three corps of an army of Muslim soldiers under his command––his own, Yazid's, and Shurahbil's––but had fought no battles and captured no towns. Bosra, a large town and the capital of the Ghassanid Kingdom, contained a force of Byzantine and Christian Arabs, commanded by Roman officers.
While Khalid was in eastern Syria, Abu Ubaidah learned that he would serve under Khalid upon the latter's arrival. Upon receiving this news, he sent Shurahbil with 4,000 men to capture Bosra, the garrison of which withdrew into the fortified town as soon as the soldiers appeared in sight. This garrison consisted of 4,000 soldiers who all expected that more Islamic forces would soon arrive and that the Shurahbil detachment was only an advance guard, and remained within the walls of the fort. Shurahbil camped on the western side of the town and positioned groups of his men around the fort.
After two days, as Khalid ibn al-Walid set out on the last day of his march to Bosra, the garrison of Bosra advanced towards the Muslim army outside the city. Shurahbil and the Roman commander held talks with their forces drawn up for battle; the Muslims offered three choices: Islam, tribute, or the sword. When the Byzantines chose the sword, in the middle of the morning, the battle began.
For the first few hours, the fighting continued at a steady pace, with neither side making any headway; but soon after midday, the superior strength of the Romans turned the battle in their favor. The Romans moved forces around both of Shurahbil's flanks and the fighting increased in intensity. The temper of Shurahbil's soldiers became suicidal as the real danger of their position became evident, and they fought with ferocity to avoid encirclement, which appeared to be the Roman's goal. By early afternoon, the Roman wings had moved further forward, and the encirclement of Shurahbil's force became a virtual certainty. Then, suddenly, the combatants became aware of a powerful cavalry force galloping towards the battlefield from the northwest.
Khalid was about a mile from Bosra when he heard the sounds of battle. He immediately ordered the men to horse; as soon as the cavalry was ready, he led it towards the battle field. The Romans withdrew soon after they became aware of the cavalry's arrival. The Muslims under Shurahbil came to regard Khalid's arrival as a miracle.
The next morning, the Byzantine garrison launched another attack. The shock of Khalid's arrival the previous day had now worn off, and seeing that the combined strength of the Muslims was about the same as their own, the Romans attacked again, hoping to defeat the Muslims before they could rest after their lengthy march.
The two armies formed for battle on the plain outside the town. Khalid kept the center of the Rashidun army under his own command, appointing Rafay bin Umayr as the commander of the right wing and Dhiraar bin Al-Azwar as the commander of the left wing. In front of the center, he placed a thin screen under Abdur-Rahman bin Abu Bakr (son of the CaliphAbu Bakr). At the very start of the battle, Abdur-Rahman dueled with the Roman army commander and defeated him. As the Roman general fled to the safety of friendly ranks, Khalid launched an attack along the entire front. For some time, the Romans resisted, while the commanders of the Muslim wings played havoc with the opposing wings.
After some fighting, the Byzantine army broke contact and withdrew into the fort. At this time, Khalid was fighting on foot in front of his center. As he turned to give orders for the commencement of the siege, he saw a horseman approaching through the ranks of the Muslims. It was Abu Ubaidah ibn al-Jarrah, and with him was a yellow standard that is believed to have belonged to the prophet Muhammad at the Battle of Khaybar.
The Muslims laid siege to Bosra. There are differing accounts of the events that followed. According to one account, the Byzantine commander lost hope; knowing that most of the available reserves had either moved or were moving to Ajnadayn, he doubted that any help would arrive. After a few days of inactivity, he surrendered the fort. The only condition Khalid bin Walid imposed on Bosra was the payment of the tribute. This surrender took place in the middle of July 634.
Aftermath
Khalid bin Walid wrote to CaliphAbu Bakr, informing him of the progress of his operations since his entry into Syria, and sent one-fifth of the spoils which had been won during the previous few weeks. Hardly had Bosra surrendered when an agent sent by Shurahbil to the region of Ajnadayn returned to inform the Muslims that the concentration of Roman legions was proceeding apace. Soon they would have a vast army of imperial soldiers at Ajnadayn. Khalid ibn Walid ordered all the Muslim corps in Syria to concentrate at Ajnadayn and defeated the Byzantine army in the Battle of Ajnadayn.
Related Research Articles
The 630s decade ran from January 1, 630, to December 31, 639.
Year 634 (DCXXXIV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar. The denomination 634 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.
The Battle of the Yarmuk was a major battle between the army of the Byzantine Empire and the Arab Muslim forces of the Rashidun Caliphate. The battle consisted of a series of engagements that lasted for six days in August 636, near the Yarmouk River, along what are now the borders of Syria–Jordan and Syria-Israel, southeast of the Sea of Galilee. The result of the battle was a crushing Muslim victory that ended Roman rule in Syria after about seven centuries. The Battle of the Yarmuk is regarded as one of the most decisive battles in military history, and it marked the first great wave of early Muslim conquests after the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, heralding the rapid advance of Islam into the then-Christian/Roman Levant.
Bilad al-Sham, often referred to as Islamic Syria or simply Syria in English-language sources, was a province of the Rashidun, Umayyad, Abbasid, and Fatimid caliphates. It roughly corresponded with the Byzantine Diocese of the East, conquered by the Muslims in 634–647. Under the Umayyads (661–750), Bilad al-Sham was the metropolitan province of the Caliphate and different localities throughout the province served as the seats of the Umayyad caliphs and princes.
ʿĀmir ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Jarrāḥ, better known as Abū ʿUbayda was a Muslim commander and one of the Companions of the Prophet. He is mostly known for being one of the ten to whom Paradise was promised. He remained commander of a large section of the Rashidun Army during the time of the Rashid Caliph Umar and was on the list of Umar's appointed successors to the Caliphate, but died in the Plague of Amwas in 639 before Umar.
The Battle of Ajnadayn was fought in July or August 634, in a location close to Beit Guvrin in the Roman-era Palestine region ; it was the first major pitched battle between the Byzantine (Roman) Empire and the army of the Arab 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 the ninth-century historian al-Waqidi.
The Battle of Hazir or Ma'arakah al-Haadhir took place between the Byzantine army and the Rashidun army's elite cavalry, the Mobile guard. It took place in June 637, three miles east of Qinnasrin at Al-Hadher in present-day Syria.
The Muslim conquest of the Levant, or Arab conquest of Syria, was a 634–638 CE invasion of Byzantine Syria by the Rashidun Caliphate. A part of the wider Arab-Byzantine Wars, the Levant was brought under Arab Muslim rule and developed into the provincial region of Bilad al-Sham. Clashes between the Arabs and Byzantines on the southern Levantine borders of the Byzantine Empire had occurred during the lifetime of Muhammad, with the Battle of Muʿtah in 629 CE. However, the actual conquest did not begin until 634, two years after Muhammad's death. It was led by the first two Rashidun caliphs who succeeded Muhammad: Abu Bakr and Umar ibn al-Khattab. During this time, Khalid ibn al-Walid was the most important leader of the Rashidun army.
Yazid ibn Abi Sufyan ibn Harb ibn Umayya was a leading Arab Muslim commander in the conquest of Syria from 634 until his death in the plague of Amwas in 639. Following the capture of Damascus around 635, he was placed in command of the city and its military district. After the death of the overall Muslim commander of Syria, Abu Ubayda ibn al-Jarrah, in 639, he was appointed by Caliph Umar the governor of Damascus, Jordan and Palestine.
The siege of Aleppo, the Byzantine stronghold and one of few remaining Byzantine castles in the northern Levant after the decisive Battle of Yarmouk, was laid between August and October 637.
The Battle of the Iron Bridge was fought between the Muslim Rashidun army and the Byzantine army in 637 AD. The battle took its name from a nearby nine-arch stone bridge spanning the Orontes River which had gates trimmed with iron. It was one of the last battles fought between the Byzantines and Rashidun Caliphate in the province of Syria. The aftermath of the battle marked the nearly complete annexation of the province into the Rashidun Caliphate with the fall of its capital, Antioch.
The Rashidun Caliphate was the first caliphate to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was ruled by the first four successive caliphs of Muhammad after his death in 632 CE. During its existence, the empire was the most powerful economic, cultural, and military force in West Asia and Northeast Africa.
The Battle of Fahl, also known as the Battle of the Marshes and the Battle of Beisan, was a major battle in the Muslim conquest of Byzantine Syria fought by the Arab troops of the Rashidun Caliphate and Byzantine forces at or near Pella (Fahl) and nearby Scythopolis (Beisan), both in the Jordan Valley, in December 634 or January 635.
The siege of Damascus (634) lasted from 21 August to 19 September 634 before the city fell to the Rashidun Caliphate. Damascus was the first major city of the Eastern Roman Empire to fall in the Muslim conquest of Syria.
The Siege of Jerusalem (636–637) was part of the Muslim conquest of the Levant and the result of the military efforts of the Rashidun Caliphate against the Byzantine Empire in the year 636–637/38. It began when the Rashidun army, under the command of Abu Ubayda, besieged Jerusalem beginning in November 636. After six months, the Patriarch Sophronius agreed to surrender, on condition that he submit only to the Caliph. In 637 or 638, Caliph Umar traveled to Jerusalem in person to receive the submission of the city. The Patriarch thus surrendered to him.
The siege of Emesa was laid by the forces of Rashidun Caliphate from December 635 up until March 636. This led to the Islamic conquest of Emesa, which was a major trading city of the Byzantine Empire in the Levant.
Battle of Marj al-Dibaj was fought between the Byzantine army, survivors from the conquest of Damascus, and the Rashidun Caliphate army in September 634. It was a successful raid after three days of armistice, on the Byzantine survivors of the conquest of Damascus.
The siege of Germanicia or Marash was led by Muslim forces of the Rashidun Caliphate during their campaigns in Anatolia in 638. The city surrendered without much bloodshed. This expedition is important because it marks the end of the military career of the legendary Arab Muslim general Khalid ibn Walid, who was dismissed from the army a few months after his return from the expedition.
Abū ʿAbd Allāh Shuraḥbīl ibn Ḥasana was one of the earliest Muslim converts, sahaba and a key commander in the Rashidun army during the Muslim conquest of the Levant.
Khalid ibn al-Walid ibn al-Mughira al-Makhzumi was a 7th-century Arab military commander. He initially headed campaigns against Muhammad on behalf of the Quraysh. He later became a Muslim and spent the remainder of his career in service to Muhammad and the first two Rashidun caliphs: Abu Bakr and Umar. Khalid played the leading command roles in the Ridda Wars against rebel tribes in Arabia in 632–633, the initial campaigns in Sasanian Iraq in 633–634, and the conquest of Byzantine Syria in 634–638.
References
↑ Donner, Fred (1982). The Early Islamic Conquests. Princeton University Press. p.143-145. ISBN9781400847877.
↑ Peterson, Leif Inge Ree (2013). Siege Warfare and Military Organization in the Successor States (400-800 AD). Brill. p.643. ISBN9789004254466.
↑ Donner, Fred (1982). The Early Islamic Conquests. Princeton University Press. p.129. ISBN9781400847877.
↑ Abel, A. (1986). "Bosra". Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition, Volume 1. Brill.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
