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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.
Year 637 (DCXXXVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. The denomination 637 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.
Year 638 (DCXXXVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar. The denomination 638 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 decisive 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.
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 was 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 during the Plague of Amwas in 639 before Umar.
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, as well as the larger Muslim colonial project, 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.
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.
Umar was the second Rashidun Caliph and reigned during 634–644. Umar's caliphate is notable for its vast conquests. Aided by brilliant field commanders, he was able to incorporate present-day Iraq, Iran, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Syria, Jordan, Palestine, Lebanon, Egypt, and parts of Afghanistan, Turkmenistan and south western Pakistan into the Caliphate. During his reign, the Byzantines lost more than three fourths of their territory and in Persia, Umar became the king (ruler) of Iran after the fall of the Sassanid Empire.
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 consisted of the first four successive caliphs (lit. 'successors') who led the Muslim community following the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad in 632 – Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, and Ali. During the Caliphate's existence, the empire was the most powerful economic, cultural, and military force in West Asia and Northeast Africa. In Sunni Islam, the caliphate is considered to have been 'rightly guided', meaning that it constitutes a model to be followed and emulated from a religious point of view. The caliphs are also known in Muslim history as the "orthodox" or "patriarchal" caliphs.
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, 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.
Al-Qaʿqāʿ ibn ʿAmr ibn Mālik Al-Tamīmī was an Arab Muslim commander and general in the Rashidun army who belonged to the tribe of Banu Tamim. He and his tribe converted to Islam possibly during the time of Ahnaf ibn Qais. He is known as a successful military commander who took part in two important victorious battles in the early Muslim Conquest, the Battle of Yarmouk against the Byzantine Empire and the Battle of al-Qadisiyyah against the Sassanian Empire which was led by Sa`d ibn Abi Waqqas. The Caliph Abu Bakr praised him as an equal to eleven thousand men so in return the caliph's successor, caliph Umar, only sent Qaʿqāʿ and a handful of bodyguards in the first wave of reinforcements to Al-Qadissiyah. Qaʿqāʿ was one of the most illustrious military figures of his era.
The Arab conquest of Mesopotamia was carried out by the Rashidun Caliphate from 633 to 638 AD. The Arab Muslim forces of Caliph Umar first attacked Sasanian territory in 633, when Khalid ibn al-Walid invaded Mesopotamia, which was the political and economic centre of the Sasanian state. From 634 to 636 AD, following the transfer of Khalid to the Byzantine front in the Levant, the hold of Arab forces on the region weakened under the pressure of Sasanian counterattacks. A second major Arab offensive in 636 and ended in January 638 with the capture of Mosul and the consolidation of Arab control over and exclusion of Sasanid influence from the whole Mosul-Tikrit region.
The siege of Emesa in 638 was laid by a coalition force of Arab Christian tribes from Jazira which mustered by Heraclius in an attempt to stem the losses of Byzantine territories due to rapid expansion of the Rashidun Caliphate in the Levant.
The Battle of Marj ar-Rum, also known as the Battle of Marj Dimashq, was a conflict between the Rashidun caliphate and the Byzantine Empire. The battle occurred shortly after the Battle of Fahl when the Byzantines attempted to recapture Damascus. Heraclius, the Byzantine emperor, sent two separate forces in the effort, one army led by Theodore the Patricius and a second army led by Shannash al-Rome. The Rashidun army led by Abu Ubaydah ibn al Jarrah and Khalid ibn al-Walid was ordered to assist Yazid ibn Abi Sufyan who was acting as the garrison commander of Damascus.
References
- ↑ A.I. Akram, The Sword of Allah: Khalid bin al-Waleed, His Life and Campaigns, Nat. Publishing. House, Rawalpindi (1970) ISBN 0-7101-0104-X. chapter no:36
- ↑ Tabari: Vol. 3, p. 167.
- ↑ Tabari: Vol. 3, p. 99.