THE BATTLEGROUND OF YARMOUK
THE BATTLEGROUND OF YARMOUK
- Just outside the city of Irbid lies the historic Battleground of Yarmouk.The site is of tremendous significance to Muslims, as it is where one of the greatest battles of Islam took place. Is was the decisive victory that permanently shifted the dominion in the Levant and Syria from the Byzantine Empire to the Islamic Caliphate.
- In August 636 CE, the Byzantine emperor Heraclius, determined to rid the Levant of the Muslims, mustered up a huge force to drive them out.
- His army consisted of Greeks, Slavs, Franks, Armenians, Georgians, and Ghassanids – the Christian Arab vassals of Syria.
- The Muslim army was indeed heavily outnumbered by the Byzantines. They all joined all the forces that they could muster and regrouped on the Yarmouk Plateau. There, they were further reinforced by fresh soldiers from Medina, bringing their number to around 20 000 while the Byzantines numbered double or triple that.
- The first five days of the battle had no major result but on the sixth, Khalid RA drew the Byzantines into a large-scale pitched battle. He outmanoeuvred them and then attacked as they retreated in disarray. Many drowned in the Yarmouk River, while some fell to their deaths from steep hills of the valley. The Muslims secured a crushing victory, whilst only taking around 4,000 casualties. The battle ended Byzantine rule in Syria.
