Muslim Conquests Through History
The Battle of Yarmouk, 636 AD
“The Battle of the Yarmuk (also spelled Yarmouk) was a major battle between the army of the Byzantine Empire and the 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 complete Muslim victory that ended Byzantine rule in Syria. 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 Prophet Muhammad, heralding the rapid advance of Islam into the then-Christian Levant”.
“Prior, to check the Arab advance and to recover lost territory, Emperor Heraclius had sent a massive expedition to the Levant in May 636. As the Byzantine army approached, the Arabs tactically withdrew from Syria and regrouped all their forces at the Yarmuk plains close to the Arabian Peninsula, where they were reinforced, and defeated the numerically superior Byzantine army. The battle is widely regarded to be Khalid ibn al-Walid’s greatest military victory and cemented his reputation as one of the greatest tacticians and cavalry commanders in history”.
Prior to the battle of Yarmouk the Khalif Umar (ra) removed Khalid Ibn Walid (q) from command for two reasons which have been questioned through history, Khalid (q) could not lose so why remove Him (q)? The First reason was popularity, his fame grew to such an extent people began to focus on Him and not Allah as the agent of victory, while it was Allah who was supporting him from the start, Khalid (q) was called the sword of Allah that could not break. The second reason was extremism, men who prolong their years of war begin to suffer internally from it and Umar (q) wanted Khalid (q) to focus more on himself for the sake of his afterlife, this is a reason Umar (q) gave later. In both instances this was a case of wisdom failing in the face of reality, and we see this from Allah Himself who rectified the situation so fate can occur. In the first instance Allah is the agent of success, but Allah was using Khalid (q) as His agent, and so we saw fate place Khalid (q) as commander once again before the battle of Yarmouk. In the second instance, while Umar’s fears were real and justified, this was not the time for them in this short period of time, it would not have mattered much, Khalid (q) had just crossed a vast desert to reinforce His (q) brothers, you do not replace commanders in the middle of engagements. In His own words, Allah is time, Umar (q) was right in His wisdom but wrong with Allah/Time, and the time when it should have been applied, this is the opinion of the People of Allah (saws) which I presented to them and what resolved the matter between Umar (saws) and Khalid (saws).
Battle Of The Zab River, 750 AD
“The Battle of the Zab River (Arabic: معركة الزاب), also referred to in scholarly contexts as Battle of the Great Zāb River, took place on January 25, 750, on the banks of the Great Zab River in what is now the modern country of Iraq.[not verified in body] It spelled the end of the Umayyad Caliphate and the rise of the Abbasids, a dynasty that would last from 750 to 1258 which is divided in to two periods Early Abbasid period (750-940) and Later Abbasid period (940-1258). In 747, a major rebellion broke out against the Umayyad Caliphate, which ruled most of the Middle East from 661 to 750. The principal cause of the rebellion was the increasing gap between the outlying peoples of the Caliphate and the Damascus-based Umayyad government. The Umayyad-appointed governors of the Caliphate’s various provinces were corrupt and interested only with personal gains. Additionally, the Umayyads claimed no direct descent from Muhammad, while the Abbasids did (they descended from Muhammad’s uncle Abbas”.
Battle Of Talas, 751 AD معركة نهر طلاس
“The Battle of Talas or Battle of Artlakh (Chinese: 怛羅斯戰役; pinyin: dáluósī zhànyì; Arabic: معركة نهر طلاس, romanized: maerakat nahr talas, Nastaliq: معركة نهر طلاس) was a military engagement between the Abbasid Caliphate along with its ally, the Tibetan Empire, against the Chinese Tang dynasty. In July 751 AD, Tang and Abbasid forces met in the valley of the Talas River to vie for control over the Syr Darya region of central Asia. After several days of stalemate, the Karluk Turks, originally allied to the Tang, defected to the Abbasids (Chinese sources) and tipped the balance of power, resulting in a Tang rout”.
“The defeat marked the end of the Tang westward expansion and resulted in Muslim control of Transoxiana for the next 400 years. Control of the region was economically beneficial for the Abbasids because it was on the Silk Road. Chinese prisoners captured in the aftermath of the battle are said to have brought paper-making technology to the Middle East, from where it eventually spread to Europe”.
“The oasis towns on the Silk Roads in Central Asia had once been controlled by the Türgesh, but the Turkic tribal confederation plunged into chaos in the latter half of the 7th century. The Tang empress Wu had retaken control of the Tarim Basin from the Tibetan Empire in 692 as part of the Tang expansion in Inner Asia and the oasis towns became a major source of income for the Chinese Tang dynasty. In 705 Qutayba ibn Muslim started to lead the army of the Arab Umayyad caliphate into wars to conquer Silk Road towns, exploiting Türgesh infighting. The Umayyad conquered the oasis towns Bukhara and Samarqand, expanding the border of their empire eastwards. At the same time the Türgesh khagan tribe leader Suluk began uniting the infighting Türgesh tribes. The Umayyad Arab, Tibetan and Tang armies would have two encounters”.
“In 715 Alutar was established as king of Fergana with the help of Umayyad and Tibetan soldiers. The disposed Ikhshid fled to the Tang controlled Kuqa, requested the aid of the emperor Xuanzong of Tang and 10,000 Tang soldiers reinstated Ikhshid as Fergana king. In 717 Arab Umayyad soldiers, assisted by the Tibetan Empire, besieged the oasis town Aksu in the Tarim Basin, but were defeated by the Tang military in the battle of Aksu”.
“In 715 the Tang emperor declined the demand of the Türgesh tribe leader Suluk to be recognized as Qaghan, instead offering him the rank of duke in the Tang military. In response, Suluk invaded the Tarim Basin together with the Tibetan Empire, but they were driven out by the cavalry of Ashina Xian. Suluk and his khagan soldiers challenged the Umayyad and Tang control of the oasis towns regularly. But before Suluk’s death his soldiers were defeated by the Tang in 736 and by the Umayyad military in 737. At the same time Türgesh tribes established metal industries in Tang controlled Fergana Valley, an area that was also home to important iron production centers. The Karluks, a federation of three Türgesh tribes with settlements in the Tian Shan mountains, were producers and exporters of iron weapons to the Tibetan empire and the Tang dynasty”.
“In 747 the Tang general Gao Xianzhi, who had successfully fought the Tibetan empire in the Pamir Mountains, established Tang control over the Gilgit region. In early 748 the Arab general Abu Muslim occupied Merv, the capital of Greater Khorasan, and went on to lead what has become known as the Abbasid revolution. In the year 750, Abu al-‘Abbas al-Saffah (As-Saffah) was proclaimed the first Abbasid caliph in the great mosque of Kufa”.
“The Umayyad Caliphate fell in 750 at the Battle of the Zab. Abu Muslim had raised an army that included Muslims and non-Muslims, which he dispatched westwards to take control over Ummayyad territory”.
“The Tang general and the Abbasid general would eventually meet in 750 when the kings of the Silk Road towns Tashkent and Ferghana sought the support of their imperial overlords in a battle of dominance. Gao Xianzhi conquered the Abbasid controlled Tashkent after a siege. The Abbasid general Ziyad ibn Salih escaped from Tashkent to Samarkand were he gathered troops and marched eastwards to confront the Tang army. In Fergana the Tang general Gao Xianzhi raised an army by recruiting Karluk Turks”.