On 20th of the Islamic month of Rajab in 13 AH, the Battle of Yarmouk
broke out between the Arab army and the forces of Byzantine or the
Eastern Roman Empire, ending six days later in a decisive victory for
Muslims. The battle consisted of a series of seesaw engagements near the
Yarmouk River, along what is today the border between Syria and Jordan,
south-east of the Sea of Galilee, 65 km from the Golan Heights. It is
regarded as one of the most decisive battles in military history, and it
marked the first great wave of Muslim conquests, ending the long sway
of the then superpowers, the Romans and the Persians.
In order to check the Muslim advance, Emperor Heraclius had entered into
an alliance with Emperor Yazdegird III of Sassanid Iran, and sent a
massive army made up of Slavs, Greeks, Franks, Georgians, Armenians and
Christian Arabs. The Muslim tactic by sending a separate force to Iraq
to confront the Sassanids, however, thwarted this alliance against Islam
from taking practical shape. Thus the total defeat of the numerically
superior Roman army by the lightly armed Muslims saw the fall of
Damascus as well, and a year later led to the liberation of Bayt
al-Moqaddas without bloodshed by the Muslims, who also rapidly took over
Egypt and Libya.
The emergence of Muslims on the world scene came only six years after
Heraclius had succeeded in reclaiming Egypt and the Levant from the
Persians, in a series of see-saw battles fought for over two decades
throughout West Asia, North Africa and Eastern Europe, including
Mesopotamia, the Caucasus, Anatolia, and even before the walls of
Constantinople itself. The advent of Islam completely changed the world
map with the entire Sassanid Empire and more than half of the whole
Roman Empire disappearing forever.
An important point to note is that the Commander of the Faithful, Imam
Ali (AS), who led the Muslims to victory in almost all the battles
imposed upon Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) by the Arab and Israelite
disbelievers, did not participate in the Roman and Persian campaigns,
which were led by the neo Muslim hitherto pagan Arabs subdued by his
flashing scimitar, the Dhu’l-Feqar.
Some 25 years later when these same arrogant victors of the wars against
the Romans and the Persians, like Zubayr ibn Awam, Amr ibn Aas,
Mu’awiyya ibn Abu Sufyan and others, tried to stir up sedition amongst
Muslims in Iraq and Syria (the former Sassanid and Byzantine
heartlands), Imam Ali (AS) personally assumed command and once again
unsheathed the Dhu’l-Feqar to decisively defeat them. For instance, Amr
ibn Aas, who used to boast of conquering Egypt, ignominiously denuded
himself In Siffeen while fleeing in order to escape certain death at the
hands of the Prophet’s righteous heir.
