Khalid ibn al-Walid
Khalid ibn al-Walid خالد بن الوليد | |
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Native name | خالد بن الوليد بن المغيرة المخزومي |
Other name(s) |
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Born | c. 592 Arabia |
Died | 642 (aged c. 50) Medina or Homs, Rashidun Caliphate |
Possible burial place | Khalid ibn al-Walid Mosque (Homs, Syria) |
Allegiance |
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Service/ | Rashidun army |
Years of service | 629–638 |
Commands held |
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Battles/wars |
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Spouse(s) |
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Children |
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Relations | Banu Makhzum (a clan of the Quraysh tribe) |
Khalid ibn al-Walid ibn al-Mughira al-Makhzumi (
As a horseman of the Quraysh's aristocratic
Khalid subsequently moved against the largely
He is generally considered by historians to be one of the most seasoned and accomplished generals of the early Islamic era, and he is likewise commemorated throughout the
Ancestry and early life
Khalid's father was
Khalid's mother was al-Asma bint al-Harith ibn Hazn, commonly known as Lubaba al-Sughra ('Lubaba the Younger', to distinguish her from her elder half-sister
Genealogical tree of Khalid's clan, the Banu Makhzum | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Early military career
Opposition to Muhammad
The Makhzum were strongly opposed to Muhammad, and the clan's preeminent leader
The following year Khalid commanded the right flank of the cavalry in the Meccan army which confronted Muhammad at the
In 628 Muhammad and his followers headed for Mecca to perform the
Conversion to Islam and service under Muhammad
In the year 6
Khalid participated in the expedition to Mu'ta in modern-day Jordan ordered by Muhammad in September 629.[19][20] The purpose of the raid may have been to acquire booty in the wake of the Sasanian Persian army's retreat from Syria following its defeat by the Byzantine Empire in July.[21] The Muslim detachment was routed by a Byzantine force consisting mostly of Arab tribesmen led by the Byzantine commander Theodore and several high-ranking Muslim commanders were slain.[21][22] Khalid took command of the army following the deaths of the appointed commanders and, with considerable difficulty, oversaw a safe withdrawal of the Muslims.[20][23] Muhammad rewarded Khalid by bestowing on him the honorary title Sayf Allah ('the Sword of God').[23][a]
In December 629 or January 630, Khalid took part in Muhammad's
Khalid was afterward dispatched to
Later in 630, while
Commander in the Ridda wars
After Muhammad's death in June 632, one of his early and close companions,
Most tribes in Arabia, except those inhabiting the environs of Mecca, Medina and Ta'if discontinued their allegiance to the nascent Muslim state after Muhammad's death or had never established formal relations with Medina.
Of the six main conflict zones in Arabia during the Ridda wars, two were centered in Najd (the central Arabian plateau): the rebellion of the Asad, Tayy and Ghatafan tribes under Tulayha and the rebellion of the Tamim tribe led by Sajah; both leaders claimed to be prophets.[35][36] After Abu Bakr quashed the threat to Medina by the Ghatafan at the Battle of Dhu al-Qassa,[37] he dispatched Khalid against the rebel tribes in Najd.[38][b] Khalid was Abu Bakr's third nominee to lead the campaign after his first two choices, Zayd ibn al-Khattab and Abu Hudhayfa ibn Utba, refused the assignment.[40] His forces were drawn from the Muhajirun and the Ansar.[40] Throughout the campaign, Khalid demonstrated considerable operational independence and did not stringently abide by the caliph's directives.[41] In the words of Shaban, "he simply defeated whoever was there to be defeated".[41]
Battle of Buzakha
Khalid's initial focus was the suppression of Tulayha's following.[36] In late 632, he confronted Tulayha's forces at the Battle of Buzakha, which took place at the eponymous well in Asad territory where the tribes were encamped. The Tayy defected to the Muslims before Khalid's troops arrived to Buzakha, the result of mediation between the two sides by the Tayy chief Adi ibn Hatim. The latter had been assigned by Medina as its tax collector over his tribe and its traditional Asad rivals.[42]
Khalid bested the Asad–Ghatafan forces in battle.[43] When Tulayha appeared close to defeat, the Fazara section of the Ghatafan under their chief Uyayna ibn Hisn deserted the field, compelling Tulayha to flee for Syria.[44] His tribe, the Asad, subsequently submitted to Khalid, followed by the hitherto neutral Banu Amir, which had awaited the results of the conflict before giving its allegiance to either side.[44] Uyayna was captured and brought to Medina.[43] As a result of the victory at Buzakha, the Muslims gained control over most of Najd.[45]
Execution of Malik ibn Nuwayra
After Buzakha, Khalid proceeded against the rebel Tamimite chieftain
According to the most common account in the Muslim traditional sources, Khalid's army encountered Malik and eleven of his clansmen from the Yarbu in 632. The Yarbu did not resist, proclaimed their Muslim faith and were escorted to Khalid's camp. Khalid had them all executed over the objection of an Ansarite, who had been among the captors of the tribesmen and argued for the captives' inviolability due to their testaments as Muslims. Afterward, Khalid married Malik's widow Umm Tamim bint al-Minhal. When news of Khalid's actions reached Medina, Umar, who had become Abu Bakr's chief aide, pressed for Khalid to be punished or relieved of command, but Abu Bakr pardoned him.[46]
According to the account of the 8th-century historian Sayf ibn Umar, Malik had also been cooperating with the prophetess Sajah, his kinswoman from the Yarbu, but after they were defeated by rival clans from the Tamim, left her cause and retreated to his camp at al-Butah. There, he was encountered with his small party by the Muslims.[48] The modern historian Wilferd Madelung discounts Sayf's version, asserting that Umar and other Muslims would not have protested Khalid's execution of Malik if the latter had left Islam,[49] while Watt considers accounts about the Tamim during the Ridda in general to be "obscure ... partly because the enemies of Khālid b. al-Walīd have twisted the stories to blacken him".[50] In the view of the modern historian Ella Landau-Tasseron, "the truth behind Malik's career and death will remain buried under a heap of conflicting traditions".[48]
Elimination of Musaylima and conquest of the Yamama
Following a series of setbacks in her conflict with rival Tamim factions, Sajah joined the strongest opponent of the Muslims:
After his victories against the Bedouin of Najd, Khalid headed to the Yamama with warnings of the Hanifa's military prowess and instructions by Abu Bakr to act severely toward the tribe should he be victorious.[58] The 12th-century historian Ibn Hubaysh al-Asadi holds that the armies of Khalid and Musaylima respectively stood at 4,500 and 4,000. Kister dismisses the much larger figures cited by most of the early Muslim sources as exaggerations.[59] Khalid's first three assaults against Musaylima at the plain of Aqraba were beaten back.[59] The strength of Musaylima's warriors, the superiority of their swords and the fickleness of the Bedouin contingents in Khalid's ranks were all reasons cited by the Muslims for their initial failures.[59] Khalid heeded the counsel of the Ansarite Thabit ibn Qays to exclude the Bedouins from the next fight.[60]
In the fourth assault against the Hanifa, the Muhajirun under Khalid and the Ansar under Thabit killed a lieutenant of Musaylima, who subsequently fled with part of his army.[60] The Muslims pursued the Hanifa to a large enclosed garden which Musaylima used to stage a last stand against the Muslims.[60] The enclosure was stormed by the Muslims, Musaylima was slain and most of the Hanifites were killed or wounded.[60] The enclosure became known as the 'garden of death' for the high casualties suffered by both sides.[36]
Khalid assigned a Hanifite taken captive early in the campaign, Mujja'a ibn al-Murara, to assess the strength, morale and intentions of the Hanifa in their Yamama fortresses in the aftermath of Musaylima's slaying.
Khalid's terms with the Hanifa entailed the tribe's conversion to Islam and the surrender of their arms and armor and stockpiles of gold and silver.[61] Abu Bakr ratified the treaty, though he remained opposed to Khalid's concessions and warned that the Hanifa would remain eternally faithful to Musaylima.[61] The treaty was further consecrated by Khalid's marriage to Mujja'a's daughter. According to Lecker, Mujja'a's ruse may have been invented by the Islamic tradition "in order to protect Khalid's policy because the negotiated treaty ... caused the Muslims great losses".[38] Khalid was allotted an orchard and a field in each village included in the treaty with the Hanifa, while the villages excluded from the treaty were subject to punitive measures.[8] Among these villages were Musaylima's hometown al-Haddar and Mar'at, whose inhabitants were expelled or enslaved and the villages resettled with tribesmen from clans of the Tamim.[8][62]
Conclusion of the Ridda wars
The traditional sources place the final suppression of the Arab tribes of the Ridda wars before March 633, though Caetani insists the campaigns must have continued into 634.[36] The tribes in Bahrayn may have resisted the Muslims until the middle of 634. A number of the early Islamic sources ascribe a role for Khalid on the Bahrayn front after his victory over the Hanifa. Shoufani deems this improbable, while allowing the possibility that Khalid had earlier sent detachments from his army to reinforce the main Muslim commander in Bahrayn, al-Ala al-Hadhrami.[63]
The Muslim war efforts, in which Khalid played a vital part, secured Medina's dominance over the strong tribes of Arabia, which sought to diminish Islamic authority in the peninsula, and restored the nascent Muslim state's prestige.[8] According to Lecker, Khalid and the other Qurayshite generals "gained precious experience [during the Ridda wars] in mobilizing large multi-tribal armies over long distances" and "benefited from the close acquaintance of the Kuraysh [sic] with tribal politics throughout Arabia".[8]
Campaigns in Iraq
With the Yamama pacified, Khalid marched northward toward Sasanian territory in
The focus of Khalid's offensive was the western banks of the
From Ubulla's vicinity, Khalid marched up the western bank of the Euphrates where he clashed with the small Sasanian garrisons who guarded the Iraqi frontier from nomadic incursions.
During the engagements in and around al-Hira, Khalid received key assistance from al-Muthanna ibn Haritha and his Shayban tribe, who had been raiding this frontier for a considerable period before Khalid's arrival, though it is not clear if al-Muthanna's earlier activities were linked to the nascent Muslim state.[78] After Khalid departed, he left al-Muthanna in practical control of al-Hira and its vicinity.[79] He received similar assistance from the Sadus clan of the Dhuhl tribe under Qutba ibn Qatada and the Ijl tribe under al-Madh'ur ibn Adi during the engagements at Ubulla and Walaja.[80] None of these tribes, all of which were branches of the Banu Bakr confederation, joined Khalid when he operated outside of their tribal areas.[81]
Khalid continued northward along the Euphrates valley, attacking Anbar on the east bank of the river, where he secured capitulation terms from its Sasanian commander.[73] Afterward, he plundered the surrounding market villages frequented by tribesmen from the Bakr and Quda'a confederations, before moving against Ayn al-Tamr, an oasis town west of the Euphrates and about 90 kilometers (56 mi) south of Anbar.[73] Khalid encountered stiff resistance there by the tribesmen of the Namir, compelling him to besiege the town's fortress.[73] The Namir were led by Hilal ibn Aqqa, a Christian chieftain allied with the Sasanians, who Khalid had crucified after defeating him.[82] Ayn al-Tamr capitulated and Khalid captured the town of Sandawda to the north.[73] By this stage, Khalid had subjugated the western areas of the lower Euphrates and the nomadic tribes, including the Namir, Taghlib, Iyad, Taymallat and most of the Ijl, as well as the settled Arab tribesmen, which resided there.[83]
Modern assessments
Athamina doubts the Islamic traditional narrative that Abu Bakr directed Khalid to launch a campaign in Iraq, citing Abu Bakr's disinterest in Iraq at a time when the Muslim state's energies were focused principally on the conquest of Syria.[84] Unlike Syria, Iraq had not been the focus of Muhammad's or the early Muslims' ambitions, nor did the Quraysh maintain trading interests in the region dating to the pre-Islamic period as they had in Syria.[85] According to Shaban, it is unclear if Khalid requested or received Abu Bakr's sanction to raid Iraq or ignored objections by the caliph.[41] Athamina notes hints in the traditional sources that Khalid initiated the campaign unilaterally, implying that the return of the Muhajirun in Khalid's ranks to Medina following Musaylima's defeat likely represented their protest of Khalid's ambitions in Iraq.[86] Shaban holds that the tribesmen who remained in Khalid's army were motivated by the prospect of war booty, particularly amid an economic crisis in Arabia which had arisen in the aftermath of the Ridda campaigns.[41]
According to Fred Donner, the subjugation of Arab tribes may have been Khalid's primary goal in Iraq and clashes with Persian troops were the inevitable, if incidental, result of the tribes' alignment with the Sasanian Empire.[83] In Kennedy's view, Khalid's push toward the desert frontier of Iraq was "a natural continuation of his work" subduing the tribes of northeastern Arabia and in line with Medina's policy to bring all nomadic Arab tribes under its authority.[69] Madelung asserts Abu Bakr relied on the Qurayshite aristocracy during the Ridda wars and early Muslim conquests and speculates that the caliph dispatched Khalid to Iraq to allot the Makhzum an interest in that region.[87]
The extent of Khalid's role in the conquest of Iraq is disputed by modern historians.
March to Syria
All early Islamic accounts agree that Khalid was ordered by Abu Bakr to leave Iraq for Syria to support Muslim forces already present there. Most of these accounts hold that the caliph's order was prompted by requests for reinforcements by the Muslim commanders in Syria.[91] Khalid likely began his march to Syria in early April 634.[92] He left small Muslim garrisons in the conquered cities of Iraq under the overall military command of al-Muthanna ibn Haritha.[93]
The chronological sequence of events after Khalid's operations in Ayn al-Tamr is inconsistent and confused.
In the Dumat al-Jandal campaign, Khalid was instructed by Abu Bakr or requested by one of the commanders of the campaign, al-Walid ibn Uqba, to reinforce the lead commander Iyad ibn Ghanm's faltering siege of the oasis town. Its defenders were backed by their nomadic allies from the Byzantine-confederate tribes, the Ghassanids, Tanukhids, Salihids, Bahra and Banu Kalb.[95] Khalid left Ayn al-Tamr for Dumat al-Jandal where the combined Muslim forces bested the defenders in a pitched battle.[95] Afterward, Khalid executed the town's Kindite leader Ukaydir, who had defected from Medina following Muhammad's death, while the Kalbite chief Wadi'a was spared after the intercession of his Tamimite allies in the Muslims' camp.[96]
The historians Michael Jan de Goeje and Caetani dismiss altogether that Khalid led an expedition to Dumat al-Jandal following his Iraqi campaign and that the city mentioned in the traditional sources was likely the town by the same name near al-Hira.[28] The historian Laura Veccia Vaglieri calls their assessment "logical" and writes that "it seems impossible that Khālid could have made such a detour which would have taken him so far out of his way while delaying the accomplishment of his mission [to join the Muslim armies in Syria]".[28] Vaglieri surmises that the oasis was conquered by Iyad ibn Ghanm or possibly Amr ibn al-As as the latter had been previously tasked during the Ridda wars with suppressing Wadi'a, who had barricaded himself in Dumat al-Jandal.[28] Crone, dismissing Khalid's role in Iraq entirely, asserts that Khalid had definitively captured Dumat al-Jandal in the 631 campaign and from there crossed the desert to engage in the Syrian conquest.[19]
Itineraries and the desert march
The starting point of Khalid's general march to Syria was al-Hira, according to most of the traditional accounts, with the exception of al-Baladhuri, who places it at Ayn al-Tamr.[97] The segment of the general march called the 'desert march' by the sources occurred at an unclear stage after the al-Hira departure.[98] This phase entailed Khalid and his men—numbering between 500 and 800 strong[99]—marching from a well called Quraqir across a vast stretch of waterless desert for six days and five nights until reaching a source of water at a place called Suwa.[100] As his men did not possess sufficient waterskins to traverse this distance with their horses and camels, Khalid had some twenty of his camels increase their typical water intake and sealed their mouths to prevent the camels from eating and consequently spoiling the water in their stomachs; each day of the march, he had a number of the camels slaughtered so his men could drink the water stored in the camels' stomachs.[99][101] The utilization of the camels as water storage and the locating of the water source at Suwa were the result of advice given to Khalid by his guide, Rafi ibn Amr of the Tayy.[99][102]
Excluding the above-mentioned operations in Dumat al-Jandal and the upper Euphrates valley, the traditional accounts agree on only two events of Khalid's route to Syria after the departure from al-Hira: the desert march between Quraqir and Suwa, and a subsequent raid against the Bahra tribe at or near Suwa and operations which resulted in the submission of Palmyra; otherwise, they diverge in tracing Khalid's itinerary.[103] Based on these accounts, Donner summarizes three possible routes taken by Khalid to the vicinity of Damascus: two via Palmyra from the north and the one via Dumat al-Jandal from the south.[98] Kennedy notes the sources are "equally certain" in their advocacy of their respective itineraries and there is "simply no knowing which version is correct".[99]
In the first Palmyra–Damascus itinerary, Khalid marches upwards along the Euphrates—passing through places he had previously reduced—to Jabal al-Bishri and from there successively moves southwestwards through Palmyra,
The desert march is the most celebrated episode of Khalid's expedition and medieval Futuh ('Islamic conquests') literature in general.[100] Kennedy writes that the desert march "has been enshrined in history and legend. Arab sources marvelled at his [Khalid's] endurance; modern scholars have seen him as a master of strategy."[99] He asserts it is "certain" Khalid embarked on the march, "a memorable feat of military endurance", and "his arrival in Syria was an important ingredient of the success of Muslim arms there".[99] The historian Moshe Gil calls the march "a feat which has no parallel" and a testament to "Khalid's qualities as an outstanding commander".[105]
The historian Ryan J. Lynch deems Khalid's desert march to be a literary construct by the authors of the Islamic tradition to form a narrative linking the Muslim conquests of Iraq and Syria and presenting the conquests as "a well-calculated, singular affair" in line with the authors' alleged polemical motives.[106] Lynch holds that the story of the march, which "would have excited and entertained" Muslim audiences, was created out of "fragments of social memory" by inhabitants who attributed the conquests of their towns or areas to Khalid as a means "to earn a certain degree of prestige through association" with the "famous general".[106]
Conquest of Syria
Most traditional accounts have the first Muslim armies deploy to Syria from Medina at the beginning of 13 AH (early spring 634).
Khalid was appointed supreme commander of the Muslim armies in Syria.
Khalid reached the meadow of
Khalid and the Muslim commanders headed west to Palestine to join Amr as the latter's subordinates in the Battle of Ajnadayn, the first major confrontation with the Byzantines, in July.[120][121] The battle ended in a decisive victory for the Muslims and the Byzantines retreated toward Pella ('Fahl' in Arabic), a major city east of the Jordan River.[120][121] The Muslims pursued them and scored another major victory at the Battle of Fahl, though it is unclear if Amr or Khalid held overall command in the engagement.[122]
Siege of Damascus
The remnants of the Byzantine forces from Ajnadayn and Fahl retreated north to Damascus, where the Byzantine commanders called for imperial reinforcements.
Several traditions relate the Muslims' capture of Damascus.
In the versions of the Syriac author
Although the accounts cited by al-Waqidi (d. 823) and Ibn Ishaq agree that Damascus surrendered in August/September 635, they provide varying timelines of the siege ranging from four to fourteen months.[134][123]
Battle of Yarmouk
In the spring of 636, Khalid withdrew his forces from Damascus to the old Ghassanid capital at
The Byzantine army set up camp at the
Khalid split his cavalry into two main groups, each positioned behind the Muslims' right and left infantry wings to protect his forces from a potential envelopment by the Byzantine heavy cavalry.[141] He stationed an elite squadron of 200–300 horsemen to support the center of his defensive line and left archers posted in the Muslims' camp near Dayr Ayyub, where they could be most effective against an incoming Byzantine force.[141] The Byzantines' initial assaults against the Muslims' right and left flanks successively failed, but they kept up the momentum until the entire Muslim line fell back or, as contemporary Christian sources maintain, feigned retreat.[141]
The Byzantines pursued the Muslims into their camp, where the Muslims had their camel herds hobbled to form a series of defensive perimeters from which the infantry could fight and which Byzantine cavalries could not easily penetrate.[142] As a result, the Byzantines were left vulnerable to attack by Muslim archers, their momentum was halted and their left flank exposed.[141] Khalid and his cavalries used the opportunity to pierce the Byzantines' left flank, taking advantage of the gap between the Byzantine infantry and cavalry.[135][143][144] Khalid enveloped the opposing heavy cavalry on either side, but intentionally left an opening from which the Byzantines could only escape northward, far from their infantry.[144] According to the 9th-century Byzantine historian Theophanes, the Byzantine infantry mutinied under Vahan, possibly in light of Theodore's failure to counter the attack on the cavalry. The infantry was subsequently routed.[145]
The Byzantine cavalry, meanwhile, had withdrawn north to the area between the Ruqqad and Allan tributaries.[135] Khalid sent a force to pursue and prevent them from regrouping.[141] He followed up with a nighttime operation in which he seized the Ruqqad bridge, the only viable withdrawal route for the Byzantines.[135] The Muslims then assaulted the Byzantines' camps on 20 August and massacred most of the Byzantine troops,[135] or induced panic in Byzantine ranks, causing thousands to die in the Yarmouk's ravines in an attempt to make a westward retreat.[146]
Jandora credits the Muslim victory at Yarmouk to the cohesion and "superior leadership" of the Muslim army, particularly the "ingenuity" of Khalid, in comparison to the widespread discord in the Byzantine army's ranks and the conventional tactics of Theodorus, which Khalid "correctly anticipated".[147] In Gil's view, Khalid's withdrawal before the army of Heraclius, the evacuation of Damascus and the counter-movement on the Yarmouk tributaries "are evidence of his excellent organising ability and his skill at manoeuvring on the battlefield".[105] The Byzantine rout marked the destruction of their last effective army in Syria, immediately securing earlier Muslim gains in Palestine and Transjordan and paving the way for the recapture of Damascus[135] in December, this time by Abu Ubayda,[132] and the conquest of the Beqaa Valley and ultimately the rest of Syria to the north.[135] In Jandora's assessment, Yarmouk was one of "the most important battles of World History", ultimately leading to Muslim victories which expanded the Caliphate between the Pyrenees mountains and Central Asia.[148]
Demotion
Khalid was retained as supreme commander of the Muslim forces in Syria between six months and two years from the start of Umar's caliphate, depending on the source.[149] Modern historians mostly agree that Umar's dismissal of Khalid probably occurred in the aftermath of Yarmouk.[150] The caliph appointed Abu Ubayda to Khalid's place, reassigned his troops to the remaining Muslim commanders and subordinated Khalid under the command of one of Abu Ubayda's lieutenants; a later order deployed the bulk of Khalid's former troops to Iraq.[151] Varied causes for Khalid's dismissal from the supreme command are cited by the early Islamic sources.[152] Among them were his independent decision-making and minimal coordination with the leadership in Medina; older allegations of moral misconduct, including his execution of Malik ibn Nuwayra and subsequent marriage to Malik's widow; accusations of generous distribution of booty to members of the tribal nobility to the detriment of eligible early Muslim converts; personal animosity between Khalid and Umar; and Umar's uneasiness over Khalid's heroic reputation among the Muslims, which he feared could develop into a personality cult.[153]
The modern historians De Goeje, William Muir and Andreas Stratos viewed Umar's enmity with Khalid as a contributing cause of Khalid's dismissal. Shaban acknowledges the enmity but asserts it had no bearing on the caliph's decision.[149] De Goeje dismisses Khalid's extravagant grants to the tribal nobility, a common practice among the early Muslim leaders including Muhammad, as a cause for his sacking.[149] Muir, Becker, Stratos and Philip K. Hitti have proposed that Khalid was ultimately dismissed because the Muslim gains in Syria in the aftermath of Yarmouk required the replacement of a military commander at the helm with a capable administrator such as Abu Ubayda.[152]
Athamina doubts all the aforementioned reasons, arguing the cause "must have been vital" at a time when large parts of Syria remained under Byzantine control and Heraclius had not abandoned the province.
Operations in northern Syria
Abu Ubayda and Khalid proceeded from Damascus northward to Homs (called Emesa by the Byzantines) and besieged the city probably in the winter of 636–637.[159] The siege held amid a number of sorties by the Byzantine defenders and the city capitulated in the spring.[159] Per the surrender terms, taxes were imposed on the inhabitants in return for guarantees of protection for their property, churches, water mills and the city walls.[160] A quarter of the church of St. John was reserved for Muslim use, and abandoned houses and gardens were confiscated and distributed by Abu Ubayda or Khalid among the Muslim troops and their families.[160] Owing to its proximity to the desert steppe, Homs was viewed as a favorable place of settlement for Arab tribesmen and became the first city in Syria to acquire a large Muslim population.[160]
Information about the subsequent conquests in northern Syria is scant and partly contradictory.
Khalid may have participated in the
Dismissal and death
According to Sayf ibn Umar, later in 638 Khalid was rumored to have lavishly distributed war spoils from his northern Syrian campaigns, including a sum to the Kindite nobleman al-Ash'ath ibn Qays.[171] Umar consequently ordered that Abu Ubayda publicly interrogate and relieve Khalid from his post regardless of the interrogation's outcome, as well as to put Qinnasrin under Abu Ubayda's direct administration.[172] Following his interrogation in Homs, Khalid issued successive farewell speeches to the troops in Qinnasrin and Homs before being summoned by Umar to Medina.[173] Sayf's account notes that Umar sent notice to the Muslim garrisons in Syria and Iraq that Khalid was dismissed not as a result of improprieties but because the troops had become "captivated by illusions on account of him [Khalid]" and he feared they would disproportionately place their trust in him rather than God.[174]
Khalid's sacking did not elicit public backlash, possibly due to existing awareness in the Muslim polity of Umar's enmity toward Khalid, which prepared the public for his dismissal, or because of existing hostility toward the Makhzum in general as a result of their earlier opposition to Muhammad and the early Muslims.
Khalid died in Medina or Homs in 21 AH (c. 642 CE).[179][180] Purported hadiths related about Khalid include Muhammad's urgings to Muslims not to harm Khalid and prophecies that Khalid would be dealt injustices despite his tremendous contributions to Islam.[181] In Islamic literary narratives, Umar expresses remorse over dismissing Khalid and the women of Medina mourn his death en masse.[181] Athamina considers these all to be "no more than latter-day expressions of sympathy on the part of subsequent generations for the heroic character of Khalid as portrayed by Islamic tradition".[181]
Legacy
Khalid is credited by the early sources for being the most effective commander of the conquests, including after his dismissal from the supreme command.[182] He is considered "one of the tactical geniuses of the early Islamic period" by Donner.[111] The historian Carole Hillenbrand calls him "the most famous of all Arab Muslim generals",[183] and Humphreys describes him as "perhaps the most famous and brilliant Arab general of the Riddah wars and the early conquests".[90] In Kennedy's assessment, Khalid was "a brilliant, ruthless military commander, but one with whom the more pious Muslims could never feel entirely comfortable".[184] While recognizing his military achievements, the early Islamic sources present a mixed assessment of Khalid due to his early confrontation with Muhammad at Uhud, his reputation for brutal or disproportionate actions against Arab tribesmen during the Ridda wars and his military fame which disturbed the pious early converts.[18]
According to the historian Richard Blackburn, despite attempts in the early sources to discredit Khalid, his reputation has developed as "Islam's most formidable warrior" during the eras of Muhammad, Abu Bakr and the conquest of Syria.
Family and claimants of descent
Khalid's eldest son was named Sulayman, hence his
There is no further significant role played by members of Khalid's family in the historical record.[19] His male line of descent ended toward the collapse of the Umayyad Caliphate in 750 or shortly after when all forty of his male descendants died in a plague in Syria, according to the 11th-century historian Ibn Hazm.[188] As a result, his family's properties, including his residence and several other houses in Medina, were inherited by Ayyub ibn Salama, a great-grandson of Khalid's brother al-Walid ibn al-Walid. They remained in the possession of Ayyub's descendants until at least the late 9th century.[192][e]
The family of the 12th-century Arab poet
Mausoleum in Homs
Starting in the Ayyubid period in Syria (1182–1260), Homs has obtained fame as the location of the purported tomb and mosque of Khalid.[199] The 12th-century traveler Ibn Jubayr noted that the tomb contained the graves of Khalid and his son Abd al-Rahman.[180] Muslim tradition since then has placed Khalid's tomb in the city.[180] The building was altered by the first Ayyubid sultan Saladin (r. 1171–1193) and again in the 13th century.[199] The Mamluk sultan Baybars (r. 1260–1277) attempted to link his own military achievements with those of Khalid by having an inscription honoring himself carved on Khalid's mausoleum in Homs in 1266.[183] During his 17th-century visit to the mausoleum, the Muslim scholar Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulsi agreed that Khalid was buried there but also noted an alternative Islamic tradition that the grave belonged to Mu'awiya's grandson Khalid ibn Yazid.[199] The current mosque dates to 1908 when the Ottoman authorities rebuilt the structure.[180][200]
See also
- 7th century in Lebanon § Ṣaḥāba who have visited Lebanon
- List of battles of Muhammad
- List of Arab military figures
Notes
- Battle of Mu'ta.[24]
- ^ Abu Bakr had previously dispatched the bulk of the Muslim army, under Usama ibn Zayd, to attack Byzantine Syria, despite threats to the Muslim towns of the Hejaz by nomadic tribes which had discarded Muslim authority.[36][38] The historian Elias Shoufani contends that Usama's expedition was a much smaller force than had been originally planned by the Islamic prophet Muhammad and doubts its ranks comprised most of the Ansar, Muhajirun, and the Bedouin tribesmen of the Mecca and Medina areas; rather, it probably consisted mainly of poorer, brigand-types among the Muslims who depended on booty from raids for sustenance.[39] Lecker holds that Khalid was deployed against the tribes in Najd before the return of Usama's army,[38] while Watt notes Khalid was sent with a large army after Usama's return.[36]
- Dionysius of Tel Mahre and the Melkite patriarch Eutychius of Alexandria.[130]
- Beisan, Homs, Aleppo, Jerusalem, as well as Alexandria in Egypt and the cities of Upper Mesopotamia.[133]
- ^ Following his conversion to Islam, Khalid was granted a plot of land by the Islamic prophet Muhammad immediately east of the Prophet's Mosque in Medina to build his house, which was completed before Muhammad's death.[193] It was a small plot, a result of his relatively late conversion (most available plots had already been granted to earlier converts), but after complaining of the size, Khalid was permitted by Muhammad to build higher than the other houses in Medina.[194] Khalid declared his house a charitable endowment, prohibiting his descendants from selling or passing ownership of it.[194] In the 12th century, Kamal al-Din Muhammad al-Shahrazuri, the head qadi (Islamic judge) of the Zengid dynasty in Syria, purchased and converted Khalid's house in Medina into a ribat ('charitable house' or 'hospice') for men.[194]
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Further reading
- Kaegi, Walter E. (1991). "Khālid". In ISBN 0-19-504652-8.
- Lynch, Ryan J. (2018). "Khalid b. al-Walid". In Nicholson, Oliver (ed.). ISBN 978-0-19-866277-8.