The Dispatch of the Armies to Syria

All stops in this story

1. The Dispatch of the Armies to Syria — c. 12 April 634 CE · 1 Muharram 13 AH

   In al-Baladhuri: when Abu Bakr had finished with the apostates he resolved to direct the armies to Syria, writing to the people of Mecca, al-Ta'if, Yemen and all the Arabs of Najd and the Hijaz summoning them to jihad and stirring their desire for Byzantine spoil, and they hastened from every quarter; he bound three banners for three men — Khalid ibn Sa'id ibn al-As, Shurahbil ibn Hasana (per al-Waqidi son of Abdullah ibn al-Mutta' al-Kindi with Hasana his mother, per al-Kalbi son of Rabi'a ibn al-Mutta' of the children of Sufa) and Amr ibn al-As al-Sahmi — the binding being on Thursday at the opening of Safar year 13, after the armies had camped at al-Jurf the whole of al-Muharram, with Abu Ubayda ibn al-Jarrah leading their prayers; Abu Bakr had wanted to bind a banner for Abu Ubayda who begged off — some report he did bind it, which is not established — and Abu Yakhnaf records Abu Bakr telling the commanders 'if you join in battle your commander is Abu Ubayda, otherwise Yazid ibn Abi Sufyan', while Amr is said to have been only a reinforcement and commander over those joined to him; when he bound Khalid ibn Sa'id's banner Umar disliked it and spoke to Abu Bakr of deposing him — 'he is a proud man who carries his charge with contentiousness and partisanship' — so he deposed him and sent Abu Adwa' al-Dawsi to take his banner, who met him at Dhu al-Marwa and took it, and it was given to Yazid ibn Abi Sufyan, who marched with his brother Mu'awiya bearing it before him — others say it was handed to him at Dhu al-Marwa and he took over Khalid's army, Khalid ibn Sa'id marching on as a volunteer in Shurahbil's army; he ordered Amr to take the Ayla road toward Filastin, Yazid the Tabuk road and Shurahbil likewise; each commander set out with three thousand men, then he kept sending reinforcements until each had seven thousand five hundred, and their total completed at twenty-four thousand; al-Waqidi reports Abu Bakr gave Amr Filastin, Shurahbil al-Urdunn and Yazid Dimashq — 'if you have fighting, your commander is the one in whose charge you stand' — and that he ordered Amr verbally to lead the people in prayer.

2. The Conquest of Antioch — c. 637 CE · c. 16 AH

   In al-Baladhuri: Abu Ubayda went from Aleppo to Antioch, where a body of the people of the Qinnasrin jund had fortified themselves; at Haruba — near two farsakhs from the city — an enemy gathering met him and he scattered them back into the city, besieging it at all its gates, the bulk of the army at Bab Faris and the gate called Bab al-Bahr; they then compounded for jizya and evacuation, some departing and some staying, and he secured them setting on each adult a dinar and a jarib; when they broke the covenant he sent Iyad ibn Ghanm and Habib ibn Maslama, who retook it on the first treaty — others say they broke it after he returned to Filastin and Amr ibn al-As was sent from Iliya' to take it; Umar wrote to Abu Ubayda to station at Antioch a company of Muslims of right intent and scruple as murabita, withholding no mounts from them, and Mu'awiya received the same when in office while Uthman ordered him to settle men there and grant land — which he did; Mu'awiya transferred to Antioch in year 42 companies of Persians and people of Ba'labakk, Hims and the two Misrs, and al-Walid ibn Abd al-Malik granted troops land at Saluqiyya by the coast rating the filthir at a dinar and two mudds of wheat — they cultivated it and he built Hisn Saluqiyya; among the transferees was Muslim ibn Abdullah — grandfather of Abdullah ibn Habib ibn al-Nu'man al-Antaki — whom a Byzantine killed with a stone on the wall, a gate of Antioch being named Bab Muslim after him.

3. The Taking and Settling of Mar'ash — c. 637 CE · c. 18 AH

   In al-Baladhuri: Abu Ubayda ibn al-Jarrah — he being at Manbij — sent Khalid ibn al-Walid to the Mar'ash region, and he took its fortress on condition its people evacuate, then demolished it; when Sufyan ibn Awf al-Ghamidi raided the Byzantines in year 30 he set out from before Mar'ash and ranged their lands; Mu'awiya built the city of Mar'ash and garrisoned it, but at Yazid ibn Mu'awiya's death Byzantine raids multiplied and its people left, and Abd al-Malik — after his father Marwan ibn al-Hakam's death — compounded with the Byzantines for tribute while seeking the caliphate; in year 74 Muhammad ibn Marwan raided and the truce broke, and in year 75 he again led the summer expedition, the Romans coming out in Jumada I by way of Mar'ash into the depths, where the Muslims under Aban ibn al-Walid ibn Uqba ibn Abi Mu'ayt — with him Dinar ibn Dinar, mawla of Abd al-Malik and governor of Qinnasrin and its districts — met them at Amq Mar'ash in a hard battle, routed them and pursued killing and capturing — Dinar having that same year met a Roman body at Jisr Yaghra, some ten miles from Shimshat, and overcome them; then al-Abbas ibn al-Walid ibn Abd al-Malik went to Mar'ash, rebuilt and fortified it, transferred people to it, built its congregational mosque and levied an annual contingent on Qinnasrin; in Marwan ibn Muhammad's days — he busy fighting Hims — the Romans besieged Mar'ash until its people compounded to evacuate toward the Jazira with the Qinnasrin troops and their families, then demolished it — Marwan's governor being al-Kawthar ibn Zufar ibn al-Harith al-Kilabi, the tyrant being Constantine son of Leo; when Marwan had finished with Hims and razed its wall he sent an army to rebuild Mar'ash, and built it was and made a city — but in his civil war the Romans wrecked it again; Salih ibn Ali rebuilt and fortified it in al-Mansur's caliphate, calling people to it with increased pay, and al-Mahdi enlarged its garrison and strengthened its people.

4. The Conquest of Caesarea — c. October 640 CE · Shawwal 19 AH

   In al-Baladhuri: the conquest of Caesarea is disputed — some ascribe it to Mu'awiya, others to Iyad ibn Ghanm after Abu Ubayda's death, others to Amr ibn al-As or his son Abdullah; what the scholars agree is that the first to besiege it was Amr ibn al-As, camping against it in Jumada I year 13 and staying as long as he did, marching off whenever the Muslims massed against an enemy — attending Ajnadayn, Fihl, the Marj, Damascus and the Yarmuk — then returning to Filastin to besiege it after Iliya', before leaving from Caesarea for Egypt; Yazid ibn Abi Sufyan, succeeding Abu Ubayda, charged his brother Mu'awiya with the siege and went plague-stricken to Damascus, dying there at the end of year 18, leaving Mu'awiya over Caesarea, who took it and wrote of it to Yazid who wrote to Umar; al-Waqidi reports that when Umar gave Mu'awiya Syria he besieged it until he took it — it had been besieged near seven years — its conquest falling in Shawwal year 19, some say the opening of year 20; the cause of its fall was a Jew named Yusuf who came to the Muslims by night and guided them to a way through a conduit with water to a man's waist, on condition of safety for himself and his house — Mu'awiya carried it out and the Muslims entered by night and magnified God, the Byzantines fleeing toward the conduit finding the Muslims upon it, and the gate being opened Mu'awiya entered with his men; it is said he found in it seven hundred thousand apostates, thirty thousand Samaritans and two hundred thousand Jews, three hundred functioning markets and a hundred thousand guarding its wall each night; its captives reached four thousand heads whom Mu'awiya sent to Umar, who had them quartered at al-Jurf and divided among the orphans of the Ansar, putting some to the script and the Muslims' labours — Abu Bakr had given the daughters of Abu Umama As'ad ibn Zurara two servants of Ayn al-Tamr's captives who died, and Umar gave them their like of Caesarea's; Mu'awiya sent the victory news with two men of Judham, then fearing their weakness sent a man of Khath'am who outpaced them and came to Umar, who magnified God; in it is said to have been Shaqa'iq, of whom Hassan ibn Thabit says 'Shaqa'iq says: had you woken from the wine you would have risen enriched in number'.

5. the conquest of Ascalon (24 AH) — 644 CE · 24 AH

   Mu'awiya's summer expedition — with 'Ubada ibn al-Samit and Abu Ayyub al-Ansari in his ranks — ended with Ascalon taken on terms .

6. The Taking of Qaliqala and the Opening of Armenia — c. 645 CE · c. 25 AH

   In al-Baladhuri: when Uthman ibn Affan acceded he wrote to Mu'awiya — his governor over Syria, the Jazira and their frontier — ordering him to send Habib ibn Maslama al-Fihri to Armenia, Habib having a fine record in Syria's conquests and the Roman wars known to Umar then Uthman and after — or, it is said, and it is the sounder, Uthman wrote to Habib directly ordering the raid — so he marched with six thousand, or eight, of the Syrians and Jazirans to Qaliqala, camped on it, fought its sallying people and drove them into the city, whereupon they sought aman on evacuation and jizya, many departing for Roman lands; Habib stayed months with those with him until word came that the patrikios of the Armeniakoi had gathered a great host joined by auxiliaries of the Alan, the Abkhaz and Samandar of the Khazars, so he wrote Uthman asking him to send men of Syria and the Jazira desiring jihad and spoils, and Mu'awiya sent two thousand men whom he settled in Qaliqala with land-grants as its garrison; the Romans and their allies had come and camped on al-Fudhat — the reinforcements slow to Habib — so the Muslims struck them by night, overran them and killed their great man; Umm Abdallah bint Yazid al-Kalbiyya, Habib's wife, that night asked him 'where is your tryst?' — he answered 'the tyrant's pavilion or Paradise', and when he reached the pavilion he found her there; in al-Waqidi's chain — from Abd al-Hamid ibn Ja'far from his father — Habib besieged Dabil's people, sat on it, and the Roman Maurian met him, night-attacked and killed him and spoiled his camp, whereupon Salman came up — the sounder version with them being that he met him at Qaliqala; and after Qaliqala Habib marched to Mariyala where the patrikios of Khilat came to him bearing Iyad ibn Ghanm's writ — Iyad having given him aman on himself, his wealth and his lands for a tribute — and Habib conveyed it to him.

7. The Conquest of Shimshat — c. 647 CE · c. 27 AH

   In al-Baladhuri: when Uthman ibn Affan acceded he wrote to Mu'awiya with Syria's governorship and gave Umayr ibn Sa'd al-Ansari the Jazira, then removed him and joined Syria, the Jazira and their frontier to Mu'awiya, ordering him to raid Shimshat — the fourth Armenia — so he sent Habib ibn Maslama al-Fihri and Safwan ibn al-Mu'attal al-Sulami, who took it days after arriving on the like of al-Ruha's treaty; Safwan settled it and died there late in Mu'awiya's caliphate — some say Mu'awiya himself raided it with the two and appointed Safwan, who made it home; Constantine the tyrant later camped on it after alighting at Malatya in year 133, gained nothing there, raided its environs and withdrew; Shimshat stayed kharaj-land until al-Mutawakkil made it tithe-land like the rest of the frontier.

8. The First Raid on Cyprus — c. 648 CE · 28 AH

   In al-Baladhuri from al-Waqidi and others: Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan led the first sea raid on Cyprus — the Muslims had never before sailed the Byzantine sea; he had asked Umar's leave to raid by sea and was refused, and when Uthman took office he wrote asking leave for Cyprus, noting its nearness and ease; Uthman wrote back 'you witnessed what Umar replied when you consulted him about the sea', and when year 27 opened Mu'awiya again made light of the crossing, so Uthman wrote 'if you sail, take your wife with you — else do not'; he sailed from Acre with many vessels, carrying his wife Fakhita bint Qaraza the Qurashite, and Ubada ibn al-Samit carried his wife Umm Haram bint Milhan the Ansari — in year 28; when they reached its shore — an island some eighty farsakhs square, it is said — its archon sent seeking terms, its people consenting, and he compounded with them for seven thousand two hundred dinars paid yearly, while the Byzantines compounded with them for the like — so they pay two tributes — stipulating that the Muslims not bar them paying the Byzantines, and the Muslims stipulating that they not be made to fight those who came from beyond them and that they warn the Muslims of Byzantine movements; so when the Muslims sailed they did not trouble them, and Cyprus's people neither aided them nor fought them; on this raid went Abu Ayyub al-Ansari, Abu al-Darda', Abu Dharr al-Ghifari, Ubada ibn al-Samit, Fadala ibn Ubayd al-Ansari, Umayr ibn Sa'd al-Ansari, Wathila ibn al-Asqa', Abdullah ibn Bishr al-Mazini, Shaddad ibn Aws ibn Thabit — nephew of Hassan ibn Thabit — al-Miqdad, Ka'b al-Ahbar and Jubayr ibn Nufayr al-Hadrami; Umm Haram left the ship and was brought a mount which stumbled and killed her — her grave in Cyprus is called the grave of the righteous woman; Mu'awiya afterwards compounded with them a lasting peace at seven thousand dinars, upon good counsel to the Muslims and warning them of their Byzantine enemy.

9. The Second Raid on Cyprus — c. 653 CE · 33 AH

   In al-Baladhuri: in year 32 the people of Cyprus aided the Byzantines against the sea-raiders, giving them vessels, so Mu'awiya raided them in year 33 with five hundred ships, taking Cyprus by force — killing and making captives — then restored them to their treaty, sending there twelve thousand men all of the diwan who built its mosques, and transferring companies from Ba'labakk; he built a city there and they dwelt drawing stipends until Mu'awiya died and his son Yazid succeeded, who disbanded that force and ordered the city demolished — some transmitters place the second raid in year 35, and Muhammad ibn Musaffa was told Yazid was bribed with great wealth to withdraw the Cyprus garrison, whose people then demolished their city and mosques once they had gone; al-Walid ibn Yazid ibn Abd al-Malik exiled a body of them to Syria on a charge which the people disapproved, and Yazid ibn al-Walid returned them to their land; Hayy ibn Ma'yuf al-Hamdani raided them in al-Rashid's caliphate for an offence and took captives, and when they straightened to the Muslims al-Rashid ordered the captives returned; the people of Cyprus remained on Mu'awiya's treaty until Abd al-Malik added a thousand dinars, which ran until Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz remitted it, Hisham restored it, and Abu Ja'far al-Mansur declared 'we are worthier of being just to them and did not profit by wronging them', returning them to Mu'awiya's treaty.

10. the killing of Muḥammad ibn Abī Ḥudhayfa in Egypt (36 AH, disputed) — 656 CE · 36 AH

    Muḥammad ibn Abī Ḥudhayfa — orphaned at al-Yamāma, raised by ʿUthmān, flogged for drink and then turned ascetic — agitated the Egyptians against his foster-father, returned ʿUthmān's gift of 30,000 dirhams crying «do you not see ʿUthmān deceiving me about my religion and bribing me over it?«, expelled governor ʿAbdallāh ibn Saʿd and held Egypt himself. One report has Muʿāwiya and ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ luring him to al-ʿArīsh, mangoneling him out, and killing him with thirty companions — a chronology Ibn al-Athīr himself rejects, since the conquest of Egypt came after Ṣiffīn .

11. Qays ibn Sa'd's governorship of Egypt and Ali's letter to him — between 657 and 659 CE

    Ali sent Qays ibn Sa'd to govern Egypt after Muhammad ibn Abi Hudhayfa's death. Qays organised the province and did not force those who held back from the pledge. Abu Mikhnaf's narrations of letters between Qays and Mu'awiya and of his removal are largely rejected by the book, which prefers a version in which Ali asked him to come to Kufa.

12. Muʿāwiya sends ʿAbdallāh ibn al-Ḥaḍramī to rally Basra (38 AH) — 658 CE · 38 AH

    After ʿAmr took Egypt, Muʿāwiya sent ʿAbdallāh ibn ʿAmr ibn al-Ḥaḍramī to Basra — «most of its people share our view of ʿUthmān; lodge with Muḍar, court the Azd, beware Rabīʿa, they are all Turābiyya«. Reading Muʿāwiya's letter among Banū Tamīm — two stipends a year promised — he split the town: al-Ḍaḥḥāk ibn Qays, Ibn ʿAbbās's police chief, cried «you bring us what Ṭalḥa and al-Zubayr brought — shall we draw swords on each other that Muʿāwiya may be amir?«; ʿAbdallāh ibn Khāzim pledged support; al-Aḥnaf withdrew with «no camel of mine is in this» .

13. Muslim ibn ʿUqba at Dūmat al-Jandal — the town that would give bayʿa to neither (39 AH) — 659 CE · 39 AH

    Dūmat al-Jandal refused both bayʿas. Muʿāwiya sent Muslim ibn ʿUqba al-Murrī to call them to his side; they refused, and ʿAli sent Mālik ibn Kaʿb al-Hamdānī, who fought Muslim a day and drove him off — but when Mālik called the town to ʿAli's bayʿa they answered «we will not swear until the people unite upon one imam», and he left them as they were .

14. The pledge to Yazid as heir apparent — c. 670 CE · 50 AH

    Mu'awiya summoned the Syrians to pledge the succession to his son Yazid — the first to bequeath the caliphate to a son and the first to do so in his own lifetime — and wrote to Marwan at Medina to take the pledge. Marwan preached that the caliph wished to appoint Yazid 'after the manner of Abu Bakr and Umar'; Abd al-Rahman ibn Abi Bakr rose: 'rather after the manner of Chosroes and Caesar — neither of them gave it to a son or any of their house'. When Muawiya made the hajj in 51 he took the pledge in person: Ibn Umar answered that earlier caliphs had sons no worse than Yazid yet chose for the Muslims, while disclaiming any wish to break the community's staff; Ibn Abi Bakr leapt up vowing to return the matter to shura; Ibn al-Zubayr retorted 'if you are weary of rule, retire and bring your son — whom would we obey if we pledged you both?'. Muawiya then announced from the minbar that the three had 'heard, obeyed and pledged' — which the crowd affirmed and they denied .