Futuh al-Sham (ascribed to al-Waqidi)

The Futuh al-Sham ("Conquests of Syria") is a book of conquest narratives from the reigns of Abu Bakr and Umar, printed under the name of Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Umar ibn Waqid al-Waqidi (d. 207 AH). Dar al-Kutub al-Ilmiyya in Beirut published it in two volumes in 1417/1997, established and corrected by Abd al-Latif Abd al-Rahman. ^{1 2} Its subject reaches well beyond Syria: it covers the conquests of Egypt, the Jazira, Diyar Bakr, Armenia and Iraq, and it closes with a long account of the conquest of al-Bahnasa in Upper Egypt and the merits of its cemetery. ^{3 4}

The text is preceded by a short notice on al-Waqidi that the editor compiled from the biographical dictionaries: Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Umar ibn Waqid al-Aslami by clientage, of Medina, born after 120 AH according to al-Dhahabi, or in 130 AH according to Ibn al-Nadim; he narrated from Ibn Ajlan, Ibn Jurayj and al-Awza'i, and his secretary Muhammad ibn Sa'd and Abu Bakr ibn Abi Shayba narrated from him. ⁵ He quotes al-Dhahabi's verdict that al-Waqidi "gathered everything and mixed the lean with the fat", for which the critics set him aside, though he cannot be done without for the campaigns and the history of the Companions. ⁵ He cites al-Bukhari for his death in Dhu al-Hijja 207 AH, and Ibn al-Nadim for the precise date, the evening of Monday 11 Dhu al-Hijja 207, at the age of seventy-eight, with burial in the al-Khayzuran cemetery. ⁵ He then lists al-Waqidi's works from al-Fihrist, among them a "Kitab Futuh al-Sham", adding: "and it is the one before us". He offers no study of the manuscripts or of the question of attribution. ⁶

Volume 1

The book opens with the chapter "The coming of the troops": after fighting the apostates, Abu Bakr resolved to send armies to Syria, addressed the Companions in the mosque, and wrote a single letter to the kings of Yemen and the people of Mecca calling them to arms; Anas ibn Malik (may God be pleased with him) carried the letter to Yemen. ^{7 8} The chapters then follow as the contents list them: Abu Bakr's charge to Amr ibn al-As (may God be pleased with him); Amr in Palestine; Khalid ibn al-Walid (may God be pleased with him)'s march to Syria (p. 22); the battles of Syria and the story of Khawla bint al-Azwar (p. 32 on); the battle around Damascus (p. 45); "the heroism of the women" (p. 49); Ajnadayn (p. 55); the siege of Damascus, fighting from the walls and the appointment of Abu Ubayda; the conquests of Homs, Qinnasrin and al-Rastan; Yarmuk (p. 148), with Jabala ibn al-Ayham (p. 155) and the Muslim women in the battle (p. 186); the conquest of Jerusalem (p. 219); Aleppo and its citadels (p. 237); and Azaz (p. 267). ^{9 10} The volume ends with Khalid's return from Manbij, Buza'a and Balis, whose peace the book dates to the middle ten days of Muharram 18 AH, for 150,000 dinars. ¹¹

Volume 2

It begins with the raid of Marj al-Qaba'il beyond the passes, then the conquest of Caesarea, Tyre, Acre and Tripoli; then the conquests of Egypt: the city of Misr, Maryut, Alexandria, Damietta, Tinnis and al-Farama (pp. 32-88); then Diyar Bakr and the land of Rabi'a: Qarqisiya, Mardin, Edessa and Harran, Ra's al-Ayn, Dara, Mayyafariqin and Amid, Jabal al-Judi, Bitlis, Armenia and Akhlat; then "the conquests of the Isma'iliyyat" (p. 169); then Iraq: al-Khawarnaq, al-Hira, al-Qadisiyya and the Iwan, the last being "the conquest of the city of Nashawur, the last of the conquests of Persia and Iraq" (p. 194). ^{3 4} About a hundred pages at the end are taken by the conquest of al-Bahnasa, the merits of its cemetery, and, in the book's telling, the stay of Jesus and his mother there (pp. 198-292); the last page reads: "here ends the second volume of the Futuh al-Sham, which is the close of the book". ¹²

The book presents its reports under "al-Waqidi said" and with collective chains: the narrator names several informants, "each of whom told of the conquests of Syria as it happened; they all said". ⁷ Long dialogues, speeches, letters quoted in full and the rajaz verses horsemen chant before a charge dominate it, like Khalid's lines before his charge to rescue Dirar ibn al-Azwar. ¹³ It is rich in scenes of single heroism, among them the fighting women who turn tent poles on their captors. ¹⁴ At the close of the Jerusalem account it states its purpose: it relied only on the truth "to establish the merit of the Companions of the Messenger of God ﷺ and their struggle", and this confounds "the Rafida who rebel against Ahl al-Sunna". ¹⁵ At its end the author describes his book as gathering "every wondrous rarity and strange tale". ¹²

Several passages point, by the text's own words, to hands and readings after al-Waqidi:

• In the Jerusalem account "al-Waqidi" says: one day we were reading the Futuh al-Sham and the conquest of Jerusalem at the tomb of Abu Hanifa, the Futuh being read to Ubada ibn Awf al-Dinawari, and then adds a rhymed passage Ubada composed on Umar's renunciation, attached to the book. ^{16 17}
• In the al-Bahnasa account it names the "historians" it draws on: al-Mas'udi, "Abu Ja'far al-Tabarani", al-Waqidi, Ibn Ishaq and Ibn Hisham, and elsewhere "Ibn Khallikan in the history al-Bidaya wa-l-nihaya". ^{18 19} Al-Mas'udi, al-Tabari and Ibn Khallikan all lived after al-Waqidi.
• The al-Bahnasa account is introduced by a narrator who calls himself "Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn al-Muhaddith al-Misri": he says he read many books of conquests and found additions and omissions in them, that he came to al-Bahnasa to visit its cemetery, and that when a companion asked him how it was conquered he studied the histories "until he selected this book". ^{19 20}
• Within the same account is a reader's note: "Abu Muhammad al-Hasani was reading these Futuh in the Ghazzi Umari mosque before Shaykh Abu Abd Allah", and the shaykh corrected his description of how the gate was opened. ²¹
• At the end comes a dream that Dhu al-Nun al-Misri tells of the martyrs of al-Bahnasa, and a list of visitors to its cemetery including Bishr al-Hafi, al-Sari al-Saqati and Abu Madyan. ^{22 23} Dhu al-Nun was brought before al-Mutawakkil, whose caliphate came after al-Waqidi's death. ²⁴

The ascription to al-Waqidi is that of the edition's title page and introduction. ^{1 6} In academic research, Yoones Dehghani Farsani notes that the work has been considered a forgery for more than two centuries, and argues that it is at root al-Waqidi's original Futuh al-Sham, later changed in form and content in a redaction he places probably between the 12th and 13th centuries CE, so that not all of its content can be attributed to al-Waqidi. His evidence is that Ibn Asakir's quotations from the original differ in form and partly in content from the present text, and that the oldest known manuscript was copied in 678/1279; he suggests that the redaction may have served religious aims during the Crusades, in Egypt or Syria. ²⁵ The views are set out in the card the attribution of Futuh al-Sham to al-Waqidi.

The book became the source of the best-known popular images of the conquests: the masked horsewoman Khawla bint al-Azwar; the conquest of Jerusalem, with Umar's arrival and the patriarch recognising him by his description; and the al-Bahnasa story that ties its cemetery to the merits of martyrs and visitation. ^{26 27 28}