A.H. 15
entire month, without either side striking a blow. During these weeks disaffection spread amongst the Greeks, several of the leaders intrigued with the enemy, and a quarrel arose between the commander-in-chief and the leader of the Armenian contingent. At last, on a day in the month of Rejeb when a strong south wind blew, and the Greeks were blinded by clouds of dust in addition to the scorching rays of an August sun, the Muslim army advanced to the attack. The Greeks had no fortune that day. Whenever they succeeded in penetrating the Arab lines, the women laid hold of swords and drove them back. Their cavalry sought refuge in flight across the plains. The infantry, roped together in companies to increase their steadiness, fell easy victims to the lances of the Arabs, or were hurled down the precipitous sides of the Wādi.[1] The heterogeneous host of the Greeks began to crumble up before the smaller but united army of the Arabs.[2] The Sakkellarius perished in the fight: Baānes, however, seems to have made good his flight. It is said that, fearing to face Heraclius, he found his way to Mount Sinai, where he was received as a monk and assumed the name of Anastasius.[3] He became the author of a homily on the sixtieth Psalm. When news of the disaster reached Heraclius at Antioch, he bade a last farewell to Syria: "Farewell Syria, my fair province. Thou art an enemy's now"; and quitted Antioch for Constantinople.
The loss on the Muslim side was also considerable, but it was as nothing compared to what they gained by this battle. Many of the "Companions" lost their lives,and many bore the marks of wounds received there to their graves; but now Khālid could declare that "Syria sat as quiet as a camel." They could now for the first time call Syria their own.
Khālid recalled.The work of recovering the ground lost in the retreat of the Muslim lines to the Yarmūḳ did not take many weeks.
- ↑ Hence, M. de Goeje thinks, the form of the name Wāḳūṣa, from waḳaṣa "to break the neck."
- ↑ ʿAbdallah ibn Zubeir, who, though a mere boy, had accompanied his father to the wars, saw Abu Sufyān and some people of Ḳoreish holding aloof and watching how the battle went, much as did Rob Roy at the battle of Prestonpans; but this may be a later invention intended to blacken the face of the Umeiyad Caliphs who were descended from Abu Sufyān.
- ↑ Cf. p. 93 f.
