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Khalid remained silent
while this discussion was in progress. Then Abu Ubaidah turned to
him and said, "O Father of Sulaiman! You are a man of courage
and resolve and judgment. What do you think of all this?"
"What they say is good",
replied Khalid. "I have different views, but shall not oppose
the Muslims."
"If you have other views, speak",
said Abu Ubaidah, "and we shall do as you say."
Khalid then gave his plan: "Know,
O Commander, that if you stay at this place, you will be helping
the enemy against you. In Caesarea, which is not far from Jabiya,
there are 40,000 Romans under Constantine, son of Heraclius. 1
I advise you to move from here and place Azra behind you and be
on the Yarmuk. Thus it would be easier for the Caliph to send reinforcements,
and ahead of you there would be a large plain, suitable for the
charge of cavalry." 2
Khalid did not specifically say so, but
the inference was that Constantine, advancing from Caesarea, could
attack the Muslims in the rear at Jabiya while they faced the imperial
army from the north. The plan was accepted, unanimously and the
move put into effect. Khalid, with the Mobile Guard of 4,000 horsemen,
was left behind as a rear guard; and instead of staying at Jabiya,
he moved forward and clashed with the leading elements of the Roman
army. He struck at the head of the Roman column and drove it back
towards Damascus. This imposed caution on the Romans, who thereafter
made no effort to interfere with the retrograde move of the Muslims.
A few days later Khalid rejoined the main body of the Muslim army.
The Muslims, having moved a few miles south-east,
established a line of camps in the eastern part of what for want
of a better name, we shall call the Plain of Yarmuk. The location
of these camps is not known but they were probably south of the
present Nawa-Sheikh Miskeen line with a north-west-facing front,
so that the Muslims could deploy to receive a Roman attack from
the north (Jabiya axis) as well as the north-west (direction of
Qunaitra). Here Abu Ubaidah was joined by the corps of Shurahbil,
Amr bin Al Aas and Yazeed. Some distance to the east of the Muslims
sprawled the lava hills which stretch from north to east of Azra,
and the mountains of Jabal-ud-Druz, north and east of Busra.
A few days later the Roman army, preceded
by the lightly armed Christian Arabs of Jabla, moved up and made
contact with Muslim outposts on the Plain of Yarmuk. The route of
the main body of the Roman army is not recorded, but it was almost
certainly from the north-west, because the Romans established their
camps just north of the Wadi-ur-Raqqad. (Khalid's clash with the
Romans on the Jabiya axis may have caused them to switch their axis.)
The Roman camp was 18 miles long, and between it and the Muslim
camp lay the central and west-central parts of the Plain of Yarmuk.
3 With the arrival of the Romans and the
establishment of their camps, the direction of the Roman attack
became obvious and Abu Ubaidah adjusted the Muslim camps to correspond
to a battlefront running from the Yarmuk to the Jabiya Road. This
is what Khalid had advised: the rear towards Azra and a flank on
the Yarmuk.
Now the two armies settled down in their
respective camps and began to make preparations for battle: reconnaissances,
plans, orders, checking of equipment etc. To the Muslims the Romans
looked like 'a swarm of locusts'. 4 Hardly
had the Romans settled down in camp when a messenger arrived from
Heraclius with instructions to the Commander-in-Chief, Mahan the
Armenian, not to start hostilities until all avenues of peaceful
negotiation had been explored. Mahan was to offer generous terms
to the Muslims if they would agree to retire to Arabia and not come
back again. Consequently Mahan sent one of his army commanders,
Gregory, to hold talks with the Muslims. Gregory rode out to the
Muslim camp, in front of which he held a discussion with Abu Ubaidah.
The Roman offered to let the Muslims go in peace, taking with them
everything which they had acquired in Syria, as long as they would
give up all intention of invading Syria again. Abu Ubaidah's answer
was in the negative, and the Roman returned empty-handed.
1. According to Gibbon (Vol. 5, p. 333)
Constantine, commanding at Caesarea, was the eldest son of Heraclius.
2. Waqidi: p. 109.
3. According to Waqidi (p. 109), the Roman
camp was near Jaulan (which is the area between the Wadi-ur-Raqqad
and Lake Tiberius and the area to the north), and the distance between
the opposing camps was approximately 11 miles (three farsakh.
A farsakh equals 6000 meters.).
4. Waqidi: p. 118.
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