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It is known
that the Muslims lost 4,000 men in this battle, and those who did
not carry wounds on their persons were few indeed; but the Roman
casualty figures vary. Waqidi's estimate is exaggerated to an unacceptable
degree. Tabari, in one place, 1 gives the
Roman dead as 120,000 but elsewhere quotes Ibn Ishaq's estimate
of 70,000. 2 Balazuri also gives the Roman
dead as 70,000. 3 This last figure appears
to be reasonable-about 45 per cent of the Roman army. Of these 70,000
about half fell on the plain and half fell into the ravine. Some
80,000 men got away, most of them horse and camel-mounted, including
those who escaped before the Muslim ring was closed. Many may even
have succeeded in crossing the Wadi-ur-Raqqad at places where it
was not so precipitous.
The Battle of Yarmuk was a glorious victory
for Islam; and the Plain of Yarmuk and the Wadi-ur-Raqqad provided
ample, if gruesome, evidence of it. Tens of thousands of Roman bodies
lay scattered, singly and in heaps, on the plain and at the bottom
of the ravine. The worst signs of carnage were visible at the corner
of the plain and in the ravine itself. Broken, maimed and mutilated
bodies could be seen everywhere, lying in grotesque shapes and postures.
Blood-covered bodies without limbs lay on the blood-spattered earth,
staring with sightless eyes at the eternity of death. Thousands
of Romans sprawled with broken swords in their hands, true to the
oath of death which they had taken on the eve of battle. And mingled
with the soldiers, lay countless priests, still clutching their
crosses. The nauseating stench of decaying flesh rose and poisoned
the air over the Plain of Yarmuk.
A vast and heroic battle had been fought;
a great and terrible victory had been won.
1. Tabari: Vol. 2, p. 596.
2. Ibid: Vol. 3, p. 75.
3. Balazuri: p. 141.
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