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This duelling went on till
midday. Then the Roman Commander-in-Chief, Mahan, decided that he
had had enough of this and that if it went on very much longer,
not only would he lose a large number of officers, but also the
moral effect on his army would be quite bad. He would have a better
chance of success in a general battle in which sheer weight of numbers
would favour his army. But he was rightly cautious, for a false
step at the beginning of battle could have far-reaching effects
on its course. He would attempt a limited offensive on a broad front
to test the strength of the Muslim army, and if possible, achieve
a breakthrough wherever the Muslim front was weak.
At midday the 10 forward ranks of the Roman
army, i.e. one-third of the infantry of each of the four armies,
advanced to battle. This human wave moved slowly forward, and as
it came within range of the Muslim archers, was subjected to intense
archery, which caused some casualties. The wave continued to advance
and before long struck the Muslim front rank. Soon the Muslims had
dropped their bloody spears and drawn their swords, and both sides
were locked in combat.
But the Roman assault was not a determined
one, and the soldiers, many of whom were unused to battle, did not
press the attack, while the fury with which the hardened Muslim
veterans struck at them imposed caution. On some parts of the front
the fighting was more violent than on others, but on the whole the
action of this day could be described as steady and moderately hard.
The Muslims held their own. The Romans did not reinforce their forward
infantry, and at sunset the action ended with the two armies separating
and returning to their respective camps. Casualties were light on
this day, though higher among the Romans than the Muslims.
The night was spent in peace. The Muslim
women greeted their men with pride, and wiped the sweat and blood
from their faces and arms with their head coverings. The wives said
to their husbands: ''Rejoice in tidings to paradise, O Friend
of Allah!" 1 The Muslims now felt
more confident for they had inflicted worse punishment on the enemy
than they had taken themselves, and prayers and recitation of the
Quran continued for most of the night. During the night, however,
a few Roman parties came forward into the no-man's-land to pick
up their dead and this led to some patrol clashes, but otherwise
there was no engagement to disturb the peace of the night.
Mahan had got nowhere. He called a council
of war at which plans for the next day were discussed. He would
have to do something different if success were to be achieved and
Mahan decided to launch his next attack at the first light of dawn,
after forming up during the hours of darkness, in the hope of catching
the Muslims off their guard, before they were prepared for battle.
Moreover, he would attack in greater strength. The two central armies
would put in holding attacks to tie down the Muslim centre, while
the two flanking armies would launch the major thrusts and either
drive the flanking corps off the battlefield or push them into the
centre. To have a grand stand view of the battle, Mahan had a large
pavilion placed on a hillock behind the Roman right, from where
the entire plain could be seen. Here Mahan positioned himself with
his court and a bodyguard of 2,000 Armenians, while the rest of
the army prepared for the surprise dawn attack.
Soon after dawn the Muslims were at prayer
when they heard the beating of drums. Messengers came galloping
from the outposts to inform the commanders that the Romans were
attacking. The Muslims were certainly caught unawares, but Khalid
had ordered the placing of a strong outpost line in front during
the night, and these outposts caused sufficient delay in the Roman
advance to enable the Muslims to don their armour and weapons and
get into battle position before the flood hit them. Moreover, the
speed with which the Muslims got into position was faster than the
Romans had anticipated. The sun was not yet up on this second day
of battle when the two armies clashed.
The battle of the central corps continued
steadily for most of the day with no break in the Muslim line. Here,
in any case, the Romans were not pressing hard as this was meant
to be a limited attack to hold these Muslim corps in their position.
Thus the centre remained stable. But on the flanking corps fell
the heaviest blows of the Roman army, and these corps bore the brunt
of the fighting.
On the Muslim right the army of Qanateer,
consisting mainly of Slavs, attacked the corps of Amr bin Al Aas.
The Muslims held on bravely and the attack was repulsed. Qanateer
attacked for the second time with fresh troops, and again the Muslims
repulsed him. But when Qanateer attacked for the third time, again
using fresh regiments, the resistance of the now tired Muslims broke,
and the bulk of the corps fell back to the camp, while part of it
retired to the centre, i.e. towards the corps of Sharhabeel.
1. Waqidi: p. 133.
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