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2.
Waqidi: p. 152.
Page 15
In the late afternoon of this sixth day of battle, began the last phase of the Muslim attack.
(See Map 27 below) Only a third of the Roman army remained in this crowded corner of
the Plain of Yarmuk; against it the Muslims were arranged in a neat semi-circle, with the
infantry on the east and the cavalry on the north. The Muslim strength here was less than
30,000 men. The time for generalship and manoeuvre was over. The skill of the general
had placed the troops in the ideal situation for combat, and it was up to the soldiers to
fight and win. The generals drew their swords and became warriors like the rest, as the
lions of the desert moved in for the final kill.
The attackers struck with sword and spear at the confused, seething mass in front of
them. At places the Romans were too closely packed for elbow-room to use their
weapons; but their front rank fought with heroic, if futile, courage to stem the tide. Soon
it was struck down, and the next rank and the next, as the Muslims advanced-cutting,
slashing, stabbing, thrusting. In the dust and confusion the Romans ran into each other,
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and those not agile enough fell and suffered a painful death under the trampling feet of
their own comrades.
The Muslim cavalry, rejoined by Dhiraar's detachment, pressed the Romans farther into
the corner where they lost all freedom of action. Khalid's horsemen now began to use the
knees and hooves of their horses to knock down the exhausted defenders. The screams of
the Romans mingled with the shouts of the Muslims as the last resistance collapsed, and
the battle turned into a butchery and a nightmare of horrors. For the last time the Romans
broke and fled in disorder. Those who still retained a desire to fight were carried away by
their panic-stricken comrades, especially in the army of chains in which groups of 10
fought, moved and fell together.
Moving like stampeding cattle, the Roman rabble reached the edge of the ravine. The
view to the bottom was terrifying, but so was the last wild charge of the Muslims. Those
coming in the rear pressed blindly against those on the edge of the ravine, and rank after
rank, the Roman army began to fall down the precipice. The blood-curdling screams of
some continued until they hit the bottom, while the screams of others were cut short as
their bodies crashed against jutting rocks and then continued their descent as shapeless,
bloody lumps.
Page 16
It was almost dark when the last of the Romans ceased to move. The day of 'the raging
conflagration' had ended. Khalid's greatest battle was over.
1
Early next morning, while the rest of the army gathered the spoils of war and buried the
martyrs, Khalid set off with the Muslim cavalry on the road to Damascus in the hope of
catching up with Mahan. The Roman Commander-in-Chief, heartbroken at the
annihilation of his army and not for a moment suspecting that a pursuit would be
launched by the Muslims, was moving without haste. Some time in the afternoon Khalid
overtook the Romans a few miles short of Damascus, and at once attacked the rear-guard.
Mahan rushed to the rear-guard to supervise its action, and here the King of Armenia, the
Commander-in-Chief of the imperial army, was killed by a Muslim horseman. Soon after
his death, the Roman cavalry broke up into groups, and riding away to north and west,
escaped the clutches of Khalid.
The people of Damascus now came out to greet Khalid. They reminded him of the pact
which he had made with them on the surrender of the city two years before, and Khalid
assured them that they were still under its protection.
The next day Khalid rejoined the Muslim army on the Plain of Yarmuk.
The Battle of Yarmuk was the most disastrous defeat ever suffered by the Eastern Roman
Empire, and it spelled the end of Roman rule in Syria. The following month Heraclius
would depart from Antioch and travel by the land route to Constantinople. On arrival at
the border between Syria and what was known to the Muslims as 'Rome', he would look
back towards Syria and, with a sorrowing heart, lament:
"Salutations to thee, O Syria!
And farewell from one who departs. Never again shall the Roman return to thee except in
fear. Oh, what a fine land I leave to the enemy!"
2
As an example of a military operation, the Battle of Yarmuk combined many tactical
forms: the frontal clash, the frontal penetration, counter-attack and repulse, the flank-
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attack, the rear-attack and the outflanking manoeuvre. Khalid's plan of remaining on the
defensive until he had worn down the Romans had worked admirably. During the
defensive phase, lasting four days, every offensive blow by Khalid had been a limited
tactical manoeuvre to restore his defensive balance. Only when it was certain that the
Romans were badly hurt and no longer capable of fighting offensively, did he launch his
counter-offensive, on the last day of battle. On this day he had rolled up the Roman
position from a flank, but only after he had separated the cavalry from the infantry and
rendered the latter helpless. Then he had driven the Roman infantry into the corner
formed by the Wadi-ur-Raqqad and the Yarmuk River, having already positioned Dhiraar
at the crossing of the ravine so that none might escape, and launched his last, all-
destroying assault. Against the anvil of the Wadi-ur-Raqqad the Muslim hammer had
crushed the Roman army to powder.
1.
There is a disagreement about the two basic points in this battle: the strength of the
opposing forces and the exact location of the battlefield. For an explanation see Notes 12
and 13 in Appendix B.
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