Episode 10: Battle of Yarmouk & Muslim Women When the Persian empire got busy with their government leadership problems, that gave the Muslims time to focus on the Roman enemies who wanted to have a really big war on the other side. After the Muslims finally got control of Damascus,
this shocked the Romans because they thought the Muslims were weak. This victory was also very important for Muslims to spread the message of Islam. Abu Sufyan's two sons, general Uncle Yazidand Mu'awiyah both were in charge to protect Damascus. Commander in Chief Abu Ubaidah and the secondin command,
Khalid bin Walid went far north to spread the message of Islam peacefullyto the people. The general people were accepting this beautifulreligion, Islam, and accepted Allah (SWT) as their only God. They successfully spread Islam up to present-dayAleppo, Syria. At that time, the Roman capital was in Istanbul,Turkey.
The Christian Roman king did not like thatthe true religion, Islam was spreading. So, he started to send different small armiesto attack the innocent Muslims. During the night, when the Muslims were sleeping,they suddenly attacked the innocent Muslims and destroyed the Muslim men, women, and children. But the Muslims were still spreading Islampeacefully. When the Christian King Heraclius realizedthat nothing could stop the Muslims from spreading Islam, then he made a different plan. First,
to become stronger, he made a friendshipwith his very long-time enemy, Persia. So, Heraclius' granddaughter and the 10-year-oldPersian King, Yazdegerd III,
got married. At that time, the Persian Capital was nextto Baghdad, Iraq. Then the Christian King Heraclius built avery big army with more than 200,000 soldiers to destroy the Muslims and control all ofArabia. After hearing that bad news, Abu Obadiah and Khalid bin Walid decided to get together all their strong people in one place to protectIslam.
Even to save the general people, they decided to move out from the very important place Damascus. All the Muslims who were spreading Islam peacefully in Palestine and Northern and Central Syria started to get together in an open place nextto the Yarmouk River at Jordan close to the sea of Galilee.
Do you remember the Jewish tribe Banu Nadir?
For details, you can see our Muhammad (s)'story in episode 29. In short, around 10 years before, they plannedto kill the prophet Muhammad (s), and because of this, and many other bad actions, theywere kicked out from Medina. After they left,
they started to live nearthe Yarmouk River. That area was under the Roman Empire. The Christian King Heraclius did not let the Jews follow their religion and forced them to be Christians. The Roman Christian soldiers gave the Jewish people a very hard time. The Jews realized that the Muslim law wasreally good and beautiful. Islam protected all the people's freedom andsafety. When the Jews heard about the big fight, rightaway, the Jews were on the Muslims’ side. They knew that 10 years ago the mistake thatthey made was their fault, but at the end of the day, the Jews of Banu Nadir knew,
theMuslims always kept their promises and the Muslims always gave them the freedom of religion. The Jewish Banu Nadir tribe was very goodat making army uniforms and swords. To help the Muslims, they joined the war andmade a lot of war items so that the Muslims would be safe.
Islamic History
The Muslims had about 40 thousand soldiersand the Romans had more than 200,000 soldiers. The battlefield was around 6 miles long. So far, this was the biggest battle for theMuslims and one of the most critical battles in army history. Abu Ubaidah was the Muslim commander in chief,but for this war, he asked Khalid bin Walid to be the main commander in chief. Many famous people’s children, joined thisbattle like Abu Jahal’s son, Ikrimah,
Khalid bin Walid(r) ’s son, Abu Bakr’s (r) son,Umar’s (r) son, Uthman (r)’s son, and Ali (r) nephews. As we know, the Battle of Badr was the firstbattle for the Muslims with only 313 soldiers. And for this war, around 100 of those great Muslim soldiers also joined the Battle of Yarmouk. From Yemen, 5,000 archers, or arrow shooterscame to join the war. Many other powerful people also joined thebattle. 71-year-old Abu Sufyan and his wife Hind alsojoined that battle to protect Islam.
Many regular people and lots of women alsojoined this war for Islam. Finally, the day came for the Battle of Yarmoukduring August of 636, four years after Prophet Muhammad (s)'s death. On the first day, both armies divided theirsoldiers into four big groups.
Shurahbil, Amr ibn al-As, Uncle Yazid, andAbu Ubaidah (r) was in charge of each of the big army groups. The Romans had 5 horse groups and the Muslimshad 4 horse groups. As a commander in chief Khalid (r) was alsoin charge of the horse groups. On the second day, the very big and strongRoman army strongly attacked and weakened the Muslims' right and left sides of the army. At one point, the Muslims started to run away.
: Rise of Islam
But some Muslim women like Hind, Abu Sufyan'swife, and other sahabi's wives showed their braveness and tried to stop the Muslim menfrom running away. They insulted the men for being cowards andscared.
Then the Muslim women took their husband’ssword and they started to fight against the big Roman army. When their husbands saw that, they got theircourage again and went back to stop the big Roman army. On the third day, the Romans did not attackthe left side. They attack the Muslims' weak side, whichwas on the right.
Khaled (r) divided his horse group in twoand tried to help the weak side and stopped the Romans for that day. On the fourth day, the Romans again attackedvery strongly and started to throw arrows at the Muslims. It was a very sad day for Muslims. Almost 700 Muslims lost an eye. Abu Sufyan also lost his eye during this fight. It was known as the '
day of lost eyes'. But the Muslims had their strong faith inAllah (SWT) and tried their best to stop the Roman army. The Romans were very surprised that, theirbig and strong army could not destroy the Muslim army. In these 4 days, the Romans lost many of theirsoldiers. So, on the fifth day, the Romans did not wantto fight and wanted to stop the fight.
Khaled (r) realized that the Romans becametired and they might escape from the battlefield and come back with more soldiers. So, at night, he sent 500 horses behind theRoman army to block their only escape route. Every day the Romans attacked first. Khaled (r) realized that now it was Muslim'sturn. On the final sixth day, he gathered all thehorses together and made one single strong horse group. He ordered the Muslims to attack first.
As soon as the Muslims attacked, he quicklywent to the right side with a strong horse group and destroyed the Romans on that side. The Muslims quickly attacked the next group. The Romans were surprised by Khalid (r)'sspeed and sudden attack.
All the Roman horse groups got together tostop Khalid (r) but they were late and were destroyed by Khalid (r)'s horse group. At one point, they tried to escape the battlefieldbut realized that their path was blocked by the Muslims.
They were trapped by the two rivers and theMuslim army destroyed the most powerful army at that time. Winning this battle made the Muslims a superpowerin that land and made Khaled bin Walid (r) a great fighter and commander in chief inthe history of all time. The Muslim women also were great heroes inthis battle. Did you know one of the top Muslim generalswas a woman called Khawlah (r)!
She learned to fight from her brother, Dhiraar. In the battle of Yarmouk, her brother wasarrested by Roman soldiers. So the brave Khawlah (r) dressed as a manand went all the way to the back of the Roman army camp and save her brother. One time when her brother was fighting againstthe Romans,
He got hurt and they took him back to the Roman’s side. Khawlah (r) was protective of her older brotherso she dressed like a man and went all the way to the back of the Roman army to saveher older brother. In another situation against the Romans, whenmany Muslim men were scared to fight against the strong Roman army, Khawlah (r) went straighttowards them to fight. Many people thought she was Khalid bin Walidand followed her. Khalid bin Walid thought she was a man fightingand was wondering who that good fighter was. Later, Khalid (r) asked her who she was.
Khawlah (r) did not reply for a long timeuntil finally she removed the cloth from her face and told him that her name was Khawlah. Khalid bin Walid was shocked as one by oneall of her took off their face coverings and he saw that they were all women fighting likesome of the soldiers on the battlefield. So, in the Battle of Yarmouk,
Khawlah easilybecame one of the top generals. Even when the men were scared, Khawlah herselfled an entire group of female warriors to protect Islam. Muslim women had a big part in this war. And they showed us it does not matter if someoneis a man or a woman, we can make a difference and we are able to do anything if we trulywant it. They show us that we should always give womenproper respect and opportunity because they just might be the reason for our strengthand our success.
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