[Source: The Sword of Allah - Khalid bin Al-Waleed By Late Lieutenant-General A.I. Akram of the Pakistan Army]
Scene:
Muslims just got into Emessa, Heraclius is making preparations for his great manoeuvre. Entire corps are gathered from all parts of the Empire and these are joined by princes and nobles of the realm and dignitaries of the church. By May 636, an army of a 150,000 men has been put under arms and concentrated in the area of Antioch and in parts of Northern Syria. This powerful military force consist of contingents of Russians, Slavs, Franks, Romans, Greeks, Georgians, Armenians and Christian Arabs. No people of the Cross living in the Byzantine Empire fail to send warriors to the new army to fight the invaders in the spirit of a Christian crusade. This force is organised into five armies, each of about 30,000 soldiers.
At this time the Muslims are split in four groups: Amr bin Al Aas in Palestine, Shurahbil in Jordan, Yazeed at Caesarea, and Abu Ubaidah and Khalid at Emessa and to the north. In this dispersed situation the Muslims are so vulnerable that each of their corps could be attacked in turn without the least chance of fighting a successful battle. And this situation is fully exploited by Heraclius in the plan which he put into execution. Its through Roman prisoners, that the Muslims first came to know of the preparations being made by Heraclius. The Muslims have established an excellent intelligence system in the land, and no major movement or concentration of enemy forces remain concealed from them. In fact they have agents within the Roman army. As the days lengthen into weeks, the pieces of intelligence brought in by agents are put together like a jigsaw puzzle, and the movement of the Roman armies have hardly got under way when the Muslims knew of it and of the directions taken by the armies.
The remarkably generous treatment of the populace of Emessa by Abu Ubaidah, when the Muslims left that city, throws light on the sense of justice and truth of this brave and noble general. On the conquest of Emessa, the Muslims had collected the Jizya from the local inhabitants. This tax, as has been explained before, was taken from non-Muslims in return for their exemption from military service and their protection against their enemies. But since the Muslims were now leaving the city and were no longer in a position to protect them, Abu Ubaidah called a meeting of the people and returned all the money taken as Jizya. "We are not able to help and defend you", said Abu Ubaidah. "You are now on your own." To this the people replied, "Your rule and justice are dearer to us than the oppression and cruelty in which we existed before." 1.
Abu Ubaidah also wrote to the other corps commanders in Syria to return the Jizya to the people who had paid it, and this was done by every Muslim commander before he marched away to join Abu Ubaidah at Jabiya. 2 Such an extraordinary and voluntary return by an all-conquering army of what it has taken according to mutually arranged terms, had never happened before. It would never happen again.
1. Balazuri: p. 143.
2. Abu Yusuf: p. 139.
Scene:
Muslims just got into Emessa, Heraclius is making preparations for his great manoeuvre. Entire corps are gathered from all parts of the Empire and these are joined by princes and nobles of the realm and dignitaries of the church. By May 636, an army of a 150,000 men has been put under arms and concentrated in the area of Antioch and in parts of Northern Syria. This powerful military force consist of contingents of Russians, Slavs, Franks, Romans, Greeks, Georgians, Armenians and Christian Arabs. No people of the Cross living in the Byzantine Empire fail to send warriors to the new army to fight the invaders in the spirit of a Christian crusade. This force is organised into five armies, each of about 30,000 soldiers.
At this time the Muslims are split in four groups: Amr bin Al Aas in Palestine, Shurahbil in Jordan, Yazeed at Caesarea, and Abu Ubaidah and Khalid at Emessa and to the north. In this dispersed situation the Muslims are so vulnerable that each of their corps could be attacked in turn without the least chance of fighting a successful battle. And this situation is fully exploited by Heraclius in the plan which he put into execution. Its through Roman prisoners, that the Muslims first came to know of the preparations being made by Heraclius. The Muslims have established an excellent intelligence system in the land, and no major movement or concentration of enemy forces remain concealed from them. In fact they have agents within the Roman army. As the days lengthen into weeks, the pieces of intelligence brought in by agents are put together like a jigsaw puzzle, and the movement of the Roman armies have hardly got under way when the Muslims knew of it and of the directions taken by the armies.
The remarkably generous treatment of the populace of Emessa by Abu Ubaidah, when the Muslims left that city, throws light on the sense of justice and truth of this brave and noble general. On the conquest of Emessa, the Muslims had collected the Jizya from the local inhabitants. This tax, as has been explained before, was taken from non-Muslims in return for their exemption from military service and their protection against their enemies. But since the Muslims were now leaving the city and were no longer in a position to protect them, Abu Ubaidah called a meeting of the people and returned all the money taken as Jizya. "We are not able to help and defend you", said Abu Ubaidah. "You are now on your own." To this the people replied, "Your rule and justice are dearer to us than the oppression and cruelty in which we existed before." 1.
Abu Ubaidah also wrote to the other corps commanders in Syria to return the Jizya to the people who had paid it, and this was done by every Muslim commander before he marched away to join Abu Ubaidah at Jabiya. 2 Such an extraordinary and voluntary return by an all-conquering army of what it has taken according to mutually arranged terms, had never happened before. It would never happen again.
1. Balazuri: p. 143.
2. Abu Yusuf: p. 139.
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