Ridda Wars
Troubles emerged soon after Abu Bakr's succession,
threatening the unity and stability of the new community and state. Several
Arabic tribes revolted against Abu Bakr. In four of the six centuries of the
insurrection, the rebels rallied around people who claimed to be prophets, the
most prominent among these was Musaylimah. The tribes claimed that they
had submitted to Muhammad only, and that with Muhammad's death, their
allegiance had ended. This was common practice in pre-Islamic Arabia . After the death of a tribal leader the alliance
with the tribe of that leader was regarded as having ended. Thus several
tribes acted in accordance to this pre-Islamic practice and refused to
pay Zakat. Abu Bakr, however, insisted that they had not just submitted to
a simple human leader but joined the Muslim religious community, of which he
was the new head. So, in contrast to pre-Islamic times, their allegiance was
not seen as having ended at all.
This was the start of the Ridda
wars (Arabic for the Wars of Apostasy). The apostasy of central
Arabia was led by self-proclaimed prophet Musaylimah of in al-Yamama,
while the other centers were to the south and east in Bahrain , Oman , Mahra region
and Yemen . Abu
Bakr planned his strategy accordingly and formed the Muslim army into
11 corps. The strongest corps, and this was the main punch of the Muslim
army, was that of Khalid ibn al-Walid and was used to fight the most
powerful of the rebel forces. Other corps were given areas of secondary
importance in which to bring the less dangerous apostate tribes. Abu Bakr's
plan was first to clear the area of west and central Arabia (the area
nearest Medina ),
then tackle Malik ibn Nuwayrah, and finally concentrate against the most dangerous
enemy Musaylimah. After series of successful campaigns, Khalid ibn al-Walid
finally defeated Musaylimah and his tribe, the Banu Hanifa, in
the Battle of Yamama. The Campaign of the Apostasy was fought and
completed during the eleventh year after Hijra. The year 12 Hijri dawned,
on 18 March 633, with Arabia united under the central authority of the Caliph
at Medina .
In July 632, Abu Bakr raised an army mainly from the Banu
Hashim (the clan of the prophet Muhammad). Ali ibn Abi Talib, Talha
ibn Ubaidullah and Zubair ibn al-Awam, were each appointed as
commander of one-third of the newly organized force. They fought
the Battle of Zhu Qissa against the forces of Tulayha, a
self-proclaimed prophet and his followers as they prepared to launch an
attack on Medina during
the Ridda wars. The Radishun commanders held until they were reinforced by Abu
Bakr. Tulayha was defeated and his forces were driven back to Zhu Hussa.
This phenomenon was later regarded as primarily a religious
movement by Arabic historians. However, the early sources indicate that in
reality it was mainly political. After all, the revolting Arabs only
refused to pay Zakat (Charity), but they did not refuse to perform
the Salah. This however is disputed and explained by Muslim scholars
in that the dictation of Zakat was one of the Five pillars of Islam and its
denial or withholding is an act of denial of a cornerstone of faith, and is
therefore an act of apostasy. Bernard Lewis states that the fact that
Islamic Historians have regarded this as a primarily religious movement was due
to a later interpretation of events in terms of a theological world-view. The
opponents of the Muslim armies were not only apostates, but also – if not most
of them – tribes which were largely or even completely independent from the
Muslim community. However, these revolts also had a religious
aspect: Medina had
become the centre of a social and political system, of which religion was an
integral part; consequently it was inevitable that any reaction against this
system should have a religious aspect.
Origin and development of the Qur'an
Abu Bakr was instrumental in preserving the Qur'an in
written form. It is said that after the hard-won victory over Musaylimah in the
Battle of Yamama fought in 632, Umar (the later Caliph Umar), saw
that many of the Muslims who had memorized the Qur'an had died in
battle. Fearing that the Qur'an may be lost or corrupted, Umar requested the
Caliph Abu Bakr to authorize the compilation and preservation of the Book in written
format. After initial hesitation, Abu Bakr made a committee headed by Zayd
ibn Thabit which included the memorizers of the Qur'an and Umar and to
collect all verses of the Book. After collecting all Qur'anic verses from texts
in the possession of various sahaba, Zayd ibn Thabit and members
of his committee verified the reading by comparing with those who had memorized
the Qur'an. After they were satisfied that they had not missed out any verse or
made any mistakes in reading or writing it down, the text was written down as
one single manuscript and presented in a book form to the Caliph Abu Bakr. It
is believed that this process happened within one year of the death of Muhammad
when most of his sahaba (companions) were still alive.
Prior to his death, Abu Bakr gave this authorized copy of
the Qur'an to Umar – his successor. It remained with him throughout his tenure
as Caliph (10 years). Prior to his death, Umar gave this Book to his
daughter Hafsa bint Umar, who was one of the wives of Muhammad. Umar did
not nominate his successor on his deathbed, and thus preferred to leave this
copy with Hafsa so as not to indicate his personal preference of who would be
the next caliph. Later on, it became the basis of Uthman Ibn Affan's
definitive text of the Qur'an which was published far and wide merely
18 years after the death of Muhammad. Later historians give Uthman Ibn Affan
the principal credit for re-verification and publishing the Qur'an.
Military Expansion
Once the rebellions had been put down, Abu Bakr began a war
of conquest. Whether or not he intended a full-out imperial conquest is hard to
say; he did, however, set in motion a historical trajectory that in just a few
short decades would lead to one of the largest empires in history. Abu
Bakr began with Iraq ,
the richest province of the Persian Empire .
He sent his most brilliant general Khalid ibn al-Walid to invade
the Sassanid Empire.
Islamic conquest of Persia
Abu Bakr was strong enough to attack the Persian Empire in
the north-east and the Byzantine Empire in
the north-west. There were three purposes for this conquest: 1. Along the
borders between Arabia and these two
great empires were numerous Arab tribes leading a nomadic life and forming a
buffer-like state between the Persians and Romans. Abu Bakr hoped that these tribes
might accept Islam and help their brethren in spreading it. 2. The Persian and
Roman taxation laws were arbitrary and oppressive; Abu Bakr believed that they
might be persuaded to help the Muslims, who sought to release them from
injustice. 3. Two gigantic empires surrounded Arabia ,
and it was unsafe to remain passive with these two powers on its borders. Abu
Bakr hoped that by attacking Iraq and Syria he
might remove the danger from the borders of the Islamic State. A tribal
chief of north eastern Arabia, Muthanna ibn Harithah, raided the Persian towns
in Iraq .
With the success of the raids, a considerable amount of booty was collected.
Muthanna ibn Harithah went to Medina to
inform Caliph Abu Bakr about his success and was appointed commander of his
people, after which he began to raid deeper into Iraq . Using the
mobility of his light cavalry he could easily raid any town near
the desert and within moments could disappear again into the desert,
into which the Sassanid army was unable to chase them. Muthanna’s
acts made Abu Bakr think about the expansion of the Rashidun Empire.
Abu Bakr started with the invasion of Iraq . The
problems faced by Abu Bakr were that the Arabs feared the Persians
with a deep, unreasoning fear which ran in the tribal consciousness as a racial
complex and was the result of centuries of Persian power and glory. In return
the Persian regarded the Arab with contempt. It was important not to suffer a
defeat, for that would confirm and strengthen this instinctive fear. To make
certain of victory, Abu Bakr decided on two measures; that the invading army
would consist entirely of volunteers; and he put in command of the army his
best general Khalid ibn al-Walid. After defeating the self-proclaimed prophet
Musaylimah in the Battle of Yamama, Khalid was still
at Al-Yamama when Abu Bakr sent him orders to invade the Sassanid
Empire. Making Al-Hirah the objective of Khalid, Abu Bakr sent
reinforcements and ordered the tribal chiefs of north eastern Arabia , Muthanna ibn Harithah, Mazhur bin Adi, Harmala
and Sulma to operate under the command of Khalid along with their men. In about
third week of March 633 (first week of Muharram 12th Hijrah) Khalid
set out from Al-Yamama with an army of 10,000. The tribal chiefs, with
2,000 warriors each, joined Khalid; Thus Khalid entered the Persian Empire with 18,000 troops.
After entering Iraq with his army of 18,000,
Khalid won decisive victories in four consecutive battles: Battle of
Chains, fought in April 633; Battle of River, fought in the 3rd week of
April 633; Battle of Walaja, fought in May 633 (where he successfully used
a double envelopment manoeuvre), and Battle of Ullais, fought in
the mid of May 633. By now the Persian court already disturbed by the internal
problems, was down and out. In the last week of May 633, Hira capital
city of Iraq fell
to the Muslims after resistance in the Siege of Hira. After resting his
armies, in June 633 Khalid laid siege of Al Anbar, which resisted and was
eventually surrendered after a siege of a few weeks in July 633 after
the Siege of Al-Anbar.
Khalid then moved towards the south, and conquered the city
of Ein ul
Tamr after the Battle of Ein ut Tamr in the last week of July 633. By
now, almost the whole of Iraq (Euphrates region) was under Islamic control. Khalid
got a call of help from northern Arabia at
Daumat-ul-Jandal, where another Muslim Arab general, Ayaz bin Ghanam, was
trapped among the rebel tribes. Khalid went to Daumat-ul-jandal and defeated
the rebels in the Battle
of Daumat-ul-jandal in the last week of August 633. Returning from Arabia , he got news of the assembling of a large Persian
army. He decided to defeat them all separately to avoid the risk of defeat to a
large unified Persian army. Four divisions of Persian
and Christian Arab auxiliaries were present at Hanafiz, Zumiel, Sanni
and Muzieh. Khalid devised a brilliant plan to destroy the Persian forces. He
divided his army in three units, and attacked the Persian forces in brilliantly
coordinated attacks from three different sides at night, starting from
the Battle of Muzieh, then the Battle of Sanni, and finally
the Battle of Zumail during November 633. These devastating defeats
ended Persian control over Iraq, and left the Persian
capital Ctesiphon unguarded and vulnerable for Muslims attack, before
attacking the Persian Capital Khalid decided to eliminate all Persian forces
from south and west, he accordingly marched against the border city of Firaz,
where he defeated the combined forces of the Sassanid
Persians, Byzantine Romans and Christian Arabs in
the Battle of Firaz in December 633. This was the last battle in his
conquest of Iraq .
While Khalid was on his way to attack Qadissiyah, a key fort in the way to
Persian Capital Ctesiphon, he received the letter of Caliph Abu Bakr and was
sent to Roman front in Syria to
assume the command of Muslim armies to conquer Roman Syria.
Invasion of Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire
With a successful invasion of Sassanid Persian province of Iraq Iraq was stable by now, the Caliph
accordingly wrote to Khalid to take half of his forces of Iraq to Syria and to assume command of
all Muslim armies in Byzantine Syria. The Byzantine province
of Syria in those days consisted of
modern day Syria , Jordan , Israel ,
the Palestinian territories, Lebanon and
southern Turkey .
There were two routes towards Syria from Iraq , one was via Daumat -ul- Jandal and the
other was through Mesopotamia passing
though Ar Raqqah. Since it was believed that the Muslim armies in Syria were in need of urgent reinforcement,
Khalid avoided the conventional route to Syria via
Daumat ul Jandal because it was a long route and would take weeks to
reach Syria .
He also did not take the Mesopotamian route because Roman garrisons held
northern Syria and
northern Mesopotamia . A conflict with
these Roman forces would have forced Khalid to spend too much time while Muslim
armies were being outflanked in Syria . Khalid selected, instead, a
short and unconventional route to Syria ,
passing though the Syrian Desert .
Although probably hyperbole, some sources state that his soldiers marched for
two days without a single drop of water before reaching an oasis that Khalid had
selected in advance. Khalid thus entered Northern
Syria at a point where he was least expected, catching the
Byzantine forces on their right flank. More recent historians have suggested
that this surprises attack unhinged the Byzantine defenses in Syria .
Khalid entered Syria in
June 634 and quickly captured the border forts of Sawa, Arak , Tadmur, Sukhnah. al-Qaryatayn and Hawarin after
the battles of Qaryatayn and Hawarin. After dealing with all
these cities, Khalid moved towards Damascus, passing though a mountain
pass which is now known as Sanita-al-Uqab (Uqab pass) after the name of
Khalid's army standard. From here he moved away from Damascus ,
towards Bosra, the capital of Ghassanid Arab kingdom, a vassal of Eastern Roman empire . He had ordered other Muslim
commanders to concentrate their armies at Bosra, which were still near the
Syrian-Arabia border. At Maraj-al-Rahab, Khalid defeated
a Ghassanid army of Christian Arabs in a quick Battle of Marj-al-Rahit. Meanwhile Abu Ubaida
ibn al-Jarrah, the supreme commander of Muslim armies in Syria had
ordered Shurhabil ibn Hasana to attack Bosra. The latter laid siege
of Bosra with his small army of 4000 men. Roman and Ghassanid Arab
garrison, noticing that this might be the advance guard of the larger Muslim army
to come, decided to attack and destroy Shurhabil’s army. They came out of the
fortified city and attacked Shurhabil, surrounding him from all sides; Khalid
reached the arena with his advance guard cavalry and saved the day for
Shurhabil. The combined forces of Khalid, Shurhabil and Abu Ubaidah then laid
the siege of Bosra, which surrendered some time in mid July 634. thus
effectively ending the Ghassanid Dynasty.
Here Khalid took over the command of Muslim armies in Syria Syria Syria Damascus Damascus he prepared for
the defences of Damascus Damascus ,
Khalid had finally reached Damascus Damascus Palestine and
in north at Damascus-Emesa route, and several other smaller detachments on
routes towards Damascus Battle of Sanita-al-Uqab, 20 miles from Damascus Damascus Damascus , left for Antioch Battle of Maraj-al-Debaj, 190 miles north of Damascus Damascus Syria
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