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Stories, Companions

Khalid ibn al-Walid

The Sword of Allah

c. 592 to 642, From Makkah to Hims

He fought more than fifty battles and lost none. He began as Islam's most dangerous enemy and became its greatest general. Then he died in bed, furious that he had survived them all.

Awaiting scholar review

Setting the stage

The two superpowers. At Carrhae in 53 BC, Persian horse archers and armoured cavalry annihilated a Roman army. Rome and Persia had fought each other ever since, for almost 700 years. Their border barely moved.

Then nature struck. Rice farming spread malaria from Spain to Iran. In the 540s the Plague of Justinian killed people in enormous numbers. Both empires were left with fewer farmers, smaller armies and weaker economies.

The last great war. From 602 to 628 they fought one final war, 26 years long. It ended with both sides bankrupt and exhausted, just as a new community was taking shape in Arabia.

The man

Khalid was born around 592 into Banu Makhzum, one of the richest clans of Quraysh in Makkah. He grew up a horseman.

At Uhud (625) he led the Makkan cavalry. When the Muslim archers left their hill, he swept round behind the Muslim army and turned the battle. He fought against the Muslims again at the Trench (627).

In 629 he rode to Madinah with 'Amr ibn al-'As and accepted Islam. The Prophet ﷺ is reported to have told him he had always seen a mind in him, and hoped it would lead him to good.

The cast

Abu Bakr
First caliph, who sent Khalid east and then to Syria.
'Umar ibn al-Khattab
Second caliph. Khalid's relative and lookalike, and the man who retired him.
Abu 'Ubaydah
Commander in Syria, who chose to keep Khalid at the front.
Heraclius
Roman emperor, watching from Antioch.
Vahan
Armenian general of the Roman army at Yarmuk.
Sophronius
Patriarch of Jerusalem.

His life in 10 moments

  1. 625
    Uhud His cavalry charge defeats the Muslims.
  2. 629
    Islam Accepts Islam in Madinah.
  3. 629
    Mu'tah Takes command when three leaders fall, and saves the army.
  4. 630
    Makkah Leads one of the columns that enter Makkah.
  5. 632 to 633
    Riddah wars Breaks the rebel armies, including Musaylimah's at Yamamah. Arabia is united for the first time.
  6. 633
    Iraq Over a dozen battles against Persia in about a year.
  7. 634
    The desert march Crosses a waterless desert to reach Syria.
  8. 636
    Yarmuk Breaks the Roman army in six days.
  9. 638
    Removed 'Umar removes him from command.
  10. 642
    Hims Dies in bed, around 50 years old.

The battles, and what they teach

629

Mu'tah

3,000 against many times that

Zayd fell carrying the banner. Then Ja'far. Then Ibn Rawahah. The army handed it to Khalid. That night he swapped his wings and moved fresh men to the front, while a rear guard raised dust behind them. The Romans saw what looked like reinforcements arriving, and held back. He withdrew the army intact. In Madinah the Prophet ﷺ announced that "a sword from the swords of Allah" had taken the banner (Bukhari 4262). That is where the title Sayf Allah comes from.

633

The Chains

Champion against champion

The Persian commander Hurmuz chained his men together so none could flee. Before the battle, Khalid killed him in single combat. Then he used cavalry charges to break the Persian lines. Men chained together could not reform.

633

Three night strikes

Three armies, one at a time

Three Persian armies were closing in to join up. Khalid split his men into three columns. They marched by separate routes and met at a fixed hour of the night. He destroyed the first camp, then the second, then the third, before the armies could ever combine.

634

Firad

Two empires as allies

At the border town of Firad, Romans, Persians and their Arab allies fought together for once. Khalid let part of their army cross the Euphrates, then cut the crossing behind them and crushed the men who were trapped. Afterwards he made a secret Hajj, and was back with his army before it reached al-Hirah. Abu Bakr heard about it. He told Khalid not to do it again.

634

The desert march

Iraq to Syria

Khalid was ordered to Syria in a hurry. He took the direct route, across a waterless desert. The camels were made to drink deeply beforehand, then slaughtered on the way for the water inside them. His army appeared in Syria where nobody expected an army could come from.

636

Yarmuk

Six days

Now under Abu 'Ubaydah's command, Khalid ran the field. The Muslim wings broke twice, and the women in the camp drove the men back into the fight with tent poles. On the sixth day his cavalry swung round, broke the Roman flank and pinned the army against the ravines. Heraclius left Syria for good.

After the battles: Jerusalem, 638

Sophronius would surrender the city only to the caliph himself. 'Umar came from Madinah plainly dressed, taking turns on the camel with his servant. The terms guaranteed the people's lives, property and churches, in return for the jizyah tax.

Invited to pray in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, 'Umar declined. He said Muslims would later claim the place, and he prayed outside instead. He found the Temple Mount covered in rubbish, and cleared it with his own hands.

Under the Romans, Jews had been barred from the city. Now they were allowed to settle there again. A Cairo Genizah letter speaks of seventy families.

Lessons

  1. Victory belongs to Allah 'Umar said why he removed Khalid: people had started to think victory came from Khalid, and he wanted them to know it came from Allah.
  2. Ego under command Khalid served under Abu 'Ubaydah without complaint. He is reported to have said he fought for Allah, not for 'Umar.
  3. Brains over numbers Khalid won through speed, intelligence, deception and timing, and almost always while outnumbered.
  4. Former enemies can become pillars The man who defeated the Muslims at Uhud became their greatest general.
  5. Accountability Khalid killed men of Banu Jadhimah who had surrendered. The Prophet ﷺ raised his hands and said: "O Allah, I am free of what Khalid has done" (Bukhari 4339), and paid compensation. 'Umar also condemned Khalid's killing of Malik ibn Nuwayrah during the Riddah wars.

Where popular tellings and the sources differ

  • Most numbers are uncertain. The chronicles give huge figures (100,000-plus at Mu'tah and Firad). Modern historians think the armies were far smaller.
  • The lecture says 'Umar feared Khalid's political ambition. 'Umar's own stated reason was the people's trust in Khalid instead of Allah.
  • Khalid killing Vahan in a duel, and Khalid posing as 'Umar at Jerusalem, don't appear in the main chronicles. Vahan's fate is disputed, and the siege of Jerusalem was led by Abu 'Ubaydah.
  • Khalid was retired but not sent to Makkah. He died in Hims in Syria.
  • The Prophet's mission, in Muslim belief, was to restore the religion of Ibrahim, not to merge Judaism and Christianity.

His last words

I have fought in so many battles seeking martyrdom that there is no part of my body without the scar of a sword, a spear or an arrow. And here I am, dying in my bed like a camel. May the eyes of cowards never sleep.

As reported in the classical biographies