Damascus Under Muslim Rule
Caliph Abu Bakr was very brave and strong.
His 4 Muslim generals peacefully spread the message of Islam to the border towns of Rome
to show that the Muslims didn’t want to hurt anybody.
The Muslims just wanted to show the beauty of Islam and became friends.
So, when the border towns saw this beauty of Islam, many converted to Islam, and the
others still supported and respected the Muslim.
They knew if the Muslims ruled the land, they would bringing peace and justice everywhere.
They didn’t want the very bad, mean, and cruel Roman King Heraclius to be their leader,
because he only liked Christianity.
He did not like other religions.
They knew if someone did not follow Christianity, he would punish them.
Remember the Roman King Heraclius forced the people to be Christians and did not believe
in the freedom of religion.
When King Heraclius heard that the people in the border towns were becoming Muslims,
he got really mad.
So he ordered his people to keep hurting the border town's new Muslims and forced them
to follow Christianity.
During this situation, Caliph Abu Bakr (r) told the commander in chief Khalid bin Walid
(r) to leave Persia and join the other 4 generals who were already in the Roman empire.
In order to scare the Muslims, King Heraclius’s brother Theodore joined the war as commander
in chief, but that didn’t scare the Muslims, and the Muslims won the war.
This was so embarrassing for King Heraclius that his own brother couldn’t even stop
the small Muslim army.
He became very sad and ran away from this embarrassing situation to Constantinople,
which was the Roman capital.
In present-day that’s in Istanbul, Turkey Finally, this was a little bit of good news
for the Muslims, but they knew the Romans would come back with a bigger army to destroy
the Muslims.
As you see, all this time the bad people attacked the Muslims first, then Muslims were forced
to join the war.
But now if the Muslims don’t attack first, the Romans could build a stronger army to
destroy all the Muslims.
So, the Muslim army got ready and started to travel north to one of the most important
trading centers of the Arab world, the city of Damascus, which was the capital of Syria.
The Roman soldiers were scared to fight against the small Muslim army face to face.
Because they saw that the Muslim commander in chief Khalid bin Walid was winning every
single battle.
Whenever they heard his name, the Roman soldiers would get scared.
With the help of Allah, Khalid bin Walid never lost a single battle in his life.
When the Muslims finally came to Damascus, the Roman soldiers got scared and hid behind
their town walls.
In that situation, the commander in chief Khalid bin Walid decided to divide the Muslim
generals and their armies to guard the different gates of Damascus.
Here the other generals were Abu Ubaidah who was the second in command, Shurahbil, Abu
Sufyan’s son: Yazid, and Amr bin al-As (r).
King Heraclius ordered the Roman soldiers of Damascus to destroy the Muslims.
So, the Roman soldiers shot arrows and threw huge rocks over their walls at the Muslims.
This made it a very hard and long fight for the Muslims.
The Romans were waiting for the cold winter.
They thought the Muslims would leave as soon as winter came because the Muslims were not
used to the extreme cold weather.
The thing is, not everyone inside Damascus wanted to hurt the Muslims.
The common people of Damascus actually liked the Muslims.
Even the governor of Damascus didn’t like King Heraclius at all.
Because he took very high taxes from the people and made them poor.
He used that tax money to buy very expensive things for himself.
The soldiers who worked directly for the king kept on attacking the Muslims because of the
king’s orders.
So, the general people didn’t know what to do.
Then one night, the Romans were having a big party.
They ate lots of food and drank wine.
Because of the wine, the Romans soldiers couldn’t do their job properly.
At that moment, Khalid bin Walid decided to take his men through the Eastern gate.
Even though it was the hardest gate to enter, he decided to go because there were only a
few Roman guards on that side.
In secret, he and some of his men climbed over the walls and then opened up the gates
for the rest of his men to come.
When Khalid bin Walid’s men already came through the Eastern part of the town, the
Roman army leader realized that there was no way they could win.
So quickly, he decided to meet with the second in command, Abu Ubaidah and surrendered the
city, and made a peace agreement with the Muslims.
Since they made a peace agreement with Abu Ubaidah, the Muslims honored their promises.
Here, they promised the people of Damascus could live in peace and have the freedom of
religion.
At dawn, as the sun rose, it was a new beginning for the Muslims as they entered the city of
Damascus: the land that was promised by Allah (SWT) during the time of the prophet.
Now finally, after all these years, in the year 634, Damascus became a part of the Muslim
empire with Abu Sufyan’s son, General Yazid as the first governor of Damascus.