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 Yazid and Mu'awiyah both were in charge to protect
Damascus.
Commander in Chief Abu Ubaidah and the second in command, Khalid bin Walid went far north
to spread the message of Islam peacefully to the people.
The general people were accepting this beautiful religion, Islam, and accepted Allah (SWT)
as their only God.
They successfully spread Islam up to present-day Aleppo, Syria.
At that time, the Roman capital was in Istanbul, Turkey.
The Christian Roman king did not like that the true religion, Islam was spreading.
So, he started to send different small armies to 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 Islam peacefully.
When the Christian King Heraclius realized that nothing could stop the Muslims from spreading
Islam, then he made a different plan.
First, to become stronger, he made a friendship with his very long-time enemy, Persia.
So, Heraclius' granddaughter and the 10-year-old Persian King, Yazdegerd III, got married.
At that time, the Persian Capital was next to Baghdad, Iraq.
Then the Christian King Heraclius built a very big army with more than 200,000 soldiers
to destroy the Muslims and control all of Arabia.
After hearing that bad news, Abu Ubaidah and Khalid bin Walid decided to get together all
their strong people in one place to protect Islam.
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 next to 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 planned to kill the prophet Muhammad (s), and because
of this, and many other bad actions, they were kicked out from Medina.
After they left, they started to live near the 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 was really good and beautiful.
Islam protected all the people's freedom and safety.
When the Jews heard about the big fight, right away, the Jews were on the Muslims’ side.
They knew that 10 years ago the mistake that they made was their fault, but at the end
of the day, the Jews of Banu Nadir knew, the Muslims always kept their promises and the
Muslims always gave them the freedom of religion.
The Jewish Banu Nadir tribe was very good at making army uniforms and swords.
To help the Muslims, they joined the war and made a lot of war items so that the Muslims
would be safe.
The Muslims had about 40 thousand soldiers and the Romans had more than 200,000 soldiers.
The battlefield was around 6 miles long.
So far, this was the biggest battle for the Muslims 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 this battle 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 first battle 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 shooters came to join the war.
Many other powerful people also joined the battle.
71-year-old Abu Sufyan and his wife Hind also joined that battle to protect Islam.
Many regular people and lots of women also joined this war for Islam.
Finally, the day came for the Battle of Yarmouk during August of 636, four years after Prophet
Muhammad (s)'s death.
On the first day, both armies divided their soldiers into four big groups.
Shurahbil, Amr ibn al-As, Uncle Yazid, and Abu Ubaidah (r) was in charge of each of the
big army groups.
The Romans had 5 horse groups and the Muslims had 4 horse groups.
As a commander in chief Khalid (r) was also in charge of the horse groups.
On the second day, the very big and strong Roman army strongly attacked and weakened
the Muslims' right and left sides of the army.
At one point, the Muslims started to run away.
But some Muslim women like Hind, Abu Sufyan's wife, and other sahabi's wives showed their
braveness and tried to stop the Muslim men from running away.
They insulted the men for being cowards and scared.
Then the Muslim women took their husband’s sword and they started to fight against the
big Roman army.
When their husbands saw that, they got their courage again and went back to stop the big
Roman army.
On the third day, the Romans did not attack the left side.
They attack the Muslims' weak side, which was on the right.
Khaled (r) divided his horse group in two and tried to help the weak side and stopped
the Romans for that day.
On the fourth day, the Romans again attacked very 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 in Allah (SWT) and tried their best to stop the
Roman army.
The Romans were very surprised that, their big and strong army could not destroy the
Muslim army.
In these 4 days, the Romans lost many of their soldiers.
So, on the fifth day, the Romans did not want to fight and wanted to stop the fight.
Khaled (r) realized that the Romans became tired and they might escape from the battlefield
and come back with more soldiers.
So, at night, he sent 500 horses behind the Roman army to block their only escape route.
Every day the Romans attacked first.
Khaled (r) realized that now it was Muslim's turn.
On the final sixth day, he gathered all the horses together and made one single strong
horse group.
He ordered the Muslims to attack first.
As soon as the Muslims attacked, he quickly went 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)'s speed and sudden attack.
All the Roman horse groups got together to stop Khalid (r) but they were late and were
destroyed by Khalid (r)'s horse group.
At one point, they tried to escape the battlefield but realized that their path was blocked by
the Muslims.
They were trapped by the two rivers and the Muslim army destroyed the most powerful army
at that time.
Winning this battle made the Muslims a superpower in that land and made Khaled bin Walid (r)
a great fighter and commander in chief in the history of all time.
The Muslim women also were great heroes in this battle.
Did you know one of the top Muslim generals was a woman called Khawlah (r)!
She learned to fight from her brother, Dhiraar.
In the battle of Yarmouk, her brother was arrested by Roman soldiers.
So the brave Khawlah (r) dressed as a man and went all the way to the back of the Roman
army camp and save her brother.
One time when her brother was fighting against the Romans, he got hurt and they took him
back to the Roman’s side.
Khawlah (r) was protective of her older brother so she dressed like a man and went all the
way to the back of the Roman army to save her older brother.
In another situation against the Romans, when many Muslim men were scared to fight against
the strong Roman army, Khawlah (r) went straight towards them to fight.
Many people thought she was Khalid bin Walid and followed her.
Khalid bin Walid thought she was a man fighting and was wondering who that good fighter was.
Later, Khalid (r) asked her who she was.
Khawlah (r) did not reply for a long time until finally she removed the cloth from her
face and told him that her name was Khawlah.
Khalid bin Walid was shocked as one by one all of her took off their face coverings and
he saw that they were all women fighting like some of the soldiers on the battlefield.
So, in the Battle of Yarmouk, Khawlah easily became one of the top generals.
Even when the men were scared, Khawlah herself led 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 someone is a man or a woman, we can make a difference
and we are able to do anything if we truly want it.
They show us that we should always give women proper respect and opportunity because they
just might be the reason for our strength and our success.