Chapter XV

CAMPAIGN IN SYRIA.--TAKING OF DAMASCUS.
BATTLE OF FIHL.

A.H. XIV. A.D. 635.

[Sidenote: The Syrian forces repose on the Yermûk.]

After the terrible slaughter of the Romans at Wacûsa, we left the Syrian forces reposing on the banks of the Yermûk. There, for some time, they were engaged in burying the dead, tending the wounded, and dividing the spoil.

[Sidenote: Syria east of the Jordan.]

The country around them, ‘the land beyond Jordan on the east,’ differed from any they had previously known. To the south was the undulating pasture-ground of the Belcâa, and again to the north of the Yermûk the pasture-lands of Jaulân.[226] Between these two pastoral tracts lay the hills and dales of Gilead, with their fields of wheat and barley, dotted every here and there with clumps of the shady oak, olive, and sycamore, and thickets of arbutus, myrtle, and oleander. It was emphatically ‘a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills.’ The landscape, diversified with green slopes and glens, is in season gay with carpeting of flowers and melody of birds. From heights not far north of the Yermûk, beyond the green expanse around, might be descried the blue waters of the Sea of Galilee sparkling in the west, and still farther the snow-capped peaks of the Lebanon and Hermon--a strange contrast to the endless sands and stony plains of the peninsula.[227] Not less marked was the contrast with the land of Chaldæa. There the marshy delta of the Euphrates displays an almost tropical luxuriance; while above it the plains of Mesopotamia, with its network of canals, were covered by vast mounds, the site of cities teeming with life in the early cycles of the world, and strewn with fragments of pottery and bricks stamped with strange devices--mysterious records of bygone kingdoms. Here, on the contrary, the pride of the Byzantine empire was yet alive. From the Jordan to the desert were colonial cities founded by the Romans, boasting their churches, theatres, and forum. Even the naval contests of the naumachia might be witnessed in the land of Gilead. The country was populous and flourishing, inhabited by a mongrel race half Arab and half Syrian, who aspired to the privileges and aped the luxurious habits, without the chivalry and manliness, of the Roman citizen. It was altogether a civilisation of forced and exotic growth. No sooner was the western prop removed than the people returned to their Bedouin life, true sons of the desert; the chariot and waggon were banished for the camel; and nothing left of Roman rule but columns and peristyles, causeways and aqueducts--great masses of ruined masonry which still startle the traveller as if belonging to another world. But, at the time we write of, the age of so-called civilisation was still dominant there.

[Sidenote: Highway between Syria and Arabia.]

Such was the beautiful country, strange to the peninsular Arab, both in its natural features and in its busy urban life, which was now traversed by the Moslem armies, and soon became the beaten highway between Syria and Arabia.

[Sidenote: Abu Obeida succeeds Khâlid. A.H. XIII. Sept. A.D. 634.]

After achieving the victory of Wacûsa, Khâlid delivered over to Abu Obeida the despatch from the new Caliph, which (as we have related) was put into his hands at the commencement of the action, and with it surrendered the commission which he held from Abu Bekr.[228] The other leaders were all confirmed in their commands by Omar.

[Sidenote: Khâlid loyally supports Abu Obeida.]

The affront put upon him by Omar did not damp the zeal or devotion of Khâlid. He placed himself forthwith at the command of Abu Obeida, who published with reluctance the order for his deposition.[229] Abu Obeida knew full well the rare military genius of Khâlid; and, himself of a mild and unwarlike turn, was wise and magnanimous enough to ask, and as a rule implicitly to follow, his advice. Khâlid, nobly putting aside his grievance, devoted his best energies to the cause; and, his supersession notwithstanding, remained thus virtually the chief captain of Islam in Syria.

The course of Moslem victory in Syria advanced with little let or check. In Persia the struggle was not to save a limb, but life itself. [Sidenote: Byzantine struggle in Syria faint-hearted.]Here it was otherwise. Syria, indeed, contained the holy places and all that was dearest to the Byzantine people as the cradle of their faith. But, after all, it was, though fair and sacred, but an outlying province, of which a cowardly, supine, and selfish court could without vital injury afford the loss. There were, accordingly, no such mortal throes in Syria as on the plains of Chaldæa.

[Sidenote: Abu Obeida advances on Damascus.]

Leaving a strong detachment on the Yermûk to keep communications open with the south, the invading army resumed its march towards Damascus. On the way, news reached them that the city had been reinforced, and also that in Palestine the scattered fragments of the defeated army had re-formed in the valley of the Jordan, thus threatening the Moslem rear. The moment was critical, and Abu Obeida wrote for orders to the Caliph. The command of Omar was to strike a decisive blow at Damascus. The citadel of Syria gained, the rest was sure. Accordingly, a strong column under Abul Aûr and other veteran leaders was sent back to hold in check the enemy on the Jordan, while the main body advanced by the military road to Damascus.

[Sidenote: Damascus.]

This city, founded before the days of Abraham,[230] enjoys the singular pre-eminence of having survived, through all the vicissitudes of dynasties and nations, the capital of Syria. The Ghûta, or great plain on which it stands, is watered by the Barada and other streams issuing from the Lebanon and adjoining mountain ranges; and the beautiful groves and rich meadows around have given it (perhaps with a better title than the delta of the Euphrates) the name of ‘the garden of the world.’ An _entrepôt_ of commerce between the East and West, it has from age to age, with varying fortune, been ever rich and populous. The city wall, twenty feet high and fifteen broad, still displays in many places stones of cyclopean size, which must have been venerable ages even before our era. Turrets for defence are placed at stated intervals, and over the gates and at other spots there are structures to accommodate the garrison on duty. The Eastern gate still leads into ‘the street which is called Straight,’ as it did in the days when St. Paul passed through it.[231] The Cathedral church of St. John the Baptist rears its great dome, towering above the other buildings; and besides it there were, at the time of the invasion, fifteen churches in Damascus and its suburbs. The city, not long before, suffered severely from the alternating fortunes of the Persian war; but it had now, in great measure, recovered its prosperity.

Such was the capital of Syria, ‘the Queen of Cities,’ which--embedded in groves and gardens, and hemmed in (excepting towards the eastern desert) with distant but lofty mountains, some tipped with snow--now burst on the gaze of the Arab warriors. One here and there amongst them may perchance have visited it, trading to the north; but, as a whole, the army had heard of it only by report; and in beauty, richness, and repose, fancy could hardly have exceeded the scene which now lay before them.

[Sidenote: The city invested. Shawwâl, A.H. XIII. December, A.D. 634.]

The Arab force was strong enough to invest the city. Abu Obeida pitched his head-quarters opposite the Gate of Jâbia, on the western plain. Khâlid was posted at the Eastern entrance,[232] where the gateway was strengthened by the remains of an ancient temple. The other gates were similarly guarded. Battering-rams and testudos were drawn up against the walls; but every attempt at a breach of the massive defences failed. At first the citizens, ignorant of the ardour and persistence inspired by the faith of Mahomet, regarded the attack as a desultory raid like many that had preceded it, and looked for succour. The city lies two thousand feet above the sea, and the severity of the cold in spring would drive away the Arab tribes, used to a more genial climate. But months slipped by, and the host still hung obstinately around the walls. The Emperor, indeed, from Hims, attempted a diversion; but Dzul Kelâa, posted with his Himyarite horse to the north of the city, kept them at bay; and Abu Obeida detached another column to cover the siege from annoyance on the side of Palestine. The summer was coming on, and no relief appeared. The Moslems, instead of retiring, pressed their attack with increasing vigour; and the hopes of the Damascenes melted away into despair.[233]

[Sidenote: Storm and capitulation. A.H. XIV. Summer, A.D. 635.]

On a certain day, we are told, the Roman Governor made feast to the garrison to celebrate the birth of a son.[234] They ate and drank, and, relaxing into merriment, began to quit their posts. Khâlid knew of the expected feast, for nothing escaped his vigilance. ‘He neither himself slumbered, nor suffered others to fall asleep.’ And so, reckoning upon the season of revelry, he had settled with Abu Obeida to seize it as the occasion for a general assault. The defences on Khâlid’s side were by far the most formidable; the moat was deeper there, and the walls stronger. The garrison, holding the spot to be impregnable, were less on the alert than elsewhere; and in their negligence Khâlid found his opportunity. In concert with certain daring spirits, his comrades from Irâc, he planned an escalade. Ladders were got in readiness, and scaling ropes with nooses to catch the projections of the castellated wall. In the darkness preceding dawn, they stealthily crossed the moat upon inflated skins;[235] then, casting up their tackle, they caught the battlements. Cacâa, with another hero[236] from Irâc, was the first to gain the summit. The way thus silently secured, others scaled rapidly. Right and left they surprised the slumbering pickets by a sudden rush, and put them to the sword. The gate from within was forced open, and the appointed cry ‘_Allah Akbar!_’ resounded from the walls to the expectant troops without. The Roman soldiery, panic-struck, fled before their assailants; and now through the gateway Khâlid’s column poured in, slaying and sacking all around. They had already penetrated near to the centre of the city, when their progress was brought to an unwelcome end. For on the other side a very different scene was taking place. The Governor, seeing that resistance to an assault apprehended from every quarter was hopeless, had issued from the western gate, and already tendered his submission to Abu Obeida. Terms were made upon the spot, and the capitulation signed. The gates were thrown open, and the Moslem force, unopposed, kept streaming in from the western camp. As they advanced, cries of despair and appeals to stay the carnage met the ears of Abu Obeida, who was no sooner apprised of what had transpired in the eastern quarter than he sent orders to stay the onslaught. Khâlid remonstrated that the city had been fairly carried by assault, and was at their mercy; but in vain. Abu Obeida, juster and more clement, pointed to the treaty, and insisted that its provisions should be fulfilled. Good faith was the best as well as justest policy. The people were conciliated, and throughout Syria the capitulation of Damascus became the type of surrender.[237]

[Sidenote: Terms of capitulation.]

One half of all the property, both in money and buildings, private and public, was by this capitulation surrendered to the conquerors. Besides the taxes levied under Byzantine rule, the tribute of one dinar was imposed on every male adult who did not embrace Islam, and a measure of corn was taken from every field.[238] In this way the Arabs gained, not only large spoil and a permanent revenue, without entirely alienating the people, and even with a show of moderation, but obtained also possession of buildings sufficient for their own accommodation and for the conduct of public business. And so this beautiful city, ‘the Eye of the East,’ passed from the grasp of Heraclius into the hands of the Caliph, and became ‘the Eden of Islam.’

The churches of Damascus shared the common fate; they were equally distributed between the Christians and the conquerors. [Sidenote: Cathedral of St. John the Baptist turned into a Mosque.]The Cathedral church of St. John the Baptist was treated differently. It was divided into two parts--in one half the rites of the ancient faith were still celebrated, and the gospel of Jesus read; in the other half, carefully detached, the Corân was recited, and the service of Islam observed; while from the dome the Muedzzin proclaimed daily the supremacy of the Arabian prophet.[239] For seventy or eighty years the great Cathedral continued thus to blend under one roof the symbols and the practice of the two religions. That which was reasonable in the first beginnings of Islam, however, became intolerable in the rapid advance of arrogance and bigotry. One and another of the Caliphs sought, by the offer of large payments, to obtain surrender of the entire Cathedral; but in vain. At last Welîd, about the ninetieth year of the Hegira, took the law into his own hands, and summarily ejected the Christian worshippers. They complained against the injustice of the act, and Omar II. listened to their reclamation. But the doctors of Islam declared it impossible to restore to Christian worship a place once consecrated by the Idzân and the prayers of the Faithful; and so at last the Christians consented to take, instead, the churches of the city and its suburbs which had been confiscated under the equal partition of Abu Obeida. All that appeared Christian, therefore, in the style or decoration of the Cathedral church, was now removed or defaced. But this wonderful edifice retains to the present day marks of the different religions to which it has been from time to time devoted. In the massive foundations may be traced its origin as a pagan Temple; these are surmounted by the beautiful architecture and embellishment of Byzantine art; and over the great entrance may still be deciphered, clear and uninjured, the grand prophecy of the Psalmist, which yet may be realised in the worship of the Temple itself:--

THY KINGDOM, O CHRIST, IS A KINGDOM OF ALL AGES; AND THY
DOMINION IS FROM GENERATION
TO GENERATION.[240]

[Sidenote: Romans at Beisân held in check by Abul Aûr at Fihl. A.H. XIV. Spring, A.D. 634.]

All through the protracted siege of Damascus, Abul Aûr kept watch over his enemy in the Ghôr, or Valley of the Jordan, near to Fihl. This city, the ancient Pella, was situated on the eastern slope of the valley, six or seven miles below the outlet of the Lake of Tiberias. Ruins still mark the site which is 600 feet above the river bed. The gorge of the Jordan is here broad and fertile, and the stream at many places fordable. Opposite Fihl the valley of Jezreel, branching off from Esdräelon, that great battle-field of the world, issues into the Ghôr. The broad opening is guarded on one side by the mountains of Gilboa, the scene of Saul’s disaster, and on the other by the frowning eminence of Beisân, to the walls of which the Philistines fastened the body of that unfortunate monarch.[241] The mountain streams here run along the valley, rendering it when neglected sodden and swampy.[242] It was under the shadow of Beisân that the broken army of the Romans took refuge, and here fresh supports from Heraclius joined them. To secure their front, they dammed the streams, and so turned the whole vale into a marsh. At first the Arabs chafed under the stratagem, for their horses were disabled on the yielding ground. But they soon learned patience, and discovered that the enemy had shut himself out from the Ghôr, as well as from their attack. Himself securely posted, his rear open to reinforcements, supplied in plenty by the fertile vale of the Jordan, from which the Romans were cut off--Abul Aûr was content to wait till the summer heat should dry up the quagmire; and meanwhile his enemy, 80,000 strong, was held in check, if not virtually blockaded.[243]

[Sidenote: Abu Obeida returns to attack Fihl. A.H. XIV. Summer, A.D. 634.[244]]

The summer was well advanced before the Arabs broke up their camp at Damascus. They were eager to attack Heraclius at Hims; but Omar forbade them to advance, so long as there was an army in their rear. Leaving, therefore, Yezîd son of Abu Sofiân, with a garrison of Yemen levies, as Governor of Damascus, Abu Obeida hastened back with the rest of his army to Fihl. The province of the Jordan had been given by Omar in command to Shorahbîl, and to him therefore Abu Obeida now committed the chief conduct of the campaign which lay within his jurisdiction. Khâlid led the van; Abu Obeida himself commanded one of the wings, and Amru the other; the famous warrior Dhirâr directed the cavalry, and Iyâdh the foot.[245] Retracing their steps, they took the highway to Palestine, and, recrossing the Yermûk near where it falls into the Jordan by the hot springs of Omm Keis (or Gadara), marched down the valley of the Ghôr, and encamped under Fihl. Abul Aûr, who had held the enemy in check for so long a time, was now detached on a similar duty towards Tiberias, to prevent diversion from that quarter. The main army, taking his place, sat before Beisân, and continued patiently its blockade.

[Sidenote: Battle of Fihl.]

Mistaking inaction for remissness, and themselves reduced to straits, the Byzantine army, on a certain morning, thought to fall upon the Arabs unawares. They little knew the vigilance of Shorahbîl, who night and day was on the watch ready for action. Fetching a circuit, the Romans suddenly appeared on the Moslem flank. They met a warm reception, and there ensued a battle as fierce and obstinate as any that had yet taken place. All day the Romans held their ground; but by nightfall the impetuosity of the Arabs had its way. Sacalâr, the Byzantine captain, fell, and his army broke and fled. The greater part, caught in the marsh, there met their fate; and few escaped the sword. ‘Thus the Lord wrought for his people,’ writes the pious crusader; ‘and the morass which we thought a curse turned in His hands into a blessing.’ And so the plain of Esdraelon again looked down upon another great and sanguinary conflict, which, following on the defeat of Wacûsa, decided for many a long century the fate of Syria.

The loss of the Mussulmans was comparatively small. The booty was immense, and served to sharpen the Arab appetite for further victory.

[Sidenote: Khâlid’s contingent sent back to Irâc.]

No enemy now was left in sight. Omar, therefore, remembering the last behest of Abu Bekr, that when the Lord gave victory in Syria the contingent of Khâlid should be sent to Irâc, gave orders accordingly. Its ranks, thinned by the fighting they had undergone, were before the march made up to their former strength by transfer of volunteers from the Syrian army. Thus recruited, the contingent (under command, not now of Khâlid, but of Hâshim, son of Otba) recrossed the desert just in time to take part in the great battle of Câdesîya. Abu Obeida, with Khâlid and other chiefs of note, returned to Damascus. Shorahbîl and Amru were left to reduce to order the province of the Jordan. [Sidenote: Province of Jordan reduced.]The task was easy. The fire of patriotism had never burned brightly anywhere in Syria; and what there might have been was now extinguished by the listless cowardice of the Byzantine Court. To the Bedouin class, weary of Roman trammels, the prospect of an Arabian rule was far from unwelcome. Neither were the Jews and Samaritans unfavourable to the invaders; indeed, we find them not infrequently giving aid and information to the enemy. Even the Christians cared little for the maintenance of a government which by courtly and ecclesiastical intolerance had done its best to alienate their affection.

[Sidenote: Progress east of the Jordan,]

Beisân for some time held out; but the garrison, when their sallies had been repeatedly repulsed with slaughter, at last capitulated. Tiberias followed its example, and both obtained the terms of Damascus. Adzraât,[246] Ammân, Jerash, Maâb, and Bostra, all tendered their submission. And so the whole tract from the Jordan eastward to the Haurân and the desert, was brought under control, and garrisons were distributed throughout the leading towns.

[Sidenote: and in Central Syria.]

Yezîd extended similarly his authority from Damascus towards the desert as far as Tadmor. Westward he deputed his brother Muâvia, who, meeting little opposition, reduced Sidon and Beyrût, and pushed his conquests as far north as Arca.[247] Damascus itself, largely occupied by Arabs, quickly assumed the garb of a Moslem city. The Byzantine power and influence lingered longer on the coast; and once and again, from seaward, they retook what the Arabs had gained. It was not, indeed, until the Mussulmans began to cope with the naval forces of the Mediterranean, that their authority was riveted along the littoral, as it had long been in the interior.

[Sidenote: Bareness of Syrian tradition.]

The conquests of Syria have reached us, as I have before said, in a form vague and most perfunctory. With the court of Damascus, its early local traditions almost entirely disappeared; while those of the East preserved by the learned coteries of Kûfa, Bussora, and Baghdad, alone have reached us with any fulness and accuracy. In this we may see a reason for the comparative bareness of tradition in respect of the early history of Damascus and the rest of Syria under Moslem rule.

Leaving for the present Abu Obeida and Khâlid to make their advance on Hims, we must return again to stirring scenes on the plains of Chaldæa.