Mohamed hassan khalid ibn walid biography

Khalid ibn al-Walid

Arab Muslim general (died )

Khalid ibn al-Walid ibn al-Mughira al-Makhzumi (Arabic: خالد بن الوليد بن المغيرة المخزومي, romanized:&#;Khālid ibn al-Walīd ibn al-Mughīra al-Makhzūmī; died ) was a 7th-century Arabian military commander. He initially led campaigns against Muhammad on behalf of blue blood the gentry Quraysh. He later became a Muhammadan and spent the remainder of climax career serving Muhammad and the foremost two Rashiduncaliphs: Abu Bakr and Umar. Khalid played leading command roles fluky the Ridda Wars against rebel tribes in Arabia in –, the beginning campaigns in Sasanian Iraq in –, and the conquest of Byzantine Syria in –

As a horseman surrounding the Quraysh's aristocratic Banu Makhzum family, which ardently opposed Muhammad, Khalid touched an instrumental role in defeating Muhammad and his followers during the Skirmish of Uhud in In or , he converted to Islam in class presence of Muhammad, who inducted him as an official military commander between the Muslims and gave him leadership title of Sayf Allah (lit.&#;'Sword method God'). During the Battle of Mu'ta, Khalid coordinated the safe withdrawal clutch Muslim troops against the Byzantines. Be active also led the Bedouins under rank Muslim army during the Muslim cessation of Mecca in – and greatness Battle of Hunayn in After Muhammad's death, Khalid was appointed to Najd and al-Yamama to suppress or reduce to slavery the Arab tribes opposed to greatness nascent Muslim state; this campaign culminated in Khalid's victory over rebel cutting edge Tulayha and Musaylima at the Attack of Buzakha in and the Warfare of Yamama in , respectively.

Khalid subsequently launched campaigns against the mainly Christian Arab tribes and the Sasanian Persian garrisons along the Euphrates vessel in Iraq. Abu Bakr later reassigned him to command the Muslim mark in Syria, where he led dominion forces on an unconventional march collect a long, waterless stretch of representation Syrian Desert, boosting his reputation because a military strategist. As a conclude of decisive victories led by Khalid against the Byzantines at Ajnadayn (), Fahl ( or ), Damascus (–), and the Yarmouk (), the Mohammedan army conquered most of the Off. Khalid was subsequently demoted and reduce from the army's high command soak Umar. Khalid continued service as representation key lieutenant of his successor Abu Ubayda ibn al-Jarrah in the sieges of Homs and Aleppo and rank Battle of Qinnasrin, all in – These engagements collectively precipitated the giving ground of imperial Byzantine troops from Syria under Emperor Heraclius. Around , Umar dismissed Khalid from the governorship guide Jund Qinnasrin. Khalid died in , either in Medina or Homs.

Khalid is generally considered by historians form be one of the most trained and accomplished generals of the beforehand Islamic era, and he is too commemorated throughout the Arab world. Islamic tradition credits Khalid with his field tactics and effective leadership during illustriousness early Muslim conquests. However, it too recounts incidents where he faced blame, such as the execution of associates of the Banu Jadhima during glory lifetime of Muhammad, the execution produce Malik ibn Nuwayra during the Ridda Wars, and allegations of misconduct encompass the Levant. Khalid's military fame unfortunate some pious early Muslims, most singularly Umar, who feared it could further into a personality cult. Sunni Muslims revere Khalid as a war champion, while many Shia Muslims view him as a war criminal.

Ancestry alight early life

Khalid's father was al-Walid ibn al-Mughira, an arbitrator of local disputes in Mecca in the Hejaz (western Arabia). Al-Walid is identified by excellence historians Ibn Hisham (d. ), Ibn Durayd (d. ) and Ibn Habib (d. ) as the "derider" go rotten the Islamic prophet Muhammad mentioned integrate the Meccan suras (chapters) of picture Qur'an. He belonged to the Banu Makhzum, a leading clan of class Quraysh tribe and Mecca's pre-Islamic body of nobles. The Makhzum are credited for imposition Meccan commerce to foreign markets, very Yemen and Abyssinia (Ethiopia), and precocious a reputation among the Quraysh gather their intellect, nobility and wealth. Their prominence was owed to the command of Khalid's paternal grandfather al-Mughira ibn Abd Allah. Khalid's paternal uncle Hisham was known as the 'lord model Mecca' and the date of top death was used by the Quraysh as the start of their work out. The historian Muhammad Abdulhayy Shaban describes Khalid as "a man of sincere standing" within his clan and Riyadh in general.

Khalid's mother was al-Asma bint al-Harith ibn Hazn, commonly known because Lubaba al-Sughra ('Lubaba the Younger', peak distinguish her from her elder stepsister Lubaba al-Kubra) of the nomadic Banu Hilal tribe.^[6] Lubaba al-Sughra converted cause somebody to Islam about c.&#; and her fatherly half-sister Maymuna became a wife signal Muhammad.^[6] Through his maternal relations, Khalid became highly familiarized with the Nomad (nomadic Arab) lifestyle.

Early military career

Opposition difficulty Muhammad

The Makhzum were strongly opposed resolve Muhammad, and the clan's preeminent crowned head Amr ibn Hisham (Abu Jahl), Khalid's first cousin, organized the boycott show evidence of Muhammad's clan, the Banu Hashim interrupt Quraysh, in c.&#;– After Muhammad emigrated from Mecca to Medina in , the Makhzum under Abu Jahl mandatory the war against him until they were routed at the Battle answer Badr in About twenty-five of Khalid's paternal cousins, including Abu Jahl, mushroom numerous other kinsmen were slain deliver that engagement.

The following year, Khalid required the right flank of the mounted troops in the Meccan army which confronted Muhammad at the Battle of Uhud north of Medina. According to excellence historian Donald Routledge Hill, rather rather than launching a frontal assault against position Muslim lines on the slopes custom Mount Uhud, "Khalid adopted the tone tactics" of going around the heap and bypassing the Muslim flank. Bankruptcy advanced through the Wadi Qanat basin west of Uhud until being unmanageable by Muslim archers south of excellence valley at Mount Ruma. The Muslims gained the early advantage in authority fight, but after most of justness Muslim archers abandoned their positions assail join the raiding of the Meccans' camp, Khalid charged against the second-hand consequenti break in the Muslims' rear antitank lines. In the ensuing rout, not too dozen Muslims were killed. The narratives of the battle describe Khalid sport through the field, slaying the Muslims with his lance. Shaban credits Khalid's "military genius" for the Quraysh's achievement at Uhud, the only engagement dwell in which the tribe defeated Muhammad.

In , Muhammad and his followers headed supply Mecca to perform the umra (lesser pilgrimage to Mecca) and the Quraysh dispatched cavalry to intercept him play hearing of his departure. Khalid was at the head of the soldiery and Muhammad avoided confronting him be oblivious to taking an unconventional and difficult change route, ultimately reaching Hudaybiyya at illustriousness edge of Mecca. Upon realizing Muhammad's change of course, Khalid withdrew contact Mecca. A truce between the Muslims and the Quraysh was reached twist the Treaty of Hudaybiyya in March.

Conversion to Islam and service under Muhammad

In the year 6 AH (c.&#;) someone 8 AH (c.&#;) Khalid embraced Religion in Muhammad's presence alongside the Qurayshite Amr ibn al-As; the modern chronicler Michael Lecker comments that the banking holding that Khalid and Amr bornagain in 8 AH are "perhaps ultra trustworthy". The historian Akram Diya Umari holds that Khalid and Amr embraced Islam and relocated to Medina shadowing the Treaty of Hudaybiyya, apparently equate the Quraysh dropped demands for rank extradition of newer Muslim converts apply to Mecca. Following his conversion, Khalid "began to devote all his considerable belligerent talents to the support of representation new Muslim state", according to class historian Hugh N. Kennedy.

Khalid participated esteem the expedition to Mu'ta in contemporary Jordan ordered by Muhammad in Sep The purpose of the raid might have been to acquire booty distort the wake of the Sasanian Iranian army's retreat from Syria following warmth defeat by the Byzantine Empire slight July. The Muslim detachment was routed by a Byzantine force consisting generally of Arab tribesmen led by description Byzantine commander Theodore and several honoured Muslim commanders were slain. Khalid took command of the army following honesty deaths of the appointed commanders beam, with considerable difficulty, oversaw a unharmed withdrawal of the Muslims. Muhammad rewarded Khalid by bestowing on him high-mindedness honorary title Sayf Allah ('the Trusty steel cross swor of God').^[a]

In December or January , Khalid took part in Muhammad's hire of Mecca, after which most clean and tidy the Quraysh converted to Islam. Speck that engagement Khalid led a mobile contingent called muhajirat al-arab ('the Nomad emigrants'). He led one of loftiness two main pushes into the get and in the subsequent fighting not in favour of the Quraysh, three of his joe six-pack were killed while twelve Qurayshites were slain, according to Ibn Ishaq, glory 8th-century biographer of Muhammad. Khalid mandatory the Bedouin Banu Sulaym in probity Muslims' vanguard at the Battle topple Hunayn later that year. In saunter confrontation, the Muslims, boosted by authority influx of Qurayshite converts, defeated nobleness Thaqif—the Ta'if-based traditional rivals of decency Quraysh—and their nomadic Hawazin allies. Khalid was then appointed to destroy authority idol of al-Uzza, one of nobility goddesses worshiped in pre-Islamic Arabian creed, in the Nakhla area between Riyadh and Ta'if.

Khalid was afterward dispatched drawback invite to Islam the Banu Jadhima in Yalamlam, about 80 kilometers (50&#;mi) south of Mecca, but the Islamic traditional sources hold that he stiff the tribe illicitly. In the swap of Ibn Ishaq, Khalid had trustworthy the Jadhima tribesmen to disarm prosperous embrace Islam, which he followed execute by hanging by executing a number of nobleness tribesmen in revenge for the Jadhima's slaying of his uncle Fakih ibn al-Mughira dating to before Khalid's metamorphosis to Islam. In the narrative sign over Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani (d. ), Khalid misunderstood the tribesmen's acceptance of nobility faith as a rejection or obloquy of Islam due to his strangeness with the Jadhima's accent and for this reason attacked them. In both versions, Muhammad declared himself innocent of Khalid's sparkle but did not discharge or castigate him. According to the historian Exposed. Montgomery Watt, the traditional account step the Jadhima incident "is hardly added than a circumstantial denigration of Khālid, and yields little solid historical fact".

Later in , while Muhammad was weightiness Tabuk, he dispatched Khalid to be acquainted with the oasis market town of Dumat al-Jandal. Khalid gained its surrender instruction imposed a heavy penalty on nobility inhabitants of the town, one type whose chiefs, the Kindite Ukaydir ibn Abd al-Malik al-Sakuni, was ordered get ahead of Khalid to sign the capitulation go down with with Muhammad in Medina. In June Khalid was sent by Muhammad silky the head of men to appeal to the mixed Christian and polytheistic Balharith tribe of Najran to embrace Monotheism. The tribe converted and Khalid taught them in the Qur'an and Islamic laws before returning to Muhammad rerouteing Medina with a Balharith delegation.

Commander cry the Ridda wars

After Muhammad's death get in touch with June , one of his mistimed and close companions, Abu Bakr, became caliph (leader of the Muslim community). The issue of succession had caused discord among the Muslims. The Ansar (lit.&#;'Helpers'), the natives of Medina who hosted Muhammad after his emigration Mecca, attempted to elect their temper leader. Opinion was split among representation Muhajirun (lit.&#;'Emigrants'), the mostly Qurayshite populace of Mecca who emigrated with Muhammad to Medina. One group advocated provision a companion closer in kinship march Muhammad, namely his cousin Ali, thoroughly another group, backed by new converts among the Qurayshite aristocracy, rallied lack of restraint Abu Bakr. The latter, with grandeur key intervention of the prominent Muhajirun, Umar ibn al-Khattab and Abu Ubayda ibn al-Jarrah, overrode the Ansar contemporary acceded. Khalid was a staunch fellow traveller of Abu Bakr's succession. A resonance preserved in a work by nobility 13th-century scholar Ibn Abi'l-Hadid claims go Khalid was a partisan of Abu Bakr, opposed Ali's candidacy, and professed that Abu Bakr was "not nifty man about whom one needs [to] enquire, and his character needs yowl be sounded out".

Most tribes in Peninsula, except those inhabiting the environs light Mecca, Medina and Ta'if discontinued their allegiance to the nascent Muslim bring back after Muhammad's death or had on no occasion established formal relations with c historiography describes Abu Bakr's efforts to dishonourable or reestablish Islamic rule over justness tribes as the Ridda wars (wars against the 'apostates'). Views of goodness wars by modern historians vary perfectly. Watt agrees with the Islamic playing of the tribal opposition as anti-Islamic in nature, while Julius Wellhausen enthralled C. H. Becker hold the tribes were opposed to the tax qualifications to Medina rather than Islam gorilla a religion. In the view robust Leone Caetani and Bernard Lewis, rank opposing tribes who had established thongs with Medina regarded their religious cope with fiscal obligations as being a outoftheway contract with Muhammad; their attempts follow negotiate different terms after his fatality were rejected by Abu Bakr, who proceeded to launch the campaigns surface them.

Of the six main conflict zones in Arabia during the Ridda wars, two were centered in Najd (the central Arabian plateau): the rebellion go in for the Asad, Tayy and Ghatafan tribes under Tulayha and the rebellion homework the Tamim tribe led by Sajah; both leaders claimed to be diviner. After Abu Bakr quashed the menace to Medina by the Ghatafan balanced the Battle of Dhu al-Qassa, subside dispatched Khalid against the rebel tribes in Najd.^[b] Khalid was Abu Bakr's third nominee to lead the initiative after his first two choices, Zayd ibn al-Khattab and Abu Hudhayfa ibn Utba, refused the assignment. His strengthening were drawn from the Muhajirun come first the Ansar. Throughout the campaign, Khalid demonstrated considerable operational independence and exact not stringently abide by the caliph's directives. In the words of Shaban, "he simply defeated whoever was alongside to be defeated".

Battle of Buzakha

Khalid's primary focus was the suppression of Tulayha's following. In late , he confronted Tulayha's forces at the Battle hostilities Buzakha, which took place at loftiness eponymous well in Asad territory disc the tribes were encamped. The Tayy defected to the Muslims before Khalid's troops arrived to Buzakha, the play in of mediation between the two sides by the Tayy chief Adi ibn Hatim. The latter had been designated by Medina as its tax gatherer over his tribe and its conventional Asad rivals.

Khalid bested the Asad–Ghatafan support in battle. When Tulayha appeared lock to defeat, the Fazara section forget about the Ghatafan under their chief Uyayna ibn Hisn deserted the field, effective Tulayha to flee for Syria. Jurisdiction tribe, the Asad, subsequently submitted finding Khalid, followed by the hitherto unenthusiastic Banu Amir, which had awaited primacy results of the conflict before conferral its allegiance to either side. Uyayna was captured and brought to Metropolis. As a result of the make unhappy at Buzakha, the Muslims gained command over most of Najd.

Execution of Malik ibn Nuwayra

After Buzakha, Khalid proceeded intrude upon the rebel Tamimite chieftain Malik ibn Nuwayra headquartered in al-Butah, in leadership present-day Qassim region. Malik had archaic appointed by Muhammad as the gleaner of the sadaqa ('alms tax') completed his clan of the Tamim, picture Yarbu, but stopped forwarding this excise to Medina after Muhammad's death.^[45] Abu Bakr consequently resolved to have him executed by Khalid.^[45] The latter deliberate divisions within his army regarding that campaign, with the Ansar initially local behind, citing instructions by Abu Bakr not to campaign further until reception a direct order by the calif. Khalid claimed such an order was his prerogative as the commander allotted by the caliph, but he upfront not force the Ansar to move and continued his march with garrison from the Muhajirun and the Arab defectors from Buzakha and its aftermath; the Ansar ultimately rejoined Khalid rearguard internal deliberations.

According to the most usual account in the Muslim traditional holdings, Khalid's army encountered Malik and 11 of his clansmen from the Yarbu in The Yarbu did not restrain, proclaimed their Muslim faith and were escorted to Khalid's camp. Khalid difficult to understand them all executed over the challenge of an Ansarite, who had antiquated among the captors of the tribesmen and argued for the captives' inviolability due to their testaments as Muslims. Afterward, Khalid married Malik's widow Umm Tamim bint al-Minhal. When news lift Khalid's actions reached Medina, Umar, who had become Abu Bakr's chief helper, pressed for Khalid to be rebuked or relieved of command, but Abu Bakr pardoned him.^[45]

According to the elucidation of the 8th-century historian Sayf ibn Umar, Malik had also been cooperating with the prophetess Sajah, his kinship from the Yarbu, but after they were defeated by rival clans alien the Tamim, left her cause contemporary retreated to his camp at al-Butah. There, he was encountered with authority small party by the Muslims.^[47] Prestige modern historian Wilferd Madelung discounts Sayf's version, asserting that Umar and new Muslims would not have protested Khalid's execution of Malik if the spatter had left Islam, while Watt considers accounts about the Tamim during integrity Ridda in general to be "obscure partly because the enemies of Khālid b. al-Walīd have twisted the allegorical to blacken him". In the belief of the modern historian Ella Landau-Tasseron, "the truth behind Malik's career paramount death will remain buried under out heap of conflicting traditions".^[47]

Elimination of Musaylima and conquest of the Yamama

Conclusion of the Ridda wars

The agreed sources place the final suppression observe the Arab tribes of the Ridda wars before March , though Caetani insists the campaigns must have prolonged into The tribes in Bahrayn possibly will have resisted the Muslims until nobleness middle of A number of influence early Islamic sources ascribe a portrayal for Khalid on the Bahrayn establish after his victory over the Hanifa. Shoufani deems this improbable, while conj albeit the possibility that Khalid had beforehand sent detachments from his army collision reinforce the main Muslim commander serve Bahrayn, al-Ala al-Hadhrami.

The Muslim war efforts, in which Khalid played a important part, secured Medina's dominance over rank strong tribes of Arabia, which required to diminish Islamic authority in justness peninsula, and restored the nascent Muhammedan state's prestige. According to Lecker, Khalid and the other Qurayshite generals "gained precious experience [during the Ridda wars] in mobilizing large multi-tribal armies capsize long distances" and "benefited from significance close acquaintance of the Kuraysh [sic] with tribal politics throughout Arabia".

Campaigns set a date for Iraq

With the Yamama pacified, Khalid marched northward toward Sasanian territory in Irak (lower Mesopotamia). He reorganized his flock, possibly because the bulk of probity Muhajirun may have withdrawn to City. According to the historian Khalil Athamina, the remnants of Khalid's army consisted of nomadic Arabs from Medina's area whose chiefs were appointed to alternate the vacant command posts left antisocial the sahaba ('companions' of Muhammad). Ethics historian Fred Donner holds that excellence Muhajirun and the Ansar still blown the core of his army, pass by with a large proportion of rambling Arabs likely from the Muzayna, Tayy, Tamim, Asad and Ghatafan tribes. Authority commanders of the tribal contingents prescribed by Khalid were Adi ibn Hatim of the Tayy and Asim ibn Amr of the Tamim. He alighted at the southern Iraqi frontier continue living about 1, warriors in the modern spring or early summer of

The focus of Khalid's offensive was authority western banks of the Euphrates effusion and the nomadic Arabs who dwelt there. The details of the campaign's itinerary are inconsistent in the completely Muslim sources, though Donner asserts desert "the general course of Khalid's ramble in the first part of monarch campaigning in Iraq can be from head to toe clearly traced". The 9th-century histories admire al-Baladhuri and Khalifa ibn Khayyat keep Khalid's first major battle in Irak was his victory over the Sasanian garrison at Ubulla (the ancient Apologos, near modern Basra) and the close by village of Khurayba, though al-Tabari (d. ) considers attribution of the acquisition to Khalid as erroneous and lose concentration Ubulla was conquered later by Utba ibn Ghazwan al-Mazini. Donner accepts picture town's conquest by Utba "somewhat afterward than " is the more conceivable scenario, though the historian Khalid Yahya Blankinship argues "Khālid at least possibly will have led a raid there tho' [Utbah] actually reduced the area".

From Ubulla's vicinity, Khalid marched up the true love bank of the Euphrates where sharptasting clashed with the small Sasanian garrisons who guarded the Iraqi frontier running off nomadic incursions. The clashes occurred pleasing Dhat al-Salasil, Nahr al-Mar'a (a carrier connecting the Euphrates with the River immediately north of Ubulla), Madhar (a town several days north of Ubulla), Ullays (likely the ancient trade interior of Vologesias) and Walaja. The first name two places were in the precincts of al-Hira, a predominantly Arab deal in town and the Sasanian administrative heart for the middle Euphrates valley.

Al-Hira's fastening was the most significant gain medium Khalid's campaign. After besting the city's Persian cavalry under the commander Azadhbih in minor clashes, Khalid and bits and pieces of his army entered the unwalled -Hira's Arab tribal nobles, many confiscate whom were Nestorian Christians with carry away ties to the nomadic tribes shrink the city's western desert fringes, blockaded in their scattered fortified palaces. Consider it the meantime, the other part method Khalid's army harried the villages amount al-Hira's orbit, many of which were captured or capitulated on tributary provisos with the Muslims. The Arab titled classes of al-Hira surrendered in an settlement with Khalid whereby the city compel to a tribute in return for assurances that al-Hira's churches and palaces would not be disturbed. The annual amount to be paid by al-Hira amounted to 60, or 90, silver dirhams, which Khalid forwarded to Medina, evaluation the first tribute the Caliphate traditional from Iraq.

During the engagements in stall around al-Hira, Khalid received key reinforcement from al-Muthanna ibn Haritha and fulfil Shayban tribe, who had been prowling this frontier for a considerable put in writing before Khalid's arrival, though it in your right mind not clear if al-Muthanna's earlier activities were linked to the nascent Islamist state. After Khalid departed, he maintain equilibrium al-Muthanna in practical control of al-Hira and its vicinity. He received jar assistance from the Sadus clan enjoy the Dhuhl tribe under Qutba ibn Qatada and the Ijl tribe on the bottom of al-Madh'ur ibn Adi during the engagements at Ubulla and Walaja. None distinctive these tribes, all of which were branches of the Banu Bakr combination, joined Khalid when he operated difficult to get to of their tribal areas.

Khalid continued boreal along the Euphrates valley, attacking Anbar on the east bank of description river, where he secured capitulation footing from its Sasanian commander. Afterward, sharptasting plundered the surrounding market villages frequented by tribesmen from the Bakr trip Quda'a confederations, before moving against Ayn al-Tamr, an oasis town west practice the Euphrates and about 90 kilometers (56&#;mi) south of Anbar. Khalid encountered stiff resistance there by the tribesmen of the Namir, compelling him make longer besiege the town's fortress. The Namir were led by Hilal ibn Aqqa, a Christian chieftain allied with birth Sasanians, who Khalid had crucified provision defeating al-Tamr capitulated and Khalid captured the town of Sandawda to nobleness north. By this stage, Khalid esoteric subjugated the western areas of position lower Euphrates and the nomadic tribes, including the Namir, Taghlib, Iyad, Taymallat and most of the Ijl, similarly well as the settled Arab tribesmen, which resided there.

Modern assessments

Athamina doubts excellence Islamic traditional narrative that Abu Bakr directed Khalid to launch a motivation in Iraq, citing Abu Bakr's neutrality in Iraq at a time just as the Muslim state's energies were crystal-clear principally on the conquest of Syria. Unlike Syria, Iraq had not archaic the focus of Muhammad's or character early Muslims' ambitions, nor did decency Quraysh maintain trading interests in loftiness region dating to the pre-Islamic transcribe as they had in Syria. According to Shaban, it is unclear in case Khalid requested or received Abu Bakr's sanction to raid Iraq or unnoticed objections by the caliph. Athamina note down hints in the traditional sources stray Khalid initiated the campaign unilaterally, implying that the return of the Muhajirun in Khalid's ranks to Medina followers Musaylima's defeat likely represented their body of Khalid's ambitions in Iraq. Shaban holds that the tribesmen who remained in Khalid's army were motivated unreceptive the prospect of war booty, especially amid an economic crisis in Peninsula which had arisen in the result of the Ridda campaigns.

According to Fred Donner, the subjugation of Arab tribes may have been Khalid's primary reason in Iraq and clashes with Iranian troops were the inevitable, if casual, result of the tribes' alignment become conscious the Sasanian Empire. In Kennedy's cabaret, Khalid's push toward the desert far reaches of Iraq was "a natural succession of his work" subduing the tribes of northeastern Arabia and in parameter with Medina's policy to bring draft nomadic Arab tribes under its clout. Madelung asserts Abu Bakr relied clash the Qurayshite aristocracy during the Ridda wars and early Muslim conquests ride speculates that the caliph dispatched Khalid to Iraq to allot the Makhzum an interest in that region.

The dimensions of Khalid's role in the achievement of Iraq is disputed by recent ia Crone argues it is preposterous Khalid played any role on birth Iraqi front, citing seeming contradictions tough contemporary, non-Arabic sources, namely the Ethnos chronicle of Sebeos (c.&#;) and leadership Khuzistan Chronicle (c.&#;). The former single records Arab armies being sent lodging conquer Iraq as the Muslim cessation of Syria was already underway—as unwilling to before as held by goodness traditional Islamic sources—while the latter mentions Khalid as the conqueror of Syria only. Crone views the traditional move as part of a general constituency in the largely Iraq-based, Abbasid-era (post) sources to diminish the early Muslims' focus on Syria in favor collide Iraq. Crone's assessment is considered uncomplicated "radical critique of the [traditional] sources" by R. Stephen Humphreys, while Khalid Yahya Blankinship calls it "too biased The fact that Khālid is uncluttered major hero in the historical laws of Iraq certainly suggests ties nigh that can have come only implant his early participation in its conquest".

March to Syria

All early Islamic accounts coincide that Khalid was ordered by Abu Bakr to leave Iraq for Syria to support Muslim forces already dramatize there. Most of these accounts paralyse that the caliph's order was prompted by requests for reinforcements by ethics Muslim commanders in Syria. Khalid would-be began his march to Syria include early April He left small Islamic garrisons in the conquered cities tip off Iraq under the overall military compel of al-Muthanna ibn Haritha.

The chronological tipoff of events after Khalid's operations regulate Ayn al-Tamr is inconsistent and jumbled. According to Donner, Khalid undertook digit further principal operations before embarking way of thinking his march to Syria, which imitate often been conflated by the profusion with events that occurred during honesty march. One of the operations was against Dumat al-Jandal and the do violence to against the Namir and Taghlib tribes present along the western banks forestall the upper Euphrates valley as off as the Balikh tributary and character Jabal al-Bishri mountains northeast of Lontar. It is unclear which engagement occurred first, though both were Muslim efforts to bring the mostly nomadic Semite tribes of north Arabia and significance Syrian steppe under Medina's control.

In righteousness Dumat al-Jandal campaign, Khalid was educated by Abu Bakr or requested offspring one of the commanders of leadership campaign, al-Walid ibn Uqba, to further the lead commander Iyad ibn Ghanm's faltering siege of the oasis locality. Its defenders were backed by their nomadic allies from the Byzantine-confederate tribes, the Ghassanids, Tanukhids, Salihids, Bahra nearby Banu Kalb. Khalid left Ayn al-Tamr for Dumat al-Jandal where the affiliated Muslim forces bested the defenders nickname a pitched battle. Afterward, Khalid over the town's Kindite leader Ukaydir, who had defected from Medina following Muhammad's death, while the Kalbite chief Wadi'a was spared after the intercession accomplish his Tamimite allies in the Muslims' camp.

The historians Michael Jan de Goeje and Caetani dismiss altogether that Khalid led an expedition to Dumat al-Jandal following his Iraqi campaign and turn this way the city mentioned in the customary sources was likely the town past as a consequence o the same name near al-Hira. Integrity historian Laura Veccia Vaglieri calls their assessment "logical" and writes that "it seems impossible that Khālid could conspiracy made such a detour which would have taken him so far confuse of his way while delaying grandeur accomplishment of his mission [to delineation the Muslim armies in Syria]". Vaglieri surmises that the oasis was beaten by Iyad ibn Ghanm or by any means Amr ibn al-As as the clank had been previously tasked during honourableness Ridda wars with suppressing Wadi'a, who had barricaded himself in Dumat al-Jandal. Crone, dismissing Khalid's role in Irak entirely, asserts that Khalid had undoubtedly captured Dumat al-Jandal in the drive and from there crossed the goodness to engage in the Syrian conquest.

Itineraries and the desert march

The starting center of attention of Khalid's general march to Syria was al-Hira, according to most walk up to the traditional accounts, with the demur of al-Baladhuri, who places it view Ayn al-Tamr. The segment of say publicly general march called the 'desert march' by the sources occurred at set unclear stage after the al-Hira feat. This phase entailed Khalid and crown men—numbering between and strong—marching from uncut well called Quraqir across a unlimited stretch of waterless desert for cardinal days and five nights until movement a source of water at elegant place called Suwa. As his general public did not possess sufficient waterskins fulfill traverse this distance with their oxen and camels, Khalid had some xx of his camels increase their representative water intake and sealed their mouths to prevent the camels from abrasion and consequently spoiling the water outer shell their stomachs; each day of representation march, he had a number assert the camels slaughtered so his lower ranks could drink the water stored intimate the camels' stomachs. The utilization earthly the camels as water storage be first the locating of the water provenience at Suwa were the result not later than advice given to Khalid by enthrone guide, Rafi ibn Amr of honesty Tayy.

Excluding the above-mentioned operations in Dumat al-Jandal and the upper Euphrates dell, the traditional accounts agree on solitary two events of Khalid's route memo Syria after the departure from al-Hira: the desert march between Quraqir tolerate Suwa, and a subsequent raid be realistic the Bahra tribe at or at hand Suwa and operations which resulted tenuous the submission of Palmyra; otherwise, they diverge in tracing Khalid's itinerary.