WALAJA - v1.0 (MEDIEVAL 2)
early May 633

By Chris Jackson
SYMBOL SET REQUIRED: Master 1


HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

When the Persian Emperor, Yazdegerd III, learned of the shocking defeat of his forces and loss
of two of his greatest generals to the Muslims, he ordered two more armies to crush them with
sheer numbers. The generals Andarzaghar and Bahman were placed in command and ordered to 
destroy the Muslims in one decisive battle.

Khalid knew he was too outnumbered to face the Persians directly, and his own men were growing
tired as well. However, his goal of Hira was still well up the Euphrates and there was no way
he could reach it without engaging the Persians somewhere up the road. He needed to find a way
to fight one army before the other one could arrive and trap him; he marched up to Walaja to
force a battle with Andarzaghar before Bahman showed up. 

Andarzaghar was surprised at the small size of Khalid's force - only about 10,000 men, mostly on
foot! He was confident at this sign and allowed Khalid to attack first. The Persians were greater
in number, but with Khalid fighting in the front rank the Arabs' morale was high. But when the 
Arabs became tired, the Persians counter-attacked.

The Arabs fought ferociously, but they became exhausted. Just as they were wavering, Khalid 
gave the signal and two lines of Arab cavalry suddenly appeared from behind! They boxed up the
Persians in a ring and cut the surprised and demoralized enemy to bits. It was the hardest of
the three battles, but the Arabs were victorious in all three.

A week or so later, Khalid met the army of Bahman south-east of Ulleis, which was just south of
Hira. There is no information on the manouvers of the battle, but it was said to be the fiercest 
yet. The Persians were augmented by Christian Arabs who believed Moslem rule would mean 
persecution for them. It was a very bloody battle, but the Muslims were victorious. The Persians
conceded Hira, which Khalid entered at the end of May. Within a month everything between the 
Tigris and Euphrates below Cstesiphon was his.
 
At Huseid in October the Persians were defeated again by one of Khalid's subordinates, Qaqa. In
November a surprise night attack on Muzayyah cleared the imperial army from there, and a frontier
post of Byzantines and Persians called Firaz fell in January 634. The campaign of Iraq was over
in time for Khalid to return to Mecca for pilgramage time. It was a brilliant campaign where
Khalid's army defeated proud forces much larger than his own. Abu Bakr's next assignment for him
was the Byzantine-held region of Syria. 


SOURCES

Akram, A.I. "The Sword of Allah", Dacca: National Publishing House, 1970.

Donner, Fred. "The Early Islamic Conquests". Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1981.


BATTLE NOTES

The morale rating of the Persians is averaged out between before and after the demoralizing
effect of an attack by Arab reinforcements from behind, since you can't change this in battle.
The Arabs might just be better off staying out of range from the missile attacks until these
reinforcements arrive, then pressing in for the trap; it's not easy to get this part to work
just right. The computer as the Persians doesn't press too hard on the attack. A human playing
the Persians would be aware of the reinforcements, but the computer gets a turn or two anyway
to react, and usually turns its infantry around to face the other way. 
I would have preferred to make it impossible to go on the cliffs, but I found that when a unit
retreats and runs up the hill, then calms down again, it's stuck up there for life when the 
elevation was 3, so I had to make it 2 so it could return to the battlefield.


- Chris Jackson, August 7, 2000
  chrisbjackson@hotmail.com
