YARMUK - v1.0
August 15-20, 636

By Chris Jackson
SYMBOL SET REQUIRED: Master 1


HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

After the victory of Ajnadein, the Arabs laid siege to Damascus. At Marj-us-Saffar on
August 19, 634, the Arabs defeated a Byzantine column that was trying to relieve the
city. On September 4 Damascus, the prize of Syria, fell. On January 23, 635 the Byzantines
failed in a counter-attack at Fahl, and in March failed again in another attack on 
Damascus at Marj-ur-Rum. It seemed that no matter what Heraclius tried, despite sound
strategy, the Arabs always defeated them. In March 636 Emessa was the next territory 
conquered by Arabia. Heraclius decided that the only way to defeat the Arabs was through
sheer force of numbers.

By May of 636, enough men had been raised for this latest military action. It was a 
diverse contingent of troops from all corners of the empire as well as Franks, Russians
and Christian Arabs. Heraclius planned to strike each of the four Arab corps one by one
with these numbers. The ultimate plan was to totally surround the Arabs from every direction
around Emessa and annihilate them in a pocket. This plan was launched sometime in mid-June.

Through the advanced intelligence sources of the Arabs, Khalid learned of the plan and 
withdrew his army south to avoid the trap. Khalid decided not to retreat all the way into the
desert and face the hardships there, but to make a stand on a plain near Jabiya near the 
Yarmuk River. The Byzantines caught up with them in July and both sides prepared for a 
decisive battle. For almost a month both sides faced each other and did not attack. The 
Arabs now had 40,000 men of the highest rank, one-quarter of which was cavalry.

The Byzantine general Mahan arranged his four armies along a 12-mile front that was 30 men
deep. He used one full army as a screen. Khalid arranged the Arabs along a front of 11 miles,
and both armies had their southern flank up against the Yarmuk. The morning of the first day
was spent with the traditional duels, which the Arabs dominated. Then Mahan ordered a probing
attack by the forward third of his army. This phase of the battle was not fiercely contested
and casualties on both sides were light.

On the second day Mahan attacked at the first light of dawn. This was another limited attack
but as the day wore on Khalid decided to launch his cavalry reserve to help anchor the
wavering northern flank. At the end of the day the Arabs had regained all their lost ground
and even killed one of the Byzantine commanders, Deirjan.

On the third day Mahan held back the weakened south flank of Gregory and attacked on the central
and nothern fronts. Qanateer's northern wing made progress and opened up some gaps but were again
repulsed by the Arab cavalry reserve. Once again at the end of the day both battle positions were
the same.

On the fourth day Mahan planned to make their most decisive attack. If they lost again on this day
they would probably lose the iniative. Just like the day before, he opened up an attack on the 
northern front, and in the sector of Shurahbeel broke through. Khalid wanted to avoid a broad
Byzantine push along the whole front so he ordered his southern wing to attack while he led
his own cavalry group against the hole in his line. For several hours there was vicious fighting
until the Byzantines broke. On the southern flank though, the Arabs were repulsed by the superior
archery of the Byzantines. Mahan, not wanting to give up the assault, ordered his army to press
harder. Only the fearless regiment of Ikrama and 400 men did not retreat. The Arabs fought back 
in disorganized fury as even the Muslim women joined the battle. By dusk both armies returned to
their original positions. The Arabs had taken their worst losses yet and Ikrama died of his wounds
that night, but they had turned the tide by killing many more Byzantines. A rebellion inside the
Byzantine camp took place and the defection of auxilary troops would further turn the tide in
Khalid's favour going into the climax of the battle on the 20th.

On the fifth day both armies were too tired to fight. On the sixth day the Arabs were the ones on 
the offensive. Khalid joined a major flanking offensive on the cavalry of the northern front as the
rest of the Arab army marched straight forward. The Arabs broke through in the north and attacked
from the rear. When a protesting Mahan and 40,000 cavalry fled to the north, the fate of the
Byzantines was sealed. When the remaining Byzantines finally tried to flee the plain they were 
trapped in a ravine and crushed, causing what was described as a dam of corpses.

Yarmuk was the most disastrous defeat the Byzantines ever suffered. Khalid proved a brilliant
commander by fighting defensive actions until the numerically superior enemy army was weak 
enough to be counter-attacked. The Arabs lost 4000 men, the Byzantine losses are estimated at
50,000, a good number of which had been killed in the ravine. After Yarmuk the Byzantines were in
no shape for battle and the conquest of Syria was easily completed with a siege of Jerusalem
that ended in April 637, a minor battle at Hazir in June, the surrender of Aleppo in October,
and a battle at Antioch in November of which little is recorded. By the end of 637 all of
Syria was in Muslim hands.  Khalid's last military action was the capture of Marash in the fall
of 638. He returned to Medina and died in 642, known as "The Sword of Allah".



SOURCES

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

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

"Khalid", britannica.com.


BATTLE NOTES

I had fairly good sources for this battle, but they didn't always agree. Akram had the army sizes
of the Arabs and Byzantines as 40,000 and 150,000 respectively, but the sources I went with peg
Khalid's force at 25,000 with the Byzantines at about twice that.

Trying to play balance the scenario was very hard. Eventually I just gave up and figured the 
individual players can tweak it to their own liking, but as it stands the Byzantines will be 
tough to beat. Maybe raise the Byzantine surrender point. This is more a composite of the overall
scenario than any specific day. 

The Byzantine archers presented a special problem, because they were constantly cutting down the
Arab line before they could even close in for one attack, but I wanted them to have an edge. I 
had to reduce their range to the same as the Arab archers, and slightly increased unit size to 30
men each to give them that edge. This front line of archers is still a major challenge for the 
Arab player, who needs a plan to at least damage them before they can pull off a volley. 

This scenario might work a little better in Medieval 2 because the Arab player can get an added
advantage via the ferocious attack. The terrain detail would have to suffer, though.


- Chris Jackson, October 5, 2000
  chrisbjackson@hotmail.com
