CHAPTER VIII
The Conquest of Damascus and its Province
The positions taken by the different generals. When the Moslems were done with the fight against those who were gathered at al-Marj, they stayed there for fifteen days at the end of which they returned [sic] to Damascus [Dimashḳ]. This took place fourteen days before the end of Muḥarram, year 14. Al-Ghûṭah and its churches the Moslems took by force. The inhabitants of Damascus betook themselves to the fortifications and closed the gate of the city. Khâlid ibn-al-Walîd at the head of some 5,000 men whom abu-ʿUbaidah had put under his command, camped at al-Bâb ash-Sharḳi [the east gate]. Some assert that Khâlid was the chief commander but was dismissed when Damascus was under siege. The convent by which Khâlid camped was called Dair Khâlid.[1] ʿAmr ibn-al-ʿÂṣi camped at the Tûma gate; Shuraḥbîl, at the Faradîs gate, abu-ʿUbaidah at the Jâbiyah gate, and Yazîd ibn-abi-Sufyân from the Ṣaghîr gate to the one known as Kaisân gate.[2] Abu-ad-Dardâʾ appointed ʿUwaimir ibn-ʿÂmir al-Khazraji commander of a frontier garrison settled in the fortification[3] at Barzah.[4]
The statement written by Khâlid. The bishop[5] who had
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