The Origins of the Islamic State/Part 2/Chapter 8

by Aḥmad ibn Yaḥyá al-Balādhurī

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 provided Khâlid with food at the beginning of the siege was wont to stand on the wall. Once Khâlid called him, and when he came, Khâlid greeted him and talked with him. The bishop one day said to him, "Abu-Sulaimân, thy case is prospering and thou hast a promise to fulfil for me; let us make terms for this city." Thereupon, Khâlid called for an inkhorn and parchment and wrote:—

"In the name of Allah, the compassionate, the merciful. This is what Khâlid would grant to the inhabitants of Damascus, if he enters therein: he promises to give them security for their lives, property and churches. Their city-wall shall not be demolished; neither shall any Moslem be quartered in their houses. Thereunto we give to them the pact of Allah and the protection of his Prophet, the caliphs and the 'Believers'. So long as they pay the poll-tax, nothing but good shall befall them."

The Moslems enter the city. One night, a friend of the bishop came to Khâlid and informed him of the fact that it was the night of a feast^[6] for the inhabitants of the city, that they were all busy and that they had blocked the Sharḳi gate with stones and left it unguarded. He then suggested that Khâlid should procure a ladder. Certain occupants of the convent, by which Khâlid's army camped, brought him two ladders on which some Moslems climbed to the highest part of the wall, and descended to the gate which was guarded only by one or two men. The Moslems co-operated and opened the door. This took place at sunrise.

In the meantime, abu-ʿUbaidah had managed to open the Jâbiyah gate and sent certain Moslems over its wall. This made the Greek fighters pour to his side and lead a violent fight against the Moslems. At last, however, the Greeks took to flight. Then abu-ʿUbaidah at the head of the Moslems opened the Jâbiyah gate by force and made their entrance through it. Abu-ʿUbaidah and Khâlid ibn-al-Walîd met at al-Maḳsalâṭ which was the quarter of the coppersmiths in Damascus. The same spot is mentioned in a poem by Ḥassân ibn-Thâbit under the name of al-Bariṣ:

 

"He who calls at al-Bariṣ for a drink,
[is given the water of Barada mixed with dainty wine]."^[7]

 

According to other reports, one night the Greeks carried out through the Jâbiyah gate a corpse. A number of their brave and armed men accompanied the funeral. The rest of them stood at the gate to prevent the Moslems from opening it and entering until their Greek comrades should have returned from the burial of the dead man, thus taking advantage of the Moslems' state of unmindfulness. But the Moslems knew of them and fought with them at the gate a most fierce and bloody conflict which ended in the opening of the gate by the Moslems at sunrise. Seeing that abu-ʿUbaidah was on the point of entering the city, the bishop hurried to Khâlid and capitulated. He then opened the Sharḳi gate and entered with Khâlid, with the statement which Khâlid had written him unfolded in his hand. Regarding that, certain Moslems remarked, "By Allah, Khâlid is not the commander. How could his terms then be binding?" To this, abu-ʿUbaidah replied, "Even the lowest of the Moslems can make binding terms on their behalf." And sanctioning the capitulation made by Khâlid, he signed it, not taking into account the fact that a part of the city was taken by force.^[8] Thus all Damascus was considered as having capitulated. Abu-ʿUbaidah wrote to ʿUmar regarding that and forwarded the message. Then the gates of the city were opened and all the Moslems met within.

According to the report of abu-Mikhnaf and others, Khâlid entered the city by assault, whereas abu-ʿUbaidah entered it by capitulation, and they both met at the Zaiyâtîn [market of oil-dealers]. The former report however, is more authentic.

Al-Haitham ibn-ʿAdi claimed that the people of Damascus capitulated agreeing to give up one-half of their homes and churches. Muhammad ibn-Saʿd reported that abu-ʿAbdallâh al-Wâḳidi said, "I have read the statement issued by Khâlid ibn-al-Walîd to the people of Damascus and found no mention in it of 'half the homes and churches'. I do not know where the one who reported it got his information. The fact is that when Damascus was taken possession of, a great number of its inhabitants fled to Heraclius who was then at Antioch, leaving many vacant dwellings behind that were later occupied by the Moslems."

Some one reported that it was abu-ʿUbaidah who had his quarters at the Sharḳi gate, and Khâlid at the Jâbiyah gate; but this view is erroneous.

The date of the conquest. According to al-Wâḳidi, the conquest of Damascus was effected in Rajab, year 14,^[9] but the date which Khâlid's statement of capitulation bears was Rabîʿ II, year 15. The explanation is that Khâlid wrote the statement with no date, but when the Moslems were preparing to set out against those gathered for their fight in al-Yarmûk, the bishop came to Khâlid asking him to renew the statement and add as witnesses abu-ʿUbaidah and the Moslems. Khâlid granted the request and inserted the names of abu-ʿUbaidah, Yazîd ibn-abi-Sufyân, Shuraḥbîl ibn-Ḥasanah and others as witnesses. The date he put was the one in which the statement was renewed.

The city considered as having capitulated. Al-Ḳâsim ibn-Sallâm from Saʿîd ibn-ʿAbd-al-ʿAzîz at-Tanûkhi:—Yazîd entered Damascus by capitulation through the Sharḳi gate. At al-Maḳsalâṭ the two Moslem commanders met, and the whole city was considered as having capitulated.

The siege conducted for four months. Al-Ḳâsim from abu-l-Ashʿath aṣ-Ṣanʿâni or abu-ʿUthmân aṣ-Ṣanʿâni:—Abu-ʿUbaidah spent at the Jâbiyah gate four months^[10] conducting the siege.

The case of a church. Abu-ʿUbaid from Rajâʾ ibn-abi-Salamah:—Ḥassân ibn-Mâlik presented to ʿUmar ibn-ʿAbd-al-ʿAzîz the case of a church that one of the commanders had bestowed on him as fief, and the possession of which was contested by the non-Arabs of Damascus. Regarding that, ʿUmar said, "If it is included in the fifteen churches mentioned in their covenant, thou hast no claim on it."

The following was stated by Ḍamrah on the authority of ʿAli ibn-abi-Ḥamalah, "The non-Arabs of Damascus disputed with us the right to a church at Damascus that was assigned by someone as fief to the banu-Naṣr, and the case was presented to ʿUmar ibn-ʿAbd-al-ʿAzîz who took the church from us and returned it to the Christians. When Yazîd ibn-ʿAbd-al-Malik, however, came to power he gave it back to the banu-Naṣr."

The poll-tax. Abu-ʿUbaid from al-Auzâʿi who said:—"At the outset, the poll-tax in Syria consisted of one jarîb and one dînâr per head. ʿUmar ibn-al-Khaṭṭâb made it four dînârs on those who had gold and forty dirhams on those who had silver, arranging them in ranks according to the wealth of the rich, the poverty of the poor and the medium possessions of the middle class."

Hishâm heard it said by our sheikhs that the Jews were for the Christians as dhimmis paying kharâj to them, and were, therefore, included in the capitulation.

According to certain reports, one of the terms imposed by Khâlid ibn-al-Walîd on the inhabitants of Damascus, when they capitulated, was that every man should give as poll-tax one dînâr and one jarîb of wheat, together with vinegar and oil for feeding the Moslems.

ʿAmr an-Nâḳid from Aslam, the freedman of ʿUmar ibn-al-Khaṭṭâb:—ʿUmar wrote to the commanders of the provinces of Syria [Ar. ajnâd] instructing them to levy a tax on every adult, making it forty dirhams on those who possessed silver, and four dînârs on those who possessed gold. Morever, he ordered that in the way of providing the Moslems with wheat and oil, they have to give every Moslem in Syria and Mesopotamia [Ar. al-Jazîrah] two modii^[11] of wheat and three ḳisṭs^[11] of oil per month. He also assessed on them grease and honey, the quantity of which I do not know; and for every Moslem in Egypt per month one irdabb^[11] [of wheat], clothing, and the right of being entertained as guest for three days.

ʿAmr ibn-Ḥammâd ibn-abi-Ḥanîfah from Aslam:—ʿUmar assessed as poll-tax four dînârs on those who possessed gold, and forty dirhams on those who possessed silver, in addition to offering the Moslems a subsistence tribute and providing them with three-days' entertainment.

A similar tradition was communicated to me by Muṣʿab on the authority of Aslam.

The cathedral of St. John. It is reported that when Muʿâwiyah ibn-abi-Sufyân came to power, he desired to add the church of St. John to the mosque^[12] in Damascus; but the Christians refused. So he refrained. Later, when ʿAbd-al-Malik ibn-Marwân was in power, he made the same request for the enlargement of the mosque offering them money in exchange; but they refused to deliver the church to him. In his turn, al-Walîd ibn-ʿAbd-al-Malik called the Christians and offered them large sums for the church, and when they refused, he threatened them saying, "If ye do not agree, I will surely tear it down." To this someone replied, "He, 'Commander of the Believers', who tears down a church will lose his wits and be affected with some blight." Al-Walîd, being angered at what was said, ordered that a spade be brought and began demolishing the walls with his own hand, while he had a robe of yellow silk on him. He then called workmen and house-razers and they pulled the church down. Thus it was included in the mosque. When ʿUmar ibn-ʿAbd-al-ʿAzîz became caliph, the Christians complained of what al-Walîd had down for their church. ʿUmar wrote to his ʿâmil ordering him to return to the Christians that part which he had added to the mosque from their church. The people of Damascus disliked the idea saying, "Shall we destroy our mosque after we have called to prayer and held service in it? And can a Christian church be returned [to its former owners]?" Among the Moslems were at that time Sulaimân ibn-Ḥabîb al-Muḥâribi and other canonists. They then came to the Christians and proposed to turn over to them all the churches of al-Ghûṭah that had been taken by force and were in the hands of the Moslems, provided they give up the church of St. John and cease to assert their claim on it. The Christians rather seemed to favor the proposition and consented to it. ʿUmar's ʿâmil communicated the news to ʿUmar who was pleased and signed the agreement. Next to the tower of the Mosque of Damascus at the southern porch stands an inscription on marble near the roof which was part of that which was built by the order of al-Walîd the "Commander of the Believers" in the year 86.

The wall of Damascus. I myself heard Hishâm ibn-ʿAmmâr say, "The wall around the city of Damascus remained standing until it was demolished by ʿAbdallâh ibn-ʿAli ibn-ʿAbdallâh ibn-al-ʿAbbâs after the question between Marwân and the banu-Umaiyah had been settled."

Buṣra, Adhriʿât, al-Bathanîyah and other places reduced. Abu-Ḥafṣ ad-Dimashḳi from the muezzin of the Damascus Mosque and other men:—At the arrival of Khâlid, the Moslems gathered their forces against Buṣra, and it capitulated. They then were dispersed throughout all Ḥaurân which they subdued. The chief of Adhriʿât came to them offering to capitulate on the same terms on which the people of Buṣra had capitulated and agreeing to make all the land of al-Bathanîyah^[13] a kharâj land. The request was granted, and Yazîd ibn-abi-Sufyân entered the city and made a covenant with its people. Thus the two districts of Ḥaurân and al-Bathanîyah came under the full control of the Moslems. Thence they came to Palestine and the Jordan, invading what had not yet been reduced. Yazîd marched against ʿÂmmân and made an easy conquest of it, making terms of capitulation similar to those of Busra. Besides, he effected the complete conquest of the province of al-Balḳâʾ. When abu-ʿUbaidah came to power, all that was already conquered. At the conquest of Damascus, abu-ʿUbaidah was the commander-in-chief; but the terms of capitulation were made by Khâlid, abu-ʿUbaidah concurring.

ʿArandal, ash-Sharât and the sea-coast reduced. During the governorship of abu-ʿUbaidah, Yazîd ibn-abi-Sufyân went and took possession of ʿArandal^[14] by capitulation. He also subdued the province of ash-Sharât with its mountains. It is stated by Saʿîd ibn-ʿAbd-al-ʿAzîz on the authority of al-Waḍîn that after the [second] conquest of Damascus Yazîd came to Sidon, ʿIrḳah,^[15] Jubail, and Bierût (which lie on the sea-coast)^[16] with his brother, Muʿâwiyah, leading the van of the army. These cities he conquered with great facility, expelling many of their inhabitants. The conquest of ʿIrḳah was effected by Muʿâwiyah himself when Yazîd was governor. Toward the close of the caliphate of ʿUmar ibn-al-Khaṭṭâb or the beginning of the caliphate of ʿUthmân ibn-ʿAffân, the Greeks restored some of these coast-towns, and Muʿâwiyah again marched against those towns and conquered them. He then made repairs in them and stationed garrisons in them among whom he distributed the fiefs.

Tripoli captured. When ʿUthmân was made caliph and Muʿâwiyah became governor of Syria, the latter directed Sufyân ibn-Mujîb al-Azdi to Tripoli [Aṭrâbulus] which was a combination of three cities.^[17] Sufyân erected on a plain a few miles from the city a fort which was called Ḥiṣn Sufyân [Sufyân fort], intercepted the recruits from the sea as well as from the land and laid siege to the city. When the siege was pressed hard against them, the inhabitants of Tripoli met in one of the three fortifications and wrote to the king of the Greeks asking for relief through reinforcement or ships on which they might escape and flee to him. Accordingly, the king sent them many ships which they boarded in the night time and fled away. When Sufyṣn arose in the morning—he having been accustomed to sleep every night in his fort, and fortify the Moslems in it, and to rise up in the morning against the enemy—he discovered that the fortification in which the people of Tripoli were was vacant. Immediately he entered it and sent the news of the conquest to Muʿâwiyah. Muʿâwiyah made it a dwelling-place for a large body of Jews. It is this fortification in which the harbor of the city is to-day. Later ʿAbd-al-Malik built it and made it stronger.

Muʿâwiyah used to send every year to Tripoli a large body of troops to guard the city and used to assign it to a different ʿâmil; but in case the sea was closed, the ʿâmil with a small band would stay and the rest would return. This state of affairs lasted until ʿAbd-al-Malik began to rule. In the days of the latter, one of the Greek patricians with a large body of men came to the city and asked for a promise of safety, agreeing to settle therein and pay kharâj. His request was granted. He had not been there two years or two years and a few months when he took advantage of the absence of the troops from the city, shut its gate and killed the ʿâmil, taking his soldiers and many Jews as captives. He then made his way together with his followers to the land of the Greeks [Asia Minor]. Later the Moslems caught him on the sea going to a Moslem coast-town with a large number of ships, and killed him. Others say they took him captive and sent him to ʿAbd-al-Malik who killed and crucified him. I heard someone say that ʿAbd-al-Malik sent someone who besieged him in Tripoli until he surrendered and was carried before ʿAbd-al-Malik who killed and crucified him. Some of his followers took to flight and got as far as the land of the Greeks.

ʿAli ibn-Muḥammad al-Madâʾini related on the authority of ʿAttâb ibn-Ibrâhîm that Tripoli was conquered by Sufyân ibn-Mujîb, that its inhabitants violated the covenant in the days of ʿAbd-al-Malik and that it was reduced by al-Walîd ibn-ʿAbd-al-Malik in his reign.

The Mediterranean littoral reduced. Abu-Ḥafṣ ash-Shâmi from al-Waḍîn:—At first Yazîd ibn-abi-Sufyân directed Muʿâwiyah against the littoral of the province of Damascus excluding Tripoli whose possession he did not covet. Muʿâwiyah sometimes spent on the reduction of the fort a few days two or more in the course of which he was resisted either slightly or strongly before he could take it.

When the Moslems conquered a city, whether so situated as to overlook a wide territory or on the coast, they would station in it whatever number of Moslems was necessary; and if the enemy in it should start a revolt the Moslems would flock to it for reinforcement. But when ʿUthmân ibn-ʿAffân became caliph he wrote to Muʿâwiyah instructing him to fortify the coast-cities and man them, and to give fiefs to those whom he settled in them. Muʿâwiyah did accordingly.

Abu-Ḥafṣ from Saʿîd ibn-ʿAbd-al-ʿAzîz who said:—"I heard it said by some that after the death of his brother Yazîd, Muʿâwiyah wrote to ʿUmar ibn-al-Khaṭṭâb describing the condition of the coast-towns. ʿUmar wrote back ordering that their fortifications be repaired, that garrisons be stationed in them, that watchmen be posted on their towers and that means be taken for lighting the fire on the towers to announce the approach of the enemy. ʿUmar gave Muʿâwiyah no permission to carry out a naval campaign. But Muʿâwiyah insisted so much that ʿUthmân allowed him to carry out a sea expedition and instructed him to keep ready in the coast-cities troops in addition to those already in them, whether he wanted to set out on the campaign in person or send some one else on it. He also instructed him to give the garrison lands and distribute among them whatever houses had been evacuated, and to establish new mosques and enlarge those that had been established before his caliphate."

According to al-Waḍîn, after that, men from all quarters moved to the coast cities.

ʿAlḳamah nominated governor of Ḥaurân. Al-ʿAbbâs ibn-Hishâm al-Kalbi from Jaʿfar ibn-Kilâb al-Kilâbi:—ʿAlḳamah ibn-ʿUlâthah ibn-ʿAuf ibn-al-Aḥwaṣ ibn-Jaʿfar ibn-Kilâb was assigned by ʿUmar ibn-al-Khaṭṭâb to the governorship of Ḥaurân and he was made responsible to Muʿâwiyah. This position he held until his death. Before his death he heard that al-Ḥuṭaiʾah-l-ʿAbsi was coming to visit him; so ʿAlḳamah bequeathed to him in his will a share equal to one of his sons' shares. Hence the poem of al-Ḥuṭaiʿah:^[18]

" Between me and becoming rich had I only reached thee, when thou

wert still living there would have been an interval of only a few nights."

Ḳubbash farm. I was told by certain learned men. among whom was a neighbor of Hishâm ibn-ʿAmmâr that abu-Sufyân ibn-Ḥarb possessed in the pre-Islamic period, in which he carried on trade with Syria, a village in al-Balḳâʾ called Ḳubbash. This village passed into the possession of Muʿâwiyah and his son, and at the beginning of the [Abbasid] dynasty, it was confiscated and possessed by certain sons of al-Mahdi, the "Commander of the Believers." Then it passed into the hands of certain oil-sellers of al-Kûfah known as the banu-Nuʿaim.

The Prophet gives fief to Tamîm and Nuʿaim. ʿAbbâs ibn-Hishâm from his grandfather:—Once came Tamîm ibn-Aus of the banu-ad-Dâr ibn-Hâniʾ ibn-Ḥabîb of [the tribe of] Lakhm, surnamed abu-Ruḳaiyah, with his brother Nuʿaim ibn-Aus, to the Prophet who gave them as fief Ḥibra, Bait-ʿAinûn^[19] and Masjid Ibrâhim, and to that end he wrote a statement. When Syria was subdued, all that was restored to them. When Sulaimân ibn-ʿAbd-al-Malik used to pass near this land he would not stop in it saying, "I am afraid the curse of the Prophet will follow me."

ʿUmar gives stipends to diseased Christians. Hishâm ibn-ʿAmmâr told me he heard it said by certain sheikhs that on his way to al-Jâbiyah in the province of Damascus, ʿUmar ibn-al-Khaṭṭâb passed by certain Christians smitten with elephentiasis^[20] and he ordered that they be given something out of the ṣadaḳahs and that food stipends be assigned to them.

Dair Khâlid. Hishâm reported that he heard it said by al-Walîd ibn-Muslim that Khâlid ibn-al-Walîd made a condition in favor of the convent known as Dair Khâlid, when its occupants offered him a ladder to climb to the city wall, to the effect that their kharâj be reduced. The condition was enforced by abu-ʿUbaidah.

The terms with Baʿlabakk. When abu-ʿUbaidah was done with Damascus, he advanced to Ḥimṣ. On his way, he passed through Baʿlabakk whose inhabitants sought to secure safety and capitulate. Abu-ʿUbaidah made terms guaranteeing the safety of their lives, possessions and churches. To that end he wrote the following statement:

"In the name of Allah, the compassionate, the merciful. This is a statement of security to so and so, son of so and so, and to the inhabitants of Baʿlabakk—Greeks, Persians and Arabs—for their lives, possessions, churches and houses, inside and outside the city and also for their mills. The Greeks are entitled to give pasture to their cattle within a space of 15 miles, yet are not to abide in any inhabited town. After Rabîʿ and Jumâda I shall have passed, they are at liberty to go where they will. Whosoever of them adopts Islâm, shall have the same rights as we and be bound by the same obligations; and their merchants are entitled to go whither they will in the countries that have become ours through capitulation. Those of them who do not adopt Islâm^[21] are bound to pay poll-tax and kharâj. Allah is witness and his witness is sufficient."

Footnotes

1. Diyârbakri, vol. ii, p. 259.
2. H. Lammens, MFO, vol. iii¹, p. 256; Kremer, Topographie von Damaskus, the chart next to page 36.
3. Mémoire, p. 90.
4. Jubair, p. 274; Yâḳût, vol. i, p. 563.
5. Caetani, vol. iii, p. 364, note 2.
6. Ṭabari, vol. i, p. 2152.
7. Ḥassân, Dîwân, p. 17.
8. Yaʿḳûbi, vol. ii, p. 159; Lammens, MFO, vol. iii¹, p. 250.
9. Yaʿḳûbi, vol. ii, p. 159.
10. Yaʿḳûbi, Buldân, p. 325: "one year".
11. Ar. mudi, Latin modius, is 17 sâʿs; a ḳisṭ is half a sâʿ; an irdabb is 24 sâʿs.
12. Al-Maḳḳari, Nafḥ aṭ-Ṭîb, vol. i, p. 368.
13. Modern Nuḳrah in Ḥaurân.
14. The correct form is Gharandal; Yaʿḳûbi, Buldân, p. 326; Baedeker, p. 150.
15. "ʿArḳah" in Hamadhâni, Buldân, p. 105; Caetani, vol. iii, p. 801; "Correggi: ʿArqaq".
16. Journal Asiatique, 1859, vol. i, p. 120, note 1.
17. As its Greek name designates.
18. Goldziher: "Der Dîwân des Ǵarwal b. Aus al-Ḥutejʿa" in ZDMG, vol. xlvi, p. 30.
19. Ibn-Duraid, p. 226.
20. Ar. mujadhdhamîn, see Ḳâmus, Tâj al-ʿArûs and Nihâyah; Caetani, vol. iii, p. 933, translates: "mutilati".
21. Cf. Zaidân, vol. iv, p. 122, Margoliouth's translation.