The Chaliphate - Muir - The Search For Mecca

A.D. 636] BATTLE OF THE YARMUK 129
entire month, without either side striking a blow. During a.h. i.
these weeks disaffection spread amongst the
Greeks, several
of the leaders intrigued with the enemy, and a quarrel arose
between the commander-in-chief and the leader of the
Armenian contingent. At last, on a day in the month of
Rejeb when a strong south wind blew, and the Greeks were
blinded by clouds of dust in addition to the scorching rays
of an August sun, the Muslim army advanced to the attack.
The Greeks had no fortune that day. Whenever they
succeeded in penetrating the Arab lines, the women laid
hold of swords and drove them back. Their cavalry sought
refuge in flight across the plains. The infantry, roped
together in companies to increase their steadiness, fell easy
victims to the lances of the Arabs, or were hurled down the
precipitous sides of the Wadi.^ The heterogeneous host of
the Greeks began to crumble up before the smaller but
united army of the Arabs.- The Sakkellarius perished in
the fight : Baanes, however, seems to have made good his
flight. It is said that, fearing to face Heraclius, he found his
way to Mount Sinai, where he was received as a monk and
assumed the name of Anastasius.-^ He became the author of
a homily on the sixtieth Psalm. When news of the disaster
reached Heraclius at Antioch, he bade a last farewell to
Syria :
" Farewell Syria, my fair province. Thou art an
enemy's now " ; and quitted Antioch for Constantinople.
The loss on the Muslim side was also considerable, but it
was as nothing compared to what they gained by this battle.
Many of the " Companions " lost their lives, and many bore the
marks of wounds received there to their graves ; but now
Khalid could declare that " Syria sat as quiet as a camel.''
They could now ibr the first time call Syria their own.
The work of recovering the ground lost in the retreat Khalid
of the Muslim lines to the Yarmuk did not take many weeks. "^^^'^ "^ '
' Hence, M. dc Cioejc thinks, the form of the name Wakusa, from
ibakasa "to break the neck."
- 'Al)dallah ibn Zubeir, who, though a mere boy, had accompanied
his father to the wars, saw Abu Sufyan and some people of Koreish
holding aloof and watching how the battle went, much as did Rob Roy
at the battle of Prestonpans ; but this may be a later invention intended
to blacken the face of the Umeiyad Caliphs who were descended from
Abu Sufvan.
'
Cf.\. 93 f. I