Today in History: Christians and Muslims Fight in the World's Most Decisive BattleBY RAYMOND IBRAHIM
AUGUST 20, 2023
Today in history, on Aug. 20, 636, arguably the single most consequential battle — certainly between Islam and the West— took place. Occurring just four years after the Muslim prophet Muhammad had died, not only did the military engagement decide whether the Arabian creed thrives or dies, but it also became a chief source of inspiration and instruction for jihadists throughout the centuries — right down to the Islamic State. And yet, very few in the West are even aware of the Battle of Yarmuk’s existence — much less how it motivates contemporary Islamic terrorists.
The contestants were the Eastern Roman Empire, under Emperor Heraclius, and the newly born Arabian caliphate, under the second caliph, Omar. After a couple of years of Muslim depredations in then-Christian/Roman Syria, the two forces met along the Yarmuk River. The pre-battle exchange between the two generals, the Roman-Armenian Vahan and Khalid bin al-Walid — Islam’s much revered “Sword of Allah” — is instructive:
The Christian commander began by diplomatically blaming Arabia’s harsh conditions and impoverished economy for giving the Arabs no choice but to raid Roman lands. Accordingly, the empire was pleased to provide them with food and coin on condition that they return home. “It was not hunger that brought us here,” Khalid responded coolly, “but we Arabs are in the habit of drinking blood, and we are told the blood of the Romans is the sweetest of its kind, so we came to shed your blood and drink it.
Vahan’s diplomatic mask instantly dropped and he launched into a tirade against the insolent Arab: “So, we thought you came seeking what your brethren always sought” — plunder, extortion, or mercenary work. “But, alas, we were wrong. You came killing men, enslaving women, plundering wealth, destroying buildings, and seeking to drive us from our own lands.” Better people had tried to do the same but always ended up defeated, added Vahan in reference to the recent Persian Wars, before continuing:
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Source:
https://pjmedia.com/columns/raymond-ibrahim/2023/08/20/today-in-history-christians-and-muslims-fight-in-the-worlds-most-decisive-battle-n1720681
