KHALID IBN AL-WALID

died 642 byname Sif, or Sayf, Allah (Arabic: Sword of God) one of the two generals (with 'Amr ibn al-'As) of the enormously successful Islamic expansion under the Prophet Muhammad and his immediate successors, Abu Bakr and 'Umar. Although he fought against Muhammad at Uhud (625), Khalid was later converted (627/629) and joined Muhammad in the conquest of Mecca in 629; thereafter he commanded a number of conquests and missions in the Arabian Peninsula. After the death of Muhammad, Khalid recaptured a number of provinces that were breaking away from Islam. He was sent northeastward by the caliph Abu Bakr to invade Iraq, where he conquered Al-Hirah. Crossing the desert, he aided in the conquest of Syria; and, though the new caliph, 'Umar, formally relieved him of high command (for unknown reasons), Khalid remained the effective leader of the forces facing the Byzantine armies in Syria and Palestine. Routing the Byzantine armies, he surrounded Damascus, which surrendered on Sept. 4, 635, and pushed northward. Early in 636 he withdrew south of the Yarmuk River before a powerful Byzantine force that advanced from the north and from the coast of Palestine. The Byzantine armies were composed mainly of Christian Arab, Armenian, and other auxiliaries, however; and when many of these deserted the Byzantines, Khalid, reinforced from Medina and possibly from the Syrian Arab tribes, attacked and destroyed the remaining Byzantine forces along the ravines of the Yarmuk valley (Aug. 20, 636). Almost 50,000 Byzantine troops were slaughtered, which opened the way for many other Islamic conquests.