Battle of Mu’tah
From WikiIslam
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[edit] Introduction
Emboldened by the victory at the battle of the Trench, Mohammed began casting his power seeking eyes on the rich empires to the north of Arabia, whose prosperous cities he had visited when he was working with Khadija’s (his rich first wife) caravans before 610. Since then Mohammed had always coveted the wealth of Byzantine Syria and Sassanian Persia. He now saw his chance to intimate the kings of these empires. He sent out an invitation which asked them to find refuge in Islam “Embrace Islam and you will be safe”, these were the exact words which Mohammed addressed to Heracleus, the Byzantine Emperor and Chroses (Khusrav Pervez, or Khusro, called Kisra by the Arabs), the Sassanian Emperor. (This Muslim tradition of blackmail has not changed. Even today, President Bush is ordered by Zarqawi to embrace the blood-thirsty cult of Islam and seek refuge to find peace.)
But in the 7th century, both the Persian and the Byzantine emperors were stunned by this affront, and not realizing the kind of menace this invitation represented, both reacted with indifference and hostility. The messengers sent by Mohammed were so arrogant, that Khusro, the Sassanid Persian emperor, exclaimed to them that had you not been ambassadors, I would have sent back your severed head to Mohammed.
Heracleus, the Byzantine emperor, himself did not react with hostility, but a vassal of his Harith, the Governor of Syria, punished one of Mohammed’s messengers by attacking him for having delivered such an insulting message to his Emperor. This was reason enough for Mohammed to declare that it was now the duty of the Muslims to attack the Roman Empire! According to the Byzantines, the actual reason for Muhammad’s expedition was attributed to his desire to convert the Arabs living to the east of Jordan to Islam. According to Theophanes, the Muslim army intended to attack the local Arabs on a feast day (the word that Theophanes used most likely indicates a pagan rather than a Christian holiday).
[edit] Battle of Mu’ta with the Roman Empire in 7 A.H. (629 C.E.)
Mohammed made his personal slave and one of the earliest converts to join his gang, Zaid, the leader of this expedition. He gave him an army of 30,000 and also deputed another burly roughneck named Jaffar to accompany Zaid as the leader of the army. Mohamed wanted to win this battle so desperately that he decided in advance that there was to be no retreat, and if Zaid was killed, Jaffar would lead the Army, and if Jaffar was killed, Khalid-ibn-walid was to lead the army. Mohammed was desperate for a spectacular victory, since Mecca still lay unsubdued in the South and the Quraish had started to make overtures to the Persians and Romans to help them defeat Mohammed. So Mohammed had to nip these efforts in the bud, by defeating one of the prospective allies of the Quraish.
He also asked Umar, to accompany the army. Later, Umar was to lead the gang of Muslims, as their Khalifa (Caliph) after Mohammed was poisoned by one of his victims and after Mohammed’s successor and father-in-law Abba (Abu) Bakr died leading the gang of murderous Muslims for four years. Incidentally, Umar in turn was murdered by Utman, his successor. But here at the battle of Mu’ta, the disciplined Roman legions and phalanxes caught the Arab Muslim hordes in an impossible position and the result was a massacre of the Arab Muslims.
According to most accounts Muhammad dispatched the troops to the area in Jumada al-awwal of the year 8 A.H. (629 C.E.). Suhrabil, however is reported to have gained word of the expedition and prepared his forces and sent to the Byzantines for aid. Muslim historians reported that the Byzantine emperor Heraclius himself had gathered an army and arrived to camp at Moab where they met up with their Arab allies, while others relate that it was rather his brother Theodorus who did this. In the six days of the battle, all three Muslim leaders fell one after the other as they took command of the force: first, Zayd ibn Haritha who was pierced by a spear, then Jafar ibn Abi Talib, and then Abdullah ibn Rawaha. When Umar faced the phalanxes, he chose to turn tail and run into the desert. After the death of Abdullah ibn Rawaha, the troops asked Thabit ibn Arkan to assume command; however, he declined and offered Khalid ibn al-Walid to take the lead. By the time that Khalid ibn al-Walid took command the ranks were already broken and the Romans were in full pursuit of the Muslims and were devastating them. Khalid-ibn-Walid who was then a new convert tried to rally the gangsters and promised a rich booty. Al-Walid, seeing that it was meaningless to remain in Mu'tah decided to prepare a withdrawal. He continued to engage the Byzantines in skirmishes and avoid pitched battle. He rearranged his troop deployments one night by reshuffling the right and left flanks, as well as bringing forward a division from the rear and made new banners for the army. His intention was to convey to the Byzantines the impression that reinforcements had arrived from Medina. He also positioned the Muslim cavalry behind a hill, and ordered them to advance to the Muslim army the following morning while raising as much desert sand as they could, creating the impression that further reinforcements were arriving. The Byzantines disengaged from the conflict the following morning and the Muslim forces broke ranks and retreated to Medina. When the Muslims force arrived at Medina, they were berated for withdrawing and accused of fleeing. Salamah ibn Hisham is reported to have avoided even going to the mosque to avoid taunts.
Thus ended the first encounter of the bloodthirsty Muslims with the Roman legions. The Arabic word Rumi (for Roman) is still a term of derision used by the Arabs to refer to Westerners.
