Highlights: One of a series of battles that took place in 12 AH, between Muslims and Persians on the borders of Iraq. led by Khalid bin Al-Walid and Muthanna bin Haritha during the caliphate of Abu Bakr Al-Siddiq, may God be pleased with him, and the Muslim army won. The victory was overwhelming for the Muslims despite the numerical superiority of the Persians. The Battle of Al-Walaja was preceded by other battles that lasted until the end of that Hijri year, and paved the way for the great battle in Qadisiyah.
One of a series of battles that took place in 12 AH, between Muslims and Persians on the borders of Iraq, led by Khalid bin Al-Walid and Muthanna bin Haritha during the caliphate of Abu Bakr Al-Siddiq, may God be pleased with him, and the Muslim army won.
The Battle of Al-Walaja is one of a series of battles that took place in 12 AH between Muslims and Persians on the outskirts of Iraq, during the caliphate of Abu Bakr Al-Siddiq, may God be pleased with him, within the framework of the Islamic conquests of Persia.
It was led by Khalid ibn al-Walid, may Allah be pleased with him, and by the Persians Andersagher, the ruler of Khorasan, to Khosrau Ardashir, and the victory was overwhelming for the Muslims despite the numerical superiority of the Persians.
Battle background
No sooner had Abu Bakr al-Siddiq received the order of the caliphate than a number of tribes in the Arabian Peninsula renounced Islam, which stopped the course of the Islamic conquests initiated by the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him), and Abu Bakr pledged to enforce them starting with the resurrection of the army of Osama bin Zayd.
As soon as Abu Bakr subjected the Arab tribes to his authority and extinguished the sedition of apostasy, he wrote to the companion Khalid bin Al-Walid to gather his scattered soldiers in and around Al-Yamamah, and head them to Iraq with Muthanna bin Haritha Al-Shaibani, who preceded Khalda with soldiers from his tribe to Iraq with the permission of the Caliph.
Muthanna took advantage of the chaos that pervaded the Persian Empire, after the death of Emperor Anusherwan and the accession of his grandson Shiroyeh, who killed his father and 18 of his brothers, to rule exclusively.
Shiroyeh was killed after 7 months of his reign, resulting in an increase in the frequency of internal conflicts that ravaged the Persian Empire, leading up to the reign of Yazgerd, the last king of the Banu Sasan.
The Battle of Al-Walaja was preceded by a series of battles in which Muslims defeated the Persians, such as the Battle of That Al-Salasil in Kazma (north of Kuwait today), and the Battle of Al-Madhar, in which about 30,<> Persian fighters were killed.
It was followed by other battles that lasted until the end of that Hijri year, and paved the way for the great battle that took place in Qadisiyah, the results of which were the defeat of the Persians and the decline of their influence in Iraq, and the gates of Persia were opened to the Muslims.
Khalid ibn al-Walid feared an open confrontation with the Persian army so he prepared a plan to circumvent them and defeat them (Midgorney)
Battle events
The impact of the news of the Battle of Al-Madhar and what preceded it was severe on the emperor of the Persians, for the victory of the Muslims in it and their families thousands of Persians who were driven to the Muslim countries, so the emperor sent to his country and the commanders of his soldiers;
He had appointed al-Andrzghar (one of his commanders in Khorasan, a Persian who grew up among the Arabs in Iraq, with whom he had strong ties) to the army heading to the blackness of Iraq, meaning the areas between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in southern Iraq, and then another army led by Bahman bin Jadhawayh.
Al-Andrzghar was able to mobilize on his way to meet Khalid bin Walid, a number of agents, commanders and soldiers, Arabs and Persians, and when he saw the large crowd that he gathered, he was struck by pride and decided to crawl when he saw the vanguards of the Muslim army on the outskirts of Al-Walaja, without paying attention to the plan drawn by Ibn al-Walid to pounce on his army.
Disturbing news has reached through the network of eyes formed by Khalid ibn al-Walid from the local Arab population, indicating the magnitude of the armies coming from the west and north.
He feared an open confrontation with them, and he was also worried that the remnants of the armies he had defeated in the previous two battles would join the Persian military bases, scattered between the two rivers, to rearm and attack him again in this open desert from all sides.
Since the battlefield is a vast plain between two extended plateaus, Khalid saw that it is suitable for maneuvering and circumvention, so he decided to attack from 3 axes to disperse the huge crowd, and also issued an order to Swaid bin Muqrin to oblige the Hafir, to secure the rear of his army and its rear supply lines.
Khalid had appointed on the wings of the army Asim bin Amr and Uday bin Hatim, and sent Bisr bin Abi Raham, one of those who witnessed Qadisiyah, and Saeed bin Murra Al-Ajli at the head of two forces, each consisting of two thousand fighters, to infiltrate behind enemy lines and apply to the army from the rear in time, and to have a key role in giving him early warning, in the event of the arrival of any forces from the parties that he could not cover with his attacking forces.
Khalid ibn al-Walid encountered a giant Persian knight in the battle of al-Walaja and pounced on him and killed him (Midgorney)
It was also his plan to rush to attack the first army, before the second army arrived with its supply to them, and as soon as the two armies coalesced and fought between them what took place from intense fighting until "the two teams thought that patience was empty", and Khaled pointed to the two forces that he planted behind the enemy lines to pounce on him, preventing him from reorganizing his ranks and returning to fighting.
The fighting between the two armies took place in stages, the Muslims in the first of which prevailed, until they were tired and they are the least numerous of the two armies. The Andersigger launched a counterattack that made the Muslim army retreat, so the two latent forces took the initiative to pounce on the Persian army, and rally behind it after Khalid gave them the signal to start, so the Persian army was disturbed in every direction and dispersed.
Thus, Khalid took them from their hands, and the two forces behind the distant hills behind them are fighting on both sides, "no man among them saw the killing of his owner," as al-Tabari said in describing the fusion of the two armies, but the Andersiger was able to flee with a group of his companions, and their flight was not towards the Euphrates, but towards the desert in which they perished of thirst.
Historians state that the army of the Andersiger was remarkably annihilated, unlike what happened with the two Persian armies in the previous two battles, where they suffered a disastrous defeat without the collapse of their strength, which remained steadfast, and some members of these two armies even joined the forces of the Andersiger in the Battle of Walaja.
What prompted Khalda to use this method of fighting and to distract from the idea of direct confrontation was the small number of his army in exchange for the Persian crowd that gathered in the plain of battle, if the confrontation was only from the front, the army of the Andersiger could surround and eliminate the Muslim army.
Al-Tabari mentions that Khalda faced a giant Persian knight who has wide fame among his people in the individual duel, and al-Tabari called him, according to his narrators, "the knight who amends a thousand men", so Khalid pounced on him and killed him, and then called for his lunch while leaning on him an increase in abuse and a show of victory and victory.
After the battle of Al-Walaja, the Persian allies of the Arab Christians fell to take revenge on the Muslims, so the battle of Nahr al-Dam (Midgorney)
After the battle
Khalid ibn al-Walid rose in the army after this overwhelming victory as a preacher, who desires them in the land of non-Arabs and asceticizes them in the land of the Arabs, and raises their motivation after this great incident that resulted in great losses in the ranks of the Persians.
Khaled said, "Don't you see food as a dust dump (the community of dust), and by God, if we did not oblige us to jihad in God and call to his religion, and it was only a pension, the opinion would have been that we fight on this countryside so that we are the first in it, and pay attention to hunger and reduce the burden of those who are heavier than you are."
This battle, which hit Khalid allies of the Persians of the Christians of the Arabs, that the tribes of these fell apart to revenge, so the battle of Nahr al-Dam and other occurrences occurred, and Khalid remained gnawing from the land of Iraq until Abu Bakr sent him to let what is in it, and go in support of the army of the Levant Khawatem year 12 e.
Then took place the Battle of the Bridge, in which the Persians regained some of the land controlled by the Muslims, until Umar took over the caliphate and sent it to Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas and pushed him to Qadisiyah, which opened the Persian land to the Muslims not long after the fall of al-Walaja.