Byzantine Battles: Battle of Bargylus

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Battle of Bargylus (Battle of the Brocade or of Marj-ud-Deebaj)	year: 634 September 634
A surprise Arab attack on the Byzantine refugees from Damascus	★ ★ ★ ★ ★

enemy: Arabs	location: On a plateau over the An-Nusayriyah Mountains in Northwest Syria, close to Antioch and the Mediterranean sea	accuracy: ●●●●●
battle type: Surprise Attack	war: Arab Conquest of Syria	modern country: Syria

	▼ The Byzantines(emperor: Heraclius)	▼ The Enemies
Commander:	Thomas, Governor of Damascus	Khalid ibn al-Walid
Forces:	10,000	4,000
Losses:	Many killed (incl. Thomas) or captured

Background story:

After the battle of Ajnadayn, the Arabs took easily all Palestine and most parts of Syria, including Damascus, after an one-month siege.
The day that Damascus was caprured, the Byzantine governor Thomas, son-in-law of Emperor Heraclius, after hearing that Muslim troops had entered Damascus at the Eastern gate, wisely tricked the Muslim commanders at the other gates by suing for peace. After the trick was unveiled, the Muslim commanders advised Khalid ibn Walid that the peace agreement should be kept, because if the Greeks in Syria heard that the Muslims had given a guarantee of safety and then violated it, no other city would ever surrender easily to the Muslims.
Khalid was not happy, but he agreed. So the Byzantine army and the Christians were allowed to leave the city together with their possessions with a deadline of 3 days to go as far as they can.

The Battle:

Brocade

After the 3-days deadline given to the refugees expired, Khalid with his Modile Guard left Damascus and caught up to them, using an unknown shortcut, on a plateau over the An-Nusayriyah Mountains (Bargylus mons according to Pliny) in Syria, not far from Antioch and the Mediterranean sea.

The refugees, due to a heavy rain had spread on the plateau, seeking shelter, while their goods lay all over the place. Some of them had taken out their brocade clothes for protection from the rain.
The elite Arab cavalry attacked the unsuspected Greeks from 4 directions. Khalid personally killed Thomas in a duel. After some severe fighting in the middle of all those brocades, the Byzantine resistance collapsed.
Since the Muslims were too few to completely surround the Byzantine army and the fighting had become confused as it increased in violence, many Byzantines were able to escape. But all the booty and a large number of captives, male and female, fell to the Muslims. The daughter of Heraclius, and widow of Thomas, was also taken captive.
At the end of the day, so many items of brocade were scattered on the ground –between dead bodies– that the place became known as Marj-ud-Debaj (Meadow of Brocade).

Noteworthy:

According to Muslim sources, Emperor Heraclius, sent an ambassador to Khalid asking his daughter back. She was liberated without ransom.

Aftermath:

The return of the Mobile Guard loaded with spoils was greeted with joy by the Muslims at Damascus. The whole operation had taken 10 days.
Upon his return Khalid was informed of the succession of Umar as the new caliph.
Umar deposed Khalid from his command and appointed Abu Ubaidah ibn al-Jarrah as the new commander in chief. One of the reasons of this change was the thirst of Khalid and his men for loot and the conduct of operations solely for looting as in the battle of Bargylus.

Byzantine Battles

Battle of Bargylus

634