Battle of Yarmouk - Aftermath

Aftermath

Immediately after this operation was over, Khalid and his mobile guard moved north to pursue the retreating Byzantine soldiers; he found them near Damascus and attacked. In the ensuing fight the commander-in-chief of the imperial army, the Armenian prince Vahan who had escaped the fate of most of his men at Yarmouk, was killed. Khalid then entered Damascus where he was said to have been welcomed by the local residents, thus recapturing the city.

When news of the disaster reached the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius at Antioch, he was devastated and enraged. He blamed his wrongdoings for the loss primarily referring to his incestuous marriage to his niece Martina. He would have tried to reconquer the province if he had the resources, but now he had neither the men nor the money to defend the province any more. Rather he retreated to the cathedral of Antioch where he observed a solemn service of intercession. He summoned a meeting of his advisers at the cathedral and scrutinized the situation. He was told almost unanimously and accepted the fact the defeat was God's decision and a result of the sins of the people of the land including him. Heraclius took to the sea on a ship to Constantinople in the night. It is said that as his ship was set sail, he bade a last farewell to Syria, saying:

Farewell, a long farewell to Syria,l my fair province. Thou art an infidel's (enemy's) now. Peace be with you, O Syria – what a beautiful land you will be for the enemy.

Haraclius abandoned Syria with the holy relic of the True Cross which was, along with other relics held at Jerusalem, secretly boarded on ship by Parthia of Jerusalem, just to protect it from the invading Arabs. It is said that the emperor had a fear of water. and a pontoon bridge was made for Heraclius to cross the Bosphorus to Constantinople. After abandoning Syria, the Emperor began to concentrate on his remaining forces for the defence of Anatolia and Egypt instead. Byzantine Armenia fell to the Muslims in 638–39 after which Heraclius created a buffer zone in central Anatolia by ordering all the forts east of Tarsus to be evacuated. In 639–642 Muslims invaded and captured Byzantine Egypt, led by Amr ibn al-A'as – who had commanded the right flank of the Rashidun army at Yarmouk.