Battle of Yarmouk - Battle

Battle

For a good understanding of the description of the battle, it is useful to be acquainted with the divisions of opposing forces. The battle lines of the Muslims and the Byzantines were divided into four sections: the left wing, the left center, the right center and the right wing. Note that the descriptions of the Muslim and the Byzantine battle lines are exactly each other's opposite, i.e.: so the Muslim right wing faced the Byzantine left wing (see imagen).

Vahan was instructed by Heraclius not to engage in battle until all avenues of diplomacy had been explored. This was probably because Yazdegerd III's forces were not yet ready for the offensive in Iraq. Accordingly, Vahan sent Gregory and then Jabalah to negotiate, though their efforts proved futile. Before the battle, on Vahan's invitation, Khalid came to negotiate peace, to a similar end. These negotiations delayed the battles for a month. On the other hand, Caliph Umar, whose forces at Qadisiyah were threatened with confronting the Sassanid armies, ordered Sa`d ibn Abi Waqqas to enter into negotiations with the Persians and send emissaries to Yazdegerd III and his commander Rostam Farrokhzād, apparently inviting them to Islam. This was most probably the delaying tactic employed by Umar on the Persian front. Meanwhile he sent reinforcements of 6,000 troops, mostly from Yemen, to Khalid. This force included 1,000 Sahaba (companions of Muhammad), among whom were 100 veterans of the Battle of Badr, the first battle in Islamic history, and included citizens of the highest rank, such as Zubayr ibn al-Awwam, Abu Sufyan, and his wife Hind bint Utbah.

Umar, apparently wanting to defeat the Byzantines first, employed the best Muslim troops against them. The continuing stream of Muslim reinforcements worried the Byzantines, who fearing that the Muslims with such reinforcements would grow powerful, decided that they had no choice but to attack. The reinforcements that were sent to the Muslims at Yarmouk arrived in small bands, giving the impression of a continuous stream of reinforcements, in order to demoralize the Byzantines and compel them to attack. The same tactic would be repeated again during the Battle of Qadisiyah.