Abu Obeida advances on Damascus.
Leaving a strong detachment on the Yermûk to keep communications open with the south, the invading army resumed its march towards Damascus. On the way, news reached them that the city had been reinforced, and also that in Palestine the scattered fragments of the defeated army had re-formed in the valley of the Jordan, thus threatening the Moslem rear. The moment was critical, and Abu Obeida wrote for orders to the Caliph. The command of Omar was to strike a decisive blow at Damascus. The citadel of Syria gained, the rest was sure. Accordingly, a strong column under Abul Aûr and other veteran leaders was sent back to hold in check the enemy on the Jordan, while the main body advanced by the military road to Damascus.
Damascus.
This city, founded before the days of Abraham,[230] enjoys the singular pre-eminence of having survived, through all the vicissitudes of dynasties and nations, the capital of Syria. The Ghûta, or great plain on which it stands, is watered by the Barada and other streams issuing from the Lebanon and adjoining mountain ranges; and the beautiful groves and rich meadows around have given it (perhaps with a better title than the delta of the Euphrates) the name of ‘the garden of the world.’ An entrepôt of commerce between the East and West, it has from age to age, with varying fortune, been ever rich and populous. The city wall, twenty feet high and fifteen broad, still displays in many places stones of cyclopean size, which must have been venerable ages even before our era. Turrets for defence are placed at stated intervals, and over the gates and at other spots there are structures to accommodate the garrison on duty. The Eastern gate still leads into ‘the street which is called Straight,’ as it did in the days when St. Paul passed through it.[231] The Cathedral church of St. John the Baptist rears its great dome, towering above the other buildings; and besides it there were, at the time of the invasion, fifteen churches in Damascus and its suburbs. The city, not long before, suffered severely from the alternating fortunes of the Persian war; but it had now, in great measure, recovered its prosperity.
Such was the capital of Syria, ‘the Queen of Cities,’ which—embedded in groves and gardens, and hemmed in (excepting towards the eastern desert) with distant but lofty mountains, some tipped with snow—now burst on the gaze of the Arab warriors. One here and there amongst them may perchance have visited it, trading to the north; but, as a whole, the army had heard of it only by report; and in beauty, richness, and repose, fancy could hardly have exceeded the scene which now lay before them.
The city invested. Shawwâl, A.H. XIII. December, A.D. 634.
The Arab force was strong enough to invest the city. Abu Obeida pitched his head-quarters opposite the Gate of Jâbia, on the western plain. Khâlid was posted at the Eastern entrance,[232] where the gateway was strengthened by the remains of an ancient temple. The other gates were similarly guarded. Battering-rams and testudos were drawn up against the walls; but every attempt at a breach of the massive defences failed. At first the citizens, ignorant of the ardour and persistence inspired by the faith of Mahomet, regarded the attack as a desultory raid like many that had preceded it, and looked for succour. The city lies two thousand feet above the sea, and the severity of the cold in spring would drive away the Arab tribes, used to a more genial climate. But months slipped by, and the host still hung obstinately around the walls. The Emperor, indeed, from Hims, attempted a diversion; but Dzul Kelâa, posted with his Himyarite horse to the north of the city, kept them at bay; and Abu Obeida detached another column to cover the siege from annoyance on the side of Palestine. The summer was coming on, and no relief appeared. The Moslems, instead of retiring, pressed their attack with increasing vigour; and the hopes of the Damascenes melted away into despair.[233]
Storm and capitulation. A.H. XIV. Summer, A.D. 635.
On a certain day, we are told, the Roman Governor made feast to the garrison to celebrate the birth of a son.[234] They ate and drank, and, relaxing into merriment, began to quit their posts. Khâlid knew of the expected feast, for nothing escaped his vigilance. ‘He neither himself slumbered, nor suffered others to fall asleep.’ And so, reckoning upon the season of revelry, he had settled with Abu Obeida to seize it as the occasion for a general assault. The defences on Khâlid’s side were by far the most formidable; the moat was deeper there, and the walls stronger. The garrison, holding the spot to be impregnable, were less on the alert than elsewhere; and in their negligence Khâlid found his opportunity. In concert with certain daring spirits, his comrades from Irâc, he planned an escalade. Ladders were got in readiness, and scaling ropes with nooses to catch the projections of the castellated wall. In the darkness preceding dawn, they stealthily crossed the moat upon inflated skins;[235] then, casting up their tackle, they caught the battlements. Cacâa, with another hero[236] from Irâc, was the first to gain the summit. The way thus silently secured, others scaled rapidly. Right and left they surprised the slumbering pickets by a sudden rush, and put them to the sword. The gate from within was forced open, and the appointed cry ‘Allah Akbar!’ resounded from the walls to the expectant troops without. The Roman soldiery, panic-struck, fled before their assailants; and now through the gateway Khâlid’s column poured in, slaying and sacking all around. They had already penetrated near to the centre of the city, when their progress was brought to an unwelcome end. For on the other side a very different scene was taking place. The Governor, seeing that resistance to an assault apprehended from every quarter was hopeless, had issued from the western gate, and already tendered his submission to Abu Obeida. Terms were made upon the spot, and the capitulation signed. The gates were thrown open, and the Moslem force, unopposed, kept streaming in from the western camp. As they advanced, cries of despair and appeals to stay the carnage met the ears of Abu Obeida, who was no sooner apprised of what had transpired in the eastern quarter than he sent orders to stay the onslaught. Khâlid remonstrated that the city had been fairly carried by assault, and was at their mercy; but in vain. Abu Obeida, juster and more clement, pointed to the treaty, and insisted that its provisions should be fulfilled. Good faith was the best as well as justest policy. The people were conciliated, and throughout Syria the capitulation of Damascus became the type of surrender.[237]
Terms of capitulation.