Page:Baladhuri-Hitti1916.djvu/202



. When the Moslems were done with the fight against those who were gathered at al-Marj, they stayed there for fifteen days at the end of which they returned [sic] to Damascus [Dimashḳ]. This took place fourteen days before the end of Muḥarram, year 14. Al-Ghûṭah and its churches the Moslems took by force. The inhabitants of Damascus betook themselves to the fortifications and closed the gate of the city. Khâlid ibn-al-Walîd at the head of some 5,000 men whom abu-ʿUbaidah had put under his command, camped at al-Bâb ash-Sharḳi [the east gate]. Some assert that Khâlid was the chief commander but was dismissed when Damascus was under siege. The convent by which Khâlid camped was called Dair Khâlid. ʿAmr ibn-al-ʿÂṣi camped at the Tûma gate; Shuraḥbîl, at the Faradîs gate, abu-ʿUbaidah at the Jâbiyah gate, and Yazîd ibn-abi-Sufyân from the Ṣaghîr gate to the one known as Kaisân gate. Abu-ad-Dardâʾ appointed ʿUwaimir ibn-ʿÂmir al-Khazraji commander of a frontier garrison settled in the fortification at Barzah.

. The bishop who had

186