Page:William Muir, Thomas Hunter Weir - The Caliphate; Its Rise, Decline, and Fall (1915).djvu/157

 128 bishop writes about the year 15: "The Ṭaiites (or Arabs), to whom God has accorded in our days the dominion, are become our masters; but they do not combat the Christian religion; much rather they protect our faith; they respect our priests and our holy men, and make gifts to our churches and our convents." Nothing could show more plainly how amicable were the relations between the Christian population and their Mohammadan conquerors, than the fact that devotees of both religions who shared the great Church of Damascus between them entered by one door.

The new army of Heraclius included Christian Arabs of the Ghassan under their "king" Jabala, as well as Armenians, Syrians, and Greeks. It was under the supreme command of Theodore the Sakkellarius, under whom were Baānes the Armenian, and Jerja (George). Their number is stated variously as one and as two hundred thousand: the number of Christian Arabs being about 12,000, and the Armenians the same number. The Muslims were no doubt less numerous. They had, since the beginning of the year 15, concentrated upon the City of Damascus; but as the Greek army advanced southwards, they abandoned that town and fell back through the Jaulān country until they rested upon the banks of the Yarmūḳ (Hieromax, now called after the local tribe Sherīʿat al-Menāḍira), and here they awaited the approach of the Greek host. It arrived in the month of Jumādà II.

The opposing armies came face to face on Tuesday, the 12th of Jumādà II., of the year 15 (23rd July 636). The fierce and decisive battle which followed is variously named the battle of the Yarmūḳ—after the great river which divides the highlands of Jaulān from those of Ajlūn, and flows into the Jordan at a point some five miles below the point where that river leaves the Lake of Tiberias—and the battle of Yaḳūsa, from a tributary of the Yarmūḳ which flows from the neighbourhood of Fīḳ (Aphek), and joins the latter river from the north-west.

The village of Yaḳūsa was rediscovered by Seetzen in 1806. On the day on which the two armies met, an engagement took place which resulted in favour of the Muslims; but after that, they remained facing one another for an