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Hall of Military Commanders
Khalid ibn al-Walid
Rashidun commander; Yarmouk (636); undefeated in battle
- died 642 CE
- Military Commanders · 5 of 10
Hall of Military Commanders
Rashidun commander; Yarmouk (636); undefeated in battle
Fetching the article from Wikipedia…
Khalid ibn al-Walid ibn al-Mughira al-Makhzumi (died 642) was an Arab Muslim commander in the service of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and the Rashidun caliphs Abu Bakr (r. 632–634) and Umar (r. 634–644). He played the leading command role in the Ridda wars against rebel tribes in Arabia in 632–633, the initial campaigns in Sasanian Iraq in 633–634 and the conquest of Byzantine Syria in 634–638.
A horseman of the Quraysh tribe's aristocratic Makhzum clan, which ardently opposed Muhammad, Khalid played the instrumental role in defeating the Muslims at the Battle of Uhud in 625. Following his conversion to Islam in 627 or 629, he was made a commander by Muhammad, who bestowed on him the title Sayf Allah ('the Sword of God'). Khalid coordinated the safe withdrawal of Muslim troops during the abortive expedition to Mu'ta against the Arab allies of the Byzantines in 629 and led the Bedouin contingents of the Muslim army during the capture of Mecca and the Battle of Hunayn in c. 630. After Muhammad's death, Khalid was appointed to suppress or subjugate Arab tribes in Najd and the Yamama (both regions in central Arabia) opposed to the nascent Muslim state, defeating the rebel leaders Tulayha at the Battle of Buzakha in 632 and Musaylima at the Battle of Aqraba in 633.
Khalid subsequently moved against the largely Christian Arab tribes and the Sasanian Persian garrisons of the Euphrates valley in Iraq. He was reassigned by Abu Bakr to command the Muslim armies in Syria and he led his men there on an unconventional march across a long, waterless stretch of the Syrian Desert, boosting his reputation as a military strategist. As a result of decisive victories against the Byzantines at Ajnadayn (634), Fahl (634 or 635), Damascus (634–635) and Yarmouk (636), the Muslims under Khalid conquered most of Syria. He was afterward demoted from the high command by Umar. Khalid continued service as the key lieutenant of his successor Abu Ubayda ibn al-Jarrah in the sieges of Homs and Aleppo and the Battle of Qinnasrin, all in 637–638, which collectively precipitated the retreat from Syria of imperial Byzantine troops under Emperor Heraclius. Umar dismissed Khalid from his governorship of Qinnasrin afterward and he died in Medina or Homs in 642.
Khalid is generally considered by historians to be one of the most seasoned and accomplished generals in Islamic history, and he is likewise commemorated throughout the Arab world. Islamic tradition credits him with decisive battlefield tactics and effective leadership during the early Muslim conquests. However, historical accounts offer differing perspectives on certain events, including his execution of Malik ibn Nuwayra during the Ridda Wars and his dismissal from command by Umar. Khalid's military fame disturbed some pious early Muslims, most notably Umar, who feared it could develop into a personality cult. In Sunni tradition, Khalid is generally honored as a heroic figure, whereas Shia tradition portrays him more critically.
Khalid's father was Al-Walid ibn al-Mughira, an arbitrator of local disputes in Mecca in the Hejaz (western Arabia). Al-Walid is identified by the historians Ibn Hisham (d. 833), Ibn Durayd (d. 837) and Ibn Habib (d. 859) as the "derider" of the Islamic prophet Muhammad mentioned in the Meccan suras (chapters) of the Qur'an. He belonged to the Banu Makhzum, a leading clan of the Quraysh tribe and Mecca's pre-Islamic aristocracy. The Makhzum are credited for introducing Meccan commerce to foreign markets, particularly Yemen and Abyssinia (Ethiopia), and developed a reputation among the Quraysh for their intellect, nobility and wealth. Their prominence was owed to the leadership of Khalid's paternal grandfather al-Mughira ibn Abd Allah. Khalid's paternal uncle Hisham was known as the 'lord of Mecca' and the date of his death was used by the Quraysh as the start of their calendar. The historian Muhammad Abdulhayy Shaban describes Khalid as "a man of considerable standing" within his clan and Mecca in general.
Khalid's mother was al-Asma bint al-Harith ibn Hazn, commonly known as Lubaba al-Sughra ('Lubaba the Younger', to distinguish her from her elder half-sister Lubaba al-Kubra) of the nomadic Banu Hilal tribe. Lubaba al-Sughra converted to Islam about c. 622 and her paternal half-sister Maymuna became a wife of Muhammad. She was also half-sister of Asma bint Umais, who successively married Ja'far ibn Abi Talib, Abu Bakr, and later Ali ibn Abi Talib. Through his maternal relations, Khalid became highly familiarized with the Bedouin (nomadic Arab) lifestyle. Descriptions of Khalid’s appearance are rare, but some accounts claim he so closely resembled Umar in both looks and voice that people with poor eyesight often confused them.
The Makhzum were strongly opposed to Muhammad, and the clan's preeminent leader Amr ibn Hisham (Abu Jahl), Khalid's first cousin, organized the boycott of Muhammad's clan, the Banu Hashim of Quraysh, in c. 616–618. After Muhammad emigrated from Mecca to Medina in 622, the Makhzum under Abu Jahl commanded the war against him until they were routed at the Battle of Badr in 624. About twenty-five of Khalid's paternal cousins, including Abu Jahl, and numerous other kinsmen were slain in that engagement.
The following year, Khalid commanded the right flank of the cavalry in the Meccan army which confronted Muhammad at the Battle of Uhud north of Medina. According to the historian Donald Routledge Hill, rather than launching a frontal assault against the Muslim lines on the slopes of Mount Uhud, "Khalid adopted the sound tactics" of going around the mountain and bypassing the Muslim flank. He advanced through the Wadi Qanat valley west of Uhud until being checked by Muslim archers south of the valley at Mount Ruma. The Muslims gained the early advantage in the fight, but after most of the Muslim archers abandoned their positions to join the raiding of the Meccans' camp, Khalid charged against the resulting break in the Muslims' rear defensive lines. In the ensuing rout, several dozen Muslims were killed. The narratives of the battle describe Khalid riding through the field, slaying the Muslims with his lance. Shaban credits Khalid's "military genius" for the Quraysh's victory at Uhud, the only engagement in which the tribe defeated Muhammad.
In 628, Muhammad and his followers headed for Mecca to perform the umra (lesser pilgrimage to Mecca) and the Quraysh dispatched 200 cavalry to intercept him upon hearing of his departure. Khalid was at the head of the cavalry and Muhammad avoided confronting him by taking an unconventional and difficult alternate route, ultimately reaching Hudaybiyya at the edge of Mecca. Upon realizing Muhammad's change of course, Khalid withdrew to Mecca. A truce between the Muslims and the Quraysh was reached in the Treaty of Hudaybiyya in March.
In the year 6 AH (c. 627) or 8 AH (c. 629) Khalid embraced Islam in Muhammad's presence alongside the Qurayshites Amr ibn al-As and Uthman ibn Talha; the modern historian Michael Lecker comments that the accounts holding that Khalid converted in 8 AH are "perhaps more trustworthy". The historian Akram Diya Umari holds that Khalid embraced Islam and relocated to Medina following the Treaty of Hudaybiyya, apparently after the Quraysh dropped demands for the extradition of newer Muslim converts to Mecca. Following his conversion, Khalid "began to devote all his considerable military talents to the support of the new Muslim state", in the words of the historian Hugh N. Kennedy.
Khalid participated in the expedition to Mu'tah in modern-day Jordan ordered by Muhammad in September 629. The purpose of the raid may have been to acquire booty in the wake of the Sasanian Persian army's retreat from Syria following its defeat by the Byzantine Empire in July. The Muslim detachment was routed by a Byzantine force consisting mostly of Arab tribesmen led by the Byzantine commander Theodore, and several high-ranking Muslim commanders were slain. Khalid took command of the army following the deaths of the appointed commanders and, with considerable difficulty, oversaw a safe withdrawal of the Muslims. Muhammad rewarded Khalid by bestowing on him the honorary title Sayf Allah ('the Sword of God') or Sayf Allah al-Maslul ('the Unsheathed Sword of God').
In December 629 or January 630, Khalid took part in Muhammad's conquest of Mecca, after which most of the Quraysh converted to Islam. In that campaign Khalid led a nomadic contingent called muhajirat al-arab ('the Bedouin emigrants'). He led one of the two main pushes into the city and in the subsequent fighting with the Quraysh, three of his men were killed while twelve Qurayshites were slain, according to Ibn Ishaq, the 8th-century biographer of Muhammad. Khalid commanded the Bedouin Banu Sulaym in the Muslims' vanguard at the Battle of Hunayn later that year. In that confrontation, the Muslims, boosted by the influx of Qurayshite converts, defeated the Thaqif—the Ta'if-based traditional rivals of the Quraysh—and their nomadic Hawazin allies. Khalid was then appointed to destroy the idol of al-Uzza, one of the goddesses worshiped in pre-Islamic Arabian religion, in the Nakhla area between Mecca and Ta'if.
Khalid was afterward dispatched to invite the Banu Jadhima in Yalamlam, about 80 kilometers (50 mi) south of Mecca, to Islam, but according to traditional Islamic sources, he attacked the tribe without authorization. In the version of Ibn Ishaq, Khalid had persuaded the Jadhima tribesmen to disarm and embrace Islam, which he followed up by executing a number of the tribesmen in revenge for the Jadhima's slaying of his uncle Fakih ibn al-Mughira dating to before Khalid's conversion to Islam. In the narrative of Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani (d. 1449), Khalid misunderstood the tribesmen's acceptance of the faith as a rejection or denigration of Islam due to his unfamiliarity with the Jadhima's accent and consequently attacked them. In both versions, Muhammad declared himself innocent of Khalid's action but did not discharge or punish him. Despite the controversy, Muhammad’s trust in Khalid persisted. Shortly thereafter, he sent Khalid to investigate the Banu Mustaliq, a tribe related to the Banu Jadhima, following reports of their alleged apostasy. Khalid approached the task cautiously, confirmed the Banu Mustaliq’s adherence to Islam, and delivered an accurate report to Muhammad. This episode indicates that Khalid’s initial doubts about the Banu Jadhima’s religious commitment, despite their distinct clan affiliation, were not entirely baseless, as suspicions about related tribes resurfaced months later, prompting multiple delegations to investigate their status. According to the historian W. Montgomery Watt, the traditional account about the Jadhima incident "is hardly more than a circumstantial denigration of Khālid, and yields little solid historical fact".
Later in 630, while Muhammad was at Tabuk, he dispatched Khalid to capture the oasis market town of Dumat al-Jandal. Khalid gained its surrender and imposed a heavy penalty on the inhabitants of the town, one of whose chiefs, the Kindite Ukaydir ibn Abd al-Malik al-Sakuni, was ordered by Khalid to sign the capitulation treaty with Muhammad in Medina. In June 631 Khalid was sent by Muhammad at the head of 480 men to invite the mixed Christian and polytheistic Balharith tribe of Najran to embrace Islam. The tribe converted and Khalid instructed them in the Qur'an and Islamic laws before returning to Muhammad in Medina with a Balharith delegation.
After Muhammad's death in June 632, one of his early and close companions, Abu Bakr, became caliph (leader of the Muslim community). The issue of succession had caused discord among the Muslims. The Ansar (lit. 'Helpers'), the natives of Medina who hosted Muhammad after his emigration from Mecca, attempted to elect their own leader. Opinion was split among the Muhajirun (lit. 'Emigrants'), the mostly Qurayshite natives of Mecca who emigrated with Muhammad to Medina. One group advocated for a companion closer in kinship to Muhammad, namely his cousin Ali, while another group, backed by new converts among the Qurayshite aristocracy, rallied behind Abu Bakr. The latter, with the key intervention of the prominent Muhajirun, Umar ibn al-Khattab and Abu Ubayda ibn al-Jarrah, overrode the Ansar and acceded. Khalid was a staunch supporter of Abu Bakr's succession. A report preserved in a work by the 13th-century scholar Ibn Abi'l-Hadid claims that Khalid was a partisan of Abu Bakr, opposed Ali's candidacy, and declared that Abu Bakr was "not a man about whom one needs [to] enquire, and his character needs not be sounded out".
Most tribes in Arabia, except those inhabiting the environs of Mecca, Medina and Ta'if, discontinued their allegiance to the nascent Muslim state after Muhammad's death or had never established formal relations with Medina. Islamic historiography describes Abu Bakr's efforts to establish or reestablish Islamic rule over the tribes as the Ridda wars (wars against the 'apostates'). Views of the wars by modern historians vary considerably. Watt agrees with the Islamic characterization of the tribal opposition as anti-Islamic in nature, while Julius Wellhausen and C. H. Becker hold the tribes were opposed to the tax obligations to Medina rather than Islam as a religion. In the view of Leone Caetani and Bernard Lewis, the opposing tribes who had established ties with Medina regarded their religious and fiscal obligations as being a personal contract with Muhammad; their attempts to negotiate different terms after his death were rejected by Abu Bakr, who proceeded to launch the campaigns against them.
Of the six main conflict zones in Arabia during the Ridda wars, two were centered in Najd (the central Arabian plateau): the rebellion of the Asad, Tayy and Ghatafan tribes under Tulayha and the rebellion of the Tamim tribe led by Sajah; both leaders claimed to be prophets. After Abu Bakr quashed the threat to Medina by the Ghatafan at the Battle of Dhu al-Qassah, he dispatched Khalid against the rebel tribes in Najd. Khalid was Abu Bakr's third nominee to lead the campaign after his first two choices, Zayd ibn al-Khattab and Abu Hudhayfa ibn Utba, refused the assignment. His forces were drawn from the Muhajirun and the Ansar. Throughout the campaign, Khalid demonstrated considerable operational independence and did not stringently abide by the caliph's directives. In the words of Shaban, "he simply defeated whoever was there to be defeated".
Text from the Wikipedia article “Khalid ibn al-Walid”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.