When Abu Bakr al-Ṣiddīq had brought the campaign against the apostate tribes to an end and finished the war with Musaylimah the Liar, he outfitted the commanders (1) of the armies for the conquest of Syria. He sent forth Abu ʿUbaydah, Yazīd ibn Abī Sufyān, ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ, and Shurahbīl ibn Ḥasana. The Battle of Ajnādīn (2) was then fought near Ramla, and Allah granted the believers victory; the glad tidings arrived while al-Ṣiddīq lay in his final illness. This was followed by the Battle of Fiḥl (3) and the Battle of Marj al-Ṣuffar (4).
Abu Bakr had already dispatched Khālid to campaign in Iraq, but he later recalled him to support the forces in Syria. Khālid crossed the trackless deserts of al-Samāwah, and al-Ṣiddīq appointed him commander over all the generals. They laid siege to Damascus, and Abu Bakr passed away.
ʿUmar then hastened to remove Khālid from command and placed Abu ʿUbaydah over all the troops. The decree reached Abu ʿUbaydah, yet he concealed it for a time—out of his piety, gentleness, and forbearance. The conquest of Damascus (5) was accomplished at his hands; only then did he disclose the appointment, so that he might
= “We reached the seashore and there lay a fish the size of a hill. The army ate from it for eighteen nights. Abu Ubayda then had two of its ribs propped upright, placed a rider on a mount, and the animal passed beneath them without touching them.” Al-Bukhari records the report (no. 2983) in the Book of Jihad, chapter: Carrying provisions on the necks, in an abridged form; and under nos. 4360, 4361, 4362 in the Book of Maghazi, chapter: The Expedition of Sif al-Bahr, the last of which names the fish al-anbar. He also cites it under nos. 5493, 5494 in the Book of Slaughtering and Hunting. Muslim relates it (no. 1935) in the Book of Hunting, chapter: The permissibility of carrion from the sea. Al-Tirmidhi (no. 2477) in the Book of the Last Day, chapter: What the Prophet experienced at the beginning of his mission; al-Nasai, 7/207–209, in the Book of Hunting, chapter: The carrion of the sea; and Ibn Majah (no. 4159) in the Book of Zuhd, chapter: The livelihood of the Companions, all transmit the hadith. See also Ibn Hisham, 2/632–633.
(1) Misread in the printed edition as “amar.”
(2) See al-Tabari, 7/417–419; al-Kamil fi al-tarikh, 2/498–500; and Ibn Asakir, Tarikh Dimashq, 1/478.
(3) See al-Tabari, 3/433–443; al-Kamil, 2/429; and Ibn Asakir, 1/478. Fahl is pronounced with a kasra on the fa and a sukun on the ha; consult Mu jam al-buldan.
(4) See al-Tabari, 3/391–410; al-Kamil, 2/427; and Ibn Asakir, 1/478. Marj al-Sufar is a meadow south of Damascus between al-Kiswah and Ghabaghib.
(5) See al-Tabari, vol. 3, “The Conquest of Damascus”; al-Kamil, 2/477; and Ibn Asakir, 1/493.