and twenty-four thousand, with Abū ʿUbaydah in command, whereas the Byzantines numbered one hundred and twenty thousand under Bahān and Saqlāb on the Day of Yarmūk.
Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq likewise relates that Saqlāb the eunuch led the Romans that day with one hundred thousand men; over the vanguard was Jurja—an Armenian—with twelve thousand, and another twelve thousand Arabized auxiliaries were under Jabalah ibn al-Ayham. The Muslims were twenty-four thousand, and they fought with such valor that even the women behind them entered the fray with unmatched courage.
Al-Walīd narrated—through Ṣafwān, from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Jubayr—that Heraclius sent two hundred thousand soldiers led by Bahān the Armenian.
Sayf (1) said: The Romans advanced and encamped at al-Wāqūṣah near the Yarmūk, the wādī forming a moat around them. The Companions then wrote to al-Ṣiddīq asking for reinforcements and informing him of the vast Roman host concentrated at Yarmūk. Al-Ṣiddīq thereupon wrote to Khālid ibn al-Walīd, instructing him to appoint a deputy over Iraq and march with his force to Syria; once he arrived, he was to assume overall command.
Khālid therefore appointed al-Muthannā ibn Ḥārithah over Iraq and set out at speed with nine thousand five hundred men. His guide was Rāfiʿ ibn ʿUmayrah al-Ṭāʾī, who led him along the route of al-Samāwah (2) until they reached Qurāqir (3). He then took him through terrain no one had traversed before—crossing deserts and wastelands, cutting through valleys, scaling mountains, and following an unfrequented track (4). Throughout the march Rāfiʿ guided them across waterless wildernesses: he first kept the camels thirsty, then watered them in measured draughts after they had drunk their fill (5); he slit their upper lips and muzzles (6) so they would not ruminate, loosened their girths, and drove them along. When no water remained, they slaughtered the camels and drank the water stored in their stomachs. Some say instead that the water was given to the horses, the men drank what the camels had been carrying, and they ate the animals’ flesh.
By Allah’s grace and favor, Khālid reached his destination in nine (7) days, appeared before the Romans from the direction of Tadmur (Palmyra), and concluded a peace treaty with the people of Palmyra and Arakah (8). When he passed by ʿAdhrāʾ (9) he allowed it to be taken and captured great wealth belonging to Ghassān (10). He then emerged east of Damascus, and