Yazid ibn Abi Sufyan (1) over Damascus, in fulfilment of the promise that Abu Bakr al-Siddiq had given him. Yazid then dispatched Dihyah ibn Khalifah to Tadmur at the head of a detachment to pave the way for its submission. He also sent (2) Abu al-Zahra al-Qushayri to al-Bathaniyyah and Hawran, and a peace treaty was concluded with their inhabitants.
[The Remaining Towns Dependent on Damascus Opened by Treaty]
Abu ʿUbayd al-Qasim ibn Sallam—may Allah have mercy on him—said (3):
Khalid captured Damascus by treaty, and the same was true of all the other cities of al-Sham: they were taken by treaty, though not the surrounding countryside. This was accomplished through Yazid ibn Abi Sufyan, Shurahbil ibn Hasana, and Abu ʿUbaydah.
Al-Walid ibn Muslim said: More than one of the elders of Damascus related to me that, while they were besieging Damascus, cavalry appeared from the Salamiyyah Pass, their mounts draped in silk. The Muslims charged them and the two forces met between Bayt Lahya and the very pass (4) from which they had emerged. The Byzantines were routed and driven back to the gates of Homs. When the people of Homs saw this, they assumed Damascus had already fallen, so they said to the Muslims, “We will make peace with you on the same terms you granted the people of Damascus,” and the Muslims accepted.
Khalifah ibn Khayyat (5) said: ʿAbd Allah ibn al-Mughīrah narrated to me from his father, who said: Shurahbil ibn Hasana conquered the whole of Jordan by force, except for Tiberias, whose people made peace with him. Ibn al-Kalbi reported the same.
They also stated that Abu ʿUbaydah sent Khalid, who gained control of the Biqaʿ, and the people of Baalbek sought peace from him, whereupon he drafted a treaty for them. Ibn al-Mughīrah, on the authority of his father, added: He granted them peace on the basis that half of their houses and churches would remain theirs, and he imposed the land tax.
Ibn Ishaq and others said: In 14 AH, Homs and Baalbek were opened by treaty at the hands of Abu ʿUbaydah in the month of Dhu al-Qaʿdah. Khalifah added: some place the event in 15 AH.
The Battle of Fiḥl
[the faʾ is pronounced with kasrah; some apply the same to the ḥaʾ, but the correct view is that both letters are quiescent]
Many scholars of the prophetic biographies record this battle as preceding the conquest of Damascus, whereas Imam Abu Jaʿfar ibn Jarir (6) placed it after the city’s fall, following the chronological order set out by Sayf ibn ʿUmar in his narration from Abu ʿUthman Yazid ibn Asid al-Ghasani and Abu Harithah.