her children in an honourable manner. (1) The episode involving her and al-Fākih ibn al-Mughīrah is famous, and she was present at Yarmūk with her husband. She died on the very day Abū Quḥāfah passed away, in the year 14 AH; she is the mother of Muʿāwiyah ibn Abī Sufyān.

[Then came the year 15 AH]

Ibn Jarīr (2) said: Some maintain that in this year Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ founded Kūfah as a garrison town. Ibn Buqaylah (3) guided them to the site, saying to Saʿd, “Shall I direct you to land that rises above the gnats and slopes away from the barren wastes?” He then indicated the spot of present-day Kūfah.

[The Battle of Marj al-Rum]

He continued: In the same year the battle of Marj al-Rum took place. After the encounter at Fihl, Abū ʿUbaydah and Khālid set out for Ḥimṣ in obedience to the order of the Commander of the Believers ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb (may Allah be pleased with him), as mentioned earlier in the report of Sayf ibn ʿUmar. They marched until they camped at Dhū al-Kilāʿ. Heraclius, meanwhile, dispatched a patrician named Tudharā (4) with an army; he encamped at Marj Damascus, to its west, and winter had already set in.

Abū ʿUbaydah first turned to Marj al-Rum. Another Byzantine commander, called Shans (5), arrived with a sizeable force, and Abū ʿUbaydah engaged him, diverting attention from Tudharā. Tudharā therefore advanced toward Damascus to besiege it and wrest it from Yazīd ibn Abī Sufyān. Khālid ibn al-Walīd pursued him, while Yazīd sallied forth from Damascus. They fought, and Khālid reached them in the midst of the battle, cutting them down from the rear while Yazīd struck them from the front, until they put them utterly to sleep (6); none escaped save a few fugitives. Khālid killed Tudharā, enormous spoils were taken from the Byzantines, and the two of them divided the booty. Yazīd returned to Damascus, and Khālid went back to Abū ʿUbaydah, whom he found already locked in combat with Shans at Marj al-Rum. A fierce struggle ensued until the ground reeked with the stench of their corpses (7). Abū ʿUbaydah slew Shans, and the Muslims rode over the enemy’s backs all the way to Ḥimṣ, where they encamped and laid siege to it.

[The First Siege of Ḥimṣ]

When Abū ʿUbaydah, in hot pursuit of the routed Byzantines, reached Ḥimṣ he surrounded it and commenced the siege. Khālid ibn al-Walīd soon joined him, and together they maintained a stringent blockade during the bitter cold. The townspeople endured, hoping the severity of the winter would compel the Muslims to depart, while the Companions displayed extraordinary patience—more than one chronicler relates that some of the Byzantines would return having—