Conquest of Jalula

فتح جلولاء

16 AH

After Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas settled at al-Mada'in, the Muslims completed the conquest of Jalula, Tikrit and al-Mutawassil, and then the people moved to Kufa ¹. Abu Ma'shar and al-Waqidi say that the conquest of Jalula took place in 19 AH at the hands of Sa'd ². In al-Baladhuri's account, the Muslims stayed at al-Mada'in for some days; then news reached them that Yazdgird had gathered a great host and sent it against them, and that the host was at Jalula. Sa'd sent Hashim ibn Utba ibn Abi Waqqas against them with twelve thousand men. They found the non-Arabs (a'ajim) entrenched and had dug a trench; they had left their families and baggage at Khanaqin and had sworn not to flee, and reinforcements kept coming to them from Hulwan and the mountains. The Muslims said they should attack before their reinforcements grew, and they met them: Hujr ibn Adi al-Kindi commanded the right wing, Amr ibn Ma'di Karib the cavalry, and Tulayha ibn Khuwaylid the infantry, while the non-Arab commander that day was Kharzad, brother of Rustam. They fought a fierce battle of arrows and spears, until the spears were splintered and the swords were bent. Then the Muslims charged in one charge that dislodged the non-Arabs from their position and routed them; they fled, and the Muslims pursued them, killing them mercilessly until darkness came between them, and then they returned to their camp. Hashim ibn Utba sent Jarir ibn Abd Allah to Jalula with a dense force of cavalry to stand between the Muslims and their enemy. Yazdgird departed from Hulwan, and the Muslims began raiding the districts of al-Sawad on the eastern bank of the Tigris. They came to Mihrudh, whose headman made peace with Hashim for a payment in dirhams per jarib, on condition that no one would be killed; the headman of al-Daskara was killed, because he had been accused of deceiving the Muslims. They came to Bandanijin, where the people asked for safe conduct in return for paying the poll tax and land tax, and he granted it. Jarir ibn Abd Allah came to Khanaqin, where a remnant of the non-Arabs was, and killed them. No district of al-Sawad on the Tigris remained that the Muslims did not overcome and take. Hisham ibn al-Kalbi said that on the day of Jalula, the commander of the people on behalf of Sa'd was Amr ibn Utba ibn Nawfal ibn Uhayb ibn Abd Manaf ibn Zuhra, whose mother was Atika, daughter of Abi Waqqas. After Jalula, Sa'd returned to al-Mada'in, left a force there, then went on to another region. The battle of Jalula took place at the end of 16 AH.