The Conquest of Damascus

فتح دمشق

c. 19 March 635 CE · Jumada I 14 AH

Damascus

In al-Baladhuri: when the Muslims finished fighting those who had gathered at the Marj they stayed fifteen nights, then returned to Damascus fourteen nights remaining of al-Muharram year 14, taking the Futa and its churches by force while the townsfolk fortified themselves and shut their gate; Khalid camped at the eastern gate with some five thousand joined to him by Abu Ubayda (some say Khalid was commander and his deposition reached them while besieging), the monastery at his side being named Dayr Khalid; Amr ibn al-As (may God be pleased with him) camped at Bab Tuma, Shurahbil at Bab al-Faradis, Abu Ubayda at Bab al-Jabiya, and Yazid ibn Abi Sufyan (may God be pleased with him) at the small gate to Bab Kaysan, Abu al-Darda' posting Uwaymir ibn Amir al-Khazraji on a watch at Barza; the bishop who had hosted Khalid would call and converse with him, saying one day 'Abu Sulayman, your affair ascends — I hold a pledge over you, so make terms with me for this city', and Khalid wrote his famous charter: 'In God's name, this is what Khalid ibn al-Walid (may God be pleased with him) grants the people of Damascus when he enters it: safety for themselves, their wealth, their churches and their city wall — it shall not be demolished nor any of their houses dwelt in; they have for it God's covenant and the protection of His messenger, the caliphs and the believers, and nothing but good shall befall them if they pay the jizya'; one of the bishop's men then told him it was a feast-night for the town, the eastern gate being blocked with stones, and advised a ladder — men of the monastery brought two ladders and a company of Muslims climbed the wall, descended on the gate held by a man or two, overpowered it and opened it at sunrise; Abu Ubayda meanwhile had struggled at Bab al-Jabiya, raised men on its wall, the Roman fighters inclining to him until they broke — he forced it open and entered, and he and Khalid met at the Maqsilat, the coppersmiths' quarter, the Baris of Hassan ibn Thabit (may God be pleased with him)'s verse 'they give to drink whoever comes to Baris — Barada clapping with sweet wine'; Maytham ibn Adi claimed Damascenes compounded for half their houses and churches, but al-Waqidi says he read Khalid's charter and found no halves in it; many Damascenes joined Heraclius at Antioch leaving surplus houses the Muslims occupied; al-Waqidi dates the conquest to Rajab year 14, Khalid's charter being dated Rabi' al-Akhir 15 because he wrote it undated and it was renewed at the Yarmuk; the volume's editor judges the sound account to be Khalid entering the eastern gate by force and Abu Ubayda entering peacefully by Bab al-Jabiya, reasoning that the Muslims held only the mosque's eastern side before its rebuilding and the church stood west of it until al-Walid demolished it; afterwards the Muslims chose churches for which no jizya was paid and kept the church of John until the Christians surrendered all the churches of the Futa, Mu'awiya writing to Umar who was pleased and ratified it.