The Conquest of al-Raqqa

فتح الرقة

c. 639 CE · c. 18 AH

In al-Baladhuri: Iyad ibn Ghanm camped on al-Raqqa and its people fought until some Muslims were wounded, so he drew back out of their stones and arrows, rode a circuit of the city posting guards on its gates and loosed raiding parties bringing captives and abundant provisions from the villages, the crops standing ripe; after five or six days of this the city's patrician sent to Iyad seeking aman, and he compounded on safety for all its people's lives, children, wealth and city — saying 'the land is ours, we have trodden and seized it' — leaving it in their hands on kharaj, what of it the dhimmis declined reverting to the Muslims at the tithe, laying jizya on their necks at a dinar a man yearly — women and boys exempt — with measures of wheat and portions of oil, vinegar and honey charged with it, which Mu'awiya later made their jizya; they opened the gates and kept a Muslims' market at the Ruha gate, and Iyad wrote them: 'In God's name — this is what Iyad ibn Ghanm gave the people of al-Raqqa the day he entered it: safety for their lives, wealth and churches, which shall not be ruined nor left uninhabited, provided they pay the jizya upon them and contrive no treachery, and that they raise no church or synagogue, display no clapper, paschal or cross; God witnesses and suffices as witness' — and he sealed it; some say he bound each adult at four dinars, the sounder report being that Umar later wrote to Umayr ibn Sa'd, his governor, to bind each man at four dinars like the gold-tier.

Overview

al-Baladhuri relates that Iyad ibn Ghanm came down at al-Raqqa, and its people fought him until some of the Muslims were wounded. He went round the city, posted watch-posts at its gates and sent out raiding parties. After five or six days the patrician of the city sent asking for safe-conduct. ¹

The treaty

Iyad granted safe-conduct to all its people for their lives, their families, their property and their city, and left the land in their hands in exchange for the kharaj. He placed the jizya on their necks: a dinar on each man each year, together with measures of wheat, and some oil, vinegar and honey. ¹

The letter of safe-conduct

He wrote them a letter of safe-conduct for themselves, their property and their churches, which were not to be demolished or inhabited, on condition that they paid the jizya and did not introduce a new church or chapel, nor show a bell or a cross. ² In another report, each adult male owed four dinars, and al-Baladhuri holds that the more firmly established account is that Umar wrote this to Umayr ibn Sa'd. ²

See dhimma and jizya. This conquest is part of the conquest of al-Jazira. The date is approximate and derived.

The Conquest of Edessa (al-Ruha)

In al-Baladhuri through al-Nufayli from Sulayman ibn Ata: when Iyad ibn Ghanm took al-Ruha — Abu Ubayda had sent him — he stood at its gate on a chestnut horse and they compounded with him on the terms that their great church and its surroundings were theirs, that they raise no new church beyond what they had, and that they aid the Muslims against their enemy — any of these left unkept and they had no dhimma; and the people of the Jazira entered into what Edessa's people entered into.

The Conquest of al-Raqqa

At a glance

In time

Overview

The treaty

The letter of safe-conduct

Connections

People and things also explored

Sources

Time

The Conquest of Edessa (al-Ruha)