The Conquest of Edessa (al-Ruha)

فتح الرها

c. 639 CE · c. 18 AH

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.

Overview

al-Baladhuri relates on the authority of Sulayman ibn Ata that when Iyad ibn Ghanm conquered Edessa, which Abu Ubayda had sent him to, he stood at its gate. They made peace with him: that they keep their sanctuary and what was around it, that they not build any church beyond what they already had, and that they help the Muslims against their enemy. ¹

If they left any of the conditions imposed on them, they would have no protection (dhimma). The people of al-Jazira entered into what the people of Edessa had entered into. ¹

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

The Conquest of al-Raqqa

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.

The Conquest of Edessa (al-Ruha)

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The Conquest of al-Raqqa