Khalid ibn al-Walid

Biography

The greatest general of the early conquests, Khalid ibn al-Walid was never defeated in a major battle. Once the pagan commander who had beaten the Muslims at Uhud, he converted and became the sword of Islam — crushing the rebel tribes in the Ridda wars, then unleashing a career of astonishing victories. His legendary forced march across the waterless desert from Iraq to Syria, guided by camels used as water-stores, brought his army into the Byzantine rear like a bolt from nowhere. At Yarmouk in 636 his masterly handling of mobile cavalry destroyed a Byzantine army several times his size and severed Syria from the empire forever. Feared and loved by his men, he was so overshadowing that the caliph Umar dismissed him from command — reportedly lest the people credit victory to Khalid rather than to God. He died, to his own frustration, not on the battlefield but in his bed, 'like a camel.'

Key Battles