the battle of Walaja; One of a series of battles that took place in the year 12 AH, between Muslims and Persians on the borders of Iraq, during the caliphate of Abu Bakr Al-Siddiq, may God be pleased with him, within the framework of the Islamic conquests of Persia.
It was led by Khalid ibn al-Walid, may God be pleased with him, from the side of the Muslims, and from the Persians, Andarzaghar, the ruler of Khorasan, to Chosroes Ardashir, and the victory in it was overwhelming for the Muslims, despite the numerical superiority of the Persians.
battle background
No sooner had Abu Bakr al-Siddiq received the caliphate than a number of tribes in the Arabian Peninsula abandoned Islam, which halted the course of the Islamic conquests that the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, had begun.
And as soon as Abu Bakr subjugated the Arab tribes to his authority and extinguished the sedition of apostasy, he wrote to the companion Khalid bin Al-Walid to gather his dispersed army in and around Al-Yamama, and head with them to Iraq, accompanied by Al-Muthanna bin Haritha Al-Shaibani, who preceded Khaled with a soldier from his tribe to Iraq with the permission of the caliph.
Al-Muthanna took advantage of the chaos that prevailed throughout the Persian Empire, after the death of Emperor Anushirwan and his grandson Sherveh, who killed his father and 18 of his brothers, to rule alone.
Shirouh was killed after 7 months of his rule, which resulted in an increase in the frequency of internal conflicts that were ravaging the body of the Persian Empire, up to the era of Yazgerd, who was the last king of Bani Sasan.
The Battle of Al-Walaja was preceded by a series of battles in which the Muslims defeated the Persians. Such as the battle of That Al-Salasil in Kazma (today’s northern Kuwait), and the battle of the pitchfork, in which about 30,000 Persian fighters fell.
It was followed by other battles that continued until the end of that Hijri year, and paved the way for the great battle that took place in Al-Qadisiyah, and one of its results was the defeat of the Persians and the decline of their influence in Iraq, as the gates of Persia were opened to the Muslims.
Battle events
The news of the battle of the pitchforks and what preceded it had a severe impact on the Persian emperor, due to the victory of the Muslims in it and the capture of thousands of Persians who were driven to Muslim countries, so the emperor sent to his country and the leaders of his army; He urges them to meet the commander who appointed him at the head of the army.
And he had appointed Al-Andarzaghar (one of his leaders in Khorasan, a Persian who grew up among the Arabs in Iraq, with whom he has strong ties) to the army heading to the plains of Iraq, and by the plains of Iraq he meant the areas between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in southern Iraq, then added another army led by Bahman bin Jathawayh .
And Al-Andarzaghar was able to mobilize, on his way to meet Khalid bin Al-Walid, a number of aides, commanders, and soldiers, Arabs and horses, and when he saw the large crowd that he gathered, he was struck with pride, so he decided to crawl when he saw the vanguards of the Muslim army on the outskirts of Al-Walaja, without paying attention to the plan drawn up by Ibn Al-Walid to pounce. on his army.
Disturbing news arrived through the network of eyes formed by Khalid bin Walid from the local Arab population, of the enormity of the two armies coming from the west and the north.
He was afraid of an open confrontation with them, and he was worried that the remnants of the armies that he defeated in the previous two battles would join the Persian military bases, spread between the two rivers, to rearm them and attack him again in this open desert from every side.
And since the battlefield was a vast plain between two extended hills, Khaled saw that it was suitable for maneuvering and turning around, so he decided to attack from 3 axes to disperse the huge crowd, and he also issued an order to Suwayd bin Muqrin to commit Al-Hafir, to secure the rear of his army and his rear supply lines.
Khaled had appointed Asim bin Amr and Uday bin Hatim on the two wings of the army, and sent Busr bin Abi Rahm, one of those who witnessed Al-Qadisiyah, and Saeed bin Marra Al-Ajli at the head of two forces, each consisting of two thousand fighters, to infiltrate behind enemy lines and apply to the army from its rear at the right time. appropriate, and for them to have a key role in giving him early warning, in the event of the arrival of any forces from the sides that he cannot cover with his attacking forces.
It was also his plan to hasten to attack the first army, before the second army arrived with supplies to them, and as soon as the two armies clashed and what fierce fighting took place between them, “the two teams thought that patience had run out,” and Khaled referred to the two forces that he planted behind enemy lines. To pounce on him and prevent him from regrouping and returning to fight.
The fighting between the two armies took place in stages, in the beginning of which the Muslims prevailed, until they became tired and they were the least numerous of the two armies. Andarzeggar launched a counterattack that made the Muslim army retreat, so the two latent forces took the initiative to pounce on the Persian army, and turn around behind it after Khalid gave them the signal to start, so the Persian army was disturbed in every direction and dispersed.
Thus, Khalid took them from their hands, and the two forces lurking behind the distant hills behind them were fighting on both sides. towards the desert in which they perished of thirst.
Historians mentioned that Andarzaghar’s army was remarkably annihilated, unlike what happened with the two Persian armies in the previous two battles, as they suffered a humiliating defeat without collapsing their steadfast strength, and even some members of these two armies joined Andarzaghar’s forces in the Battle of Walaja.
Which prompted Khaled to use this method of fighting and abandon the idea of direct confrontation. The small number of his army compared to the Persian crowd that gathered in the plain of the battle, if the confrontation was from the front only, the Andrzejjar army would have been able to surround the Muslim army and eliminate them.
Al-Tabari mentions that Khalid faced a giant Persian knight who had wide fame among his people in the individual duel, and al-Tabari called him, according to his narrators, “the knight who equals a thousand men”, so Khaled pounced on him and killed him, then called for his lunch while leaning on him to increase abuse and show victory.
After the battle
Khaled bin Al-Walid rose up in the army after this overwhelming victory as a preacher, encouraging them in the countries of the Persians and denouncing them in the land of the Arabs, and raising their motivation after this great incident that resulted in great losses in the ranks of the Persians.
Khaled said, “Don’t you see food as a shovel of dirt (the gathering of dust), and by God, if jihad in God and the call to His religion did not oblige us, and there was nothing but a pension, the opinion would have been that we fight over this countryside so that we are more worthy of it, and we take over hunger and reduce those who take it from those who are heavier than what You are on it.”
As a result of this battle, in which Khalid struck the Persian allies among the Arab Christians, the tribes of these people fell together for revenge, so the Battle of Nahr al-Dam and other incidents took place, and Khalid kept gnawing at the land of Iraq until Abu Bakr sent him to leave what was in it and go to support the army of the Levant at the end of the year. 12 e.
Then the Battle of the Bridge took place, in which the Persians regained some of the land that the Muslims controlled, until Umar took over the caliphate.