The War of the Three Gods: Romans, Persians and the Rise of Islam

279 Pages·2014·27.59 MB·English

by  Peter Crawford

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The War of the
Three Gods
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‘By some strange fatality, we find the gods more propitious
when we are at war than when we are at peace.’
LuciusQuinctiusCincinnatus(Livy,AbUrbeConditaIII.19)
‘Worst book ever.’
NiallHarrigan(18:19,Tuesday,2November,2010)
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The War of the
Three Gods
Romans, Persians and the
Rise of Islam
PETER CRAWFORD
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FirstpublishedinGreatBritainin2013by
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Contents
List of Illustrations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vi
List of Plates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . viii
List of Rulers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . x
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
1. The Participants and Their Road to 600 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
2. The War of the Usurper and the Revolt of Heraclius . . . . . . . . . . 25
3. ‘It Has Come to the Triarii’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
4. ‘The Ram Has Touched the Wall’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
5. A New Challenger Approaches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
6. The Islamic Eruption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
7. 636 – The Year of the Muslim Beast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
8. A Farewell to Syria and Mesopotamia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
9. Stealing Roman Bread and Persian Heart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
10. Three Deaths, Two Gods, One Winner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
11. The Feast Continues: From the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean . . . . 208
Epilogue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246
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List of Illustrations
All Maps, Plans and Diagrams were drawn by Faye Crawford
(www.fayecreative.designbinder.com).
Geographical Maps
The Roman Empire in 600 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Sassanid Persia in 600 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
The Roman and Persian Empires in 626 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
The Arabian Peninsula . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
The Umayyad Caliphate and the Roman Empire in 750 . . . . . . . . . . . 209
StrategicMaps
Romano-Persian Campaigns, 611–624 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Heraclius’ Campaigns of 624–628 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Heraclius’ Campaign of 627–628 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
The Ridda Wars, 632–633 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Khalid’s Invasion of Iraq, 633 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Khalid and the Muslim Invasion of Syria, 634 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
The Road to Yarmuk, 634–636 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
The Collapse of Roman Syria, 636–637 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
The Raids on Anatolia and Armenia, 637–638 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
The Invasion of Egypt, 639–642 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
The Muslim Conquest of Persia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
CityPlans
Antioch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Jerusalem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Constantinople . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Ctesiphon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
TacticalDiagrams
Battle of Mount Uhud, 625 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Battle of the Trench, 627 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Battle of Walaja, 633:
Deployments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Envelopment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
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ListofIllustrations vii
Battle of Yarmuk, 636:
Deployments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Day 2, Phase 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Day 2, Phase 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Day 3, Phase 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Day 3, Phase 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Day 6, Phase 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Day 6, Phase 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Day 6, Phase 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Battle of Qadisiyyah, 636:
Deployments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Day 1, Phase 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Day 1, Phase 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Day 3, Phase 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
Day 3, Phase 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Day 4, Persian Collapse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
Battle of Jalula, 637:
Deployments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Qaqa’s Flank Attack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
Battle of Nahavand, 642:
Deployments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
Muslim Offensive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Persian Attack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
Muslim Counter-Attack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
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List of Plates
1. Justinian I: gold solidus, issued between 527–538 from Constantinople
mint.
2. JustinII:goldsolidus,issuedbetween565–578fromConstantinoplemint.
3. Tiberius II Constantine: gold solidus, issued between 579–582 from
Constantinople mint.
4. Mauricius: gold solidus, issued between 583–601 from Constantinople
mint.
5. Phocas: gold solidus, issued between 602–603 from Constantinople mint.
6. Heraclius: light weight gold solidus, issued 611–613 from Constantinople
mint.
7. Heraclius, Constantine III and Heraklonas: gold solidus, issued between
635–636 from Constantinople mint.
8. Constans II and Constantine IV: gold solidus, issued between 654–659
from Constantinople mint.
9. Khusro I: silver drachm, issued in c.570 from Ctesiphon mint.
10. Hormizd IV: silver drachm, issued c.582 from Ahwaz mint.
11. Khusro II: silver drachm, issued c.627 from Balkh mint.
12. Yazdgerd III: silver drachm, issued from Gundeshapur mint.
13. Band-e Kaisar, Shushtar, Iran.
14. Battle Between Heraclius and Khosrau (The Legend of the True Cross by
Piero della Francesca, Basilica of San Francesco, Arezzo, Italy).
15. Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem.
16. Column of Phocas, Rome.
17. Ctesiphon.
18. Greek Fire – ‘the fleet of the Romans setting ablaze the fleet of the
enemies’.
19. Hagia Sophia.
20. Hagia Sophia Interior.
21. St. Helena and Heraclius taking the True Cross to Jerusalem (Miguel
Jime´nez y Martı´n Bernat, 1481).
22. Justinian’s Court.
23. Justinian.
24. WallsofConstantinople:arestoredsectionofthewallsnearthePegeGate.
25. Constantinople: the Pege Gate.
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List of Rulers
Roman Emperors from Justinian I to Constantine V
527–565 Justinian I 685–695 Justinian II
565–578 Justin II 695–698 Leontius
578–582 Tiberius II 698–705 Tiberius III
582–602 Mauricius 705–711 Justinian II (restored)
602–610 Phocas 711–713 Bardanes
610–641 Heraclius 713–716 Anastasius II
641 Heraklonas 716–717 Theodosius III
Constantine III 717–741 Leo III
641–668 Constans II 741–775 Constantine V Copronymus
668–685 Constantine IV
Persian Emperors from Khusro I to Yazdgerd III
531–579 Khusro I 630–631 Buran
579–590 Hormizd IV 631 Azarmigduxt
590–591 Bahram VI Chobin 631–633 Hormizd V
590–628 Khusro II Hormizd VI
628 Kavad II Peroz II
628–630 Ardashir III Khusro IV
630 Shahrbaraz Khusro V
630 Khusro III 633–651 Yazdgerd III
The First Muslim Caliphs
632–634 Abu Bakr 644–656 Uthman
634–644 Umar 656–661 Ali
The Umayyad Caliphs
661–680 Mu’awiya I 717–720 Umar II
680–683 Yazid I 720–724 Yazid II
683–684 Mu’awiya II 724–743 Hisham
684–685 Marwan I 743–744 Al-Walid II
685–705 Abd al-Malik 744 Yazid III
705–715 Al-Walid I 744 Ibrahim
715–717 Sulayman 744–750 Marwan II