Battle of Yarmouk

The Battle of Yarmouk was fought in August 636 CE along the Yarmouk River in what is now the border region between Syria and Jordan, between the Rashidun Caliphate's army under the general Khalid ibn al-Walid and a much larger Byzantine force sent by Emperor Heraclius to defend Byzantine Syria. Over several days of fighting in the river valley's rugged terrain, Khalid's smaller, more mobile Muslim force outmaneuvered and decisively defeated the Byzantine army, inflicting heavy casualties and effectively destroying Byzantine military power in the region. The defeat forced Heraclius to abandon any further defense of Syria, and Muslim forces went on to capture Damascus, Jerusalem and the rest of the Levant within the following few years. Historians frequently rank Yarmouk among the most decisive battles in world history for permanently ending nearly seven centuries of Roman and Byzantine rule over Syria and opening the region to Islamic civilization.