Khalid Ibn Al-Walid :The Man Who Never Lost A Battle
Wins and losses are part of battles in History. We have seen kings and commanders who have lost many battles and have came back more stronger and smarter with their approach, tactics and mindset etc. Or commanders and kings who don’t have the ability to lead an army and who haven't had a successful career during their time. It is said success is not achieved until one faces with downfall or failure. But here is an interesting Individual who was never defeated in his battles, even when the odds were stacked against him.
Khalid Ibn Al- Walid (592–642) also known as ‘The Drawn Of The Sword’ was inarguably was the greatest general ever to walk on this earth. He was the companion of Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was under his military leadership that Arabia, for the first time in history, was united under a single political entity, the Caliphate. Khalid was victorious in various battles, against the forces of the Byzantine-Roman Empire, Sassanid-Persian Empire, and their allies, in addition to other Arab tribes. His strategic achievements include the conquest of Arabia, Persian Mesopotamia and Roman Syria within several years from 632 to 636.
He never lost any large scale battles. The enemy outnumbered him 90% of the time and always had the advantage in quality of arms and armor. That he prevailed against such odds was due only to his superb generalship.
During his campaigns he faced the challenge that soldiers from an army he defeated, joined another army against him, thus contributing to its manpower. Hence, he always preferred annihilating his foe rather than just defeating him. To this end he used almost every tactic in the book and devised new ones whenever it suited him. The mindset and approach which he had was excellent. From one flank, oblique order, three-pronged attack, four-pronged attack, large-scale ambush, night attack and feigned retreat were all tactics which Khalid used at one time or another with success.
He was one of the 1st generals in the history to use psychological warfare. He had formed a band of elite warriors, the mubarizun(champions), tasked with seeking out and killing officers of the enemy army to render it leaderless. Khalid himself would often challenge the opposing commander to a duel. A clever ploy as refusal would cause him to lose face in front of his soldiers and acceptance would mean certain death at the hands of Khalid. Additionally, whenever he received reinforcements Khalid would order them to join his army in multiple groups and in spread out formation to give the enemy the impression that more troops were coming than there actually were.
Despite seemingly unlimited methods to destroy his enemies, the secret of Khalid’s success was only one thing- mobility. Composed entirely of light troops with no heavy equipment and baggage carried on camels, the Arab armies could march with swiftness which often surprised the enemy. Khalid utilized this advantage to its utmost against the heavy infantry of the Sasanians and cataphracts (heavy cavalry) of the Byzantines. He took the usual Bedouin war doctrine(Bedouin was a tribe) of hitting-and-running and skirmishing in small-scale engagements and transformed it into something usable at a much higher level. His light infantry would engage and disengage the enemy troops again and again, tiring them out and then the eventual death blow which would be delivered by Khalid’s elite light cavalry, the mobile guard.
Here is one of his greatest Military exploits.
The Battle Of Yarmouk — 40,000 Of The Caliphate vs 240,000 Of The Byzantine
Numbers Were Just A Joke
The Muslim Arab forces, under the command of Khalid ibn al-Walid, took on the army of the Christian Byzantine Empire at Yarmouk near the border of modern-day Syria and Jordan. The major battle was to continue for six days.
Seeking to halt Muslim expansion, the Byzantines rallied all available forces. Byzantine Emperor Heraclius, the victor of Nineveh, allied himself with the Sassanids, the two empires seeking to pool their depleted resources to stop the Arab advance. Heraclius sought to stall any battle by exploring diplomatic options while he waited for more forces to arrive from his Sassanid ally. Meanwhile, the Byzantine-led force had assembled in Syria while Muslim forces were fragmented into at least four separate groups, Khalid called a council of war and successfully argued that the entire Arab army be united to face Heraclius.
When the two armies met, it was Heraclius’s intention to exercise caution and wear the Muslims down by a series of small engagements. But the Sassanids never arrived and, after six days’ attritional fighting, Khalid drew the Byzantines into a large-scale pitched battle. This ended with the Byzantines retreating in disarray, charged by the Arabs with a sand-laden wind behind them. Many of the fleeing Byzantine troops fell to their deaths over a narrow ravine. This battle ended Byzantine rule in Syria. Heraclius was forced to concentrate on the defense of Anatolia and Egypt
The Battle of Yarmouk was Khalid’s greatest victory. In it he defeated an enemy army several times greater than his, with an ingenious combination of the envelopment (Envelopment is the military tactic of seizing objectives in the enemy’s rear with the goal of destroying specific enemy forces and denying them the ability to withdraw.) from one flank, oblique order and hammer-and-anvil tactics. This battle put an end to the final Byzantine effort to recapture Syria from the Arabs. The entire Yarmouk campaign is a shining example of military genius at its best.
The biggest question here is how a small army of nomads have managed to humiliate the biggest and strongest army in the world? There were numerous factors were behind the victory of the Muslims, most of them more connected to the Arab’s lifestyle, than war strategies.
The nature of the Arabs and their way of life played a crucial role in this victory, but even the best army in the world could not beat the Byzantine army without good military strategies. Actually, the Rashidun Caliphate were very good war planners. Even choosing the date of the battle was one of their smartest strategies. The battle of Yarmouk took place on the15th of August 636 just a few years after the brutal enduring war between the Byzantines and the Sassanians from 602 until 628. By 628 both armies were exhausted, and took a lot of losses, which created a golden opportunity for the Muslims to attack them on multiple fronts from 629 C.E arriving to the climax in the battle of Al Yarmouk in 636. For Arabs, the main riding animal was the camel, which provided strategic mobility over long distances in inhospitable terrain.
Khalid didn't had any military experience or training. He was not educated in military school nor had any war experience before he joined Muhammad. There is no feat in history nor any commander who had such a brilliant mind. He was smart and played according to the situation . Even with his small army he had strong will power and positive approach which made him of the greatest Muslim commander ever. Khalid fought around 200 battles, both major battles and minor skirmishes as well as single duels, during his military career. Khalid was undefeated against all foes, Romans, Persians, other Arabs. Despite having 100 % success in battles, he was dismissed from military services.
Thank you for reading.
