THE CONQUEST OF QINNASREEN UNDER THE LEADERSHIP OF KHAALID IBN AL-WALEED
Hijri date: 15
Aboo ‘Ubaydah ‘Aamir ibn al-Jarraah sent Khaalid ibn al-Waleed to Qinnasreen. When he arrived at the place in question, the Byzantines advanced to him, who were then led by Meenaas, who was amongst the greatest of Byzantine leaders, after Heraclius. Both sides fought, and in the heat of the battle, Meenaas and his men were slain in a way like no other before them, and they all died then and there. Khaalid then travelled on until he arrived at Qinnasreen, whose inhabitants then fortified and hunkered themselves down against him. The Muslims said to them: “Were you in the clouds, then Allah would have taken us to you, or we would have descended to you.” They then pondered their affair and considered what had happened to the people of Homs, so they agreed to a peace treaty similar to the one concluded with the people of Homs. However, Khaaled insisted on destroying the city, and he did. When that occurred, Heraclius entered Constantinople, and the reason being was that Khaalid and ‘Iyaad had both made their way to Heraclius from Al-Shaam, and ‘Amr ibn Maalik came from Koofah; thus, Heraclius exited the city of Circesium. ‘Abdullah ibn al-Mi’tamm made his way from Mosul and then they returned. Only then did Heraclius enter Constantinople. This was the first time in the history of Islam that Muslim soldiers from the Muslim army went beyond the road limits to make their way to meet their enemy. All this occurred in the 15th year of the Hijrah – and it was said in the 16th year of the Hijrah.