WALAJA

When Abu Bakr was elected the first caliph of the Muslim community in 632, he inherited a precarious realm. Though Muhammad had united the tribes of Arabia, after his momentous death many refused to recognise the leadership of his nominated successor, withdrawing from treaties, withholding taxes and some even embracing other prophets.

Abu Bakr wasted no time in putting ‘apostate’ rebels to the sword and by the following year all pockets of resistance had been decimated. This was thanks especially to the efforts of the ingenious general, Khalid ibn al-Waleed, who crushed the rebellious clans of the central region of Najd. The swift campaign was seen as a divine stamp of approval, formalising the emergent Rashidun, or ‘Rightly Guided’, caliphate. With Arabia finally at peace, Abu Bakr was anxious to direct the Bedouins’ warlike disposition elsewhere. Now his gravest threats lay to the north, where he shared a border with the mighty Byzantine and Sassanid empires.

During the previous three decades, the Persian Sassanids and Roman Byzantines had exhausted one another fighting a gruelling war for supremacy, only to end in stalemate. The Persians had also smashed both the Ghassanids and the Lakhmids, Arab client kingdoms who had previously protected the southern