Iyad ibn Ghanm

Early life

Iyad was the son of a certain 'Abd Ghanm ibn Zuhayr al-Fihri. He belonged to the al-Harith ibn Fihr ibn Malik branch of the Quraysh tribe. Iyad was among the members of the Quraysh to have embraced Islam prior to the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah in 628, and was present during the peace negotiations at Hudaybiyya between the Islamic prophet Muhammad and the Quraysh of Mecca. Upon accepting Islam, he had his name changed from ibn ʿAbd Ghanm to ibn Ghanm; "ʿAbd Ghanm", the name of his father, was an idol worshiped by the pagan Arabs, an association that Iyad detested, according to 9th-century historian al-Baladhuri.

Campaigns in Syria

Iyad may have been the Muslim commander who defeated an Arab tribal revolt in the oasis town of Dumat al-Jandal during the Ridda wars. The tribes involved in the revolt were the Banu Kalb, Banu Salīh, Tanukh and Ghassan. Other medieval reports attribute this victory 'Amr ibn al-'As. In any case, according to 9th-century historian al-Tabari, Iyad was governor of Dumat al-Jandal in 634, during the reign of Caliph Abu Bakr. In 637, Iyad was made governor of al-Jazira (Upper Mesopotamia) by Caliph Umar (r. 634–644), but was dismissed by the latter due to allegations that he used his office to accept gifts or bribes. Afterward, he became a close aide and lieutenant commander of his paternal cousin and maternal nephew, Abu Ubayda ibn al-Jarrah, who had military authority over Syria.

In 638, Iyad was dispatched by Abu Ubayda to subdue Aleppo (Beroea) in northern Syria, then part of the Byzantine Empire. Abu Ubayda set up camp around the city, prompting the townspeople to negotiate their surrender with Iyad. Abu Ubayda later sent Iyad at the head of an army to capture Cyrrhus, whose inhabitants sent out a monk to meet Iyad; following this meeting, Iyad had the monk meet Abu Ubayda and arrange the surrender of Cyrrhus. Iyad continued on northward and eastward, overseeing the capitulation of Manbij (Hierapolis), Ra'ban and Duluk.

Conquest of Upper Mesopotamia

When Abu Ubayda died in 639, Caliph Umar (r. 634–644) appointed Iyad in his place as the ʿamal (governor) of Hims, Qinnasrin (Chalcis) and al-Jazira with directions to conquer the latter territory from its Byzantine commanders for refusing to pay the tributes promised to the Muslims in 638. In August 639, Iyad led a 5,000-strong army toward Raqqa (Kallinikos) in al-Jazira, raided the city's environs, but faced resistance from its defenders. This prompted Iyad to withdraw, and send smaller units to make raids around Raqqa, seizing captives and harvests. After five or six days of these raids, Raqqa's patrician negotiated the surrender of the city to Iyad.

After capturing Raqqa, Iyad proceeded toward Harran, where his progress was stalled. However, he diverted part of his army to Edessa which ultimately capitulated after negotiations with Iyad. Iyad then received Harran's surrender and dispatched Safwan ibn Mu'attal al-Sulami and his kinsman Habib ibn Maslama al-Fihri to seize Samosata, which also ended in a negotiated surrender after Muslim raiding of its countryside. By 640, Iyad successively conquered Saruj, Jisr Manbij and Tell Mawzin. Prior to the capture of Tell Mawzin, Iyad attempted to take Ras al-Ayn, but retreated after stiff resistance. Later, he dispatched Umayr ibn Sa'd al-Ansari to seize it. Umayr first assaulted the rural peasantry and seized cattle in the town's vicinity. The inhabitants barricaded themselves inside the walled city and inflicted heavy losses on the Muslim forces, before ultimately capitulating. Around the same time, Iyad besieged Samosata in response to a rebellion, the nature of which is not specified by al-Baladhuri, and stationed a small garrison in Edessa after the city's inhabitants apparently violated their terms of surrender.

Between the end of 639 and December 640, Iyad and his lieutenants subdued, in succession, Circesium (al-Qarqisiyah), Amid, Mayyafariqin, Nisibin, Tur Abdin, Mardin, Dara, Qarda and Bazabda. According to al-Baladhuri, with the exception of Nisibin, which put up resistance, all these cities and fortresses fell to the Muslims after negotiated surrenders. In contrast to al-Baladhuri's passive account of Iyad's capture of Dara, 10th-century historian Agapius of Hierapolis wrote that many were slain on both sides, particularly among the Muslims, but the city ultimately fell after a negotiated surrender. Iyad continued toward Arzanene, then to Bitlis and finally to Khilat; all cities surrendered after negotiations with their patricians. Shortly after, Iyad entrusted the leader of Bitlis with collecting the land tax from Khilat, and left for Raqqa. On the way there, one medieval Muslim report holds that Iyad dispatched a force to capture Sinjar, after which he settled it with Arabs.

Iyad ultimately ended up in Hims, where he died in 641. According to al-Tabari, Iyad was succeeded as governor of Hims and Qinnasrin by a certain Sa'id ibn Hidhyam al-Jumahi, but the latter died soon after and Umayr ibn Sa'd, one of Iyad's lieutenants, was appointed in his place by Caliph Umar.

Assessment

According to 9th-century biographer Ibn Sa'd, "not a foot was left of Mesopotamia unsubdued by Iyad ibn Ghanm", and that Iyad "effected the conquest of Mesopotamia and its towns by capitulation, but its land by force". Petersen describes Iyad as "a commander who has received little attention, but who clearly was of great ability". In his assessment of Iyad's Mesopotamian campaign, Petersen wrote

[Iyad's] tactics [in Raqqa] seem to reflect those employed in Palestine, but here we are informed of the exact modus operandi: screening forces, in this case cavalry divisions stationed near each gate simply prevented garrison forces or messengers from exiting or refugees from entering, while the remainder of the [Muslim] army systematically cleared the surrounding countryside of supplies and captives. It was a very efficient approach, especially when the city was low on supplies, and a large number of the rural population were trapped outside ... The objective was to capture the city without too much destruction in order to keep revenue flowing, but now for the benefit of the conquerors. The agreement [reached between Iyad and Raqqa's patrician] ... stipulated cash payments as well as providing wheat, oil, vinegar and honey. A number of other cities were subdued on the same campaign. Amongst them, Edessa, Harran and Samosata were obliged not only to make similar payments, but also provide labor services to maintain roads and bridges, as well as guide Muslims and provide them intelligence.

Petersen notes that Iyad did not establish garrisons to maintain control of the captured cities, with the exception of Samosata, where a garrison was installed in response to a revolt. After the latter event, al-Baladhuri, who gives a detailed but triumphalist account of the Mesopotamian campaign, maintains that Iyad subdued a string of villages "on the same terms" as Edessa's surrender, with the exception of Ras al-Ayn, whose garrison held out. Ultimately, Iyad's settlements with Mesopotamia's cities "to a large extent left most of local society untouched". In Petersen's view, Iyad's campaign partially diverted the Byzantines' attention away from the Muslims' central offensive against Syria's port cities and the province of Egypt, while also "demonstrating to the Armenian nobility that the Caliphate had become a viable alternative to the Persian Empire".