Rashidun Army - Strategy

Strategy

For more details on Mubarizun, see Mobile guard.

The basic strategy of early Muslim armies setting out to conquer foreign land was to exploit every possible drawback of the enemy army in order to achieve victory with minimum losses as the Rashidun army, quality-wise and strength-wise, was sub-standard the Sassanid Persian army and Byzantine army. Khalid ibn Walid, the first Muslim general of Rashidun Caliphate to make conquest in foreign land, during his campaign against the Sassanid Persian Empire (Iraq 633 - 634) and Byzantine Empire (Syria 634 - 638) developed brilliant tactics that he used effectively against both the Sassanid army and Byzantine army. The main drawback of the armies of Sassanid Persian Empire and Eastern Roman Empire was their lack of mobility. Khalid ibn Walid decided to use the mobility of his own army to exploit the lack thereof in the Sassanid army and Byzantine army. Later the same strategy was adopted by all other Muslim generals throughout the period of military expansion. Though only part of Rashidun army was actual cavalry, the entire army was camel mounted for movement. Khalid ibn Walid and then later Muslim generals were also able to make use of the fine fighting quality of the Muslim soldiers, a bulk of whom were bedouin and excellent in swordsmanship.

The Muslims' light cavalry during the later years of Islamic conquest of Levant became the most powerful section of army. The best use of this lightly armed fast moving cavalry was revealed at the Battle of Yarmouk (636 A.D) in which Khalid ibn Walid, knowing the importance and ability of his cavalry, used them to turn the tables at every critical instance of the battle with their ability to engage and disengage and turn back and attack again from the flank or rear. A strong cavalry regiment was formed by Khalid ibn Walid which included the veterans of the campaign of Iraq and Syria. Early Muslim historians have given it the name mutaharrik tulaiha( متحرك طليعة ), or the mobile guard. This was used as an advance guard and a strong striking force to route the opposing armies with its greater mobility that gave it an upper hand when maneuvering against any Byzantine army. With this mobile striking force, the conquest of Syria was made easy.

Another remarkable strategy developed by Khalid and later followed by others generals, was not moving far from the desert so long as there were opposing forces within striking distance of its rear. The idea was to fight the battles close to the desert, with safe escape routes open in case of defeat. The desert was not only a heaven of security into which the Sassanid army and Byzantine army would not venture, but also a region of free, fast movement in which their camel mounted troops could move easily and rapidly to any objective that they chose. Following this same strategy during the conquest of Iraq and Syria, Khalid ibn Walid did not engage his army deep into Iraq and Syria until the opposing army had lost its ability to threaten his routes to the desert. Another possible advantage of always keeping a desert at the rear, was easy communication and reenforcement.

Once the Byzantines were weakened and the Sassanids effectively destroyed, the later Rashidun generals were free to use any strategy and tactics to overpower the opposing forces but they mainly stuck to the using the mobility of their troops to prevent the concentration of enemy troops in large numbers.

The caliph Abu Bakr would give his generals their mission, the geographical area in which that mission would be carried out, and the resources that could be made available for that purpose. He would then leave it to his generals to accomplish their mission in whatever manner they chose. caliph Umar however in later part of his caliphate used to direct his generals as to where they would stay and when to move to the next target and who would command the left and right wing of the army in the particular battle. This made conquest comparatively slower but provided for well organized campaigns. Caliph Uthman used the same method as of Abu Bakr. He would give missions to his generals and then leave it to them on how they would accomplish it. Caliph Ali also followed the same method.