Muslim World
Save Damascus! The Home of a Glorious Dynasty
August 22, 743 - al-ʾIskandariyya
He is in Alexandria to deal with the caliph's internal affairs, but they knock on his door.
He bad opens and hears "It is urgent, my lord, that the country needs you to come immediately." He leaves the room and follows the guard to the gates of the city, he barely has time to carry out the formalities when the disastrous news comes. "The romans have attacked my lord, Antioch must have fallen before i have arrived, i suppose they are already surrounding Damascus."
But he can not do much, he is old, he has almost 50 years of life on his shoulders, so he is limited to one thing, he orders them to call Sulayman, the man he antagonized so much. Sulayman ibn Hisham was an experienced general, who had led several successful campaigns against the Byzantines, including the one who captured Akroinon.
It is the turn of the younger, he thinks, and sees the glorious arrival of Sulayman, speaking to the army and organizing him for a difficult campaign. Then he simply sees the great departure of his general and his army over the sunset.
August 31, 743 - Dimasriq
Sulayman is finally, on the outskirts of Damascus, he sees the enormous army that the enemy presents, he calculates that it has a disadvantage of almost 2 to 1. This was not a fight against local byzantine forces, it was the joint effort of the remnant of the more glorious empire from the face of the earth, the legacy of Rome still remains, whether or not the eternal city has fallen.
Sulayman commands his cavalry to make several small attacks on the byzantine forces that surround the city, forcing them to take defensive positions and, gradually, to retreat. Something that works, arresting part of the enemy forces around the walls, being pressed against such walls. But the romans are quick and comes a counterattack ot the byzantines, using their heavy cavalry against the arab forces, but Sulayman already expected this and the rest of the cavalry, which was in the rear of the army, out of sight of the enemies and commanded directly by Sulayman, quickly intercepts the enemy, repelling him after a small battle where they suffered considerable casualties.
After much time pressed against the walls the byzantine infantry finally sees itself free and begins to reorganize. But soon afterwards the arab infantry advanced with everything against the enemy, with the byzantines advancing with the rest of their army, trying to use of their numbers to surpass the enemy. Seeing this, at the same moment Sulayman begins to retreat, taking positions at the top of a hill, positioning his archers in order to cause casualties and delay the incoming enemy, while his cavalry makes small attacks to the marching enemies, trying to cause more casualties and delay them a little.
Sulayman retreats his cavalry to the other side of the hills, out of the enemy's sight. Then they enter the trains of arab supplies and pick up drums and bits of wood that would be used for encampments, bonfires, and anything that needs wood.
Thus the cavalry makes improvised wooden figurines, which closely do not resemble a man but from afar they can easily be mistaken. So they advance and emerge from the hills on the left byzantine flank, riding at full speed, with the drums that should be for most of the Arab army being used there and hundreds of foot soldiers moving the wooden puppets, making it appear that there is a huge army there.
Thus the moral of the byzantine forces suddenly falls sharply, with soldiers imagining tens of thousands of arab reinforcements coming, thus occurring desperate mass desertions, with soldiers trying to escape discreetly into the city walls. Thus the rapidly decreasing byzantine numbers and the work of preventing more desertions, in addition to the low morale and the almost surprise attack of the arab cavalry, enable the cavalry charge to cause a rapid collapse of the left byzantine flank. At that moment the main force advances with all, entering into combat with the demoralized and disorganized byzantines.
The byzantines begin to perceive the farce, but now it is too late, the arabs are almost arriving in the byzantine lines and a brutal combat begins quickly. The cavalry on the left flank begins an attack on the byzantine rear, attacking the roman cavalry that tried to intercept it, managing after a certain time to win due to its great quality. After this victory against the enemy cavalry, it attacks the right side of the byzantine flank, allowing it to collapse and the center to be surrounded by forces and then completely annihilated. Thus after a hard battle the byzantine army is defeated, having only left some soldiers that have closed within the walls of Damascus, that however surrender quickly.
After the rescue of Damascus, Sulayman and his troops rest in the city, with prayers being made in the Great Umayyad Mosque. He prepares for his great campaign, to punish the romans for their daring, once for all.