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Heraclius is healthy and fit to command in 636, taking personal charge of the Byzantine army assembled against the Arab invasion force at the Yarmuk. He wisely chooses not to wait, reviving the spirit of his Persian campaign among his men, and smashes the Arab army first on the Yarmuk and then near old Palmyra. The Arab forces stunned, with rebellion stimulated by the twin defeats, make peace and a number of border tribes defect to the Byzantines. Heraclius then negotiates breathing space for a shattered Persia which is able to partially rebel against the Arab conquerors. A last attempt to raid Palestine and Egypt is beaten off with a stern threat that Mecca is within reach of a new Roman fleet force based in Egypt. Islam is forced to switch to more peaceful conversions or evolves into a local hybrid of Christianity and Zoroastrianism with Byzantium and a slowly reviving Persia gradually making inroads into Arabia. Reasonably secure in the East now, Heraclius works out a religious compromise and begins the work of restoring the Balkans before his death. He's later canonized as St. Heraclius.
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