battle of Ajnadain

Ajnadain, battle of (634), probably the first major engagement between the Byzantine forces defending Syria and Palestine, and the Arabs expanding northwards from the peninsula at the start of the Islamic conquests. Accounts differ on details of the battle, which took place on ?30 July between Jerusalem and Gaza, including the identity of the Arabs' leader. As many as 20, 000 Arabs defeated a similar number of Byzantines. Ajnadain marked the start of a confrontation which ended in the battle of the Yarmuk and the replacement of Byzantine with Arab hegemony in the region.

Bibliography

• Donner, Fred M., The Early Islamic Conquests (Princeton, 1981)

— David Morray