Note 167 — Chapter XI · CAMPAIGN IN SYRIA.—BATTLE OF WACUSA ON THE YERMUK. A.H. XIII. A.D. 634.

It is doubtful whether Abu Bekr’s commission to Khâlid on his transfer did not at the same time nominate him to the supreme command of the Syrian forces. Ibn Khaldûn reads so; and likewise the tradition that Omar, in eventually deposing him, appointed Abu Obeida similarly to the supreme command. If so, Khâlid may have chosen not to excite jealousy by assuming the supremacy at once, but rather to have obtained it by consent. But our information is, at this early period, vague and incomplete.