Note 151 — Chapter XI · CAMPAIGN IN SYRIA.—BATTLE OF WACUSA ON THE YERMUK. A.H. XIII. A.D. 634.

Marj al Soffar is to the north of the Yermûk on the road to Damascus, and is frequently mentioned in the subsequent campaign. It was not far from Jâbia in the Jaulân (Gaulonitis) which became the grand rendezvous for the Moslem armies, and the point of departure both for northern Syria and Palestine. The journey from Medîna to Syria was always, as now, by the country to the east of the Dead Sea, very much what is the present pilgrim route from Damascus to Mecca.

Some accounts say that Khâlid himself was killed in the engagement, which, according to the wont of Saracen defeats, is slurred over with a few unsatisfactory and garbled words. According to other traditions, Khâlid was degraded because, in returning from Yemen, he delayed to swear allegiance to Abu Bekr, and abused Aly and Othmân for allowing the government to pass out of the house of Abd Menâf. This is altogether improbable. The account in the text is the received one and also the most consistent. But the dates are all uncertain, for none are reliable till after the battle of Ajnadein.