Battle of Walaja

Battle of Walaja
	Part of the Islamic conquest of Persia; Campaigns of Khalid ibn al-Walid
	; Map showing the region in Iraq where Battle of Walaja was fought.
Date	May 633
Location	Mesopotamia (modern Iraq)
Result	Rashidun Caliphate victory
Belligerents
Rashidun Caliphate	Sasanian Empire,; Christian Arab allies
Commanders and leaders
Khalid ibn al-Walid	Andarzaghar; Bahman Jadhuyih
Strength
15,000	25,000–30,000
Casualties and losses
~2,000+	20,000

The Battle of Walaja (Arabic: معركة الولجة) was fought in Mesopotamia (Iraq) in May 633 between the Rashidun Caliphate army under Khalid ibn al-Walid and Al-Muthanna ibn Haritha against the Sassanid Empire and its Arab allies. The Sassanid army is said to have been two times the size of the Muslim army during the battle.

Khalid defeated the numerically-superior Sasanian forces by using a variation of the double envelopment tactical manoeuvre, similar to the manoeuvre that Hannibal had used to defeat the Roman forces at the Battle of Cannae; however, Khalid is said to have developed his version independently.^[2]

^ Crawford, Peter (2013-07-16). The War of the Three Gods: Romans, Persians and the Rise of Islam. Pen and Sword. ISBN 978-1-4738-2865-0. Perhaps only the defeat at Walaja and the fall of Hira saw to it that Yazdgerd and his generals began to take the business of the Arabs more seriously.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e A. I. Akram (1970). The Sword of Allah: Khalid bin al-Waleed, His Life and Campaigns. National Publishing House, Rawalpindi. ISBN 0-7101-0104-X.
^ "Campaigns in Eastern Iraq". Virtual library of Witness-Pioneer. Archived from the original on March 2, 2008.

[1] Crawford, Peter (2013-07-16). The War of the Three Gods: Romans, Persians and the Rise of Islam. Pen and Sword. ISBN 978-1-4738-2865-0. Perhaps only the defeat at Walaja and the fall of Hira saw to it that Yazdgerd and his generals began to take the business of the Arabs more seriously.

[Akram-2] A. I. Akram (1970). The Sword of Allah: Khalid bin al-Waleed, His Life and Campaigns. National Publishing House, Rawalpindi. ISBN 0-7101-0104-X.

[Campaigns-3] "Campaigns in Eastern Iraq". Virtual library of Witness-Pioneer. Archived from the original on March 2, 2008.

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