The Battle of Dathin () was a battle during the

Arab–Byzantine Wars The Arab–Byzantine wars were a series of wars between a number of Muslim Arab dynasties and the Byzantine Empire between the 7th and 11th centuries AD. Conflict started during the initial Muslim conquests, under the expansionist Rashidun and ...

between the

Rashidun Caliphate The Rashidun Caliphate ( ar, اَلْخِلَافَةُ ٱلرَّاشِدَةُ, al-Khilāfah ar-Rāšidah) was the first caliphate to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was ruled by the first four successive caliphs of Muhammad after hi ...

and the

Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantin ...

in February 634, but became very famous in the literature of the period. The battle took place following a series of Arab raids around

Gaza Gaza may refer to: Places Palestine * Gaza Strip, a Palestinian territory on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea ** Gaza City, a city in the Gaza Strip ** Gaza Governorate, a governorate in the Gaza Strip Lebanon * Ghazzeh, a village in ...

. The Byzantine commander ('' dux'' and ''candidatus'') Sergius assembled a small detachment of soldiers (due to a shortage of troops), and led that mounted army from his base at

Caesarea Caesarea () ( he, קֵיסָרְיָה, ), ''Keysariya'' or ''Qesarya'', often simplified to Keisarya, and Qaysaria, is an affluent town in north-central Israel, which inherits its name and much of its territory from the ancient city of Caesare ...

some 125 kilometers south to the vicinity of Gaza. From there he proceeded against an Arab force that was numerically superior and commanded by

'Amr ibn al-'As ( ar, عمرو بن العاص السهمي; 664) was the Arab commander who led the Muslim conquest of Egypt and served as its governor in 640–646 and 658–664. The son of a wealthy Qurayshite, Amr embraced Islam in and was assigned import ...

. The opposing forces met at the village of Dathin on February 4, not far from Gaza. The Byzantines were defeated and the ''candidatus'' Sergius himself was killed, together with 300 of his soldiers.Al-Tabari, p. 108, and al-Baladhuri, pp. 167-68, do not name the Byzantine commander, referring to him only by the general rank of patrician (baṭrīq). Theophanes, p. 37, names Sergius, but does not specify the location of the battle and dates it to 632-633 AD. The battle also claimed the lives of 4,000 civilians. According to the near-contemporary '' Doctrina Jacobi nuper baptizati'', the Muslim victory was celebrated by the local Jews, who had been a persecuted minority within the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post- Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Medite ...

Notes

References

Al-Baladhuri ʾAḥmad ibn Yaḥyā ibn Jābir al-Balādhurī ( ar, أحمد بن يحيى بن جابر البلاذري) was a 9th-century Muslim historian. One of the eminent Middle Eastern historians of his age, he spent most of his life in Baghdad and ...

, Ahmad ibn Jabir. ''The Origins of the Islamic State, Part I.'' Trans. Philip Khuri Hitti. New York: Columbia University, 1916. * "Extract From a Chronicle Composed About AD 640." ''The Seventh Century in the West-Syrian Chronicles.'' Trans. Andrew Palmer. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1993. * * *

Al-Tabari ( ar, أبو جعفر محمد بن جرير بن يزيد الطبري), more commonly known as al-Ṭabarī (), was a Muslim historian and scholar from Amol, Tabaristan. Among the most prominent figures of the Islamic Golden Age, al-Tabari ...

, Abu Ja'far Muhammad ibn Jarir. ''The History of al-Tabari, Volume XI: The Challenge to the Empires.'' Trans. Khalid Yahya Blankinship. Ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1993. *

Theophanes the Confessor Theophanes the Confessor ( el, Θεοφάνης Ὁμολογητής; c. 758/760 – 12 March 817/818) was a member of the Byzantine aristocracy who became a monk and chronicler. He served in the court of Emperor Leo IV the Khazar before takin ...

. ''The Chronicle of Theophanes.'' Ed. and trans. Harry Turtledove. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1982. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Dathin, Battle of 630s in the Byzantine Empire Dathin Dathin Dathin 634 Muslim conquest of the Levant