The Battle of Dathin () was a battle during the Arab–Byzantine Wars between the Rashidun Caliphate 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 Constantinopl ...

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. The Byzantine commander (''

dux ''Dux'' (; plural: ''ducēs'') is Latin for "leader" (from the noun ''dux, ducis'', "leader, general") and later for duke and its variant forms (doge, duce, etc.). During the Roman Republic and for the first centuries of the Roman Empire, '' ...

'' 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 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 impor ...

. 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 Patrician may refer to: * Patrician (ancient Rome), the original aristocratic families of ancient Rome, and a synonym for "aristocratic" in modern English usage * Patrician (post-Roman Europe), the governing elites of cities in parts of medieval ...

(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 ''Teaching of Jacob'' ( grc, Διδασκαλία Ἰακώβου, ''Didaskalia Iakobou''; Latin ''Doctrina Jacobi''; Ethiopic ''Sargis d'Aberga''), has a controversial dating from the early 7th century to the late 8th century. A Greek Christ ...

'', 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 Mediter ...

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 e ...

, 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, 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 taking ...

. ''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