Battle of Chains

Overview

The Battle of Sallasil, often referred to as the Battle of Chains, was the first battle fought between the Rashidun Caliphate and the Sasanian Persian Empire in April 633. The battle was fought in Kazima by the forces of Khalid ibn al-Walid and the Persians under Hormozd. It was fought soon after the Ridda Wars were over and the Arabian Peninsula was united under the authority of the Caliph Abu Bakr. Indeed, it was the first battle of the Rashidun Caliphate in which the Muslim army elected to extend its frontiers outside of Arabia, thus initiating the Arab conquests.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Significance

The Battle of Chains, fought at Kazima in April 633, was the opening engagement of the Muslim conquest of Persia and the first battle in which the Rashidun Caliphate extended its military operations beyond the Arabian Peninsula. It came directly in the wake of the Ridda Wars, through which Caliph Abu Bakr had consolidated authority over the Arabian Peninsula, and represented the first outward projection of that unified Arab-Muslim force. As the initial clash between Khalid ibn al-Walid's force of 18,000 and a Sasanian army reported at 80,000 under Hormozd, Qubaz, and Anoshagan, it marked the moment the Arab conquests began. The battle thus stands at the threshold of a decades-long conflict that would ultimately end Sasanian imperial rule, making its place in the wider war that of an opening act whose significance lies less in its immediate tactical outcome — which the sources do not record — than in the strategic threshold it crossed: the first deliberate Rashidun offensive beyond Arabia.

Forces & casualties

Commanders (4)