Battle of Maysalun

Overview

The Battle of Maysalun, also known as the Battle of Maysalun Pass or the Battle of Khan Maysalun, was a four-hour battle fought between the forces of the Arab Kingdom of Syria and the French Army of the Levant on 24 July 1920 near Maysalun in the Anti-Lebanon Mountains, about 25 kilometres (16 mi) west of Damascus.

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

Significance

Maysalun ended the Arab Kingdom of Syria's brief existence as an independent state. French forces under Gouraud and Goybet, numbering around 12,000, overwhelmed a Syrian force of between 1,400 and 4,000 fighters in a battle lasting only four hours, inflicting roughly 1,500 Syrian casualties. The scale of the disparity made the outcome decisive: Syrian resistance under Yusuf al-Azma and Muhammad al-Ashmar could not hold the pass west of Damascus against a fully equipped French expeditionary force. With the road to Damascus open, French authority over Syria was rapidly consolidated, establishing the French Mandate and extinguishing the Hashemite kingdom that Faisal I had proclaimed. The battle became a foundational event in Arab nationalist memory, representing both the failure of early Arab statehood and the imposition of European mandatory power across the Levant following the First World War.

Tactics

Forces & casualties

Commanders (5)