Battle of the Iron Bridge

Overview

The Battle of the Iron Bridge was fought between the Muslim Rashidun army and the Byzantine army in 637 AD. The battle, which the Muslims won, took its name from a nearby nine-arch stone bridge over the Orontes River, which had gates trimmed with iron blades. It was one of the last battles fought between the Byzantines and Rashidun Caliphate in the province of Syria. In the aftermath of the battle, the province's capital, Antioch, fell, marking the near-complete annexation of the province into the Rashidun Caliphate.

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

Significance

The Battle of the Iron Bridge, fought in 637 AD between the Rashidun Caliphate and the Byzantine Empire, was one of the final engagements between these forces in the province of Syria during the Muslim conquest of the Levant. The Rashidun victory, achieved by a force of approximately 17,000 against a Byzantine army of between 15,000 and 20,000, directly precipitated the fall of Antioch, the provincial capital. The loss of Antioch effectively completed Byzantine withdrawal from Syria and marked the near-total incorporation of the province into the Rashidun Caliphate. The battle thus served as the concluding military action that determined the political fate of one of the most strategically significant provinces of the late Roman world, bringing the Syrian phase of the conquest to a close under the joint command of Khalid ibn al-Walid and Abu Ubaidah ibn al-Jarrah.

Forces & casualties

Commanders (2)