Conquest of Levant

Battle of Fahl was fought between Muslim Rashidun army under command of Shurahbil ibn Hassana and Byzantine Romans under command of Theodore the Saccellarius in 635 AD near river of Jordan, in Jordan Valley. A Roman army of about 80,000 men was moving eastwards to place itself astride the Muslim lines of communications. Muslims decided to stop the new wave of Roman invasions by stoping this army to secure their Damascus front; they gathered an army of 30,000 men from veterans of previous battles plus reinforecements arrived from Arabia. Both armies met at Fahl, an area in Jordan Valley 900 feet below the sea level. Theodore striked first in the hope that he can execute a surprise attack on  unprepered Muslim army, which was exhausted due too long march from Damascus to Jordan. The Romans began their attack at night, both armies fought all night and the whole of the next day, the Muslim army remained on thr defensive and beat off all attempts by Romans to break through. Impenetrable Muslim lines caused Romans heavy casualties, exhausted them and finally made them to retreat after Theodore was killed in action, then Shurahbil began the counterstrike. About 10,000 Romans perished in battle and an unknown number of them were chased down during pursuit by Muslim light cavalry.

About my Drawing:

My work illustrates a light cavalry of Muslim army aka the Mobile Guard fighting Roman infantrymen. The Mobile Guard was founded by Khalid ibn Walid, the legandary Muslim commander of Rashidun army, during conquest of Levant and was probably most glorious cavalry units till then. Among Common weapons of this order were Saif, Lances, javelins and later Sassanid long Swords.

Weapons:

Quntariya (Greek: Kontos) was the most common lance used by cavalry originated from sarmatia , that later found its use in Parthian, Persian, Byzantine and Muslim armies.