Nahavand, The Victory of Victories

Dry, tawny mountains under a high sun, a broad pass opening between bare ridges of folded rock with only thin scrub on the slopes. This is highland country, the western ranges of the Iranian plateau, the Zagros of the old province of Media, far above and east of the flat alluvial plains of lower Iraq where the earlier battles of the conquest were fought.

On the high ground in the foreground a dry-stone breastwork has been thrown up across the lip of the pass, piled from the loose rock of the hillside, and behind it stand archers with a dark banner raised above them. The fighting is for a fortified position in the heights, not an open plain: the defenders have walled and entrenched the approaches.

Down in the dust of the defile two armies are locked together, horse and foot crowded into the narrow ground between the hills, standards swaying above the press and a haze of dust and grit hanging over the whole engagement. The terrain funnels the battle into the throat of the pass.

In the foreground, spilled across the stony ground among abandoned gear, lances, wicker shields and camp baskets, lies a great length of deep crimson-and-gold cloth, the rich figured textile of a Sasanian camp. The opulent baggage and treasure of the Persian host is a remembered feature of this battle, the spoils that fell to the victors.

The host holding the heights is the imperial army of Sasanian Persia, the levies of the marzbans of the highland provinces gathered for a last stand; the force pressing up the pass against them is a lighter Arab Muslim army out of Iraq, its banners plain and without figures. The clash is between the last field army of an ancient empire and the armies of the young caliphate.

This is the field where the organised field resistance of the Sasanian empire was finally broken. After it the Persian emperor never again put a great army into the field; his marzbans were beaten one by one and the whole Iranian plateau, province by province, lay open to the conquest.

The Muslims remembered this day as the Fath al-Futuh, the Victory of Victories. It was fought in the caliphate of 'Umar ibn al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him), about the twenty-first year after the Hijrah; the Muslim commander al-Nu'man ibn Muqarrin (may Allah be pleased with him) was struck down in the hour of victory and the banner passed, by his own instruction, to Hudhayfa ibn al-Yaman (may Allah be pleased with him).

al-Tabari, Tarikh al-Rusul wa-al-Muluk (early 10th c.): Principal early Arabic source for the conquest of Persia. Provides the narrative of Nahavand: the Persian assembly under the marzbans, the appointment of al-Nu'man ibn Muqarrin (RA) by 'Umar (RA), the feigned-withdrawal stratagem, the death of al-Nu'man and the passing of the banner, and the dating around 21 AH.

al-Baladhuri, Futuh al-Buldan (9th c.): Standard early Arabic geographical-conquest history. Used for the campaign into the highlands, the scale of the Persian host, the spoils of the Sasanian camp, and the strategic consequences for the conquest of the Iranian plateau.

Ibn al-Athir, al-Kamil fi al-Tarikh (early 13th c.): Synthesises the earlier Arabic accounts into a continuous narrative. Used for the sequence of the battle and the succession of command from al-Nu'man ibn Muqarrin (RA) to Hudhayfa ibn al-Yaman (RA).

Ibn Kathir, al-Bidaya wa-al-Nihaya (14th c.): Later Sunni historical synthesis. Used for the 'Fath al-Futuh' designation, the martyrdom narrative of al-Nu'man (RA), and the placing of the battle within the conquests of 'Umar's caliphate.