Al Qaqa Ibn Amr At Tameemi

There are many amazing Muslim commanders you have heard of over and over again. Some of them may be, Khalid bin Al Waleed, ‘Amr ibn Al ‘Aas, and Abu Ubaidah ibn al Jarrah. But, have you ever heard about an amazing Muslim commander named Al-Qa’qa’ ibn ‘Amr at Tamimi? He was one of the main commanders in the battle of al Qadisiyyah against the Persian Empire.

          Not much is known about him of his early age before he became Muslim. We do know that he converted to Islam along with his tribe during the year of the delegation (year 631). Later, for a short time, he started following the false prophetess Sajah bint al Harith. When the Muslim army battled the false prophetess and threw her out of control, Al Qa’qa’ joined the Muslim army and marched with Khalid bin Al Waleed to Iraq and Syria and fought many battles such as Yarmouk, Battle of the Chains, and Al Qadisiyyah.

          In the Battle of the Chains, Khalid bin Al Waleed went for a duel with the Persian’s commander, Persian soldiers surrounded him and Al Qa’qa’ came out of the lines and helped Khalid (RA). He fought as a    brave soldier until Muslims gained control of Iraq. After the battle was over, he marched with the Muslim army to Syria and fought in the Battle of Yarmouk as a soldier. Abu Bakr (RA) had once said about him “An army that Al Qa’qa’ is in, that army is bound to win!”

After the conquest of Syria, the Persians thought it would be the perfect time for war as only about 1,000 Muslim soldiers stayed behind with Abu Ubayd and Al Muthanna in Iraq. The Persians and the Muslims prepared for a battle. As the two armies marched towards each other, they headed for a bridge where the battle happened. The Muslims were tricked because the leaders of the Persian Army said that either the Muslims will cross over the bridge and go to them or the Persians would cross. The commander of the Muslim army, Abu Ubayd, was very brave and said “We are Muslims and we are not scared of death and we will cross the bridge”.  The Persians attacked the Muslim army while it was crossing the bridge. The Persians brought elephants to the battle of Al Jisr and the Muslims did not know. Because the Persians had elephants, the Muslims were crushed under them. As the Muslims were retreating, the Muslim army commander, Abu Ubayd, advanced on his horse towards the elephants. His horse threw him off and he was unfortunately crushed under the elephant. This was a devastating defeat for the Muslim army. The Caliph sent reinforcements to the Muslim army but they were still not enough.

The Muslims and the Persians decided on another war and the Caliph, Omar (RA), sent Sa’ad ibn Abi Waqqas with a large army to Al Qadisiyyah to help the Muslims. Sa’ad (RA) was the commander of the army. Before the war started, Sa’ad (RA) fell sick and was unable to get out of bed. Hearing this, Omar (RA) told Abu Ubaidah Ibn Al Jarrah to send Hisham ibn Utbah and Al Qa’qa’ ibn ‘Amr with 7,000 soldiers.

 Al Qa’qa’ sped up with 1,000 soldiers to reinforce the Muslims at Al Qadisiyyah. As he reached close to Al Qadisiyyah, he divided his soldiers into ten groups each consisting of 100 Muslim soldiers. He commanded each group not to move from their place until they could barely see the group that had gone before them. In this way, the Muslims spirits would rise because reinforcements kept coming and the Persians spirits would be lowered. This tactic worked very well, but there was one problem, Hisham bin Utbah and the 6,000 soldiers with him had not arrived yet and were delayed. To boost the Muslims morale, during the night while all the soldiers were sleeping, he took his 1,000 soldiers and divided them as he had done earlier that day and ordered them to do the same as they had done that morning. Al Qa’qa’ himself stayed behind so the Muslims would not suspect any change. The next morning, after a few groups had gone to the battlefield Hisham bin Utbah arrived with his 6,000 soldiers and they did the same as Al Qa’qa’ and his group had done (dividing in groups). Sa’ad Ibn Abi Waqqas had groups of soldiers set up to deliver his messages to the commanders and tell them what to do. As the Persians had done in the previous battle, they brought elephants with them. After a few days of battle, the condition of the Muslims was not very good. On the last day of the battle, Sa’ad ordered Al Qa’qa’ to stab their best elephant and as soon as it started falling, Al Qa’qa’ would jump on the elephant and stab it more so it would die. Al Qa’qa’ did as told and killed the Persian’s main elephant. The Persians lost hope and retreated. All of their army generals except for one were chased and killed.

Later on, Al Qa’qa’ retired and lived in Kufa. When ‘Uthman ibn ‘Affan (RA) became Caliph and the political turbulence started, Al Qa’qa’ used his reputation to try and cool down the political heat in Kufa. He later sided with Ali ibn Abi Talib (RA) in the battle of Siffeen against Muawiya and was exiled by Muawiya to Jerusalem but instead he stayed in Kufa and passed away in Kufa, may Allah have his mercy on him.

From the character of Al Qa’qa’ ibn ‘Amr at Tamimi we learn that we should use our intelligence and always show courage no matter what happens. For more information I would request you to watch the following:

Omar Series (Available on Vimeo and Dailymotion and Vimeo with English subtitles, original episodes in Quranic Arabic (not slang))

Al Qa’qa’ ibn ‘Amr at Tamimi series (Available on You Tube. Episodes in Arabic (not slang))

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