Original subtitles

all right so the talk tonight is going

to be about a specific person which is

unusual for Austin School lectures

usually I do some like overwhelmingly

large event that's

unwieldy um in this case the person is

named

khed uh he was a seventh century Arab he

was actually born probably sometime

around uh 592 so end of the 6th century

but most of his life is in the seventh

century and experiences taught me and

for those of you who've had me before

that I should never start my stories at

the beginning I need to start my

stories way before the beginning so so

that's what I'm going to do and that's

in part because I want to make sure that

I ground him firmly in the period that

he's in like I I want to make sure that

there's a a good understanding of why

what he does is so

interesting and uh also just sort of a

sense of why it

matters um I'm going to start also by

making a completely subjective statement

that when it gets on the Austin School

YouTube channel will draw a bunch of ir

and I'll probably get a stream of nasty

comments but I like that so uh and it is

this that khed wed was one of the three

greatest warriors of all time and that's

one of the reasons why I want to cover

him is because I just want to do a

profile in a person who uh if you're

interested in Warfare it totally

embodied Warfare so this is a talk about

war and and I'll probably also get a

little bit of flak for over glorifying

War which is cool too I'm okay with that

as well um when I for the record when I

was at the University of Maryland

University College in their history

Department we were trying to create a

war history department so this is part

of my mental illness um so having said

all

this I want to start by actually

attacking the way history is taught in

the United

States and uh the reason is is because

of the way we structure Western

Civilization courses so if you take

Western Civ 1 and Western Civ 2

the general idea and most of the

textbooks are set up this way is that

Western civ1 will cover everything till

14 92 or 1648 whatever arbitrary year

they picked to stop Western Civ 1 and

then Western Civ 2 will be everything

since

1648 so in other words we're going to

spend 16 weeks talking about the first

5,000 years of Western Civilization

and then we're going to spend 16 weeks

talking about the last

350

which is based on two really big

flaws the first is sort of a proximity

bias because the last 350 years or

closer to us they therefore must be more

important which is definitely wrong for

example the outcome of the battle of

actium in 31 BC I guarantee you has way

more impact on your day-to-day lives

than uh the outcome of the British one

of the British defeats there were

multiple in Afghanistan in the 19th

century well the defeat in Afghanistan

in the 19th century was it in the last

200 years there were the British have

been beaten four times two times in the

19th century um and so it's closer to

you but it has a much smaller impact

than that event 2,000 years ago the

Battle of actium and so F the first

problem is this bias is

wrong the second problem with this

bias is its racist implications it is a

profoundly racist bias because what it

attempts to do is distill Western

Civilization into a history of how cool

white people are as opposed to actually

looking at Western Civilization for what

it was which was not a color-based

Endeavor and if anything it was founded

by brown

people so then it it it's sort of an

attempt by French British and English

Scholars to capture something that they

didn't create make it theirs and then

divorce it from its creators and I can

prove this to you really simply in fact

when you take that Western Civ one class

weeks one and two cover Mesopotamia and

Egypt in fact the your class is probably

structured like this week one was

Mesopotamia week two was Egypt every

Professor is different every University

is different but probably weeks

um three four five and six were Greece

and then maybe 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 were

Rome and then 15 was the Medieval period

which is a Thousand-Year span of time

covered in one week and then week 16 the

first part of the modern so if they went

to 1648 they they went to that right in

that last

week the reason why this

is rooted in in a in a profound form of

racism is because of the following the

class admits that Western civilization

was created by Iraqis and Egyptians it

starts in Mesopotamia and Egypt it had

admits that and then and then it

pretends that Western Civilization got

up and ran away and began inhabiting

Italy and Germany and England and never

again ended up in the Middle East which

is

preposterous because all the Middle East

could ever do as the founder of Western

Civilization is simply evolve its

Western

Civilization do you see what I'm saying

it it's not like it could lose it it is

it it just evolved differently than

Italy or Germany or England but it

doesn't make it any less Western

Civ and so the way we teach Western Civ

1 where we do one week maybe maybe two

weeks on the medieval

period actually takes us to the next

level because I'm going to talk about an

event that takes place in that we act as

if the medieval period which we call the

Dark Age

only took place in

Europe and in fact we've renamed the

birthplace of Western Civilization the

Middle East as if it's in the East when

it's clearly not in the East since it

birth Western

Civilization

right and then we ignore everything that

was happening in the Middle East during

the medieval period and let me just give

you an idea of what was happening in the

Middle East during in the medieval

period so while

Europeans had no indoor plumbing and no

paved roads and their life expectancy

was 40 and the way they took care of

their waist was they would do it in a

chamber pot and fling it into the street

the Middle East had indoor plumbing that

brought fresh water in and took sewage

water out the Middle East had streets

that were lit up at night with oil

lamps in part because I want to set the

mood show you the technology that was

available at the time and then tell you

why what follows

follows it's the Battle of

Karai uh I didn't actually so I pulled

up this map I was having the hardest

time finding a map I was at the point

where I was going to make a map but I

was running out of time and then I

thought you know what I got to find

something and I kept digging and digging

and digging in the Googles and I and I

believe this is a PO the man who made

this map is Polish if you're not polish

I'm so sorry I just guessed um but it's

okay cuz most of the names are in either

the Persian names or the Roman

name uh if I'm wrong forgive me but it's

somewhere right in there so what is

today the southern end of turkey a

little bit to the east just north of

Syria the reason that battle took place

is because of what a guy named Gas ulius

Kaiser did you guys incorrectly call

call him Julius

Caesar Caesar I'm going to do it too

because it's fun who doesn't like to

mispronounce things on purpose Caesar

decided his family was going bankrupt

that the best way that he could solve

the bankruptcy was to start an illegal

war with the Kelts living in Gaul

conquer them and then plunder their

resources and enslave them and so that's

what he does and he becomes fabulously

wealthy and he saves his family from

bankruptcy

he was part of a secret

illegal arrangement with two other

men the three men were in the Senate

there were two patricians and a plean

the Senate always wanted a plean on

board and the plebian of course was

pompy Magnus the most famous plebian to

be in the Senate and then Caesar who was

a patrician and another guy named crus

nobody ever remembers crus crus and

pompy hated each other's Scots and there

was a little bit of fear that maybe a

civil war would break out so to prevent

the Civil War crus pompy and Caesar got

together and created this secret little

power Arrangement so that they could

control the Senate and then basically

the three of them would rule Rome and

everybody would pretend somebody else

was doing

it that

cool crus sees what Caesar does sees how

wealthy Caesar becomes and goes go wow I

want this crus was the governor of

Syria so he thought who's the nearest

Rich what's the nearest Rich place I can

go conquer and he went it's Persia let

me attack it and so he took uh

40,000 Romans and they marched from

Syria into the Persian Empire and they

met at

K 40,000 Romans

uh 32,000 infantry and they were heavy

infantry right think of Roman

Legionnaire with the interlocking

Shields and the spears called pilum and

they had a little Gladius a little a

little short sword and they would March

in tight ranks heavily armored they were

basically just a giant human wall pointy

human wall because it had the spear

sticking out and then about 4,000 light

Cavalry and about 4,000 medum

Cavalry and they

went and they they meet the Persians at

K they meet 8,000

Persians on Horseback 8,000 infantry uh

Cavalry and which is what they had they

had 8,000

Cavalry and the Persians that they met

were light Cavalry with bows and arrows

so the Romans are like oh we got this

40,000 versus 8,000 what are are they

going to do shoot arrows at us so the

Persians ride up and they fire arrows

from horseback and the Romans were like

okay testudo testudo is where you take

the shields they interlocked you could

you could connect them together and so

they locked them together this way and

then the row behind them held the

shields up like this and then the row

behind them held their Shields up so

that they interlock to make a roof and a

wall and the Persian arrows bounce

harmlessly off the top just it probably

sounded loud but otherwise nobody's

injured and so at this point the Romans

are chuckling they were like what are

you going to do just keep doing that

you'll run out of arrows eventually and

so then the Romans March forward

slowly and then Persians turn around and

fire another round of of arrows at the

Romans and then they ride

off so now the Romans think okay well

what's Jas him so they go out of testudo

because you can't run like this you

can't run holding a fort in air you need

to lower your Shields so they lower

their Shields and they take off on foot

running and they're chasing the 8,000

Persian horse archers the Persian horse

archers turn around in their Saddles and

fire backwards nobody had ever done that

in battle the Romans are shocked they're

so surprised by the thing they don't

have time to pull up testudo and

hundreds of Romans go down this rattles

the Romans they're like whoa we can't

just Chase these guys okay we need to be

a little more cautious and the Persians

start running up a hill so now the

Romans are slowly following after them

and the Persians turn around and shoot

but because the Romans are slowed down

they go back into testudo and not many

are injured they don't quite get into

testudo in time so some of them do get

injured and so it slows the Romans down

they're getting a little nervous about

all of this

but then the Persians go over the top of

the hill so now the Romans are like well

we might as well run I can't shoot

through the hill so they start running

and they run up the hill and just as

they're cresting the hill to their shock

and dismay the Romans see

1,000 craats

craats were fully armored soldiers on

top of armored horses

the first time Europeans will do that

put a fully armored man on top of an

armored

horse is 14 centuries

later at the end of medieval Europe the

Persians were technologically 14

centuries ahead of any European Society

in terms of heavy

Cavalry 1,000 craats was far superior to

8,000 Roman cavalry because they were

they were tanks there was almost nothing

you could do to them and they're

charging up the hill as the Romans are

charging down the hill so the Romans

charging down the hill are trying to

stop and they're shouting to the guys

behind them heyy stop running but the

guys behind them can't really hear them

in part because there some of them are

on the other side of the hill but in

part because of all the noise and the

guys running down the hill can't stop

running because if they do they'll get

knocked down and trampled to death and

so they're forced to run towards these

Cavalry units they can't get into

formation and the cataracts cut through

them like a hot knife through butter

it's a catastrophe Romans are dying

everywhere the catfacts get to the top

of the hill they turn around they come

back through they get to the bottom of

the hill they turn around they come back

through the Romans are doing everything

they can to try to create order and get

back into combat formation and they

can't do it eventually cis's son who is

up on the hill gets identified by one of

the Persian Warriors they kill him cut

off his head stick it on a spike and jam

it into the ground so that its dad can

see his

head the Romans are completely

disheartened crus comes up with a new

strategy because while the cateracts are

going up and down the hill the horse

archers return and they're just shooting

arrows at the Romans who can't get into

formation let alone go into testudo and

so the Romans are getting hammered by

arrows and cut to Pieces by these heavy

Cavalry men and so he decides you know

what we'll do do we'll just fight this

until the Persians run out of

arrows it's always a bad day when your

goal is to get the other side to run out

of ammo because they're shooting at you

you know what I mean it's also a really

bad day when the Persians brought

1,000 camels loaded with

1,000 arrows

each they had a million

arrows and as the Persian horse archers

are firing their arrows the camels just

ride up to them and hand them

more for all intens and purposes a

million arrows versus 40,000 men like

the Persians had an unlimited supply of

ammo cis's strategy is a disaster and

the Persians 9,000 soldiers are tearing

these Romans to

Pieces the only thing that saves the

Romans is the sun goes down and the

Persians and the Romans basically call

it they break up into camps to eat and

cook and then go to sleep in the morning

crus comes out and he says let's

talk and the Persian General his name

was suren he's on

horse and uh suren says there's nothing

to talk about he he had a stick with him

he draws a line in the ground and he

says this side is Persian

this side is Rome that line is the

Euphrates river and crus goes no and

when he does one of the Roman soldiers

freaks out reaches over and grabs suren

the rain of suren's horses and the fight

starts

again because the Persians see that and

they just swords come out and they and

they just tear the Romans to Pieces

again on the second

day about 10,000 Romans escaped

about 10,000 Romans were captured

including

Cris and 20,000 Romans were

killed and we don't have real firm

number but about 200 Persians

died when you outnumber the enemy 5 to

one and they kill

you at a ratio of 100 to one that's a

bad

day that's bad

they wait until the Persian Emperor

shows up his name is

ores

Oris brings crus into his

tent crus was wounded he was in bad

shape the Persian surgeons were were

treating him because they wanted to keep

him alive so that aoas could have a nice

conversation with him they kept him

alive they bring him forward they have

him get on his knees in front of the

Persian Emperor and aorus go the most

important thing in Persian culture is to

be a good

host you are my guest in the Persian

Empire you came here for

gold I will

provide they Pride opened cis's

mouth and they brought a pot of molten

gold and they poured it down his

throat that event triggers

almost 700 years of back and forth

Warfare between the Romans and the

Persians just back and

forth if you were to take all the all

the fights and stum them

together the Romans managed to keep so

this is this is the border between the

Romans and the Persians they managed to

keep something like this for most of

that time period because the Roman had a

fantastic Navy in the Mediterranean so

every time the Persians would capture

Syria or Palestine or Egypt or Anatolia

the Romans could respond with their Navy

and deploy troops behind the Persians

and then that made it so the Persians

could never really hold any land to the

west of their empire but as a general

rule the Persians usually what not

always the Romans sometimes beat up on

them but in the 3D Century one Persian

Emperor a guy named

shaur beat beat three Roman

emperors and in fact so badly he

captured one Roman Emperor with two

whole intact Roman

Legions he was the first emperor Roman

Emperor ever captured alive in battle

crus was not an emperor he was a member

of the Senate and he was a governor but

he wasn't an emperor the first captured

Roman Emperor ever was Emperor

Valyrian in case uh you wanted to no

Rome gets into really big

trouble in fact so does Persia they both

get into really big trouble in fact all

of Western Civilization gets into really

big trouble and the reason is because of

Indonesian

fishermen you know how they can go Rogue

they're so

dangerous the Indonesians had discovered

there were a bunch of islands through

the middle of the Indian Ocean and you

could hop from Island to Island so even

though they didn't have truly ocean

worthy vessels they had vessels that

were ocean worthy enough you could get

between the islands and that made it so

that you could start in Indonesia and

head towards Africa crossing the Indian

Ocean and you can Island hop your whole

way

across and before they knew it they were

on this really big island to the east of

Africa called

Madagascar and when they got there there

were no humans living living on

Madagascar they were just

lemur our ancestors but no

humans and they went Jesus set up a

colony and they did and they began

growing rice on the colony and as they

grew this rice they began trading the

rice with Africa and before long Africa

itself began to grow the rice and as

they traded with other people the rice

began to spread across Africa until it

got to places like Egypt and before you

knew rice was growing in Mesopotamia and

before you knew it rice was growing even

in southern parts of

Europe the reason why this is a

problem is because to grow rice you

flood a

field and when you flood a field you

create a place for for mosquitoes to

grow malaria bearing mosquitoes and

malaria ends up tearing up the entire

region from Spain to Iran

populations the life expectancies

absolutely plunged if they were 40 45

they dropped to

2025 and as a result Rome's population

goes into dramatic Decline and so does

Iran and they're just barely scraping by

and then as if that's not enough there's

there's an outbreak of the Bubonic

plague it's frequently called uh

Justinian uh plague in the the middle of

the 6th century and it tears Rome and

Persia to pieces and the Bubonic plague

does this really weird thing where it

looks like it it's on an 800e

cycle where it'll be dormant for 799

Years it'll wake up tear through the

human population for a year maybe two

Max and then go dormant again when I say

tear through the human population the

last Bubonic plague outbreak which was

1348 killed 40% of Europeans in a

one-year span of

time it killed 60% of uh middle

easterners and North Africans in the

that same

year so just put this in perspective

we're running about a 2% fatality rate

with covid not a 50% fatality

rate

um and then ban play goes back to sleep

for those of you uh doing the math real

quick it's 6 and a half centur we got a

century and a half left and then it'll

kick into high gear I'm assuming this

pattern isn't going to go away I don't I

don't know why it would all of a sudden

it's happened so many times now I think

we're on four or

five um so that's comforting to

know so by the time we get to the sixth

Century ad the populations of both the

Roman Empire and the Persian Empire are

dramatically reduced there are just

simply fewer people living which means

less food smaller armies and a terrible

economy the Romans are

barely so some of you might be a little

confused because you've been taught that

Rome fell in

476 and I want to just restate Rome did

not fall in 476 ad Rome fell in 1453 ad

and that's nonsense all Rome did was

reunify so that there was only one

Emperor and the capital was

Constantinople which in this map is

spelled with a

K

cool so

um there was a Roman Emperor his name

was morus but of course we mispronounce

everything so I'll just say Morris

Maurice Morris morus is so much better

Emperor moros had sided with a Persian

trying to become the Persian emperor in

the middle of a Persian Civil War his

name was kosro II and when

moros when kro succeeded he he felt like

since morus had helped him so much he

had to work with them and they became

friends and then a Roman general named

Focus isn't that a good name like

because you know like you're not you're

distracted and your parent shouts

Focus it's just the perfect name for a

kid um general

focus was really angry because morus had

allowed a group of his me of focus's men

to get killed in an ambush and he he he

held this really nasty Grudge eventually

Focus ends up in Constantinople and he

murders the Roman Emperor and makes

himself the Roman Emperor so now focus

in 602 ad is the Roman

Emperor hro II the Persian Emperor is

outraged that his friend moros has been

killed like this and so hro declares war

on Rome to avenge the death of his

friend and to depose

Focus initially the Persians have some

successes but they don't last and the

war sort of drags on and a bunch of

nothing gets done and

then

um there's an uprising within the Roman

Empire against Focus that Uprising is

led by a man named hercus and hercus

eventually takes over and becomes the

new Roman Emperor the problem is is this

war now has a life of its own and so

even though focus is is taken out of the

picture and in effect kro II gets his

way it doesn't matter anymore they're in

the war they're just going to go ahead

and fight it out and to make a long

story short

a Persian General his name was

Shahar see where there's there's parts

of the Roman Empire that are they have

uh vertical lines through them shahra

carved that chunk of the Roman Empire

off and and began ruling it himself

basically because he eventually himself

rebells against the Persians and so

they're actually ends up being three

Empires one Empire that stretches from

Egypt to Armenia ruled by Shah bar the

Persian Empire to the East and the Roman

Empire to the

West um eventually hercus makes a deal

with Shah baraz to try to make him the

new emperor to end the

war uh hercus actually ended up raising

shahbaz's son his name was

nikus and he raised him as a Christian

and so Emperor hercus is thinking nikus

will eventually become the Christian

ruler of the Persian Empire the the

struggle between ran Persia will finally

end and so he he pushes really hard

backs Shah baras Shah baras finally

takes over tison the Persian capital in

628 so this war went

26 years he takes over the Persian

Capital becomes the Persian Emperor he

even mints a coin with his face on it

and 40 Days Later is stabbed to

death but the war ended so that was good

it's just the goal wasn't

achieved

628 it and this is where the

intersection takes place

between the story I wanted to tell you

and the and the background that I gave

you in 610 in

Arabia so if you went right off the map

to the South that's where Mecca is and

and Stephen's going to scroll down for

us right there where it says

M um there is a man who

receives Prophecy from the Archangel

Gabriel and his name is Muhammad and he

becomes the prophet who will create

Islam I'm not going to give you the

whole story but I just want to make sure

that we're clear approximately what

we're talking about in 622 the people of

Mecca kick him and his followers out so

for 12 years he he he built his religion

in Mecca he's kicked out by the meccans

who hate his religion in part because

they're worried that his religion is

going to interfere with their prophets

but also his religion might replace

their religion when when the prophet

Muhammad created Islam his original goal

was to take Christianity and Judaism and

reunite them he believed that it was a

that it was an accident that Judaism and

Christianity got separated and he

believed he had received the word of God

to fix that and put it back together but

as time goes go by he concludes that the

Christians and and the Jews don't want

anything to do with his new religion and

he realizes he's created a third

abrahamic religion and it's

separate he ends up in 622 doing the

Hijra which takes him to yri which on

this map is spelled

yatri and the the people there in yri

take him in and eventually the city gets

renamed Medina nebbi which means the

city of the Prophet today we just call

it Medina so if you look at a map you

won't see a th on there a modern map

you'll see Medina that's that

City in

625 the Muslims are going to have a

fight with the meccans a battle

Ood and the meccans beat the

Muslims in 627 the meccans attack yri

and they fight a battle called the

battle of the

trench khed was a soldier in both of

those battles

in 625 he was there when the meccans

defeated Muhammad and the Muslims and he

was fighting for the meccans against the

Muslims in 627 he's there again at the

Battle of the

trench where the Muslims defeat the

mechans afterwards and we don't know

exactly when but within two years he he

switches sides and he converts to

Islam in 629 that's why I know it's

within two years he's marching with uh

soldiers from yeth North so see where it

says Petra go to the east of that

there's a city called or a town called

muta and he marches towards mut with

this Army 3,000 Arabs 3,000 Muslim Arabs

and their goal is to attack the Roman

Empire because they're in it see where

it says bunny ran the ranids were

Christian Arabs who fought fought for

the

Romans where it says uh

ban those were Christian Arabs who

fought for the

Persians so I'm going to have to be

careful here when I say Arabs when I so

I'm gonna I'm going to try to remember

to say Muslim Arabs so that you know I'm

not talking about the Christian Arabs

fighting for the Romans or the Persians

right for the record there are Jewish

Arabs too in the whole mix just to make

it really

complicated in any case they they they

march to mut

the Romans find out there's this Muslim

Army coming towards them they don't

they're not they don't take it very

seriously but they take it seriously

enough they dispatch a force to go meet

them we don't know the exact size of the

Roman Force I'm I would bet you like a a

dollar maybe a dollar 10 that it was

about 10,000

soldiers um his sources from the time

period said it was 100,000 I find that

really hard to believe because the

Romans were having so much trouble

Fielding a force and why would you bring

100,000 men to fight three 3,000 men it

seems unlikely but anyway the number is

probably 10,000 maybe 20,000 it's not a

100,000 so the Arabs are deployed the

Muslim Arabs are deployed against

Christian Arabs who are fighting for the

Romans and the Romans outnumber them

probably three or four or five to one

maybe 6 to one maybe 7 to one it's bad

and they fight instead of running away

like they should have and they they get

the crap beat out of them and the the

Muslim Arabs are just in bad trouble and

they keep retreating they keep

retreating one Commander after another

dies finally the last Commander turns to

KH and goes I want you to figure out how

to get us out of here and hands him the

banner to put him in command of of the

Arab Army the Muslim Arab

Army and what KH does is he'll take

soldiers

and he'll give them a banner and he'll

have them sneak around a hill at night

so they're behind the hill and then in

the daytime he'll have them come over

the top of the hill and then when they

arrive where the Arab Army is he

secretly sneaks them another Banner they

sneak around the back side of the hill

and then they'll come over the top of it

again and then he gives them another

banner and then they'll go around the

back of the hill and they'll come over

the top so the Romans watching this

they're like man look at all the reinfor

enforcements they're getting and it was

just the same group of guys that just

kept marching in a circle around this

hill and then when the sun went down he

would have each man set five 10

campfires and then try to keep walking

around in front of the campfires so the

Romans watching it would not only see a

bunch of campfires they would see all

these men walking in front of the

campfires and he just kept doing these

tricks and what it did was it kept the

Romans from attacking because the Romans

thought man I don't know how big that

Force is there's so many of them and he

kept doing this until he finally got far

enough away from the Roman Roman army he

could just tell his men to run let's run

and they

ran that is the only battle khn was in

command of where he didn't

win it was the first time he was ever in

command and he was put in command after

they had already

lost in circumstances that were

impossible to win

the prophet Muhammad will eventually

capture Mecca and when he does he'll own

the western part of Arabia and the Very

eastern part of Arabia but not the rest

of it and this is important because

Arabia had never ever ever in its entire

history up until that moment been ruled

by a single political

entity not the Arabians had never ruled

Arabia the Persians had never ruled Arab

Arabia the Ethiopians had never ruled

Arabia the Romans had never ruled Arabia

at one point the the Ethiopians had

captured a piece of Arabia the

Yemen uh one and then of course the

Persians have that chunk over there in

the Northeast and the Romans had that

Chunk in the

Northwest but no one had ever ruled all

of Arabia as a single political

entity the closest anybody had come in

fact was the prophet Muhammad when he

died in 63 to he had gotten such a big

chunk he probably had about

40% of

Arabian he was replaced by a name guy

named Abu

Bakr Abu Bakr didn't take the title King

he didn't take the title Emperor he took

the title follower of the messenger of

God and became the ruler of this Muslim

control chunk of Arabia

he he made two armies he sent one Army

from yatri to East and he sent the other

Army South to Yemen and his goal is to

finally once and for all conquer Arabia

and Rule it and actually he was ruling

from

Mecca at that

point the guy he put in charge of his

army that went East was

khed and Khaled will will do a series of

battles

against a heretic who was claiming to be

the real prophet in in a in an event

called the RDA Wars and KH will win

battle after battle after battle and by

633 Arabia is

Unified so the campaign started in 632

it took less than a year and in part

because of khaled's decisive victories

in the center of

Arabia at that point there's argument

amongst historians

actly what happened next did Abu Bak

order Khaled to keep going or did he

tell Khaled to stop it's entirely

possible either is true he doesn't stop

that's the important thing whether he

was told to stop or to told to keep

going he doesn't stop and he goes

towards the very southern tip of

Iraq um so see where it says Sab he's

headed in that

direction he ends up fighting a battle

in what is today Kuwait it's called The

Battle of the chains the Persian General

Horus uh chains up his elite soldiers to

show the the Arabs that there is no

retreat that the Persians will fight to

the death because they've made it so

they can't Retreat because they're

chained together but also because khed

relied heavily on it on Cavalry it would

be impossible to do a cavalry charge

through them because there are chains in

between them so there's no way to get

through

what khed lik to what what the way

battles went back then everybody did

this the Persians the Romans everybody

do this is they would send Champions to

go fight each other before the

battle but what the Arabs likeed to do

was first

poetry so they would get their best

improv poet because they would improv

they would improv right there they

didn't they didn't have a poem written

in advance and they would get that poet

to shout to the other Army a poem and

the belief was that if you shouted a

good enough poem you should the other

side should give you the field and walk

away and of course the Persians are like

screw you we don't even speak Arabic we

don't know what you're

saying so after the Arab shouts this

poetry at the Persians who are

annoyed khed walks out and says I'm my

Champion I'll fight the Persian Champion

that's a problem for the Persian General

then because if he doesn't go fight it's

General versus gen if he doesn't make it

General versus General it makes him look

like a coward so the Persian General

goes okay let me fight and they go out

and they fight and KH kills them within

like 30 seconds it's a really quick

fight and so now the Persians are going

to go into the battle without their

General and what K did was he just kept

using his Cavalry to do these charges

against the Persians that just kept them

off balance kept them off balance until

finally he broke up their order and what

they should have done was they should

have repositioned or they should have

retreated a little bit and then

repositioned but they can't because

they're chained together and he swings

his Cavalry around the backside and

starts harassing them and he tears them

to Pieces the estimate is that he

brought 18,000 men against 20,000

Persians the same Persians who tore

those Romans to Pieces almost 700 years

prior and he walked away with a couple

hundred

killed and the Persians lost and most

were killed or

captured and then what he's going to do

is he's going to work his way along the

western Bank of the Euphrates river and

his goal is the city that's labeled as

herat there at the time it was called H

um or at least the Arabs called it h and

and he's heading towards

H and he'll fight uh three more battles

the river

waja and I'm drawing u waj in the

river and one of the battles I don't

remember which one I'm slightly

embarrassed but not really there's 50

battles dude I can't keep all this

straight in my head at one of the

battles one of the Persian generals is

like screw this because khed kept going

I'll be your champion and he walks out

now the Persian General is stuck doing

the same thing and the first thing that

happens in the opening moments of the

battle is the Persian General gets

killed and so this Persian General goes

okay I bet that bastard's going to do

this again so he buried a dozen Persian

soldiers in the battlefield right where

they he thought the challenge would take

place with straws so they could breathe

through it he buried them in the night

so that in the morning they would come

out and do the challenge and then what

was supposed to happen is once the

challenge started the 12 Persian

soldiers would jump up and they just

murder right there so khed walks out the

Persian General walks out the 12 men

jump

up and one of khaled's cousins was in

the Army the the Muslim Arab Army and

he's like that's not fair and he runs

out and joins khed and the two men

murder the 13

Persians and then they destroy the

Persian

army and he would use different tactics

every time and one of the battles what

he did was he had he snuck two Cavalry

units behind a hill and the Persians

were in between his men on the other

side of the hill and his army and he

just kept slowly backing his army up and

making a circle a half circle out of it

so the Persians would kind of go into

the middle and then he signaled his

Cavalry they came riding over the hill

and they attack the Persians from behind

completely surrounded destroys

them he captures Hira and then on the

way so see where it says uh P P's

sabur that is anbar the city of anbar in

Ira in Iraq today he's heading towards

that place that's where he wants to go

and he's going to fight three

battles one after the other in

succession and here's what he

does so there were 60,000 Persian

soldiers in three separate armies 20,000

each and they're coming for him and by

this time this point he's down to 15,00

men because even though he keeps winning

he's still taking losses so it's going

to be four to one odds if he lets those

three Persian armies merge together and

he's thinking I don't think I can beat

60,000 men with 15,000 men so if I'm

going to win I'm goingon to have to

attack them peace meal I'm gonna have to

hit each of the three Persian units

before they get together so he races his

army as fast as he can towards the first

one but first he cuts his army into

three 5,000 man

units and he and he tells them we're

we're going to arrive at 2

am and he gives them a date like two

weeks in advance and he says I need you

at this

location at this time on this day go and

they take three different

paths and they going to they're going to

come at this Persian unit and he's

guessing where he thinks that Persian

unit will have arrived to by that

point I challenge you this is my

Challenge three of you you and two of

your best friends get into three

separate cars and you can use

GPS pick a spot somewhere on the other

side of the US because it needs to be a

long road trip right three days not I

don't I'm not even going to make it two

weeks just three days so I don't care

where you want to go Washington or the

other Washington either way it'll work

out to be about the same but make the

three of you take three separate paths

and then time it so that you arrive at

the exact same moment bet you can't do

it now take away

GPS and navigate at night trying to

guess where you think the enemy Army is

going to

be they're there when the three armies

converge at the exact same moment they

catch the Persians sleep in their Camp

they tear them to pieces

he's like all right one down two to go

he looks at his men he goes this is

where the Persian army is going to the

next one's going to be and he tells them

I want you there this day this time go

three different ways and the three units

charge as fast as they can and they get

there and the Persian army is there and

he destroys that one

too and he tells his man all right we

got one

more one more

and

go and they arrive at the right time on

the right day in the spot where the

Persians were at night and they wiped

out the third 20,000 man unit with

almost no losses they dispatched 60,000

men in a maneuver that I bet a

contemporary military force would never

be able to execute let alone three times

in a

around insane it shouldn't

beable he gets to where it says

Dura that's the city of

FZ FAS was the border between the Roman

Empire and the Persian Empire the

Persians and the Romans hated each

others guts they had been fighting each

other 6 628

plus

52 right it was 53 BC the Battle of K

but there's no year zero so you have to

subtract one that's why I'm doing 52 so

what what is 28 plus 52 80 for

680 years the Romans and the Persians

had been fighting each

other can you comprehend 680 years of

warfare like I don't even know what that

means what do you what does that even

mean by the time

KH gets to F the Persians and the Romans

looked at each other and went we are no

you are no longer the enemy we have a

new enemy I don't know where these guys

even came from because you have to

remember at at this point in time the

persans had been an empire for

1,200

years and the Romans had officially been

an Empire calling themselves an empire

for 600 years what they had been

Imperial for the 300 before that because

even before Rome was an Empire it owned

Spain it owned North Africa it owned

Syria it owned turkey it owned Greece

right and so you have 900 years of

imperial history for the Romans and

12200 years of imperial history for the

Persians there's 21

centuries between those two empires and

they're also technologically the most

advanced civilizations on Earth and they

had massive populations compared to the

Arabs they're down because of malaria

but the Arabs don't have any

rivers they don't have the agricultural

capacity to support large populations

the Arabs are outnumbered they're out

technologi they're out

moneyed they're out experienced they're

out

equipped and khed in one year has

captured Iraq

our military was there for eight years

we didn't capture anything we captured

IEDs in the

face so the the Persians go to the

Romans they're like okay we're going to

fight this one as allies right and the

Romans are like yes yeah we're good

because in the meantime an Arab Army has

attacked from this side and is trying to

get to

Jerusalem and so the Romans know that

that the Arabs

you're outnumbered you're out technology

you're out money and you're facing two

empires do you attack both at the same

time that makes no sense but it's

exactly what the Arabs did they attacked

the two oldest most powerful Empires at

the same

time even though they were outnumbered

by one let alone

boat and so the Romans are like yeah

yeah we'll work with you so at

FZ the combined Roman and Persian armies

which by the way was largely made up of

Christian Arabs not not completely but

there was a huge contingent probably

about 50,000 Christian Arabs the

combined Persian and Roman army was

150,000

men against

15,000 Muslim

Arabs so khed arrives khed is on the

East Bank of the Euphrates the Persians

and the Romans are on the West Bank

there's a Ford and a bridge which is

convenient if you're moving an army it's

nice and so khed is on the khed needs

the Persians and the Romans to cross the

river to

fight so he very politely backs his army

up from the bridge in the

for and split it into three 5,000 man

units he liked that and he put one up

River one down river and then pull the

other one away from the river and he

just

waited so the Persians and Romans start

to cross the bridge in the they're also

crossing the Ford at the same

time and he waits and he waits and he

waits and then he does a prayer as he's

waiting and he says

God if you give me this Victory I will

go to Mecca and I will do the Hodge

I know I'm going to die I know there's

no way we're going to defeat 150,000 men

today but that's what I will do I'll go

I'll run and I'll do the

Hodge and uh and I'm actually happy that

I get to die as a warrior here

today when 50,000 Persians and Romans

had crossed the Euphrates he blew a horn

the men that were up and down river

attacked them by going along the

riverbank

and tried to then merge at the bridge in

the Ford so that they would

cut the guys who had crossed off from

the guys on the other side then what

Khaled did was he took the 5,000 men who

against 50,000 and he has them charge

into him and he had he had his men as

thin as

possible and then he backs his men up

and then he charges again and then he

backs his men up and he charges again

and every time his horses go in to those

men it it compressed them a little bit

it compressed them a little bit more so

after a while the Persians and the

Romans are so compressed they can't move

their arms they can't swing their

weapons he's just compacted them

together and they realize what he's done

to them and they panic and they turn

around to run back to the River to cross

it 50,000 men turning all at once to

Stampede you could hear the bones

breaking

and then the Muslim Arabs just went in

and started killing them as they're

running by the time the battle was done

200 Muslim Arabs were dead 50,000

Persians and Romans were

dead what is

this K's like okay I'm alive that's

surprise

and so what he does is he he orders his

men back to

H so what he does is he says

okay I need to arrive at H I need to

show up on top at the front of my Army

but I've Got to Now go to Mecca to do

this Hodge so he takes his fastest

horses and his best men and they Race

Across the desert as fast as they can

they get to Mecca he puts on a hood so

that nobody will see his face he quickly

does the Hodge he jumps back on a horse

and he rides as fast as he can he gets

to the front of his army just as it's

arriving at H and he assumes the

position as if he was there the whole

time and he marches his men into the

City and a few days later a messenger

arrives from Mecca sent by Abu Bakr the

khif and it said you were spotted in

Mecca don't do that

again abak then orders him to invade

Syria so he's going to basically Miss

Dura he's going to go south of dura and

he's heading towards

Damascus that's his goal is to capture

Damascus because the the the Muslim

Arabs are thinking if they capture

Damascus they'll get Jerusalem in the

aftermath because the Romans will be

there'll be an Arab Army north of the

Roman army and they won't be able to

maintain their supply line so they'll

they'll just simply Retreat and that's

how they'll capture Jerusalem

takes his men across this really nasty

chunk of desert in a

logistical feat that would be hard to

replicate with a contemporary Army today

he just takes his men through a spot

that has no water and no food and he

gets them across they show up in Syria

they come up to Damascus and he captures

the

city at that point Emperor harac is

tearing his hair out trying to figure

out what to do because all of this is a

shock and a surprise

nobody ever thought the Arabs were a

threat where is this even coming

from so hercus goes to Antioch which is

on that map as

antia but it's Antioch and uh they had

renamed it uh theopolis which is city of

God and he shows up and he's hunkered

down in there and he gets together his

generals and he decides to Launch

Counterattack and and what hercus is's

idea is you send four Roman armies and

you catch the four Arab Muslim Arab

armies in four separate locations and

you take them out peace meal hercus does

not want to ever have a situation where

he's bringing all four of his armies

together because he doesn't have the

economy to support having that many men

in one location that there's just too

few people the infrastructure has fallen

apart

word reaches that the Muslims that there

are these four armies now coming towards

them the

commander of the four armies is a guy

named Ida

abua

abua uh was told that he was in command

and khed was

relieved of command he could still be a

general but he would not be the guy in

charge and the reason is is because the

new KH Abu Bak only lived two years as

KH he's dead he's replaced by a guy

named

Omar the new khif is khaled's first

cousin and he doesn't trust Khaled he

thinks Khaled has political Ambitions

and so he's worried that if people like

him too much because he's too amazing

he'll eventually try to become the new

khif and he'll do a political coup so he

demotes khed and and but so AB orders

the Arab armies to head over towards

where it says Al

jabia the problem is the the ranids keep

attacking them from behind and so the

the Muslims try to figure out what to do

they decide to hold a

conference and then what they do is they

ask an interesting

question Abu does the commander and the

question he asks is would you guys

rather have khed in charge or

me and everybody looks at looks at him

like you know we feel guilty saying this

but

yeah and he goes me

too I would like to propose that we

promote khed to being in command

unofficially because I'll be officially

in command but but unofficially he'll be

in charge and everybody votes yes and so

he takes command of the army even though

he can't because he's been

demoted and uh he comes up with a plan

and the plan is to head back a little

ways towards Damascus to get away from

the ganid to a spot where the the Muslim

Army I don't know how I should do this

should I aim myself like this it's weird

talking to you with my back who I'll do

it this way so on the south end of the

Muslim Army is this giant

Ravine and then there's a plateau it's

called the plain of

yarmuk and the Ravine is the Ravine of

yarmuk and then across from the Ravine

is another Ravine so you can't really

use them as an army because you'd be

falling off a cliff to go into them

they're really steep so he's got his

Left Flank his Southern flank covered by

this Ravine and they just wait which now

forces because now all four of the Arab

armies are in one location it forces the

Romans to bring their armies together

with didn't want to do the commander of

the Roman army is an Armenian named

vajan but a huge chunk of this Roman

army probably about a quarter of it was

actually made up of Arabs Christian

Arabs so this is going to be an Arab

versus Arab fight at some core

level vahan brings his army up and he

puts it in between the second Ravine in

the west and the the Muslim

Army on day one

he does a really light gentle probing

attack just to try to figure out uh what

he's up against how the Arabs are going

to respond to his attack he's just just

going up and touching to figure out

what's going

on uh the Arabs feel the pressure

because they're outnumbered again now

this isn't F level outnumbered but it's

still

bad we don't know the exact numbers but

it's probably in the ballpark that there

were 120,000

Romans and about 40,000 Muslim Arabs so

the Muslim Arabs are outnumbered by

about 3 to

one and so Bahan is just sort of

checking things out because he knows

these Muslim Arabs are good Fighters he

doesn't want to do anything risky on day

one the sun goes down they disengage few

hundred people are wounded or killed

it's not heavy

casualties on day two vahan decides he's

going to have the Roman Left Flank and

the Roman right flank hit the Muslim

Army as hard as it can because he

figures he's got the numerical Advantage

hit them as hard as you can so he orders

that the Muslim commander on the left is

a guy named yazid and the Muslim

commander on the right is a guy

named and and and Abu obida is in the

middle the guy who's supposed to be in

charge and then kalid's in the back

controlling

everything and the weight of the Roman

army is so overwhelming both Muslim

flanks are

collapsing and they're in full

Retreat and uh in the north on the

Muslim right flank the women so is worth

pointing something out that's actually

really interesting women have always

been an integral part of warfare

in all times we pretend like we've just

recently let women in the militaries the

Persians had an all-woman Archer

division the stories about the

Amazon that wasn't made up that

mythology was based on a real event a a

rogue Archer division of women we don't

know why decided to go on a tear and

attacked a bunch of Greek city states on

the agan sea and burnt their temples and

set their on fire I cussed I said I

wouldn't uh and they deserved it just

for the record and then the Greeks were

so traumatized by this they they were

like we were attacked by Amazon and they

were and it really did

happen Isn't that

cool I think it's

cool usually women were support staff

they weren't indirect combat roles

notice I didn't say always I said

usually for example the Vikings fielded

women the Persians the Vikings the

Armenians fielded women the Romans did

not ever field women they were against

it but women still played a support role

in their Le in in Roman

Legions and the Arabs were the same they

they did have some women warriors by the

way just so we're clear um but for the

most part Mo there were very few women

who participated directly in battle

in any case the women

On's side uh pull down the tents grab

the

posts and charge the men who are

retreating and they shout at them you've

you've shamed your

wives and now you have a choice you can

be killed by your wives or you can be

killed by the Romans

vahan's blown away he can't believe that

he attacked an army a third the size

they broke it it rallied and pushed them

back but he thinks I've got it I've

killed enough of them this was a bloody

enough Affair I can probably break them

the next day so the next day which is

really day three at this

point he decides to focus everything

he's got on the the Muslim right flank

so he's going to ignore half the Muslim

Army he takes everything and he smashes

it in and sure enough the Muslims are

being pushed back and the women take the

tent post back and are holding it a line

against their own men and the Arab men

turn around and re-engage and they

stabilize the situation khed brings his

Cavalry units around and he smashes into

the Roman flanks that are attacking and

they slowly push the Romans back and day

three ends right where it

began V is now really upset because he

can't comprehend how he's not moving

this Arab Army but he thinks okay I

think we're still in this so day four he

decides to do the same thing push that

same Muslim right flank just hit him as

hard as you can with everything you've

got and the khed this time had assumed

this was going to happen so what he had

done is he had redeployed his Cavalry so

that it would be able to respond more

quickly and he manages to stabilize the

flank even though it does start to

collapse they do start to fall back and

they manag to push the romens back and

they stop day four right where they

started day five vahan sends a guy to

talk and he's he's ready to come up with

a compromise like maybe you get

Jerusalem and we keep Damascus something

like that khed goes oh the Romans only

talk when they're

losing okay I'm going to refused to

talk day six he took all his Cavalry was

about 8,000 men out of his 40,000 men

about 8,000 were Cavalry and he put all

of them on his right flank when the when

the sun came up he swung it around so

now the Romans are trapped between his

Army and the two Ravines there was a

bridge over the Western Ravine during

the night he had sent 500 Cavalry around

through the plane they had snuck down

into the Ravine and they had captured

the bridge and his goal is to get the

Romans to run towards the bridge because

there's nowhere to go because the

Muslims actually have the bridge they

just the Romans don't know and he comes

swinging over the top and he smashes the

Roman Left Flank really hard he breaks

the Roman Cavalry in it that was there

and he breaks the Roman army that was

there it's the Cavalry unit and the Army

start to retreat they're running in to

other Roman R units sending them into

disarray and then the Romans try to

respond with heavy Cavalry vahan sees

what's happening he organiz his Cavalry

he draws it in but it's heavy Cavalry

and it's slow khed comes in with his

light Cavalry and he attacks them before

they can get into more formation

destroys them then he takes his Cavalry

and he slams it into the back of the

Roman army it breaks and goes into full

Retreat and that's how he took 40,000

men against 120,000 men at yarmuk and

destroy them vahan got

away with with a Cavalry Detachment KH

grabbed his fastest horses in his best

men and they took off and they chased

General vahan and they caught up with

him just outside of

Damascus and khed lets his Man tear up

vahan's man until the only man standing

is vahab and khed had told his man don't

touch

him and then he comes up to vah and he

says you are a man a man's man and so

I'm going to give you a man's death and

they dled one-on-one and he kills

vahan and then Khaled goes and

recaptures

Damascus Emperor hercus holds a

council and he asks his remaining

generals what should we do

and the generals tell them we've lost

Syria it's done there's nothing we can

do about

it and so hercus gets on a ship and he

says farewell Syria you have been a

lovely Province and now you will be a

lovely Province for the Arabs and he

withdraws and that was the last time

second to last time there was a Roman

army in Syria they'll they'll get in one

more time but they don't really keep it

for

long khed in his Army now return to

Jerusalem which on this map is hero

sua in case you

wondering and when they get there um the

Romans have largely abandoned it the

Roman military house but there's enough

people manning the walls that you can't

get

in so the Arab Army stuck outside trying

to figure out how to get inside so they

can capture this holy

City the Archbishop of Jerusalem a man

named

seus by the way a Christian Arab a loyal

Roman

citizen indicates he's willing to

negotiate but only with

om

the well Theif is all the way back in

Mecca it'll be weeks before he can be

sent for and then return

so they come up with a scheme and the

scheme

is since khed is om's first cousin he

actually looks like him so they pretend

KH is the KH they meet with sanus and

while they're talking somebody had

actually met Omar I'm sorry had met

khed and knew that was khed and so he

tells Theus you're being duped it's not

really Theif it's some other dude it's

that General that that's been tearing us

up fronius is outraged he goes you lied

to me and he he calls off the

negotiations for the surrender so now

they ARS are stuck getting

the so fronius comes out of the gates

weeks later to meet the khif because he

sees the khalif's Army arrive and as

he's

approaching he sees a man leading a

camel at the front of the army so for

the record the rich Arabs the Arabs who

were good soldiers didn't usually ride

camels they usually rode horses

Arabians and for those of you who don't

know Arabians are fast and agile and

they have crazy

personalities and so they're they're

perfect for Warfare camels are a little

bit clumsy and slow they serve a purpose

in Warfare but you're better off on an

Arabian in any case the Arab Army is

being led by a man leading a camel with

a man on the camel so sophronius he's

got a giant red hat because he's also a

cardinal right he's got gold tassels

actual gold hanging from his hat he's

covered in gold jewelry he's wearing red

robes he's covered in perfume he's on

altica the was the couch that the Romans

would ride and then they'd have like

four or eight men depending how big it

is carrying it and then he has two men

one on each side Fanning him of course

right that's what Jesus would want from

his

Bishops it's exactly right and he's

coming out on this lectica being

F and he comes up to the guy on the

camel and he says uh where is Theif and

the guy on the camel does like this he

nods his head at the guy leading the

camel so sophronius turns to the guy

leading the camel goes where's the khif

and the guy leading camel says I'm

Theif and sephius goes dude you're

dressed in

rags the guy's pants were H were mended

multiple times his shirt was mended

multiple times and he goes no no I'm the

khif and sephius goes you've just

conquered Iraq and Syria and all of

Palestine minus Jerusalem how is it

you're so poor

and the khif goes well why would I

collect wealth I'm we're not doing this

war because I'm trying to plunder

anything I'm a humble man with humble

needs I just need good

meal and then sephius goes why aren't

you riding the camel and Omar goes uh

that's my servant on the camel and we

take turns so that neither one of us

gets

exhausted at this point sephius is like

oh what who just conquered us what are

these

marxists and so sephius gets off the

lectica because he's shamed off of the

thing and he says okay I I I want to

talk to you about our surrendering the

city to you and and and the khif says I

have an

idea let's walk to the city and I'll

tell you what I was thinking the terms

would be and in and in so we'll start

there and so goes yes of

course and as they're

walking says why don't we do this all

Roman

politicians leave Jerusalem you just go

if you're a

politician so if you're top

bureaucrat an

officer and you can take anything you

can carry

so you can take

gold as long as you can

carry and so fronius goes okay uh I mean

that's

reasonable that's actually more than

reasonable I I just assumed you'd

enslave them and take their

gold I don't I don't see how anybody

would be mad about

that and then what else and the goes oh

no I was thinking that's it uh we we

don't do anything else and sophronius

goes wait a minute I am really confused

so when us Romans capture a city we

enslave a segment we plunder the city

probably a little bit too much raping

too we might even burn some of it just

for grins and giggles and then we

declare it to be

ours what about that

andab goes no no no no we're not going

to do any of that no

plundering no raping no enslaving we

don't do that

stuff and then Fus goes oh but you're

going to like seize property in the city

and so and the khif goes no no we're not

going to take anybody's property we're

going to leave the city exactly like it

is the only thing I want to do is eject

the Roman

politicians with whatever they can

carry and sophronius goes there's

nothing to negotiate yeah we surrender

the city this

instant I I don't understand

actually they walk into the

city khid is one of the men following

all these guys they're on foot if if

they've got their horses with them

they're leading their horses by the

Reigns right because the leadership is

on foot there's no way they're going to

ride in they're walking and this is a

holy city to them because Jesus is Holy

to them because the Jews were holy to

them and so they they see this as a holy

city so fronius

goes tell me about your religion as

they're walking through the streets and

so omab starts telling

about

Islam sephius goes it just sounds like a

variation of Christianity I I feel like

our religions are shockingly

similar and Omar goes yeah because they

are I mean we thought we were doing uh

Judaism

3.0 it never occur to us that we were

going to be received as being so

different

and uh he goes okay since you've given

us such

amazing surrender terms my alarm is

going on and I can't turn it off and

it's so embarrassing it's telling me to

put my kids to bed

um I should have remembered to turn it

off but it didn't occur to me he says

you've given us such amazing surrender

terms and because I feel such kinship

with your religion will you do me an

honor will you come to my church and

pray in your Muslim way next to me as I

pray in my Christian way and Omar goes

never and srus goes why he goes I am the

halff the first place I pray in

Jerusalem is going to become a mosque

the Muslims will take it and they will

create a place of worship for Muslims

and you will lose it and I don't want

you to lose your

church and sephius goes

oh uh okay what if we find an empty

piece of Jerusalem and we just pray

there and Omar goab goes yes I accept an

empty piece something that nobody

owns so they go and they find an empty

lot and they

pray the Archbishop in his Christian way

the khif in his Muslim way side by

side it is a mosque today that spot

commemorating the first place that the

first Muslim KH prayed in in Jerusalem

he nailed it he he knew I was coming and

he saved the Church of the Holy Seiler

for Christians because that's the church

sophronius wanted him to pray

in at that point the khif says I want to

see the temple

Mount and seus goes why and KH goes

because it's it's holy it's holy to

everybody it's holy to Christians it's

holy to Jews it's holy to Muslims and

seus goes nah we haven't been treating

it as holy to

anybody and Omar goes what do you

mean and so sephus says so after we tore

down the second temple of Solomon when

we conquered

Palestine we turned the Temple Mount

into a garbage jump to punish the

Jews and so and the goes what you you

mean and sophronius goes yeah we've been

there's like 500 years of refuge on that

thing it's just a garbage

dump and he goes show me they walk up to

the Temple Mount and the can't believe

what he's looking at he falls on his

knees and he begins clearing the garbage

by his hands his army sees their leader

on his knees clearing garbage and they

run up and they start clearing the

garbage themselves

and they clear the garbage off the

Temple

Mount Theif goes

okay I want to meet some of the Jews

living in Jerusalem and sophronius goes

there are no Jews in

Jerusalem and the khif goes what do you

mean there's no Jews in Jerusalem the

city is Holy to the Jews how could there

be no Jews and he says well us

Christians we pretty much murder them

every chance we get we really hate Jews

in fact in the war we just did against

the Persians the Jews sided with the

Persians and so we murdered 20,000 Jews

in Jerusalem and completely purged the

city of its remaining Jewish

population and Omar goes no this is

wrong you can't do

this and so he turns to a convert to

Islam a Jewish convert to Islam and he

says I need you to find me 80 Jewish

families that were willing to volunteer

to move to Jerusalem so we can

reestablish a Jewish presence in the

city and

that's how the Muslims conquered

Jerusalem and that's the stuff that's

left out of your history

books isn't that crazy

because isn't that an amazing

story after

Jerusalem Omar turns to khed and goes I

know you fought at yuk and I know you

impersonated

me I really hate

you you're going to go to

Mecca and you're going to spend the rest

of your days

there you're not no more combat for you

I'm retiring

you I actually don't think he died in he

did leave but he never fought another

battle that was it that was the end of

his military

career he was he died in B at age 50 I

don't know what what was ailing him

something got him and his final words

were you cannot put your hand anywhere

on my body without touching a combat

wound I am covered in scars

it was my dream that God would let me

die as a man on the field of

battle here I am in a bed dying like a

cow and that's where I'm going to end

the story