Siege of Ctesiphon (637)
Khuzestan Central Persia Caucasus Pars Khorasan Other geographies The siege of Ctesiphon took place from January to March, 637 between the forces of Sasanian Empire and Rashidun Caliphate.
Ctesiphon, located on the eastern bank of the Tigris, was one of the great cities of Persia, the imperial capital of the Parthian and Sassanid Empires.
After a Muslim victory in the Battle of al-Qādisiyyah, the Caliph Umar ruled that it was time to conquer the Sassanid Empire's capital of Ctesiphon.
He then deployed detachments of troops in the city and along the road leading to Ctesiphon to slow the enemy advance and gain enough time to set up the necessary defenses.
Zuhra ibn al-Hawiyya al-Tamimi assumed the guidance of the avant-garde, composed only of the cavalry, and received orders to move quickly against the main defensive positions of the enemy along the road to Ctesiphon.
While the bulk of the Muslims stationed at Babylon, Zuhra received from Sa'd the order of chasing the Sassanids who had withdrawn from the city before they could concentrate somewhere else and oppose a new resistance.
The Arab-Muslim avant-garde at the command of Zuhra attacked the Persians and struck their backs at Sūrā, breaking into Sasanian and prompting them to withdraw to Deir Ka'b.
Zuhra then marched on Deir Ka'b, where he defeated a Sasanian detachment, providing protection to the people under the same conditions accorded to the inhabitants of Babylon.
At the beginning of January 637, the Muslim avant-garde of Zuhra reached Kūthā, seventeen kilometers from Ctesiphon, where the Persians made the last attempt to oppose the Arabs.
According to reports, the Sassanid forces were led by a lion who had been specially trained for war, who quickly advanced towards the Muslim lines, astonishing the horses, who fled in fear.
Sa'd bin Abī Waqqāṣ advanced the forces and kissed Hāshim on his forehead, in admiration for his unseen act of heroism.
It is said that the emissary has said: Our Emperor asks you if you would be in favor of a peace based on the fact that the Tigris function as a demarcation line between you and us, so that what extends to the east of it will remain ours and what is west is yours.
While closing Ctesiphon in their own defense, the Sassanian forces and Bahurasīr residents abandoned most of the city the following day, destroying all the bridges on the Tigris behind them.
With this measure, Yazdegerd alleged that he could resist the Muslims until he could arrange reinforcements from other provinces of the Empire and break the narrow circle from the besiegers.
The Persian volunteers who had accepted the power of the Muslims showed Sa'd a downstream site where they could cross the river, but it was not too sure if such a transaction would be possible, given the high water level.
Although the Muslim forces conquered the Persian provinces, even as far as Khuzistan, their advance was slowed down by a severe drought in Arabia in 638 and by plagues in southern Iraq and in Syria in 639.
The Sassanids continued their struggle to regain the lost territories, but their powerful army was defeated in the Battle of Nahavand, fought in December 641.
