From August 20th to August 20th in the year 636 one of the most important battles in world history took place.

The participants in the battle couldn't have known it, but the results of that battle would shape world history for the next 1,400 years.

Much of the geography of the world today can be traced back to the results of those six days.

Learn more about the Battle of Yarmuk, and one of the most important battles in world history

on this episode of the greatest battles in world history.

I did quite a bit of research on the topic and I eventually found myself asking the question

what is a great battle? I previously did an episode on the Battle of Cany, where the Romans were routed by the Carthaginians during the Second Punic War.

It's a very famous battle simply for the brilliant general ship of Hannibal. However, in the end end it didn't really matter. Rome lost

the battle but they still ended up winning the war. So I began trying to find

battles that really turned the course of history. These type of conflicts

wouldn't have been one European king fighting some other European

king, but rather clashes of civilizations. A battle where if things were to have gone differently,

the world would be a very different place today.

Sometimes it's a case of defeating an invading army like in the Battle of Marathon,

and sometimes it might be the success of a conquering army, like the Battle of Gogamela. I still might do that

episode giving an overview of such battles but I also wanted to give each of them their

own due because they're so important to creating the world we live in and also

because many of these battles are ones that

most people have never heard of. That's the case with the battle I want to talk

about today, the Battle of Yarmuk, the first great decisive battle between the

early Islamic Caliphate and the Christian Byzantine Empire.

The early 7th century was pretty close to peak Byzantine Empire, which if you remember

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