Subscribe now for full access and no adverts
The location of a significant battle in the history of the Middle East has been pinpointed by archaeologists.
Researchers have identified what they believe to be the location of the Battle of al-Qadisiyyah, which took place in AD 637/638.
The engagement was one of the most momentous in the history of the region, as it saw Arab Muslims expand their territorial reach beyond Arabia and into Persia.
The joint team had originally been researching the route of the Darb Zubaydah, a pilgrimage trail from Iraq to Mecca built more than a millennium ago. This research used declassified images from US spy satellites dating from the 1970s, which matched descriptions of key sites in historical texts.
The analysis, published in the journal Antiquity, places the battlefield 19 miles south of Kufa in the centre of Iraq.
Dr William Deadman of Durham University said: ‘This discovery provides a geographical location and context for a battle that is one of the founding stories of the expansion of Islam into modern-day Iraq, Iran, and beyond.’
