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The Greatest General You’ve Never Heard Of
One of only two undefeated generals in history
When you look at a list of the greatest generals in history, you will see many familiar names. Names like Alexander the Great, Caesar, Napoleon, and Ghengis Khan appear frequently. Other names like Robert E. Lee, Georgy Zhukov, Erwin Rommel, and Hannibal Barca also feature prominently. But there is one name that rarely, if ever, appears — Khalid ibn al-Walid. If you have never heard the name Khalid ibn al-Walid you are not alone.
Al-Walid is one of the generals who does not get the credit he deserves. Part of his obscurity stems from the fact that he was a general during the Arab-Muslim conquests of the 7th century, which is a part of history that is rarely covered in Western education as a whole. However, it goes beyond that.
Khalid ibn al-Walid should be noted for his generalship. Not only does he have a large body of work, he also was successful against a wide array of different enemies and factions. Khalid ibn al-Walid was not a one-trick pony. He was one of the most adaptable tacticians in history, and his record bears that out. Depending on what sources you read, Khalid ibn al-Walid is considered to be undefeated in the field. Khalid ibn al-Walid was not outright victorious in every battle he fought, but he never outright lost either. He never lost an army, and he rarely suffered catastrophic losses. Every time Al-Walid retreated, he returned later to finish the job. He was a master at strategically disengaging from combat, and he was never routed. His armies always left in an orderly and advantageous manner — a skill that most generals would kill for. Literally.
Khalid ibn al-Walid was a military commander for nearly twenty years, serving between 629–638 CE. During this time, he fought in over 100 separate battles, mostly in service of the Muslim armies surging forward from the Arabian Peninsula. But Khalid ibn al-Walid actually got his start fighting against the armies of Muhammad. Even then, he was undefeated before swapping sides and aligning himself with the Muslims. For his service and his impeccable record, he earned the moniker Sayf Allah, or the Sword of God.
Despite the large number of battles and the length of years, most historians have made the incredible…
