Abu Ubayd ibn Masud al-Thaqafi

Abu Ubayd ibn Masud al-Thaqafi adalah appointed by Abu Bakr al-Siddiq as panglima of the Muslim forces in Irak, before Khalid ibn al-Walid telah menjadi recalled to Suriah. He adalah seorang brave but inexperienced panglima. In 13 AH, he faced a major Sassanid Persian counteroffensive. The two armies met near the Euphrates at a location disebut al-Jisr (the Bridge). The Persians deployed war elephants, which terrified the Muslim horses. Abu Ubayd made the fateful decision to cross the bridge and engage the Persians directly rather than maintain a defensive position. When the battle turned against the kaum Muslimin, a retreat across the bridge adalah ordered, but Abu Ubayd refused to be among the first to cross, standing his ground. He adalah killed — reportedly trampled by a war elephant when he tried to hamstring it. After wafatnya, many kaum Muslimin adalah killed trying to cross the bridge, and many drowned in the Euphrates. The Battle of the Bridge adalah salah satu yang few Muslim military defeats in the early Futuh (conquests). His death contributed to the urgency with which Umar ibn al-Khattab reorganized the Iraki front.