Battle of Sakil Valley

The Battle of Sakil Valley (also referred to simply as the Battle of Sakil) in the Summer of 1455 resulted in the victory of the allied Revolutionary Army under Farad leader Karom Fasan and Hamalist commander Soha Baten against the mercenary army employed by the Merchant Families of Qabl. It was the last major battle in Abayad’s revolution, as well as being the last major engagement in that country to see the Great companies be deployed on a major scale.

The battle led the Abayadi Naba Ebrahim to write his book, Memories of Sakil. Although he did not witness the battle, he toured the field following and was greatly moved by what he saw. Horrified by the suffering of wounded soldiers left on the field, he set about a process that would eventually lead to current WC standards on treatment of captured and wounded soldiers for all sides of a conflict. Additionally, the widely renowned Katamuran play “The Great Company” contains events inspired by the battle as well.

Battle
The Battle of Sakil Valley was a decisive engagement in Abayad’s revolution, a crucial step in the unification of Abayad and its establishment as a modern state. The war’s geopolitical context was the nationalist and ideological struggle to unify the country, having been divided among the various holdings of the region’s Merchant Families for centuries. The battle took place near the village of Qantara, nestled within the Sakil Valley in Central Abayad.

The confrontation was between the mercenary forces employed by the ruling Merchant Families of Qabl on one side, and the allied Farad and Hamalist forces who opposed their advance. On the Summer morning that the battle began upon, after the arrival of the company’s commander, Tayib Saah, the mercenary changed direction to counterattack along the Mizra River. At the same time, Karom Fasan ordered his troops to advance, causing the battle to occur in an unpredicted location. While the Hamalists fought the mercenaries’ right wing, the farad battled to the south near Qantara.

Opposing forces
The mercenaries mostly consisted of members of the Silver Company, led by their experienced leader Tayib Saah, divided into two field armies. The 1st Army contained three corps and were under Captain Arif Mansur, and the 2nd Army contained four corps under Captain Rashad Ozer.

The Farad army at Sakil, personally led by Karom Fasan, the catalyst of the revolution, was divided into four Corps, plus Fasan’s personal guard. Many of its men were battle-hardened from years of conflict, as well as making a living in Abayad’s occasionally unforgiving wilderness. Likewise, the Hamalist forces had four divisions on the field, led by future second Prime Minister of Abayad Soha Baten. Unlike the Farad, the Hamalists were mostly coastal or city dwellers, brought into the conflict on ideological grounds. Although they did not have the experience of the Farad, they lacked none of the spirit.

Battle commences
According to the allied battle plan formulated prior to the battle, the allied Revolutionary army moved south and west to deploy along the river Mizra. The Farad were to occupy the villages of Qantara, Medal, Dikur, and Sunieh. The four Hamalist divisions were to take Nantab, site of an important armory. After marching for some kilometers, the allied forces came into contact with great company forces, who swung south into the Sakil Valley and entrenched themselves there. In the absence of a fixed battle plan, the fighting which took place was uncoordinated, explaining how so many casualties occurred. The battle fell into three primary separate engagements, at Medal (south), Qantara (center), and Sunieh (north).

Battle of Medal
Fighting began at Medal just before sunrise. Marching toward Dikur, the 4th Farad Corps encountered a mercenary infantry regiment. Farad officer Hawuf immediately elected to engage the enemy and deployed his forces due east of Medal. This move tied down the three corps of the Silver Company there and prevented them from aiding the rest of the 2nd Army near Qantara, where the main Farad attacks took place.

Farad forces were numerically inferior to the mercenaries’ on their own. The 4th Farad Corps contained three mounted infantry divisions and a cavalry brigade holding a thin line of 5 km in length that was able to stop mercenary assaults on their position by warding off attacks and countering at opportune moments. After 15 hours of conflict, the mercenaries retreated deeper into the valley, both sides having lost thousands of men.

Battle of Qantara
Before sunrise but after fighting had begun near Medal, the advance guard of the 1st Farad Corps came into contact with the 5th Silver Corps near Qantara. Around an hour later, a detachment from a separate company (the White Company) was encountered by the 2nd Farad Corps nearby. Mercenary forces were three corps strong, stationed primarily in the town of Qantara and two nearby villages, Hat and Kafal. Despite repeated attacks from the Farad, the mercenaries held these positions all day.

In the early afternoon, the Farad reserves combined with Fasan’s personal guard attacked the village of Kafal, finally occupying it that afternoon and thereby breaking through the mercenaries’ center. The breakthrough forces a general retreat by all mercenary forces deeper into the valley. Qantara was home to some of the sturdiest mercenary defensive positions, and therefore some of the bloodiest and most vicious fighting to go on in the entire battle.

Battle of Sunieh
On the northern side of the battlefield the Hamalists, four divisions strong, encountered the mercenary forces just after daybreak. A long battle erupted over the town of Sunieh and surrounding villages. The mercenary army was slightly outnumbered, but the Hamalist forces’ repeated assaults inflicted heavy losses upon the defenders; at the end of the day, they were ordered to retreat with the army deeper into the valley, but ignored the order and continued resisting. By nightfall, a fourth Hamalist assault finally captured the contested hills overlooking Sunieh, and the mercenaries withdrew. The main Hamalist contribution to the overall battle consisted of keeping the mercenaries’ forces deeply engaged throughout the day and preventing the sending of two brigades as reinforcement to the forces attacked by the Farad at Medal or Qantara.

Final clash
Farad forces followed the retreating mercenaries deeper into the valley, the Hamalists closely behind. The next day, the forces of the Silver and White Companies made a last, desperate stand against the southwestern side of the valley, hoping the slope would give them an advantage. However, the tired, demoralized forces were unable to provide sufficient resistance and were overrun on the mountainside by the Farad, with countless more dying at their hands, either from Farad sharpshooters or in desperate close quarters combat involving knives, swords, and bayonets.

Results
The battle was a particularly gruelling one, lasting over nine hours on the first day and another five the next, wrestling in over 5,000 killed and over 20,000 injured, with nearly 3,000 mercenaries captured by the end. Reports of wounded and dying soldiers being shot, stabbed, or bayonetted on both sides added to the horror. In the end, the mercenary forces were forced to yield their final positions, and the allied Revolutionary forces won a tactical, if costly, victory. The battle represented the end of possible resistance by the nation’s Merchant Families, prompting them to offer terms to Fasan himself shortly after news reached Qabl.

Aftermath
Karom Fasan was moved by the losses incurred by the battle, himself no stranger to war or its casualties. Many historians agree that it was the carnage as Sakil Valley that prompted him to agree to a peaceful course of action when the Merchant Families offered terms, with the Treaty of Toli Abayad signed in the Summer of the following year, officially proclaiming the end of mercantile rule and the birth of the Abayadi Republic.

This battle would have a long term effect on the future conduct of military actions across Abayad. Naba Ebrahim, who witnessed the aftermath of the battle in person, was motivated by the horrific suffering of wounded soldiers left on the battlefield and began a campaign that would result in standards being adopted by the Abayadi government for the treatment of wounded soldiers of either side, which would in turn go on to inform standards later adopted by the WC itself.

The battlefield today
Today, the area contains numerous memorials to the events surrounding the smaller battles that make up what is referred to as the Battle of Sakil Valley today.

Near Sunieh there is the Monument of the Battle of Sunieh, towering over the nearby town as a memorial to forces on both sides of the conflict (although orginally it was designed as a sort of Hamalist shrine to ideological martyrs who had fought and died there). It is 70 m high and was built in 1483. In the town itself there is a museum, with uniforms and weapons of the time, and a collection of urns in the town chapel of unclaimed soldiers.

At Qantara there is also a museum, displaying arms and mementos of the time, as well as several more urns containing the ashes of countless unclaimed or unfound soldiers.

Nearby Fort Baveh, where many of the allied wounded were taken after the battle, is the site of a museum dedicated to the battle and legacy of Naba Ebrahim, whose efforts to improve conditions for soldiers have saved countless lives since.

References in popular culture
The Katamuran play "The Great Company" depicts the battle in an early part after its prologue.