Islamic State’s Profile of Jarrah al-Shami
Jarrah al-Shami is not among the most famous jihadists, but within the Islamic State movement his name is resonant, as is made clear in a biography of him published, it seems in August 2012, a translation of which is given below.
The biography is signed by one “Muawiya al-Qahtani”, an Islamic State (IS) propagandist who has popped up over the years, though his status within the organisation remains unclear: he might be a grassroots disseminator, or this might be a cover name for one of IS’s media officials, perhaps even somebody quite senior.
Jarrah, per the biography, was a Syrian who joined the Zarqawists early on, fought in the ferocious second battle at Fallujah in November 2004 when the Americans confronted the Islamic State’s first attempt at governance, and was arrested during that combat. Jarrah’s imprisonment was brief: he was released in mid-2005 and resumed his jihad, now as a close associate of Ahmad al-Khalayleh, the Jordanian founder of IS much better-known as Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
Jarrah quickly trained himself up as a military leader, according to the biography, and by the late 2005 was the emir of the whole of Anbar province. When Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), as the IS movement was called at the time, merged into the Mujahideen Shura Council (al-Majlis Shura al-Mujahideen) in January 2006, Jarrah kept his position.
The biography alludes to but does not spell out the story that after Zarqawi was killed in June 2006, the choice over the successor—Zarqawi’s designated heir, Abd al-Rahman al-Qaduli (Abu Ali al-Anbari), having been imprisoned—came down to two: the Egyptian Al-Qaeda veteran, Abd al-Munim al-Badawi (Abu Hamza al-Muhajir), and Jarrah. Muawiya al-Qahtani himself has previously given the story:
After the martyrdom of Al-Zarqawi (may God have mercy on him), the Shura Council of [MSC/MSM], along with the shaykhs of Al-Qaeda from the muhajireen [emigrants, foreign fighters] and the ansar [(local) supporters], gathered. They agreed that the leadership would go to one of two men: Abu Hamza al-Muhajir or Jarrah al-Shami. Both refused absolutely and without discussion to accept the leadership. So the two leaders were put in a room and the door was closed on them, with the condition that one of them must accept the leadership. They remained in the room for about four hours. Each of them urging the other to take it. Until finally, Al-Shami threw himself upon Al-Muhajir, kissed him, and said: “You are the foremost, you are the companion of Abu Musab, you have precedence and trust, you are you …” Finally, the matter was settled upon Abu Hamza al-Muhajir. And the Shura Council and the shaykhs of Al-Qaeda unanimously agreed upon him.”
Literally true or not, it gets at a truth, namely Jarrah having been trusted by Zarqawi and being one of the very top IS movement officials by mid-2006.
The story is also clearly meant to showcase the humility of IS’s leaders. The biography of Jarrah leans heavily on this, insisting he never put himself before his subordinates in the organisation and focused on benevolently treating the “ordinary Muslims”—the civilian masses—in the areas he controlled.
The Islamic State was first proclaimed in October 2006 and the Commander of the Faithful (Emir al-Mu’mineen) was named as Abu Umar al-Baghdadi, who turned out to be a former policeman and long-time Salafi activist from Haditha named Hamid al-Zawi. In November 2006, Al-Badawi swore allegiance (bay’a) to Abu Umar, ostensibly dissolved Al-Qaeda on Iraqi territory, and became the deputy and “War Minister” in Abu Umar’s “State”. Jarrah’s position was once again unaffected by this transition.
IS uses the biographies of its fallen operatives as part of its strategic messaging, as didactic aids in explaining the character traits and actions the movement considers ideal, and this is applied both to train jihadists internally and in propaganda aimed at external audiences, whether friendly or hostile. The last third of Jarrah’s biography is devoted to “the Battle of Life”, the episode for which he is most celebrated by the jihadists, the event containing the lessons on military planning, bravery, and the conduct of emirs—especially leading from the front—that IS wishes to impart.
The outbreak of the “Awakening” (Sahwa) in September 2006, the revolt of Sunni tribesmen in Anbar, soon joined by Islamist insurgents who felt threatened by the Zarqawists’ statehood pretentions and reinforced by the American “Surge” in January 2007, seriously threatened IS. It created a severe military difficulty. IS had tried to enmesh itself with the Sunni Arab population to legitimise its claims to be their saviour and to socialise the people into its project. Once that population turned hostile, the logic was reversed and this entanglement became a security nightmare: it meant the Awakening leaders knew who the IS operatives and supporters were, allowing a thorough purge of IS from these zones. It was also a catastrophic ideological challenge to IS’s claim to be the sole representative and protector of Sunnis.
As the Awakening spread in the first half of 2007, IS planned an operation to nip it in the bud—to land a decisive blow that would short-circuit the rebellion. The decision was made for a “special operation” against the Sahwa in Ramadi, the provincial capital of Anbar and IS’s centre of gravity in the province. Jarrah was selected to lead it, since “he loved and focused on” special operations, as the biography puts it.
Jarrah had gathered his troops—the biography says 200 jihadists—near Nasser Canal, in the swampy territory on the banks of Lake Habbaniya north of Ramadi, when they were discovered quite by accident around 9 PM on the night of 30 June 2007 by two alert U.S. soldiers during a routine patrol. A firefight erupted that lasted through to the early hours of 1 July, which is remembered as “the Battle of Donkey Island”. The jihadists were routed, concluding the battle with a mass-detonation of their suicide vests. Among the dead was Jarrah. The consequences were grave, allowing the fragile Awakening to consolidate until, by March 2008, Abu Umar would lament: “We have no [safe] place where we can stand for even a quarter of an hour.” There was also political fallout within the group.
In August 2007, IS’s chief judge, a recently-arrived Saudi named Abu Sulayman al-Utaybi, defected and took a list of complaints against “the two shaykhs” (Abu Umar and Abu Hamza) to Usama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda’s senior leaders in Pakistan. The Ramadi disaster was on the charge sheet, a result, as Abu Sulayman told it, of the ideological and other corruption that had flourished since the two shaykhs brought deviant groups under the IS banner. This fit into Abu Sulayman’s broader claims that IS was being weakened because Abu Hamza and his hapless puppet Abu Umar were making resource-allocation decisions on the basis of demented apocalyptic ideas. Abu Sulayman’s testimony—some of which was intercepted by the U.S. and made public in 2008, and which was released in toto by Al-Qaeda in 2013 as relations with the Islamic State broke down—has repeatedly shown up in polemical and scholarly assessments of the Islamic State.
The reality, however, as Craig Whiteside has documented, is that Abu Sulayman’s testimony does not match the evidence, specifically on the Ramadi operation: “the decision to try to regain the city from the lightly armed and untrained Sahwa was a reasonable one”, undone by bad luck, which plays such a large role in all of human history, and even then, once forced into the unexpected Donkey Island battle or “Battle of Life”, Jarrah’s men had shown themselves to be “well-trained” and their defeat was a very close-run thing.
It is telling that the next “special operation” IS launched, on 5 March 2012, an audacious temporary takeover of Haditha to enable IS to work through a death list of Sahwa leaders, was named in Jarrah’s honour. IS put out video footage of the raid and attendant massacres in August 2012, and the biography below seems to have been released concurrently to buttress the historical narrative in which IS set the operation. For IS, and they are not wrong about this, the Haditha raid was a turning point on the road to the caliphate.
A stunning military and political success in itself, the Haditha operation fed into a cascade of politico-military gains for the jihadists. By humiliating the Iraqi State and telling anti-IS Sunnis that none of them were safe, just three months after the U.S. left Iraq, the “Raid of the Commander Jarrah al-Shami” (Ghazwa al-Qa’id Jarrah al-Shami) accelerated defections from the Sahwa, swelling IS’s ranks and re-opening old sanctuaries, bolstering the momentum of IS’s insurgency. This, in turn, made further special operations possible, notably the summer 2013 breakout at Abu Ghraib prison that restored to IS some of its most capable operatives. The freed men slotted back into IS, strengthening the insurgency yet further, and it was possibly one of those sprung from Abu Ghraib who planned the June 2014 takeover of Mosul, the launchpad from which IS conquered one-third of Iraq. These captured territories were the foundation for the caliphate declaration at the end of that month.
[FRONT COVER]
The Biography of the Heroic Commander || The Lion of the Epics1
|| Jarrah al-Shami ||
May God accept him
[Flag of the Islamic State, reading: “There is no god but God / Muhammad is the Messenger of God”]
Written by:
Muawiya al-Qahtani
May God keep him steadfast
[TITLE PAGE]
The Biography of the Heroic Commander
The Lion of the Great Battles
Jarrah al-Shami, may God accept him
Written by:
The son of the truthful, pure Aisha,
Muawiya al-Qahtani
May God preserve him
[PAGE 1]
In the name of God, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate,
Praise be to God who fulfilled His promise, supported His slave, and defeated the confederates [al-ahzab] alone. And may peace and blessings be upon the smiling fighter, the Prophet of the battle, and upon his family and companions and those who follow his footsteps.
A picture: Whenever distress surged within me, and hardship intensified, I looked at it, and reflected upon it.
A picture: The path was drawn with its dim lights; whenever I looked at it, it relieved what I was experiencing, and a breeze came upon me afterward—a breeze that pushed me to continue forward. And my soul and my feet refused anything but to walk on this path.
And between one glance and another!! I would see, on the sides of that path, fallen bodies—that had thrown themselves off its thorns, and sought relief from its suffering!
The further my steps advanced, the hardship intensified in the darkness, the more the path was lit for me by torches to the right and to the left!! And I still feel comfort whenever I pass by those torches, and I still find their light on every journey!
Indeed, that path is the path of jihad, da’wa, and sacrifice for this great deen [lifeway, Islam], and for this supported umma [Muslim community]. The fallen bodies to the sides are those who retreated, clung to ease, held fast to weakness, and turned away from the pains and wounds of their umma.
As for those glowing torches, they are the comfort of the lone traveller: they are the ones who gave their lifeblood and souls in defence of their deen and their umma, those who were dragged and chained with the shackles of honour and the fetters of elevation behind the walls of nobility, in the path of their Lord, Glorious and Exalted be He.
[PAGE 2]
So when we speak about these men, we do not recount them as stories spun from the fabric of imagination, written by our pens in ink!! Rather, they are real blood that flowed upon the soil of the umma of Islam, to water a crop whose seeds had been drying out for decades. Men who wrote the radiant history of their umma with their own blood.
Among these heroic men is a lion from among the lions of Islam, who humbled his shoulders for the sons of his umma, and offered his chest in defence of his deen and the honour of his fellow Muslims.
He is the courageous commander, a pillar among the pillars of the Islamic State: Jarrah al-Shami (may God accept him).
Indeed, the caravans of the [2014 media] release “Clashing of Swords [Salil al-Sawarim] 2” travelled forth, carrying with them the name of this unique hero!! And many among the sons of the umma asked: Who is this matchless one after whom this great ghazwa [raid or battle] was named?! For the greatness of this ghazwa must be backed by a great name!
And so it is.
[PAGE 3]
His Country, His Age
He was from Bilad al-Sham [the land of Syria]—the Syria of honour and pride—and he was in his mid-thirties at the time he was killed. He married in Iraq and had a daughter whom he named Hajar, and he was sometimes referred to by her name as a kunya [i.e., Abu Hajar].
His Entry into Iraq and the Second Battle of Fallujah
Here I will shorten the path and begin from Fallujah.
Fallujah—the city of defiance, the factory of men, the soil of bravery—was destined in one of its decisive hours to receive a hero from among the heroes of its umma. Jarrah al-Shami had a significant share in the fighting in this city.
He participated directly in the Second Battle of Fallujah, a fierce battle in every sense of the word, and al-Jarrah was one of its heroes. He defended it and its people like a lion defends its den. And God, the Exalted, decreed that he would be captured during those battles!
His Period of Captivity, and Then His Release
He was captured by the Americans during those battles. He remained in captivity until mid-2005, meaning it did not last long. He claimed to be Iraqi, and, by the grace of God, they released him.
Resuming His Path of Jihad
The hero resumed his jihad after he emerged from captivity with a determination and resolve that could challenge mountains, and he was not deterred by what had happened to the brothers in Fallujah!
[PAGE 4]
On the contrary, it [being imprisoned] increased his activity, as he and his brothers, under the leadership of Shaykh Abu Musab [al-Zarqawi] (may God have mercy on him), worked to engage the worshippers of the cross and their followers in other areas. At that time, he [Jarrah] was not well-known, and he was not schooled in many military or administrative matters.
But his determination and his love for supporting his deen drove him to work diligently and earnestly, learning and drawing from the knowledge of the emirs and trainers in the military field. It was not long before he became a seasoned military man and a strategic planner unmatched in his skill.
At that time, he accompanied Shaykh Abu Musab and was with him in his movements and travels. The shaykh appointed him as military emir of Jazirat al-Ramadi, and after a short time, appointed him general military emir of Ramadi, then later appointed him overall emir of all of Anbar [province]—after the killing of the mujahid brother Abu Usama al-Jazrawi (may God have mercy on him)—which occurred at the end of 2005.
He continued in this role until the establishment of the Islamic State [in October 2006], and Shaykh Abu Umar al-Baghdadi (may God accept him) kept him on as wali [governor] over all of Anbar.
He was one of the five men whom Shaykh Abu Musab entrusted with affairs after him, and he was one of the candidates for the leadership of Tanzim al-Qaeda fi Bilad al-Rafidayn [the Base (of Jihad) Organisation in the Land of the Two Rivers or AQM], but he declined and insisted that Shaykh Abu Hamza [al-Muhajir] was more competent and more deserving to assume leadership. (The story of that meeting has already been published and is well-known to all.)
His Period of Governorship Over Anbar:
As for his time as wali of Anbar, this granted him extensive experience in dealing with the emirs of the armies, the governors of the regions, and the rank-and-file soldiers. He was firm in general matters that concerned the Muslims of the province, and was humble—sitting with the young before the old, and the soldier before the commander. He was the exemplar of a humble emir, loved by the general [population of] Muslims before the fighters.
He focused during his governance [tenure] on two important matters during the course of the battles taking place at that time: collecting money and weapons—and this was something
[PAGE 5]
natural.
But he (may God have mercy on him) intended to use that money to ensure there was sufficient [resources for] his soldiers and the families of the martyrs and the Muslim masses in the province. And likewise with weapons: he focused on the quality of the weapons more than on their quantity. For example, if a weapon of good quality was presented to him, he would take it even if it was expensive, and he would not ask about the amount—and so it was.
During his time, Anbar was the supply line for the entire Land of the Two Rivers [i.e., Iraq]; it was flourishing with special operations [al-amaliyat al-naw’iyya] (which he loved and focused on), and it flourished with the popular support base [al-hadina al-sha’biyya, lit. “popular incubator] he had planted in that area.
He was constantly meeting with the regional emirs. For instance, if he wanted to plan an operation in a certain area, he would gather the area’s emir, his assistants, and those he trusted for consultation—and so it was in all the regions of the province.
He never turned away anyone who asked for weapons or money. Some brothers with him advised him to keep something in reserve in the treasury and to distribute modestly, but he would reply that God, the Exalted, will replace it for us. One example of that: the brothers managed to seize one million dollars in a special operation; he prostrated to God in thanks upon its arrival, and immediately distributed it among the regions and the soldiers, with a focus on the families of the martyrs and the prisoners!
Thus, his province was among the least troubled by internal problems, if not entirely free from them. Everyone was constantly engaged in work, exactly as he wished, and there was no room for deadly idleness. The trait he sought and asked about in the soldiers was only competence and performance; he never asked about their origin, their tribe, or anything of the sort.
He (may God have mercy on him) personally participated in most, if not all, of the ghazawat. He was courageous, and not only unafraid of death; he would often seek it out in every place.
The worshippers of the cross were greatly concerned with trying to kill or capture him: it was their constant preoccupation. One example of that: He was with a small group of his companions, about eight brothers, in one of the orchards of Ramadi. A nighttime airborne assault by the worshippers of the cross took place, and they [the jihadists] engaged them fiercely, inflicting heavy casualties on them. When the assault failed, a C-130 aircraft—a smaller model compared to the B-52—came and bombed the location, and all the brothers were annihilated—except Jarrah al-Shami, who emerged safe and unharmed, despite the torrents of fire the plane had dropped upon them!
[PAGE 6]
He also had a sense for security.
One example of this is that, one day, he moved from one place to another, and the brothers had arranged a shelter for him with one of the ansar [(local) supporters]. When he entered the house and the brothers chatted for a bit and each went to his bed, it was not long before Jarrah asked them to change the location. They informed him that this was one of the most secure places, and the owner of the house came and tried to convince him that it was safe. But he (may God have mercy on him) insisted on changing the location. And indeed, they left the house, and just a few hours later, in the middle of the night, there was a raid by the Americans and the apostates on that house, and it was searched, along with the orchards surrounding it!
His Character, Humility, and Good Conduct:
If you saw him among the mujahideen, you would not be able to distinguish between the emir and the soldier! He cared deeply for his brothers: he would marry off those among them who were unmarried, and spend [generously] on the families of the martyrs and the prisoners.
He was pleasant to be around, and had a good reputation. He was loved and respected by the general Muslim population there, and that was because of his fairness and justice toward them.
There are many examples of that, including: one time, a dispute occurred between one of the brothers and some of the ordinary Muslims—something like a quarrel—and one of the common people said: “I will take my case to Jarrah, and he will give me justice.” Jarrah personally intervened in the matter and ordered that this common man be given his right in the same place where the issue occurred, and that is what happened!
The Trial [or Tribulation or Affliction, al-Bala] that Engulfed the State in 2007:
This tribulation began with the coalition of the forces of evil and disbelief against the State. Its began with the establishment of what was called the “Awakening” [Sahwat]. Many of those who had supported the State turned against it, including some tribal shaykhs, those with sick hearts, and the worshippers of the dollar and the dirham. Only those who remained steadfast—in whose hearts faith was firmly rooted—stood like immovable mountains.
[PAGE 7]
This fitna [strife] occurred during the governorship of the emir al-Jarrah al-Shami. He was like a towering mountain—firm, not moved by the winds of hardship in the slightest. By the grace of God, he was a cause in extinguishing it, and in silencing all those whose souls tempted them to fight against God and His Messenger.
But it was not long before the fitna intensified, and the Sahwat grew bolder, along with some who called themselves “resisters of the occupation”, and similar resonant titles which carried behind them nothing but treachery, baseness, and the sale of the deen for a handful of dollars!! These people dared to spill the blood of our mujahid brothers and tarnish their reputation. They turned their necks into a stepping stone for the American boot so that it might ascend through them to fight our brothers, after America had failed to bring them down in direct confrontation on the battlefield.
The men of the State faced this fitna with full resolve and firmness, with patience and steadfastness, seeking help from God, the Glorified and Exalted. Verily, our brothers—the crowns of our heads—did not falter in defending their project, for which they had come and fought, namely: implementing the shari’a of God, expelling the invading Crusaders, Rafidites, and apostates, and purifying the land of their filth. And al-Jarrah al-Shami was one of the men of those difficult days, one of those who bared their chests in defence of their project and the gains of their State.
But God, Exalted is He, decreed that the Americans, along with the Sahwat of apostasy, should take control of Anbar, especially the city of Ramadi. So the men of the State, under the command of their noble emir, Abu Umar (may God accept him), chose to withdraw to safe areas after the enemy’s evil had become widespread, in order to protect the blood and honour of the Muslims there.
There is no doubt that what befell the State in those years was part of God’s wisdom, though minds could not grasp that at the time. But we all now see in these days how the wisdom of the Compeller [al-Jabbar], Glorious is His Majesty, has become manifest in that great tribulation, and how those whom God had chosen for this day in which we now live remained firm and patient.
All of you may read the operations of the State, and the speech of its emir Abu Bakr [al-Baghdadi]—may my father and mother be sacrificed for him—and see for yourselves in this time whatever you wish. [A presumable quote from Abu Bakr:] “By God, if even a quarter of this tribulation had been presented to any conventional State, it would have melted away like salt in water! But we believe that God has covered this blessed State with His protection and care, and this is evident to every discerning observer.”
[PAGE 8]
The Famous Battle of Life, the Final Epic, and the Year of Sorrow!
The Battle of Life [or Existence: Ma’rakat al-Hayya]!!!
Have any of you heard of the Battle of Life? This battle was not named so in vain.
Its beginning—as I mentioned earlier—was when the brothers were forced to withdraw to other safe areas, because the Americans and their boots, the Sahwat, had taken control of the most critical parts of Anbar, including the city of Ramadi.
Ramadi is the most important strategic location for the State, and therefore the two shaykhs, Abu Umar and Abu Hamza (may God accept them), saw that it was necessary to regain control of this city. This was something that required costly measures and was extremely difficult.
So the choice fell upon the hero, Jarrah al-Shami, because he knew this area better than anyone else, and because he possessed courage, intelligence, and strategic acumen. Thus, the two shaykhs relied—after God, the Exalted—on Jarrah to lead this daring and dangerous operation: the assault on Ramadi.
At that time, he had been appointed as wali of Baghdad after the withdrawal from Anbar, which means he was called back from Baghdad to storm Ramadi! The emir Jarrah rose to lead the operation, and prepared around 200 fighters for it. Although the operation was complex, Jarrah, after placing his trust in his Lord, the Exalted, prepared everything necessary for storming the area.
And the assault began!!
They all agreed on a specific point that the groups would reach. The groups moved, and by the grace of God, they passed through all the checkpoints guarding the city.
[PAGE 9]
When they reached the critical point—the true starting point—and the knights dismounted from their vehicles, they were surprised by the presence of an American patrol there, in large numbers and at an unusual time!! So they engaged them face-to-face, inflicting upon them severe casualties and the fiercest of blows. The Americans mobilised all their forces there, coming at them with their vehicles, soldiers, and aircraft.
So the epic began.
When the real battle began, it was hand-to-hand, and our heroes fought with valour and presented the most remarkable examples of steadfastness and courage. Not a single one of them retreated—never even considered it—despite the intensity of the battle. They gave a lesson to those who would follow them: that if this soul is not given in the path of God, and for His deen, and in defence of the blood of the Muslims, then it is of no value.
But where was our companion, al-Jarrah, during the epic?!
He was in the front line of the battle. And when I say in the front line, I do not say it as filler, or a throwaway word, or something assumed!! No, by the One in whose hand is my soul, there he was, baring his chest, advancing before his soldiers, engaging in battle like the lions. He placed his soldiers behind him, taking for himself this act, which was not strange for someone like al-Jarrah.
Their ammunition ran out, and they were left with only one weapon: the [suicide] explosive belt. Though al-Jarrah could have withdrawn, he refused to leave the place so long as there remained a single mujahid in it. So the knights stepped forward, one after another, detonating their belts among the bodies of the worshippers of the cross, turning them into scattered limbs, and among the first to be killed was the commander, Jarrah al-Shami, killed advancing, without ever once looking back.
[PAGE 10]
He was killed, and whoever saw his face beforehand would have been certain that it was the face of one bidding farewell.
At that time, history recorded another year of the Years of Sorrow! Yes, the brothers described it as a Year of Sorrow [Am al-Huzn], for they lost their dearest companions in that heroic battle, among them Jarrah al-Shami. The emirs and the shaykhs wept for him; the children and the bereaved wept for him. Thus, this raid was named the Raid of Life, for it revived souls after they had gone and stirred up aspirations because of them.
Jarrah al-Shami departed, and such is the departure of heroes. He used every hour of his day to support his deen, seeking reward from his Lord, the Glorified and Exalted.
He often wished that he would have a share in fighting the taghut of al-Sham [Syria], Bashar [al-Asad]. And this is a wish that perhaps his students are now fulfilling—in Homs, Aleppo, Damascus, and Deir Ezzor.
By God, how great you are, O Syria! How often you have cast—and still cast—the pieces of your heart onto the fields of death. It is as if, O Syria, you are calling upon the resolve of a people to restore to you a glory whose rains of honour once showered upon your soil.
Thus ends the life of the proud ones. These lines [i.e., this account] are but fragments of the journey of this noble, exceptional man. And these few words we have scattered here are but a drop in the ocean of his honourable history.
So congratulations to you, O umma of Islam, for this honour, on the day that Jarrah al-Shami was among your righteous sons.
[Arabic poetry] A pure one in garments has gone, not leaving behind a garden.
On the morning of yearning, she desired nothing but a grave.
Upon you be the peace of God always, for indeed,
I have seen that the noble free man has no set lifespan [Arabic poetry ends]
[PAGE 11]
And our last supplication is: Praise be to God, Lord of the worlds.
Written by: The son of the truthful and pure Aisha,
Muawiya al-Qahtani
Post has been updated about the impact of the Haditha raid
NOTES
The Arabic title is “سيرة القائد الهمام ليث الملاحم جراح الشامي”: The Biography (Sira) of the Heroic/Valiant Commander (al-Qa’id al-Hammam), the Lion of the Great Battles/Epics (Layth al-Malahim or Laith al-Malahem).