Khalid ibn al-Walid (person)

Arabian military commander. Date of birth unknown, died 642.

Khalid joined the growing Islamic faith in 627, and participated in the conquest of Mekkah (Mecca) in 630. According to Islamic tradition, Muhammad bestowed on Khalid the cognomen Sayf Allah ("Sword of God").

In the 630s, Khalid helped conquer Iraq, then Syria and Palestine for the Caliph in Madinah (Medina), and he annihilated a Byzantine army at Yarmuk in 636.