Wadi Bisal
Wadi Bisal
A wadi between Taif and Turabah. In Muharram 1230 / January 1815 Faysal ibn Saud held the heights; the host broke after Muhammad Ali came up. Burckhardt's figures are a contemporary estimate, not a roll.
Plan your visit
Practical information verified separately from the historical record.
Before you go: Check with the operator or a local guide before departure; field access details have not yet been verified.
Why visit?
Returns Bisal to Ibn Bishr and Burckhardt, and keeps Diriyah two years and another campaign away.
Wadi Bisal lies between Taif and Turabah. The card is the wadi; the fight is an event in it, 1230 AH.
Ibn Bishr: Faysal ibn Saud marched on the Ottomans gathered at Bisal; there was fighting; Muhammad Ali came with a reinforcement; Faysal held, then a break began on the Zahran and Ghamid side, ran through Tami's Asir, and the host would not turn. That is an internal break, not a single ruse told alone.
Burckhardt, a near-contemporary European, guessed about 25,000, few horse, no guns; a feigned retreat; killing on the plain; five thousand heads at the pasha's feet; three hundred given aman, fifty impaled before Makkah. That is his report, not an official roll.
Faysal, Tami ibn Shuayb and Bakhrush ibn Allas are named in the notices. Tying the day straight to the 1233 siege of Diriyah is later interpretation: Ibrahim's war was another campaign, two years on.
Largest and bloodiest and hundreds of guns are dropped. The generated picture is not a surveyed field.