in the nearer [part of the] land, that is, in the Byzantine land [that lies] nearest to Persia in Mesopotamia (al-Jazīra). There the two armies met and the Persians were the ones who had begun the invasion. But they, that is the Byzantines, after their vanquishing (ghalabihim: the verbal noun [ghalab] has been annexed to the direct object [hum], in other words, ghalabatu fāris iyyāhum, ‘the Persians’ vanquishing of them’) shall be the victors, over the Persians,