A civil war was not short in happening. Rallied by Qatan and Umayya, the sons of the late Fihrid governor, Andalusian Arabs took up arms against the Syrian "junds". The Syrians delivered a decisive defeat upon the Andalusian at the Battle of Aqua Portora outside of Córdoba in August 742, but Balj ibn Bishr was mortally wounded in the field. Command of the Syrian armies devolved to Thalaba ibn Salama al-Amili, and for the next few months, the Syrians remained bunkered down, while the Andalusians (soon joined by what remained of the Beber rebels), assembled in Mérida.