History of the Byzantine Empire: the Arab Invasion Part Four

The Arab invasion of the Byzantine Empire started in 629 AD right after the devastating 602-628 Byzantine Sassanian war. The 602-628 Byzantine Sassanian war weakened both nations, with depletions in manpower and resources. The tribes in the Arabian Peninsula had recently been united under Muhammad and Islam. Muhammad was a caravan trader from the Arabian Peninsula to Byzantine Syria (Sinai & Watt). Muhammad had contact with the large and heretical Christian Monophysite population there. Muhammad grew a liking to these people, and at one point near Mecca, he had his own prophetical visions from the Angel Gabriel (Sinai & Watt). These visions led to his eventual creation of Islam, and through a series of battles, Muhammad spread Islam into all of the Western Arabian Peninsula (Gascoigne). Shortly after, Muhammad's successors brought Islam to the whole Peninsula and started the spread of it outside of Arabia itself.

• The Situation

• Both the traditional powerhouses of the Region, Persia and Rome, had been severely weakened due to their latest war.

• Byzantium's provinces in the Levant and Egypt had widespread dissatisfaction with Byzantine control due to Byzantium's view of Monophysitism as heretical (Vasiliev, 208).

• Faith in Persian Zoroastrianism was declining after their defeat in the Byzantine Sassanian war (Vasiliev, 207).

• The conquest of Persia

• During the time of the initial Arab attacks on Byzantium, Arab forces also invaded Sassanian Persia.

• The Persians were used to Arab raids on the border region and therefore did not initially see the threat as a permanent take over.

• The exhaustion of Persia from its wars with Byzantium left it an easy target for the Arab invaders, who found a demoralized people that were readily accepting of Islam instead of Zoroastrianism (Vasiliev, 207).

• The Battle-of-al-Qadisiyyah was one of the major battles between the Sassanian and Arab forces which led to the Arab conquering of western Iran (Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica).

• The Conquest of the Levant

• The first Byzantine Arab battle occurred at the town of Mu'tah in southern Palestine (Kunselman). The Byzantine contingent there was made from the pro-Byzantine Arab Ghassanids and a smaller Byzantine force itself (Kunselman). The Byzantines decisively defeated the Arab raiders in battle, marking the start of the Arab Byzantine conflicts.

• The Arabs continued their attacks with raids on the Byzantine Empire's eastern Provinces. These raids were largely successful taking more and more of Byzantine Syria and Palestine.

• Emperor Heraclius amassed a large army in Syria to fight the Arabs, collecting troops in the city of Antioch from all over the Empire. Along with this, Heraclius made alliances with Sassanian Persia against the Arab invaders (Bunting).

• Due to Heraclius' frailty, from years of campaigning he did not lead this army, instead, his younger brother did.

• The large Byzantine force marched south from Antioch to fight the Arab invaders. The Arab and Byzantine troops met up in the dried river of Yarmouk with the Byzantine army vastly outnumbering the Arabs. Despite this, the battle of Yarmouk ended in a decisive Arab victory with an estimated 40,000 Byzantine deaths and 5,000 Arab (Bunting)

• After the battle of Yarmouk, the rest of Syria and Palestine fell to the Arab invaders, with the Muslims promising religious toleration of any city that would switch sides, which the large and persecuted Monophysite populations took advantage of.

• The Conquest of Egypt and North Africa.

• After the loss of Syria and Palestine to the Arab invaders, the Byzantine Empire controlled Anatolia, the Balkans, Egypt, North Africa, and parts of Italy

• The Byzantine forces in Egypt did not match in size or discipline compared to what the Empire had been able to put up at Yarmouk. The Empire was exhausted from its wars and could no longer supply an army that large.

• Byzantine power in the region was broken after the fall of the Byzantine fortified town of Babylon, which left the city of Alexandria defenseless against the Arab invaders (Gascoigne).

• The Treaty of Alexandria handed over the city to the Arab invaders in exchange for letting the Byzantine soldiers and some population leave peacefully for the rest of the Empire (Gascoigne).

• The Arab invaders encroached across the rest of the African Mediterranean coast until in 695 they captured Carthage from the Byzantine Empire. The Empire recaptured Carthage in 698, but this was short lived as Arab forces once again took over the city.

• All of the Levant, Egypt, and North Africa had fallen to the Arab invaders.

The Arab conquests were rapid and huge in size, taking over the entirety of one great empire, and causing another to lose more than half its size in a generation. What the Arabs lacked at the beginning of the war, like technology, they gained through the conquering of these Empires. The Arabs became the largest power not only in the region, but a contender for in the world.

Works Cited:

Bunting , Tony. “Battle of Yarmouk.” Encyclopedia Britannica , www.britannica.com/topic/Battle-of-Yarmouk-636.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Battle of Al-Qādisiyyah.” Encyclopedia Britannica , www.britannica.com/event/Battle-of-al-Qadisiyyah.

Gascoigne, Bamber. “HISTORY OF THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE.” HISTORY OF THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC, www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?groupid=2751.

Kunselman, David E. Arab-Byzantine War, 629-644 Ad. Biblioscholar, 2012.

Watt , William Montgomery, and Nicolai Sinai. “Muhammad .” Encyclopedia Britannica , 4 June 2018, www.britannica.com/biography/Muhammad.