The initial 'Muslim conquests' (632–732), also referred to as the 'Islamic conquests' or 'Arab conquests',
[1] began after the death of the
Islamic prophet Muhammad. He established a new unified political polity in the
Arabian peninsula which under the subsequent
Rashidun and
Umayyad Caliphates saw a century of rapid expansion of
Arab power well beyond the Arabian peninsula in the form of a vast
Muslim Arab Empire with an area of influence that stretched from northwest
India, across
Central Asia, the
Middle East,
North Africa, southern
Italy, and the
Iberian Peninsula, to the
Pyrenees.
Edward Gibbon writes in ''
History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'':
History
The individual conquests, together with their beginning and ending dates, are as follows:
Byzantine-Arab Wars: 634-750
Main articles: Byzantine-Arab Wars
The Byzantine-Arab Wars were between the
Byzantine Empire and at first the
Rashidun and then the
Umayyad caliphates and resulted in the conquest of the
Bilad al-Sham (
Levant), Misr (
Aegyptus),
Ifriqiya (Mediterranean
North Africa) and
Armenia (
Byzantine Armenia and
Sassanid Armenia).
'Under the Rashidun'
★
The conquest of Syria, 637
★
The conquest of Armenia, 639
★
The conquest of Egypt, 639
★
The conquest of Afghanistan, 652
★
The conquest of Sassanid Persian Empire, 652
★
The conquest of North Africa, 652
★
The conquest of south western subcontinent, 654
'Under the Umayyads'
★
The conquest of North Africa, 642
★
The second Arab siege of Constantinople 717-718
★
Invasion of Tbilisi, 736
'Later conquests'
★
The conquest of southern Italy, 827
Frontier warfare continued in the form of cross border raids between the Ummayyads and the Byzantine Isaurian dynasty allied with the
Khazars across
Asia Minor. Byzantine naval dominance and
Greek fire resulted in a major victory at the
Battle of Akroinon (739); one of a series of military failures of the Caliph
Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik across the empire that checked Umayyad expansion and hastened their fall.
Conquest of Persia: 633-651
Main articles: Islamic conquest of Persia
In the reign of
Yazdegerd III, the last
Sassanid ruler of the
Persian Empire, a Muslim army secured the conquest of Persia after their decisive defeats of the
Sassanid army at the
Battle of Walaja in 633 and
Battle of al-Qādisiyyah in 636, but the final military victory didn't come until 642 when the Persian army was destroyed at the
Battle of Nihawānd. Then, in 651, Yazdgird III was murdered at
Merv, ending the dynasty. His son
Pirooz escaped through the
Pamir Mountains in what is now
Tajikistan and arrived in
Tang China.
Conquest of Transoxiana: 662-709
Main articles: Islamic conquest of Afghanistan,
Battle of Talas
Following the
First Fitna, the Umayyads resumed the push to capture
Sassanid lands and began to move towards the conquest of lands east and north of the
Iranian plateau towards
Khorasan and the
Silk route along
Transoxiana. Following the collapse of the Sassanids, these regions had fallen under the sway of local
Iranian and
Turkic tribes as well as the
Tang dynasty. By 709, however, all of
Greater Khorasan and
Sogdiana had come under Arab control. By 751, the Arabs had extended their influence further east to the borders of China, leading to the
Battle of Talas.
Conquest of Sindh: 664-712
Main articles: Muslim conquest in the Indian subcontinent
During the period of early
Rajput supremacy in north
India, during the
seventh, the first Muslim invasions were carried out simultaneously with the expansion towards
Central Asia. In 664, forces led by
Mohalib began launching raids from Persia, striking
Multan in the southern
Punjab in what is today
Pakistan.
In 711, an expedition led by
Muhammad bin Qasim defeated
Raja Dahir at what is now
Hyderabad in
Sindh and established Umayyad rule by 712. Qasim subdued the whole of what is modern Pakistan, from Karachi to
Kashmir, reaching the borders of Kashmir within three years. After his recall, however, the region devolved into the semi-independent Arab ruled states of
Mansura and
Multan.
Conquest of Hispania: 711-718
Main articles: Umayyad conquest of Hispania
The conquest of the
Iberian Peninsula commenced when the
Moors (mostly Berbers with some
Arabs) invaded
Visigothic
Christian Iberia (modern
Spain,
Portugal,
Gibraltar,
Andorra) in the year 711. Under their Berber leader,
Tariq ibn Ziyad, they landed at Gibraltar on
April 30 and worked their way northward. Tariq's forces were joined the next year by those of his superior,
Musa ibn Nusair. During the eight-year campaign most of the
Iberian Peninsula was brought under
Islamic rule—save for small areas in the northwest (
Asturias) and largely
Basque regions in the
Pyrenees. This territory, under the Arab name
Al-Andalus, became first an
Emirate and then an independent
Umayyad Caliphate after the overthrowing of the dynasty in
Damascus by the
Abbasids. When the Caliphate dissolved in 1031, the territory split into small
Taifas, and gradually the Christian kingdoms started the
Reconquest up to 1492, when
Granada, the last kingdom of Al-Ándalus fell under the
Catholic Kings.
Conquest of the Caucasus: 711-750
Main articles: Khazar-Arab Wars
End of the Umayyad conquests: 718-750
The success of the
Bulgarian Empire and the
Byzantine Empire in dispelling the
second Umayyad siege of Constantinople halted further conquests of
Asia Minor in 718. After their success in overrunning the
Iberian peninsula, the Umayyads had moved northeast over the
Pyrenees where they were defeated 721 at the
Battle of Toulouse and then at the
Battle of Covadonga. A second invasion was stopped by the
Frank Charles Martel at the
Battle of Tours in 732 and then at the
Battle of the River Berre checking the Umayyad expansion at
Narbonne. In 738, the Umayyad armies were defeated by the
Indian
Rajputs at the
Battle of Rajasthan, checking the eastern expansion of the empire. In 740, the
Berber Revolt weakened Umayyad ability to launch any further expeditions and, after the
Abbasid overthrow in 756 at
Cordoba, a separate Arab state was established on the Iberian peninsula, even as the
Muhallabids were unable to keep
Ifriqiya from political fragmentation.
In the east, internal revolts and local dissent led to the downfall of the Umayyad dynasty. This military expansion era extended the military boundaries of the Islamic world in the pursuit of wealth garnered from booty. The
Khariji and
Zaidi revolts coupled with
mawali dissatisfaction as second class citizens in respect to Arabs created the support base necessary for the
Abbasid revolt in 750. The Abbasids were soon involved in numerous
Shia revolts and the breakaway of Ifrikiya from the Caliph's authority completely in the case of the
Idrisids and
Rustamids and nominally under the
Aghlabids, under whom muslim rule was extended temporarily to
Sicily and mainland
Italy before being overrun by the competing
Fatimids. The Abbasid caliph, even as he competed for authority with the Fatimid Caliph, also had to devolve greater power to the increasing power of regional rulers. This began the process of fragmentation that soon gave rise to numerous local ruling dynasties who would contend for territory with each other and eventually establish kingdoms and empires and push the boundaries of the
muslim world on their own authority, giving rise to
Mameluke and
Turkic dynasties such as the
Seljuks,
Khwarezmshahs and the
Ayyubids who fought the
crusades, as well as the
Ghaznavids and
Ghorids who conquered
India.
In Iberia, Charles Martel's son,
Pippin the Younger, retook Narbonne, and his grandson Charlemagne actually established the
Marca Hispanica across the Pyrenees in part of what today is Catalonia, reconquering Girona in 785 and Barcelona in 801. This formed a permanent buffer zone against Muslims, with Frankish strongholds in Iberia (the
Carolingian Empire Spanish Marches), which became the basis, along with the King of
Asturias for the
Reconquista, spanning 700 year which after the fall of the
Caliphate of Cordoba contested with both the successor
taifas as well as the African-based Muslim empires, such as the
Almoravids and
Almohads, until all of the Muslims were expelled from the Iberian peninsula.
Conquest of Nubia: 700-1606
After many attempts at military conquest of
Nubia (in the North of modern day
Sudan) failed, the Arab commander in Egypt concluded the first in a series of regularly renewed treaties known as AlBaqt (pactum) with the Nubians that governed relations between the two peoples for more than six hundred years.
Islam progressed peacefully in the area through intermarriage and contacts with Arab merchants and settlers over a long period of time after the failure of military conquest. In 1315, a Muslim prince of Nubian royal blood ascended the throne of
Dunqulah as king.
During the fifteenth century, the
Funj, an indigenous people appeared in southern Nubia and established the Kingdom of Sinnar, also known as As-Saltana az-Zarqa (the
Black Sultanate). The kingdom officially converted to Islam in 1523 and by 1606 it had supplanted the old Christian kingdom of
Alwa (
Alodia) and controlled an area spreading over the Northern and Central regions of modern day Sudan thereby becoming the first Islamic Kingdom in Sudan. Their kingdom lasted until 1821.
Conquest of Italy: 831-902
Main articles: History of Islam in southern Italy
The
Aghlabids rulers of
Ifriqiya under the Abbasids, using present day
Tunisia as their launching pad conquered
Palermo in 831,
Messina in 842,
Enna in 859,
Syracuse in 878,
Catania in 900 and the final Byzantine stronghold, the fortress of
Taormina, in 902 setting up
emirates in the
Italian peninsula.
Berber and
Tulunid rebellions quickly led to the rise of the Fatimids taking over Aghalbid territory and
Calabria was soon lost to the Byzantine
Catapanate of Italy. The
Kalbid dynasty administered the
Emirate of Sicily for the Fatimids by proxy from 948. By 1053 the dynasty died out in a dynastic struggle and interference from the Berber
Zirids of Ifriqiya led to its break down into small fiefdoms which were captured by the
Italo-Normans by 1091.
Conquest of Anatolia: 1060-1360
The later
Abbasid period was mixed with expansion and capture of
Crete (840) in the early days, who soon shifted their attention towards the East. During the later fragmentation of the Abbassid rule and the rise of their
Shiite rivals the
Fatimids and
Buyids; a resurgent Byzantine then captured
Crete and
Cilicia in 961, and soon
Cyprus in 965 and pushing into the levant by 975 and successfully contested the
Fatimids for influence of the region until the arrival of the
Seljuk Turks who first allied with the Abbassid and then ruled as the ''de facto'' rulers.
In 1068
Alp Arslan and allied
Turkmen tribes recaptured the Abassid lands and even invaded Byzantine regions pushing further into eastern and central
Anatolia after a major victory at the
Battle of Manzikert in 1071. The disintegration of the Seljuk dynasty resulted in the rise of the
Turkic kingdoms such as the
Danishmends and the
Sultanate of Rum and various
Atabegs who contested the control of the region during the
Crusades and incremently expanded across Anatolia until the
rise of the Ottoman Empire.
Byzantine-Ottoman Wars: 1299-1453
Main articles: Byzantine-Ottoman wars
Further conquests: 1200-1800
In
Sub-Saharan Africa, the
Sahelian kingdom expanded Muslim territories far from the coast. Muslim traders spread Islam to kingdoms across
Zanj along the east African coast, and to
Southeast Asia and the
sultanates of Southeast Asia such as those of
Mataram and
Sulu.
After the
Mongols destroyed the Abbasid caliphate, after the
Battle of Baghdad, they conquered Muslim lands, but soon converted to Islam, beginning an era of Mongol expansions of Muslim rule into
Central Asia under
Timur, founder of the
Timurid dynasty, and later into the
Indian subcontinent under his descendant
Babur, founder of the
Mughal Empire.
The
Modern era saw the rise of three powerful Muslim empires: the
Ottoman Empire, the
Safavid Empire of Persia, and the
Mughal Empire of India; the contest and their fall to the rise of the
colonial powers of
Europe.
Decline and collapse: 1800-1924
The
Mughal Empire began to decline in 1707 after the death of Aurangzeb and was officially abolished by the British in 1848. The
Safavid Empire ended with the death of it's last ruler Ismail III who ruled from 1750 until his death 10 years later in 1760. The very last and most recent Muslim empire which was the
Ottoman Empire collapsed in 1918 in the aftermath of World War I. On March 3rd 1924, the institution of the Caliphate was constitutionally abolished by President
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk as part of his reforms.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safavid_empire"
See also
★
Caliph
★
Jihad
★
Ridda wars
★
Islamization
★
Muhammad as a general
★
Suleiman the Magnificent
★
Ottoman wars in Europe
★
Islamic Golden Age
★
List of wars in the Muslim world
★
Timeline of the Muslim presence in Spain
★
Timeline of the Tataro-Mongol Yoke in Russia
★
List of Ottoman sieges and landings
Notes
1. Martin Sicker (2000), ''The Islamic World in Ascendancy: From the Arab Conquests to the Siege of Vienna'', Praeger.
References
★ Edward Gibbon,
''History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'' Chapter 51
★ Fred Donner,
''The Early Islamic Conquests'' Chapter 6
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