Battles & Wars › Medieval wars
Early Muslim conquests
632–750· War· Middle East & Africa
Well documentedSolid records, physical evidence or scientific consensus.
Within about a century of Muhammad's death, Arab Muslim armies conquered an empire from Spain to Central Asia.
See it on the Battles & Wars map →What happened
After Muhammad died in 632, his successors, the caliphs, united Arabia and turned outward. Fast-moving armies beat a war-weary Byzantine Empire at the Yarmouk (636) and destroyed Persia's Sasanian Empire by 651. Egypt fell by 642, North Africa by about 700, most of Spain after 711. Armies reached the Indus and Central Asia. The Umayyad caliphs ruled from Damascus until the Abbasids overthrew them in 750. Most conquered people converted to Islam only gradually, over centuries.
Why it matters
They created the Islamic world. Arabic and Islam spread across the Middle East and North Africa, and the old Roman–Persian order of late antiquity ended.
How we know
Arabic histories such as al-Tabari's, written two to three centuries later, plus earlier Greek, Syriac and Armenian chronicles, coins, inscriptions and papyri from Egypt.
Still debated
Why relatively small armies conquered so much so fast is debated: religious conviction, Byzantine and Persian exhaustion after their long war, plague, and deals with local cities.
Inside this (4)
Connections (5)
▸Battle of the Yarmouk was a decisive early victory of Early Muslim conquestsWell documented
The connection
Yarmouk was the young caliphate's first great test against a superpower. Victory gave the Muslims Syria and Palestine, a base with wealth, cities and roads. Together with victory over Persia at Qadisiyyah around the same time, it proved the conquests were more than raids and opened the way to Egypt.
When and how
Near the Yarmouk River, south of the Golan Heights, August 636; Khalid ibn al-Walid and Abu Ubayda commanding.
How we know
Arabic and Byzantine chronicles agree on the outcome, and the quick surrender of Syrian cities afterward is well attested.
Debates and open questions
Qadisiyyah's date is uncertain (636–638), so which victory came first and which mattered more is debated.
▸Battle of Tours (Poitiers) checked northward raids of Early Muslim conquestsMostly agreed
The connection
By 732 the Umayyads ruled Spain and held Narbonne in southern France, raiding into Frankish lands. Tours turned back the largest raid. Muslim forces still campaigned in Provence in the 730s, but the Franks pushed them back and retook Narbonne in 759. Expansion north of the Pyrenees had reached its limit.
When and how
Between Tours and Poitiers, France, October 732; Charles Martel against the governor Abd al-Rahman al-Ghafiqi.
How sure are we?
Frankish, Spanish Christian and Arab chronicles record the battle and the governor's death; Frankish annals record the later campaigns.
Debates and open questions
Whether the Umayyads intended conquest or plunder, and whether revolts in Spain and North Africa would have halted them anyway, is debated.
▸The Crusades aimed to retake lands won in Early Muslim conquestsMostly agreed
The connection
Jerusalem and Syria had been Christian Roman lands until the conquests of the 630s. Pope Urban II framed the First Crusade as recovering them, while Byzantium hoped to regain Anatolia, lost more recently to the Seljuk Turks. By 1096 the Holy Land had been under Muslim rule for more than four centuries.
When and how
Conquests in the 630s; crusades from 1096, after Pope Urban II's call at Clermont, France, in November 1095.
How sure are we?
Reports of Urban's sermon and crusaders' letters speak of liberating Jerusalem and Eastern Christians.
Debates and open questions
Whether the Crusades were a delayed response to Islamic expansion, as some argue, or mainly a product of 11th-century European conditions is debated.
▸Battle of Talas marked the eastern limit of Early Muslim conquestsWell documented
The connection
Arab armies had reached Central Asia by the early 700s, taking Bukhara and Samarkand. Talas checked the Tang Empire's westward push, and after the An Lushan Rebellion broke out in 755 China withdrew its armies. Neither side advanced further, leaving a rough line between the Islamic world and China that lasted for centuries.
When and how
Near the Talas River, in today's Kazakhstan or Kyrgyzstan, July 751; the new Abbasid Caliphate against the Tang Empire.
How we know
Chinese and Arab histories both record the battle; the Tang withdrawal after 755 is well documented, while the battle's long-term weight is an interpretation.
Debates and open questions
Many historians think the An Lushan Rebellion, not Talas, ended Chinese power in Central Asia, so the battle may be remembered as more decisive than it was.
▸Greek fire turned back Arab fleets during the Early Muslim conquestsMostly agreed
The connection
Umayyad Arab fleets attacked Constantinople in the 670s and again in 717–718. Byzantine ships spraying Greek fire burned many of the attackers' vessels. Together with the city's walls, a harsh winter and Bulgar help in 718, it helped stop the Arab advance into southeastern Europe.
When and how
The Sea of Marmara around Constantinople, the 670s and 717–718; Emperors Constantine IV and Leo III against Umayyad fleets.
How sure are we?
The Byzantine chronicler Theophanes credits Greek fire with the victories; Arab sources confirm the failed attacks but say less about the weapon.
Debates and open questions
Some scholars doubt the 670s attack was one long siege, and how much Greek fire, versus walls, weather and supply problems, saved the city is debated.