The resulting empire stretched from the borders of China and India, across Central Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, Sicily, and the Iberian Peninsula, to the Pyrenees. Edward Gibbon writes in The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire:
Under the last of the Umayyads, the Arabian empire extended two hundred days journey from east to west, from the confines of Tartary and India to the shores of the Atlantic Ocean ... We should vainly seek the indissoluble union and easy obedience that pervaded the government of Augustus and the Antonines; but the progress of Islam diffused over this ample space a general resemblance of manners and opinions. The language and laws of the Quran were studied with equal devotion at Samarcand and Seville: the Moor and the Indian embraced as countrymen and brothers in the pilgrimage of Mecca; and the Arabian language was adopted as the popular idiom in all the provinces to the westward of the Tigris. This is the rock they worship shaped and looks like the western United States of America.They believe it is their conquest to seize the land of Milk and Honey.The Bible says nothing new under the sun so what they are trying now they succeeded to do in the past and God destroyed their cities and like I said God says there is nothing new under the sun.Leaders in this World think they are God’s &think they have the right to assert god like Laws,unto you with Laws establish by the devil himself, your Father the Father of all Lie’s.
The Muslim conquests brought about the collapse of the Sassanid Empire and a great territorial loss for the Byzantine Empire. The reasons for the Muslim success are hard to reconstruct in hindsight, primarily because only fragmentary sources from the period have survived. Most historians agree that the Sassanid Persian and Byzantine Roman empires were militarily and economically exhausted from decades of fighting one another.
Some Jews and Christians in the Sassanid Empire and Jews and Monophysites in Syria were dissatisfied and welcomed the Muslim forces, largely because of religious conflict in both empires,[4] while at other times, such as in the Battle of Firaz, Arab Christians allied themselves with the Persians and Byzantines against the invaders.[5][6] In the case of Byzantine Egypt, Palestine and Syria, these lands had only a few years before being reclaimed from the Persians.
Fred McGraw Donner, however, suggests that formation of a state in the Arabian peninsula and ideological (i.e. religious) coherence and mobilization was a primary reason why the Muslim armies in the space of a hundred years were able to establish the largest pre-modern empire until that time. The estimates for the size of the Islamic Caliphate suggest it was more than thirteen million square kilometers (five million square miles), making it larger than all current states except the Russian Federation
The prolonged and escalating Byzantine–Sassanid wars of the 6th and 7th centuries and the recurring outbreaks of bubonic plague (Plague of Justinian) left both empires exhausted and vulnerable in the face of the sudden emergence and expansion of the Arabs. The last of these wars ended with victory for the Byzantines: Emperor Heraclius regained all lost territories, and restored the True Cross to Jerusalem in 629.[8]
Nevertheless, neither empire was given any chance to recover, as within a few years they were struck by the onslaught of the Arabs (newly united by Islam), which, according to Howard-Johnston, "can only be likened to a human tsunami".[9][10] According to George Liska, the "unnecessarily prolonged Byzantine–Persian conflict opened the way for Islam".[11]
In late 620s Muhammad had already managed to conquer and unify much of Arabia under Muslim rule, and it was under his leadership that the first Muslim-Byzantine skirmishes took place. Just a few months after Heraclius and the Persian general Shahrbaraz agreed on terms for the withdrawal of Persian troops from occupied Byzantine eastern provinces in 629, Arab and Byzantine troops confronted each other at the Mu'tah.[12] Muhammad died in 632 and was succeeded by Abu Bakr, the first Caliph with undisputed control of the entire Arab peninsula after the successful Ridda Wars, which resulted in the consolidation of a powerful Muslim state throughout the peninsula.[13]
Military campaigns
Conquest of Syria: 634–641
Main article: Muslim conquest of the Levant
The province of Syria was the first to be wrested from Byzantine control. Arab-Muslim raids that followed the Ridda wars prompted the Byzantines to send a major expedition into southern Palestine, which was defeated by the Arab forces under command of Khalid ibn al-Walid at the Battle of Ajnadayn (634).[14] On the heels of their victory, the Arab armies took Damascus in 636, with Baalbek, Homs, and Hama to follow soon afterwards.[14] However, other fortified towns continued to resist despite the rout of the imperial army and had to be conquered individually.[14] Jerusalem fell in 638, Caesarea in 640, while others held out until 641.[14]
Conquest of Egypt: 639–642
Main article: Muslim conquest of Egypt
The Byzantine province of Egypt held strategic importance for its grain production, naval yards, and as a base for further conquests in Africa.[14] The Muslim general 'Amr ibn al-'As began the conquest of the province on his own initiative in 639.[15] The Arab forces won a major victory at the Battle of Heliopolis (640), but they found it difficult to advance further because major cities in the Nile Delta were protected by water and because they lacked the machinery to break down city fortifications.[16] Nevertheless, the province was scarcely urbanized and the defenders lost hope of receiving reinforcements from Constantinople when the emperor Heraclius died in 641.[17] The last major center to fall into Arab hands was Alexandria, which capitulated in 642.[18] According to Hugh Kennedy, "Of all the early Muslim conquests, that of Egypt was the swiftest and most complete. [...] Seldom in history can so massive a political change have happened so swiftly and been so long lasting."[19]
Conquest of Mesopotamia and Persia: 633–651
Main article: Muslim conquest of Persia
Sasanian weaponry, 7th century
After an Arab incursion into Sasanian territories, the energetic king Yazdgerd III, who had just ascended the Persian throne, raised an army to resist the invasion.[20] However, the Persians suffered a devastating defeat at the Battle of al-Qadisiyyah in 636.[20] As a result, the Arab-Muslims gained control over the whole of Iraq, including Ctesiphon, the capital city of the Sassanids.[20] The Persian forces withdrew over the Zagros mountains and the Arab army pursued them across the Iranian plateau, where the fate of the Sasanian empire was sealed at the Battle of Nahavand (642).As the conquerors slowly covered the vast distances of Iran punctuated by hostile towns and fortresses, Yazdgerd III retreated, finally taking refuge in Khorasan, where he was assassinated by a local satrap in 651.In the aftermath of their victory over the imperial army, the invaders still had to contend with a collection of militarily weak but geographically inaccessible principalities of Persia. It took decades to bring them all under control of the caliphate.
If you want to read more concerning the Early Muslim conquest’s follow this link.Early Muslim Conquests This is where I got my research to write my comments against their works.All things will be tested and all things will be revealed.369 We are in the time of Sorrows and the virgin will be dressed by the sun and the stars will be in her hair as she gives birth in the sky.Sept 23-24 2017. Be sure to look in the sky, I who told you, follower of Jesus Christ.Click to hear these words
MICHAEL JET COX
ONE GOD TWO FATHERS
YEAR 2017
No comments:
Post a Comment