Arab–Byzantine wars

At a glance

Dates: 629 – 1050.

Place: Levant, Italy.

Type: series of wars.

Key figures / parties: Byzantine Empire, Ghassanids, Mardaites, Medieval Armenia, First Bulgarian Empire, Kingdom of Italy, Italian city-state, and Rashidun Caliphate.

What came before

Part of: Muslim conquests.

Background See also: Roman–Persian Wars , Byzantine–Sasanian wars , Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628 , and Siege of Constantinople (626) The prolonged and escalating Byzantine–Sasanian 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 .

What happened

History Arab conquests, 629–718 Territorial extent of the Arab conquests :    Expansion under Muhammad , 622–632    Expansion during the Rashidun Caliphate , 632–661    Expansion during the Umayyad Caliphate , 661–750 According to Muslim biographies, Muhammad, having received intelligence that Byzantine forces were concentrating in northern Arabia with intentions of invading Arabia, led a Muslim army north to Tabuk in present-day northwestern Saudi Arabia ,

The Arab–Byzantine wars or Muslim–Byzantine wars were a series of wars from the 7th to 11th centuries between the successive Islamic caliphates and the Byzantine Empire. Following the Byzantine defeat at the Battle of the Yarmuk, Muslim armies conquered most Byzantine territory in the Levant, Egypt and North Africa within decades. Arab expansion subsequently slowed to a more gradual rate, following two failed sieges of the Byzantine capital of Constantinople in the late 7th and early 8th centuries.