The Arab-Byzantine Wars Timeline

The Arab-Byzantine Wars 14

629 Battle of Mutah -- first Arab-Byzantine contact The Battle of Mu'tah (629) in modern Jordan is the first recorded military engagement between Arab Muslim forces and the Byzantine Empire. A Muslim raiding force of approximately 3,000 under Zayd ibn Haritha encounters a Byzantine and allied Arab force of perhaps 10,000. The Muslims suffer heavy losses and withdraw -- but the engagement reveals Byzantine weakness in the region and demonstrates that Arab forces can challenge Byzantine frontier troops. Muhammad reportedly receives news of the battle by revelation before the messenger arrives.
630 – 750 The Arab-Byzantine Wars (630–750) The Arab-Byzantine Wars (c.630-750) represent the most catastrophic territorial loss in Byzantine history: the conquest of Syria, Palestine, Egypt, Cyrenaica, the Exarchate of Africa and parts of Anatolia by the armies of the early Islamic caliphates. In less than a century, Byzantium loses approximately two-thirds of its tax revenue, its most populous provinces and the heartland of early Christianity. The wars also define the shape of the medieval world: the Arab conquests create the Islamic civilisation that dominates the Mediterranean's southern and eastern shores, permanently separating them from the Christian north.
634 – 636 Khalid ibn al-Walid -- the Sword of God Khalid ibn al-Walid, the greatest Arab general of the conquest period, campaigns in Syria and Palestine (634-636) with brilliant speed and tactical innovation. Called 'the Sword of God' by Muhammad, he is undefeated in over 100 battles. He defeats Byzantine forces at Ajnadayn (634), Fahl (635) and Marj al-Suffar (635), capturing Damascus (635) before the decisive Battle of Yarmouk (636). His combination of mobile cavalry tactics, rapid concentration of force and psychological aggression overwhelms the more cumbersome Byzantine defensive system. He is recalled by Caliph Umar just before Yarmouk and replaced by Abu Ubayda.
636 Battle of Yarmouk -- Syria lost in six days The Battle of the Yarmouk (15-20 August 636) is fought on the plateau above the Yarmouk River in modern Jordan/Syria. The Byzantine army under Theodore Trithyrius and Vahan -- perhaps 15,000-20,000 men, including Armenian, Ghassanid Arab and regular Byzantine troops -- faces an Arab force of similar size. Over six days of fighting, an Arab flanking manoeuvre and a sandstorm that blows into the Byzantine faces on the final day destroys the Byzantine army. It is not primarily a numbers battle -- it is a battle of command, cohesion and momentum. The road to all of Syria and Palestine is open.
637 – 638 Fall of Jerusalem -- Caliph Umar enters the city Jerusalem surrenders to Caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab in 637 or 638. The Patriarch Sophronius negotiates the surrender, requesting that Umar come to the city personally to guarantee the Christian population's safety. Umar enters Jerusalem on foot, dressed simply -- contrasting pointedly with the ceremony that Byzantine emperors had used on entering the city. He declines to pray in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, explaining that if he did, his followers might convert it to a mosque. The Muslim conquest of Jerusalem is conducted with notable restraint compared to the Crusader conquest of 1099.
639 – 642 Conquest of Egypt -- the richest province lost Amr ibn al-As leads an Arab force of approximately 4,000 into Egypt in 639, ignoring or disobeying orders from Caliph Umar (accounts differ). He defeats the Byzantine garrison at the Battle of Heliopolis (640) and besieges the fortress of Babylon (640-641). Alexandria -- the greatest city in the eastern Mediterranean, with a population of perhaps 300,000 -- surrenders in 641 without a significant battle. Egypt, the breadbasket of the empire and the source of perhaps one-third of Byzantine tax revenue, is lost in three years. The loss is permanent: Egypt does not return to Christian rule until Napoleon's brief occupation (1798).
641 – 650 The Arab navy -- Muawiya builds a fleet Muawiya ibn Abi Sufyan, governor of Syria, recognises that the Arab conquest cannot be secure without naval power -- Cyprus, Rhodes and Crete raid the Syrian coast continuously from Byzantine bases. He builds the first Arab navy (645-649), using Syrian and Egyptian shipwrights and Byzantine expertise. The new fleet captures Cyprus (649), raids Rhodes (654) and defeats the Byzantine navy at the Battle of the Masts (655) -- the first major Arab naval victory, in which Emperor Constans II narrowly escapes. The Arab navy transforms the strategic situation: Byzantium can no longer use its naval superiority to contain the Arab conquests.
649 – 655 Cyprus and the islands -- the buffer zone lost The Arab conquest of Cyprus (649) marks the end of Byzantine control of the eastern Mediterranean islands. Cyprus becomes a condominium -- jointly administered by Byzantium and the Caliphate for most of the next three centuries, paying tribute to both -- a unique arrangement in medieval history. Rhodes is raided (654); the Colossus of Rhodes (long since fallen) is reportedly melted down and sold for scrap. The loss of the island buffer zone exposes the Anatolian coast to direct Arab naval raiding. Coastal cities are abandoned; populations retreat inland; the Byzantine coastal economy contracts.
661 – 680 Muawiya I -- the Umayyad Caliphate and systematic pressure Muawiya I (661-680), founder of the Umayyad Caliphate, systematises the Arab pressure on Byzantium: annual summer raids deep into Anatolia (the 'summer expeditions') that devastate the countryside, seize slaves and cattle, and prevent Byzantine agricultural recovery. The raids are not intended to conquer Anatolia but to weaken it -- preventing the empire from rebuilding its strength. Muawiya simultaneously attempts to take Constantinople directly: the first Arab siege (674-678) is defeated by Greek fire. The Umayyad strategy is to exhaust Byzantium rather than destroy it in a single campaign.
674 – 678 Greek fire defeats the Arab fleet Greek fire -- the Byzantine secret weapon -- saves Constantinople during the first Arab siege (674-678). Described by contemporary sources as a liquid fire projected from bronze tubes mounted on Byzantine warships, it burns on water and cannot be extinguished with water. The Arab fleet is destroyed annually; the survivors of the final repulse are wrecked by storms returning home. The precise composition of Greek fire is still unknown -- ancient and medieval sources are deliberately vague, and the Byzantines guard the secret jealously. It is almost certainly a petroleum-based compound, possibly with quicklime, that ignites on contact with water.
698 Loss of Carthage -- North Africa gone The Arab conquest of the Exarchate of Africa is completed with the fall of Carthage in 698. The Berber resistance, led by the Berber queen Dihya (called 'the Kahina' by Arab sources), delays the conquest for years but is ultimately overcome. North Africa -- Justinian's great reconquest, held for 164 years -- is permanently lost. The Arab conquest of Africa is followed by the conquest of Spain (711), bringing Arab power to the gates of Western Europe. The Byzantine Exarchate of Africa is one of the most prosperous and Romanised parts of the former empire; its loss completes the isolation of Byzantium from the Latin West.
717 – 718 Second siege of Constantinople -- the decisive check The second Arab siege of Constantinople (717-718) is the most dangerous moment in Byzantine history before 1453. Caliph Suleiman sends an army of reportedly 80,000 and 1,800 ships. Emperor Leo III deploys Greek fire (destroying the Arab fleet twice), engineers a Bulgarian attack on the Arab land army, and survives a severe winter that devastates the besieging force. The Arabs lose most of their fleet and army before withdrawing in August 718. The defeat effectively ends Umayyad ambitions against Constantinople and is a turning point comparable to Charles Martel's victory at Tours (732) in halting Arab expansion into Europe.
740 Battle of Akroinon -- Byzantium counter-attacks The Battle of Akroinon (740) in Phrygia (western Anatolia) is the first significant Byzantine offensive victory against the Arabs since the conquests began. Leo III's son Constantine V defeats a major Arab raiding force, killing reportedly 20,000 Arabs and demonstrating that Byzantium can now hold Anatolia and even counter-attack. The victory marks the beginning of the long Byzantine recovery in Anatolia that culminates in the Macedonian dynasty's reconquest of Syria and Cilicia three centuries later. The Arab summer expeditions continue but with diminishing strategic effect.
750 The frontier stabilises -- the thematic system By 750 the Arab-Byzantine frontier in Anatolia has largely stabilised along the Taurus and Anti-Taurus mountain ranges. The Byzantine response to the Arab threat includes the reorganisation of the empire's provinces into themes (themata) -- large military districts governed by a strategos (general) who commands both the military and civil administration. The thematic system, traditionally attributed to Heraclius though developed over a century, decentralises military power, creates a self-sufficient frontier army based on smallholder soldier-farmers, and proves far more resilient than the old centralised system. It is the Byzantine Empire's most important institutional innovation.