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Byzantine-Arab Wars
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The ByzantineArab Wars were a series of wars between the Arab Caliphates and the Byzantine Empire between the 7th and 12th centuries AD. These started during the initial Muslim conquests under the Rashidun and Umayyad caliphs and continued in the form of an enduring border tussle until the beginning of the Crusades. As a result, the Byzantines, also called the Romans ("Rūm" in Muslim historical chronicles; the Byzantine Empire was formerly the Eastern half of the Roman Empire), saw an extensive loss of territory.
The initial conflict lasted from 634 to 717, ending with the Second Arab Siege of Constantinople that halted the rapid expansion of the Arab Empire into Anatolia.
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The ByzantineArab Wars were a series of wars between the Arab Caliphates and the Byzantine Empire between the 7th and 12th centuries AD. These started during the initial Muslim conquests under the Rashidun and Umayyad caliphs and continued in the form of an enduring border tussle until the beginning of the Crusades. As a result, the Byzantines, also called the Romans ("Rūm" in Muslim historical chronicles; the Byzantine Empire was formerly the Eastern half of the Roman Empire), saw an extensive loss of territory.
The initial conflict lasted from 634 to 717, ending with the Second Arab Siege of Constantinople that halted the rapid expansion of the Arab Empire into Anatolia. Conflicts however continued between the 800s and 1169. The occupation of southern Italian territories by the Abbassid forces in the 9th and 10th centuries were not as successful as in Sicily. However, under the Macedonian dynasty, the Byzantines recaptured territory in the Levant with the Byzantines armies' advance even threatening Jerusalem to the south. The Emirate of Aleppo and its neighbours became vassals of the Byzantines in the east, where the greatest threat was the Egyptian Fatimid kingdom, until the rise of the Seljuk dynasty reversed all gains and pushed Abbassid territorial gains deep into Anatolia. This resulted in the Byzantine emperor Alexius I Comnenus' request for military aid from Pope Urban II at the Council of Piacenza; one of the events often attributed as precursors to the First Crusade.
Background
The prolonged and escalating Byzantine–Sassanid wars of the sixth and seventh centuries left both empires exhausted and vulnerable in the face of the sudden emergence and expansion of the Arabs. The last of these wars was victorious for the Byzantines: Emperor Heraclius regained all occupied territories, and restored the True Cross to Jerusalem in 629. 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". According to George Liska, the "unnecessarily prolonged Byzantine–Persian conflict opened the way for Islam".
In late 620s Prophet Muhammad had already managed to 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 Mu'tah. Muhammad died in 632 and was succeeded by Abu Bakr, the first Caliph and the undisputed leader of the entire Arab peninsula after the successful Ridda Wars, which resulted in the consolidation of a powerful Muslim state throughout the peninsula.
Opening conflicts
| "The people of Hims replied [to the Muslims], "We like your rule and justice far better than the state of oppression and tyranny in which we were. The army of Heraclius we shall indeed, with your 'amil's' help, repulse from the city." The Jews rose and said, "We swear by the Torah, no governor of Heraclius shall enter the city of Hims unless we are first vanquished and exhausted!" [...] The inhabitants of the other cities—Christian and Jews—that had capitulated to the Muslims, did the same [...] When by Allah's help the "unbelievers" were defeated and the Muslims won, they opened the gates of their cities, went out with the singers and music players who began to play, and paid the kharaj." | | Al-Baladhuri* Sahas (1972), 23 According to the Muslim historian of the ninth century, local populations regarded Byzantine rule as oppressive, and preferred Muslim rule instead. |
According to Muslim biographies, in 630 Muhammed led a force of as many as 30,000 north to Tabouk in present-day northwestern Saudi Arabia, with the intention of engaging the Byzantine army. Though not a battle in the typical sense, if historical the event would represent the first Arab expedition against the Byzantines, which however did not lead to a military confrontation. There is no contemporary Byzantine account of the events, and much of the details come from later Muslim sources. Contemporary Byzantine sources do however mention the Battle of Mu“tah fought in 629. The engagements started as conflicts with the Arab client states of the Byzantine and Sassanid empires: the Ghassanids and the Lakhmids of Al-Hirah. These conflicts soon turned into a full blown concurrent war with both empires resulting in the conquest of the Levant and Persia under the two Rashidun generals, Khalid ibn al-Walid and 'Amr ibn al-'As.
Arab conquest of Roman Syria: 634–638
In the Levant, the Rashidun army were engaged by a Byzantine army composed of imperial troops as well as local levies. Monophysites and Jews throughout Syria welcomed the Arab conquerors, as they were discontented with Byzantine rule. The Arabian tribes also had significant economic, cultural and familial ties with predominantly Arab citizens of the Fertile Crescent.
The Roman Emperor Heraclius had fallen ill and was unable to lead his armies to resist the Arab conquests of Syria and Palestine in 634. In a battle fought near Ajnadayn in the summer of 634, the Rashidun Caliphate army achieved a decisive victory. After their victory at Fahl, Muslim forces conquered Damascus in 634 under the command of Khalid ibn Walid. Byzantine response involved the collection and dispatch of the maximum number of available troops under major commanders, including Theodore Trithyrius and the Armenian general Vahan, to eject the Mulsims from their newly won territories. At the Battle of Yarmouk in 636, however, the Muslims, having studied the ground in detail, would lure the Byzantines into a series of costly assaults, before turning the deep valleys and cliffs into a catastrophic trap. Heraclius farewell exclamation, while departing Antioch for Constantinople, is expressive of his disappointment: "Peace unto thee, O Syria, and what an excellent country this is for the enemy!" The impact of Syria's loss on the Byzantines is illustrated by Joannes Zonaras' words: "[...] since then [after the fall of Syria] the race of the Ishmaelites did not cease from invading and plundering the entire territory of the Romans".* Sahas (1972), 20
Sometime in 637, the Arabs captured and occupied Jerusalem, which was surrendered by Patriarch Sophronius. In the summer of 637, the Muslims captured Gaza, and, during the same period, the Byzantine authorities in Egypt purchased an expensive truce, which lasted three years. In 638, the Muslims occupied northern Syria, except for upper Mesopotamia, which they granted a one-year truce. At the expiration of this truce in 639–640, the Arabs overran Byzantine Mesopotamia, and terminated the conquest of Palestine by storming Caesarea Maritima and effecting their final capture of Ascalon. In December 639, the Muslims departed from Palestine to invade Egypt in early 640.
Arab conquests of North Africa: 639–717
Conquest of Egypt and Cyrenaica
Antioch temporarily remained under Byzantine control, but by the time Heraclius died, much of the Egypt had been lost, and by 647–648 the whole of Syria was in Muslim hands. With 3,500–4,000 troops under his command, 'Amr ibn al-A'as first crossed into Egypt from Palestine at the end of 639 or the beginning of 640. He was progressively joined by further reinforcements, notably 12,000 soldiers by Al-Zubayr. 'Amr first besieged and conquered Babylon, and then attacked Alexandria. The Byzantines, divided and shocked by the sudden loss of so much territory, agreed to give up the city by September 642. The fall of Alexandria extinguished Byzantine rule in Egypt, and allowed the Muslims to continue their military activities in North Arica; between 643–644 'Amr completed the conquest of Cyrenaica. During the same period, the Arabs took Cyprus, and Uthman succeeded Caliph Umar after his death.
The Byzantine navy briefly won back Alexandria in 645, but recapitulated it in 646 shortly after the Battle of Nikiou. The local Christian Copts welcomed the Arabs just as the Monophysites did in Jerusalem. The loss of this lucrative province deprived the Byzantines of their valuable wheat supply, thereby causing bread shortages throughout the Byzantine Empire and in its soldiers' rations in the following decades.
Conquest of the remaining Byzantine territories in North Africa
In 647, an Arab army led by Abdallah ibn al-Saad moved into the Byzantine Exarchate of Africa. Tripolitania was taken, followed by Sufetula, south of Carthage, and the governor and self-proclaimed Emperor of Africa Gregory was killed. Abdallah's booty-laden force returned to Egypt in 648 after Gregory's successor, Gennadius, promised them an annual tribute of some 300,000 nomismata.
Following a civil war in the Arab Empire the Umayyads came to power under Muawiyah I. Under the Umayyads the conquest of the remaining Byzantine territories in North Africa was completed and the Arabs were able to move across large parts of Maghreb, entering into Visigothic Spain through the Strait of Gibraltar under the command of the Berber general Tariq ibn-Ziyad. But this happened only after they developed a naval power of their own, and they conquered and dismantled the Byzantine stronghold of Carthage between 695–698. The loss of Africa meant that soon, Byzantine control of the Western Mediterranean was challenged by a new Arab fleet operating from Tunisia.
Muawiyah began consolidating the Arab territory from the Aral Sea to the western border of Egypt. He put a governor in place in Egypt at al-Fustat, and launched raids into Sicily in 652 and Anatolia in 663. Then from 665 to 689 a new North African campaign was carried out to protect Egypt "from flank attack by Byzantine Cyrene". An Arab army of 40,000 took Barca, defeating 30,000 Byzantine.
A vanguard of 10,000 Arabs under Uqba ibn Nafi followed from Damascus. In 670, Kairouan in modern Tunisia was established as a base for further operations; Kairouan would become the capital of the Islamic province of Ifriqiya, and one of the main Arabo-Islamic cultural centers in the Middle Ages. Then ibn Nafi "plunged into the heart of the country, traversed the wilderness in which his successors erected the splendid capitals of Fes and Morocco, and at length penetrated to the verge of the Atlantic and the great desert. In his conquest of the Maghreb, he took the coastal cities of Bugia and Tingi, overwhelming what had once been the Roman province of Mauretania Tingitana where here he was finally halted. As the historian Luis Garcia de Valdeavellano explains:
Moreover, as Gibbon writes, "this Mahometan Alexander, who sighed for new worlds, was unable to preserve his recent conquests. By the universal defection of the Greeks and Africans he was recalled from the shores of the Atlantic." His forces were directed at putting down rebellions, and in one such battle he was surrounded by insurgents and killed. Then, the third governor of Africa, Zuheir, was overthrown by a powerful army, sent from Constantinople by Constantine IV for the relief of Carthage. Meanwhile, a second Arab civil war was raging in Arabia and Syria resulting in a series of four caliphs between the death of Muawiyah in 680 and the ascension of Abd al-Malik in 685, and was ongoing until 692 with the death of the rebel leader.
The Saracen Wars of Justinian II, last Emperor of the Heraclian Dynasty, "reflected the general chaos of the age". After a successful campaign he made a truce with the Arabs, agreeing on joint possession of Armenia, Iberia and Cyprus; however, by removing 12,000 Christian Mardaites from their native Lebanon, he removed a major obstacle for the Arabs in Syria, and in 692, after the disastrous Battle of Sebastopolis, the Muslims conquered all Armenia. Deposed in 695, with Carthage lost in 698, Justinian returned to power from 705-711. His second reign was marked by Arab victories in Asia Minor and civil unrest. Reportedy, he ordered his guards to execute the only unit that had not deserted him after one battle, to prevent their desertion in the next.
Arab sieges of Constantinople
In 674 the Umayyad Caliph Muawiyah I besieged Constantinople under Constantine IV. In this battle, the Umayyads were unable to breach the Theodosian Walls and blockaded the city along the River Bosporus. The approach of winter however forced the besiegers to withdraw to an island away.
However, prior to the siege a Christian refugee from Syria named Kallinikos (Callinicus) of Heliopolis had recently invented for the Byzantine Empire a devastating new weapon that came to be known as "Greek fire". In 677, the Byzantine navy used the weapon to decisively defeat the Umayyad navy in the Sea of Marmara, resulting in the lifting of the siege in 678. Among those killed in the siege was Eyup, the standard bearer of Muhammed and the last of his companions; to Muslims today, his tomb is considered one of the holiest sites in Istanbul. The Byzantine victory halted the Umayyad expansion into Europe for almost thirty years.
The initial conflict came to a close during the reigns of the Byzantine Emperor Leo III the Isaurian and the Umayyad Caliph Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz, after the Second Arab siege of Constantinople in (717-718), where the Arab ground forces, led by Maslama, were defeated by Constantinople's walls and the timely arrival of allied Bulgar forces even as the Umayyad naval fleet was defeated by Greek fire:
Later conflicts
The primary conflict ended with the siege of Constantinople in 718, and although later conflicts continued into the 11th century, the conquests of the Arabs began to retard. Arab attempts at taking Anatolia failed, and it was eventually taken instead by the Seljuk Turks.
Iconoclast controversy
Among the effects of the Byzantine-Arab Wars was the religious and civil unrest it stirred in the heart of Byzantium. The Iconomachia, or "Wars of the Icons", began when a 726 edict of Leo the Isaurian decreed the crucifix be replaced by a plain Cross, sparking off the controversy of Iconoclasm. Writings suggest that at least part of the reason for the removal may have been military reversals against the Muslims and the eruption of the volcanic island of Thera, which Leo possibly viewed as evidence of the wrath of God brought on by Iconoduly in the Church. While fighting the Arabs, Leo had noticed the puritanical values of the Arabs that forbade representational religious art as idolatry, and he believed the Byzantine Empire would receive successes by following their example. "He saw no need to consult the church, and he appears to have been surprised by the depth of the popular opposition he encountered".
In 732, Leo launched a fleet to arrest Pope Gregory III for defying the edict and recover Ravenna. The ships sank en route in the Adriatic Sea, but the strife was far from over. The controversy weakened the Byzantine Empire, and was a key factor in the schism between the Patriarch of Constantinople and the Bishop of Rome.
Meanwhile between 750 and 770, Constantine launched a series of campaigns against the Arabs and Bulgars in an attempt to reverse so many losses.
Civil war occurred in the Byzantine Empire, often with Arab support. With the support of Caliph Al-Ma'mun, Arabs under the leadership of Thomas the Slav invaded, so that within a matter of months, only two themata in Asia Minor remained loyal to Emperor Michael II. When Thomas captured Thessalonica, the Empire's second largest city, it was quickly re-captured by the Byzantines. Thomas's 821 siege of Constantinople did not get past the city walls, and he was forced to retreat.
Asia Minor, Crete and Sicily
The Arabs did not relinquish their designs on Asia Minor and in 838 began another invasion, sacking the city of Amorion. With internal Byzantine unity weakened, along with their ties to the West, Crete fell to the Saracens in 824, and Sicily was slowly lost over a 75-year period. Using Tunisia as their launching pad, the Arabs started by conquering Palermo in 831, Messina in 842, Enna in 859.
Byzantine resurgence
However, religious peace came with the emergence of the Macedonian dynasty in 867, as well as a strong and unified Byzantine leadership; while the Abassids empire had splintered into many factions. Basil I revived the Byzantine Empire into a regional power, during a period of territorial expansion, making the Empire the strongest power in Europe, with an ecclesiastical policy marked by good relations with Rome. Basil allied with the Holy Roman Emperor Louis II against the Arabs, and his fleet cleared the Adriatic Sea from their raids. With Byzantine help, Louis II captured Bari from the Arabs in 871. The city became Byzantine territory in 876. However, the Byzantine position on Sicily deteriorated, and Syracuse fell to the Emirate of Sicily in 878. Catania would be lost in 900, and finally the fortress of Taormina in 902. Sicily would remain under Arab control until the Norman invasion in 1071.
Although most of Sicily was lost, the general Nicephorus Phocas the Elder succeeded in taking Taranto and much of Calabria in 880. Crete was retaken by the Byantines in 960, and would be held until 1204, when it fell to the Venice during the Fourth Crusade. The successes in the Italian Peninsula opened a new period of Byzantine domination there. Above all, the Byzantines were beginning to establish a strong presence in the Mediterranean Sea, and especially the Adriatic.
After putting an end to the internal strife, Basil II launched a campaign against the Arabs in 995. The Byzantine civil wars had weakened the Empire's position in the east, and the gains of Nikephoros II Phokas and John I Tzimiskes came close to being lost, with Aleppo besieged and Antioch under threat. Basil won several battles in Syria, relieving Aleppo, taking over the Orontes valley, and raiding further south. Although he did not have the force to drive into Palestine and reclaim Jerusalem, his victories did restore much of Syria to the empire including the larger city which was the seat of the Patriarch of Antioch. No emperor since Heraclius had been able to hold these lands for any length of time, and the Empire would retain them for the next 75 years. Piers Paul Read writes that by 1025, Byzantine land "stretched from the Straits of Messina and the northern Adriatic in the west to the River Danube and Crimea in the north, and to the cities of Melitine and Edessa beyond the Euphrates in the east."
Under Basil II, the Byzantines established a swath of new themata, stretching northeast from Aleppo (a Byzantine protectorate) to Manzikert. Under the Theme system of military and administrative government, the Byzantines could raise a force at least 200,000 strong, though in practice these were strategically placed throughout the Empire. With Basil's rule, the Byzantine Empire reached its greatest height in nearly five centuries, and indeed for the next four centuries.
Conclusion
The wars drew near to a closure when the Turks and various Mongol invaders replaced the threat of either power. From the 11th and 12th centuries onwards, the Byzantine conflicts shifted into the Byzantine-Seljuk wars with the Seljuk Turks. After the defeat at the Battle of Manzikert by the Turks in 1071, the Byzantine Empire, with the help of Western Crusaders, re-established its position in the Middle East as a superpower. Meanwhile, the major Arab conflicts were in the Crusades, and later against Mongolian invasions, especially that of the Golden Horde and Timur.
During the Second Crusade, Baldwin III seized Ascalon in 1153, and the Kingdom of Jerusalem was able to advance into Egypt and briefly occupy Cairo in the 1160s. The Emperor Manuel married Maria of Antioch, cousin of the Crusader King Amalric I of Jerusalem, while Amalric married Manuel's grand-niece Maria Komnene. In 1168 a formal alliance was negotiated by future Archbishop William of Tyre, and in 1169 Manuel launched a joint expedition with Amalric to Egypt. Manuel's ambitious campaign was a dramatic demonstration of how powerful the Empire had become, involving a fleet of over 200 ships equipped with siege weapons and Greek fire; William of Tyre was particularly impressed by the large transport ships used to transport the cavalry forces of the Komnenian army. Manuel's wider strategy was to use the Latin Crusaders as a shield for the Empire, and his intervention in Egypt was because he believed control of Egypt would be the deciding factor of the Second Crusade. A successful conquest would have consolidated Crusader control in the Holy Land, and restored the grain supply of the rich province to the Empire.
Furthermore, it would bind the Crusaders more closely to the Empire, a goal which Manuel would pursue with determination throughout his reign and which would be evident when King Amalric subsequently placed his whole kingdom under the protection of Manuel, effectively extending the agreement on Antioch by making the entire Kingdom of Jerusalem at least nominally part of the Empire. However, this was a personal arrangement, in the feudal tradition of Western Europe, and as such only applied for as long as Manuel and Amalric were the rulers of their respective states.
The invasion could even have expected support from the native Coptic Christians, who had lived under Islamic rule for over five hundred years. However, the failure of co-operation between the Crusaders and the Byzantines jeopardised the chances to take the province. The Byzantine fleet sailed only with provisions for three months: by the time the crusaders were ready, supplies were already running out, and eventually the fleet retired after an ineffectual attempt to capture Damietta. Each side sought to blame the other for failure, but both also knew that they depended on each other: the alliance was maintained, and further plans were made, which ultimately were to come to naught.
Seljuk Sultan Kilij Arslan II used this time to eliminate his rivals and build up his power in Asia Minor. The balance of power in the eastern Mediterranean was changing, and the effects of Manuel's failure in Egypt would still be felt long after his death. The rise of Saladin was only made possible when, in 1171, he was proclaimed Sultan of Egypt; his uniting of Egypt and Syria would ultimately lead to the Third Crusade. Meanwhile, the Byzantine alliance ended with the death of Manuel I in 1180; Manuel would be the last Emperor truly sympathetic to the Crusades.
Effects
As with any war of such length, the drawn-out Byzantine-Arab Wars had long lasting effects for both the Byzantine Empire and the Arab states. The Byzantines experienced extensive territorial loss, while the Arabs gained strong control in the Middle East and Africa. The focus of the Byzantine Empire shifted from the western reconquests of Justinian to a primarily defensive position on its eastern borders. Without Byzantine interference in the emerging Christian states of medieval Europe, the situation gave a huge stimulus to feudalism and economic self-sufficiency.
Moreover, the view of modern historians is that one of the most important effects was the strain it put on the relationship between Rome and Byzantium. While fighting for survival against the Arabs, it was no longer able to provide the protection it had once offered to the Papacy; worse still, according to Thomas Woods, the Emperors "routinely intervened in the life of the Church in areas lying clearly beyond the state's competence". The Iconoclast controversy of the 8th and 9th centuries can be taken as a key factor "which drove the Latin Church into the arms of the Franks." Thus it has been argued that Charlemagne was an indirect product of Muhammad:
- "The Frankish Empire would probably never have existed without Islam, and Charlemagne without Mahomet would be inconceivable."
The Holy Roman Empire of Charlemagne's successors would later come to the aid of the Byzantines under Louis II and during the Crusades, but relations between the two empires would be strained; based on the Salerno Chronicle, we know the Emperor Basil had sent an angry letter to his western counterpart, reprimanding him for usurping the title of emperor. He argued that the Frankish rulers were simple reges, and that each nation has its own title for the ruler, whereas the imperial title suited only the ruler of the Eastern Romans, Basil himself.
Historiography and other sources
According to Walter Emil Kaegi Arabic sources are characterized by obscurities and contradictions. Some non-Arabic sources are also problematic, such as the chronicles of Theophanes and Nicephorus, and those written in Syriac, which tend to be short and provide terse information. Some of the sources Armenian historian Sebeos used appear to be Syriac. Among the few Latin sources of interest are the seventh-century history of Fredegarius, and two eight-century Spanish chronicles, all of which draw on some Byzantine and oriental historical traditions. As far as Byzantine military action against the initial Muslim invasions, Kaegi asserts that "Byzantine traditions ... attempt to deflect criticism of the Byzantine debacle from Heraclius to other persons, groups, and things".
The range of non-historical Byzantine sources is vast: they range from papyri to sermons (most notable those of Sophronius and Anastasius Sinaita), poetry (especially that of Sophronius and George of Pisidia), correspondence often of a patristic provenance, apologetical treatises, apocalypses, hagiography, military mannuals (in particular the Strategikon of Maurice from the beginning of the seventh century), and other non-literary sources, such as epigraphy, archeology, and numismatics. None of these sources contains a coherent account of any of the campaigns of the Muslim conquests, but some do contain invaluable details that survive nowhere else.
See also
Citations
Primary sources
Secondary sources
Further reading
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