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Muslim conquest of Syria
Part of the Muslim conquests and Byzantine-Arab Wars
Date 632-640 Location Palestine and Syria Result Muslim victory Territorial changes Levant annexed by Muslims
Combatants
Byzantine Roman Empire Ghassanid Kingdom Kingdom of Armenia Georgia Franks Slavs	Muslim Arabs (Rashidun Caliphate)
Commanders
Heraclius Constantine III Jabalah VI ibn al-Aiham Theodorus Romanus Dairjan Vahan (Mahan) Buccinator George Vardan Cubicularius Sacellarius	Khalid ibn al-Walid Abu Ubaidah ibn al-Jarrah Amr ibn al-A'as Yazid ibn Abu Sufyan Shurahbil ibn Hassana

•  • [ e] Byzantine-Arab Wars

Early Conflicts Mutah – Tabouk – Dathin – Firaz Arab Conquest of Roman Syria Qarteen – Bosra – Ajnadayn – Marj-al-Rahit – Fahl – Damascus - Yarmouk – Jerusalem - Hazir – Aleppo Arab Conquest of Roman Egypt Heliopolis – Nikiou Umayyad Conquest of North Africa Carthage Arab Invasions of Anatolia and Constantinople Iron Bridge – 1st Constantinople – Syllaeum – That Al-Sawari – 2nd Constantinople – Akroinon Arab Conquest of Southern Italy

The Muslim conquest of Syria occurred in the first half of the 7th century,^[1] and refers to the region known as the Bilad al-Sham, the Levant, or Greater Syria. The region was the Iudaea Province of the Roman Empire and their Arab client state (symmachos) of the Ghassanids.^[2] Arab forces had appeared on the southern borders even before the death of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad in 632, such as the Battle of Mu'tah in 629, but the real invasion began in 634 under his successors, the Rashidun Caliphs Abu Bakr and Umar ibn Khattab, with Khalid ibn al-Walid as it's most important military leader.^[1]

Byzantine Syria

Syria had been administered from Constantinople for three centuries prior to the Arab conquest and was frequently contested over by the Persians.^[3] The Persian's under Khosrow I captured Antioch in 540 and in 573 the Sassanids had resumed attacks.^[3] The invasion of Khosrow II began in 606, had just been rolled back by the victories of Heraclius, in the peace of 628 by capturing Jerusalem in 614 and winning at Chalcedon in 617.^[4]

The Conquest under Umar

The first territorial conquests were made under Khalid ibn al-Walid in Umar's reign; Damascus in 635. Damascus, and Jerusalem - considered by Muslims, Christians, and Jews alike to be a holy city - in 637.^[5] In 635 Damascus surrendered, its inhabitants being promised security for their lives, property, and churches, on payment of a poll tax; the Jizya. A counterattack by Roman Emperor Heraclius forced the Arabs to abandon Jerusalem and Damascus, though the Romans were soon defeated at the Battle of the Yarmuk River in 636. Damascus and Jerusalem was re-occupied and by 640 the conquest was virtually complete.^[1]

Arab Administration

The new rulers divided Syria into four districts (junds): Damascus, Hims, Jordan, and Palestine (to which a fifth, Kinnasrin, was later added)^[1] and the Arab garrisons were kept apart in camps, and life went on much as before for the local population.^[1] Conversion to Islam was limited to the Arab tribes already settled in Syria; except for the tribe of Ghassan.^[1] The Muslim's adopted policy of tolerance towards other religions, resulting in a positive effect on the new subject people, especially the Christians Nestorian and Jacobite Christians and Jews (People of the Book), who had been previously persecuted under Byzantine rule.^[5][1] The loyalty of his new subjects was paramount to the success of Muslim rule in the region, therefore excessive taxation or oppression was avoided.^[5] The taxes instituted were the kharaj - a tax that landowners and peasants paid according to the productivity of their fields - as well as the jizya - paid by non-Muslims in return for protection under the Muslim state and exemption from military service.^[5] The Byzantine civil service was retained until a new system could be instituted; therefore, Greek remained the administrative language in the new Muslim territories for over 50 years after the conquests.^[5][1]

Umar was also engaged upon creating a buffer zone around all of Arabian Peninsula, the birthplace of Islam, and so while Syria was being captured to the west, Muslim forces were also heading east and engaging the Sassanid Empire there.^[5] After the Islamic conquest of Persia the Muslims were able to resume the offensive against the Byzantines by pushing into Aegyptus (Roman province).^[5]

under the Umayyad dynasty that came to power following the Muslim civil war

The Conquest under Uthman

While Uthman ibn Affan did not expand the Arab Empire to the same degree as Umar, his armies thwarted the Byzantine attempt to reconquer Byzantine North Africa. In 639 he named his cousin, Mu'awiya, the governor of Syria and commissioned the construction of a Muslim fleet to guard the Mediterranean against Byzantine naval attacks.^[5][1] These newly developed naval capabilities helped in the subsequent conquest of the island of Cyprus in 649.^[5]

The Rise of the Umayyads

When the first civil war broke out in the Muslim empire, as a result of the murder of 'Uthman and the nomination of 'Ali as caliph, Mu'awiyah used his base in Damascus to extended his authority over neighbouring provinces and was proclaimed caliph in 660.^[1] He was the first of the Umayyad line, which ruled the empire, with Syria as its core and Damascus its capital, for the next century.^[1]

See also

• Iudaea Province
• Muslim conquests
• Byzantine-Arab Wars
• Umayyad conquest of North Africa
• History of Syria
• History of Jordan
• Ghassanids
• History of Palestine
• History of the Levant
• Spread of Islam

Footnotes

References

• Charles, R. H. The Chronicle of John, Bishop of Nikiu: Translated from Zotenberg's Ethiopic Text, 1916. Reprinted 2007. Evolution Publishing, ISBN 978-1-889758-87-9. http://www.evolpub.com/CRE/CREseries.html#CRE4

External links

• Multimedia History Tutorials by the Applied History Group, The Islamic World to 1600 , University of Calgary. http://www.ucalgary.ca/applied_history/tutor/islam/index2.html
• Edward Gibbon, History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Chapter 51
• Bishop John NIkiou The Chronicle of John, Bishop of Nikiu Chapters CXVI-CXXI