Early Muslim conquests

Early Muslim conquests
Expansion under Muhammad, 622–632   Expansion under the Rashidun Caliphate, 632–661   Expansion under the Umayyad Caliphate, 661–750
Date 622–750 CE Location Middle East and North Africa Mediterranean Europe Central Asia South Asia[a] Result Muslim victory Territorial changes Arab dominion (caliphate) established from Hispania in the west to Sindh in the east
Belligerents
See list Islamic Rule of Medina Rashidun Caliphate Umayyad Caliphate (after Rashidun period)	See list Sasanian Empire Lakhmids Byzantine Empire Ghassanids Bulgarian Empire Kingdom of Makuria Dabuyid dynasty Khazar Khaganate Turgesh Khaganate Göktürk Khaganate Sogdian rebel Kurdish tribes Berbers Kingdom of the Visigoths Kingdom of the Franks Kingdom of the Lombards Duchy of Aquitaine Tang dynasty Brahmin dynasty of Sindh Turk Shahi[1] Zunbils[1] Hepthalite principalities[2]
Commanders and leaders
See list Muhammad Abu Bakr Umar I Uthman Ali Khalid ibn al-Walid Al-Muthanna ibn Haritha Abu Ubayd al-Thaqafi Saad ibn Abi Waqqas Tariq ibn Ziyad Uqba ibn Nafi Muhammad bin Qasim Zuhra ibn al-Hawiyya Hashim ibn Utba Al-Qa'qa' ibn Amr al-Tamimi Abu Musa al-Ashari Ammar ibn Yasir Al-Nu'man ibn Muqrin Hudhayfah ibn al-Yaman Al-Mughira Uthman ibn Abi al-As Asim ibn Amr al-Tamimi Ahnaf ibn Qais Abdallah ibn Amir Abu Ubaidah ibn al-Jarrah Yazid ibn Abi Sufyan Shurahbil ibn Hasana Al-Samh ibn Malik al-Khawlani † Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi † Yusuf ibn 'Abd al-Rahman al-Fihri Amr ibn al-As Zubayr ibn al-Awwam Miqdad bin Al-Aswad Ubadah ibn al-Samit Kharija bin Huzafa Abdallah ibn Sa'd Musa bin Nusayr Hasan ibn al-Nu'man Abd ar-Rahman ibn Rabiah Maslamah ibn Abd al-Malik Al-Jarrah ibn Abdallah † Marwan II Qutayba ibn Muslim Muslim ibn Sa'id al-Kilabi Junayd ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Murri Sawra ibn al-Hurr al-Abani Sa'id ibn Amr al-Harashi Asad ibn Abdallah al-Qasri Nasr ibn Sayyar Al-Muhallab ibn Abi Sufra Habib ibn Maslama al-Fihri	See list Yazdegerd III Rostam Farrokhzād † Mahbuzan Huzail ibn Imran Hormuz Anoshagan Andarzaghar Bāhman † Pirouzan Jaban Mihran Hormuzan (POW) Mardan Shah Bahram Isandi Karinz ibn Karianz Wahman Mardanshah Jalinus † Mihran-i Bahram-i Razi Beerzan † Farrukhzad Jabalah Ibn Al-Aiham Heraclius Theodore Trithyrius Vahan Vardan Thomas Buccinator Gregory Tervel of Bulgaria Roderic † Agila II † Ardo † Odo of Aquitaine Charles Martel Childebrand Liutprand Pépin le Bref Constans II Constantine IV Justinian II Leontius Tiberius III Leo III Constantine V Theodorus Aretion Cyrus of Alexandria Gregory the Patrician † Dihya Kusaila John the Patrician Barjik  † Farrukhan the Great Staurakios Michael Lachanodrakon Tatzates Anthony the Domestic Suluk Khagan Kül Chor Gurek   al-Harith ibn Surayj Kapagan Khan[citation needed] Bilge Qaghan Kul Tigin Gao Xianzhi Raja Dahir Nezak Tarkhan[2]

The early Muslim conquests or early Islamic conquests (Arabic: الْفُتُوحَاتُ الإسْلَامِيَّة, romanized: al-Futūḥāt al-ʾIslāmiyya),^[3] also known as the Arab conquests,^[4] were initiated in the 7th century by Muhammad, the founder of Islam. He established a new unified polity in Arabia (known today as the first Islamic state) that expanded rapidly under the Rashidun Caliphate and the Umayyad Caliphate, culminating in Muslim rule being established on three continents (Asia, Africa, and Europe) over the next century. According to Scottish historian James Buchan: "In speed and extent, the first Arab conquests were matched only by those of Alexander the Great, and they were more lasting."^[5]

At their height, the territory that was conquered by the Arab Muslims stretched from Iberia (at the Pyrenees) in the west to India (at Sind) in the east; Muslim control spanned Sicily, most of the Middle East and North Africa, and the Caucasus and Central Asia.

Among other drastic changes, the early Muslim conquests brought about the collapse of the Sasanian Empire and great territorial losses for the Byzantine Empire. Reasons that would provide an explanation for the Muslim victories have been difficult to reconstruct in hindsight, primarily because only fragmentary sources have survived from the period. American scholar Fred McGraw Donner suggests that Muhammad's establishment of an Islamic polity in Arabia coupled with ideological (i.e., religious) coherence and mobilization constituted the main factor that propelled the early Muslim armies to successfully establish, in the timespan of roughly a century, one of the largest empires in history. Estimates of the total area of the combined territory held by the early Muslim polities at the conquests' peak have been as high as 13,000,000 square kilometres (5,000,000 sq mi).^[6] Most historians also agree that, as another primary factor determining the early Muslim conquests' success, the Sasanians and the Byzantines were militarily and economically exhausted from decades of warfare against each other.^[7]

It has been suggested that Jews and some Christians in Sasanian and Byzantine territory were dissatisfied and welcomed the invading Muslim troops, largely because of religious conflict in both empires.^[8] However, confederations of Arab Christians, including the Ghassanids, initially allied themselves with the Byzantines. There were also instances of alliances between the Sasanians and the Byzantines, such as when they fought together against the Rashidun army during the Battle of Firaz.^[9][10] Some of the lands lost by the Byzantines to the Muslims (namely Egypt, Palestine, and Syria) had been reclaimed from the Sasanians only a few years prior to the Muslim conquests.

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