Muslim conquest of the Levant

The Muslim conquest of the Levant (Arabic: فَتْحُ الشَّام, romanized: Fatḥ al-šām; lit. 'Conquest of Syria'), or Arab conquest of Syria,^[1] was a 634–638 CE conquest of Byzantine Syria by the Rashidun Caliphate.

Muslim conquest of the Levant
Part of the Arab–Byzantine wars
Scene of the Roman Theatre at Palmyra, 2005
Date 634–638 CE Location Levant:[a] at that time Diocese of the East under the Praetorian prefecture of the East Result Muslim victory Territorial changes Annexation of the Levant by the Rashidun Caliphate
Belligerents
Rashidun Caliphate	Byzantine Empire Ghassanids Tanukhids Banu Judham Banu Lakhm
Commanders and leaders
Abu Bakr Umar ibn al-Khattab Khalid ibn al-Walid Abu Ubayda ibn al-Jarrah Amr ibn al-As Yazid ibn Abi Sufyan Shurahbil ibn Hassana Iyad ibn Ghanm Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan	Heraclius Jabalah ibn al-Aiham Theodore Trithyrius † Vahan † Vardan Thomas Buccinator Gregory

A part of the wider Arab–Byzantine wars, the Levant was brought under Arab Muslim rule and developed into the provincial region of Bilad al-Sham. Clashes between the Arabs and Byzantines on the southern Levantine borders of the Byzantine Empire had occurred during the lifetime of Muhammad, with the Battle of Muʿtah in 629 CE. However, the actual conquest did not begin until 634, two years after Muhammad's death. It was led by the first two Rashidun caliphs who succeeded Muhammad: Abu Bakr and Umar ibn al-Khattab. During this time, Khalid ibn al-Walid was the most important leader of the Rashidun army.

Roman Syria

Main articles: Roman Syria and Diocese of the East

Syria had been under Roman rule for seven centuries prior to the Arab Muslim conquest and had been invaded by the Sassanid Persians on a number of occasions during the 3rd, 6th and 7th centuries; it had also been subject to raids by the Sassanids' Arab allies, the Lakhmids.^[2] During the Roman period, beginning after the fall of Jerusalem in the year 70, the entire region (Judea, Samaria, and the Galilee) was renamed Palaestina, subdivided into Diocese I and II.^[3] The Romans also renamed an area of land including the Negev, Sinai, and the west coast of the Arabian Peninsula as Palaestina Salutaris, sometimes called Palaestina III or Palaestina Tertia.^[3] Part of the area was ruled by the Arab vassal state of the Ghassanids' symmachos.^[4]

During the last of the Roman-Persian Wars, beginning in 603, the Persians under Khosrau II had succeeded in occupying Syria, Palestine and Egypt for over a decade before being forced by the victories of Heraclius to conclude the peace of 628.^[5] Thus, on the eve of the Muslim conquests the Romans (or Byzantines as modern Western historians conventionally refer to Romans of this period) were still in the process of rebuilding their authority in these territories, which in some areas had been lost to them for almost twenty years.^[5] Politically, the Syrian region consisted of two provinces: Syria proper stretched from Antioch and Aleppo in the north to the top of the Dead Sea. To the west and south of the Dead Sea lay the province of Palestine.

Syria was mostly made up of Aramaic and Greek speakers with a partly Arab population, especially in its eastern and southern parts. The Arabs of Syria were people of no consequence until the migration of the powerful Ghassanid tribe from Yemen to Syria, who converted to Christianity and thereafter ruled a semi-autonomous state with their own king under Roman vassalage. The Ghassanid Dynasty became one of the honoured princely dynasties of the Empire, with the Ghassanid king ruling over the Arabs in Jordan and Southern Syria from his capital at Bostra. The last of the Ghassanid kings, who ruled at the time of the Muslim invasion, was Jabalah ibn al-Aiham.

The Byzantine Emperor Heraclius, after re-capturing Syria from the Sassanians, set up new defense lines from Gaza to the south end of the Dead Sea. These lines were only designed to protect communications from bandits, and the bulk of the Byzantine defenses were concentrated in Northern Syria facing the traditional foes, the Sassanid Persians. The drawback of this defense line was that it enabled the Muslims, advancing from the desert in the south, to reach as far north as Gaza before meeting regular Byzantine troops.

The 7th century was a time of rapid military change in the Byzantine Empire. The empire was certainly not in a state of collapse when it faced the new challenge from Arabia after being exhausted by recent Roman–Persian Wars, but utterly failed to tackle the challenge effectively.^[6]

Rise of the Caliphate

Military confrontations with the Byzantine Empire began during the lifetime of Muhammad. The Battle of Mu'tah was fought in September 629 near the village of Mu'tah, east of the Jordan River and Karak in Karak Governorate, between the forces of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and the forces of the Byzantine Empire and their Arab Christian Ghassanid vassals. In Islamic historical sources, the battle is usually described as the Muslims' attempt to take retribution against the Ghassanids after a Ghassanid official executed Muhammad's emissary who was en route to Bosra.^[7] During the battle the Muslim army was routed.^[8][9] After three Muslim leaders were killed, the command was given to Khalid ibn al-Walid and he succeeded in saving the rest of the forces.^[8] The surviving Muslim forces retreated to Medina.

After the Farewell Pilgrimage in 632, Muhammad appointed Usama ibn Zayd as the commander of an expeditionary force which was to invade the region of Balqa in the Byzantine Empire. This expedition was known as the Expedition of Usama bin Zayd and its stated aim was to avenge the Muslim losses at the Battle of Mu'tah, in which Usama's father and Muhammad's former adopted son, Zayd ibn Harithah, had been killed.^[10] Usama's expedition in May/June 632 was successful and his army was the first Muslim force to successfully invade and raid Byzantine territory.

Muhammad died in June 632, and Abu Bakr was appointed Caliph and political successor at Medina. Soon after Abu Bakr's succession, several Arab tribes revolted against him in the Ridda wars (Arabic for the Wars of Apostasy). The Campaign of the Apostasy was fought and completed during the eleventh year of the Hijri. The year 12 Hijri dawned, on 18 March 633, with Arabia united under the central authority of the Caliph at Medina.

Whether Abu Bakr intended a full-out imperial conquest or not is hard to say; he did, however, set in motion a historical trajectory that in just a few short decades would lead to one of the largest empires in history, starting with a confrontation with the Persian Empire under the general Khalid ibn al-Walid.

Course of the conquest

Despite the often contradictory early Islamic narratives of the conquest, the historian Fred Donner deemed it "possible to reconstruct the broad outlines" of the war.^[11] The course of the conquest is generally divided into three main phases.^[b]

Initial invasion

Map detailing Rashidun Caliphate's invasion of the Levant.

With the tribes of Arabia brought under Medina's control during the Ridda wars, Abu Bakr prepared and dispatched armies for the conquest of Byzantine Syria. The first of these armies was probably that of Khalid ibn Sa'id ibn al-As, an early companion of Muhammad. He was shortly after dismissed at the instigation of Umar for having opposed Abu Bakr's succession, with one set of early Muslim accounts placing this dismissal before his departure from Medina and the other once he reached the Tayma oasis on the approaches to Syria. At Tayma, he was supposedly reinforced with troops led by the commander al-Walid ibn Uqba, engaged with Arab allies of the Byzantines, and was defeated.^[13]

In the Islamic calendar date of Rajab 12 AH (September 633) or the beginning of 13 AH (Spring 634), Abu Bakr dispatched three or four armies to Syria led respectively by Amr ibn al-As, Shurahbil ibn Hasana, Yazid ibn Abi Sufyan, and Abu Ubayda ibn al-Jarrah, all of whom were companions of Muhammad and the first two veterans of the Ridda wars. The timing and order of each commander's deployment and whether they were independent of each other or if any held the high command at this stage is not clear.^[14] Each army took a separate route toward Syria. Amr embarked on the coastal road to Ayla before breaking northwest into the Negev Desert and toward Gaza.^[15][16] The other commanders took the road through Tabuk, with Shurahbil stopping in the area east of the Arabah Valley, Yazid terminating in the Balqa region east of the Dead Sea, and Abu Ubayda taking up position in the Golan Heights area.^[15]

According to narrative of the 8th-century historian al-Azdi, Abu Bakr instructed Yazid with ethical and operational instructions:

When you meet the enemy, and God leads you to victory, do not manacle, mutilate, maim, or betray, and do not accuse [the defeated] of cowardice. Do not, you all, kill children, old men, or women; do not burn palm trees or uproot them; do not cut down fruitful trees; and do not slaughter cattle except for eating [them]. You will pass by people in their hermitages who claim to have secluded themselves for [worshipping] God; leave them to what they have secluded themselves for. You will also find others in the middle of whose heads Satan has taken up abode, as if the middles of their heads were the sand grouses' nests (afahīs al-qatā). Strike the nests which they have hollowed in their heads with swords until they turn repentantly to Islam, or until they bring tribute by hand and with humility. God will certainly support those who support Him and His Messengers in absentia (bi-al-ghayb).^[17][18]

The authenticity of these instructions has been questioned by modern scholars. James Moreton Wackeley characterises it as a literary construct intended to idealise early Muslim leadership,^[19] while Albrecht Noth interprets such speeches as part of a wider tradition in which later transmitters reworked existing material to promote moral and legal norms, retroactively ascribing it to prominent early figures to strengthen its authority.^[20] Such interpretations are situated within a broader secular academic discourse that applies historical-critical methods to the Islamic tradition.^[21]

The first encounter between the Muslims and Byzantines occurred at Dathin and Badan, near Gaza, where negotiations between Amr and the local Byzantine garrison commander broke down and gave way to a skirmish ending with Amr's defeat of the local garrison.^[16][22] While of minor consequence, news of the Arabs' victory at Dathin alerted the Byzantines to the entry of Muslim forces into Syria.^[16] Amr afterward set up headquarters at Ghamr al-Arabat, a location in the middle of the Arabah Valley. Credible details of the other commanders' activities is sparse, but a lieutenant of Abu Ubayda may have gained the surrender of a town called Ma'ab in the Balqa, Yazid may have succeeded against a Byzantine force in a minor clash in Palestine and Shurahbil oversaw activity against the pro-Byzantine Quda'a tribal group in his area of operations.^[23]

Donner concludes that the operations in this phase of the Muslim campaigns, where urban centers and major agricultural areas were avoided, targeted the territories inhabited by nomadic and partly settled Arab tribes.^[23] Kennedy comments that at this point, "the Muslim attacks on Syria had amounted to little more than pinpricks along the frontiers".^[24] The goal of the Muslim state was probably to continue the process of subjugating all Arab tribes, which Medina had consistently viewed as posing threats to its power. Once the bulk of the tribes were under Muslim control, the Muslims could launch the major assaults against Syria's main armies and cities.^[23]

Rout of Byzantine main armies

Battles of Ajnadayn and Fahl

Main articles: Battle of Ajnadayn and Battle of Fahl

In the spring of 634, the prominent veteran commander of the Ridda wars Khalid ibn al-Walid was directed by Abu Bakr to leave his campaigning in the desert frontier of Iraq and join the Muslim armies in Syria. He embarked on an unconventional march across the Syrian Desert, including six days through a waterless trek. He managed the trek by increasing his camels' water intake, sealing their mouths to prevent them from eating, and slaughtering them for water as needed by his troops.^[25] He bested pro-Byzantine Arabs from the Bahra tribe in the vicinity of Palmyra.^[26] Afterward, on 24 April 634, he landed upon a group of pro-Byzantine Ghassanid Arabs celebrating Easter at the Marj Rahit meadow north of Damascus.^[27] His troops proceeded to raid the Ghouta gardens around the city before rendezvousing with Muslim forces positioned near Bosra, the capital of Arabia Province and a center of trade in the Hauran region south of Damascus which historically provided the nomadic Arabs with oil, wine and grain.^[27] Khalid was appointed to the supreme command of the Muslim armies in Syria by Abu Bakr or by the Muslim commanders already present.^[28]

The Muslims besieged and captured Bosra in May, facing token resistance by its defenders. The city surrendered in a pact obliging its inhabitants to pay an annual poll tax, the jizya.^[29] Khalid and the other commanders moved to join Amr ibn al-As in southern Palestine to help him counter a large number of Byzantine troops mobilized against him. The ensuing Battle of Ajnadayn, fought at a site in the Wadi al-Simt valley southwest of Jerusalem, was the first major confrontation between the Muslims and the Byzantines. The two sides incurred significant losses, including several prominent Muslims and the Byzantine cubicularius, but the battle ended with the Byzantines routed.^[29] The battle is variously dated to July 634 or January 635.^[30] In the aftermath of Ajnadayn, Amr captured several towns in the interior of Palestine, including Sebastia, Nablus (Neapolis), Lydda, Yibna, Amwas (Emmaus-Nicopolis), Bayt Jibrin (Eleutheropolis) and Jaffa.^[31] Most of these towns fell after minor resistance, hence the scant information available about their captures in the sources.^[32]

Remnants of the Byzantines from Ajnadayn regrouped to the northeast, in Pella ('Fahl' in Arabic), a town with a Byzantine garrison on the eastern bank of the River Jordan, across from Scythopolis ('Beisan' in Arabic).^[33] The Muslims pursued them there, encountering difficulty traversing the muddy grounds around Beisan with their horses, a result of floods from the breaking of the river banks by the Byzantines.^[34][35] The Muslims defeated the Byzantines, who incurred heavy casualties, at the Battle of Fahl and occupied the city in December 634 or January 635.^[35] They may have engaged with Byzantine troops in another battle at Marj al-Suffar, south of Damascus, in which the Muslims suffered heavy losses but drove the Byzantines off nonetheless. Marj al-Suffar is dated variously to March 635 or before Fahl, in July 634.^[36]

Siege of Damascus

Main article: Siege of Damascus (634)

The Kaysan Gate, one of six gates of Damascus besieged by the commanders of the Muslim armies in Syria

From Fahl, the Muslims marched on Damascus, where the Byzantines there were joined by their comrades from the previous battles with the Muslims. They were under the command of Vahan. All the Muslim commanders participated in the siege of Damascus, each posted to one of the city's five gates, while a sixth unit was positioned at the village of Barzeh to intercept Byzantine reinforcements from the north. After a lengthy siege, Damascus capitulated in August or September 635. Although they disagree in the identities of the commanders, most of the Muslim accounts agree that Muslim forces breached one of the city gates, while on another side of the city, the local leaders opened a gate after negotiations with a different Muslim unit. The Muslim commanders ultimately met in the city center where they drafted a capitulation agreement with the inhabitants.^[37]

Although several versions of the treaty were recorded in the early Muslim and Christian sources,^[c] they generally concur that the inhabitants' lives, properties and churches were to be safeguarded, in return for their payment of the jizya (poll tax).^[39] Imperial properties were confiscated by the Muslims.^[40][41] The treaty probably served as the model for the capitulation agreements made throughout Syria, as well Iraq and Egypt, during the early Muslim conquests.^[39][d]

Battle of the Yarmuk

Main article: Battle of the Yarmuk

After Damascus, Muslim forces proceeded to capture Baalbek and then, after a months-long siege, occupied Homs in December 635 or January 636.^[43] Heraclius, who had been observing events from his base in Antioch, responded to the string of Muslim victories and occupations of major cities by mobilizing a massive force of Byzantine imperial troops, local garrisons from Antioch, Aleppo, Chalcis, Mesopotamia, Armenians under their commander Gregory, and Syrian Arab tribesmen under the Ghassanid chief Jabala ibn Ayham.^[43] The overall command of the Byzantines was held by the sacellarius and Vahan. This force's march south prompted the Muslims to abandon Homs, Baalbek and Damascus and regroup at Jabiya in the Golan Heights. The Byzantines took up position nearby, along the Ruqqad river, prompting the Muslims to set up camp at the adjoining Yarmuk River.^[44] This hilly area straddled the borders of four Byzantine provinces and served as the main pasture grounds for the Ghassanids.^[45]

Muslim and Byzantine troop movements before the battle of the Yarmuk

As the Byzantines advanced, the Muslims feigned retreat, inducing the Byzantines to assault the Muslims' camp at Dayr Ayyub. This left the Byzantines' left flank vulnerable and Muslim forces used the wide gap and poor coordination between the Byzantine cavalry and infantry to inflict heavy casualties on the latter. Byzantine forces subsequently fled for safety to a site between the Ruqqad and Allan streams, but the site's only viable exit, the bridge over the Ruqqad, was captured in a night raid by Khalid's cavalry. The Muslims afterward assaulted the Byzantines' encampments between the two streams and at the village of Yaqusa on the edge of the Golan, where most of the Byzantine troops were slain, though many Arab Christian auxiliaries had deserted by that point.^[46]

The Muslim victory at the Yarmuk destroyed the main Byzantine army in Syria and ended the Byzantines' will to confront the Muslims on the field. It sealed Muslim gains in Palestine and Transjordan and paved the way to their quick reoccupation of Damascus and the Beqaa Valley.^[46] In the assessment of historian John Jandora, Yarmuk was one of "the most important battles of World History", ultimately leading to Muslim victories which expanded the Caliphate between the Pyrenees mountains and Central Asia.^[47]

Occupation of Syria

As the Muslims no longer had to confront Byzantine standing armies after Yarmuk, the Muslim army in Syria split into smaller forces and proceeded to occupy Syria's cities. In this phase of the conquest, the main resistance against the Muslims were Byzantine garrisons and local militias.^[48]

Conquest of the north

See also: Al-Jazira (caliphal province) and Iyad ibn Ghanm

The Roman road between the northern Syrian cities of Antioch and Qinnasrin, which the Muslims captured in c. 637

Probably after Yarmuk, Khalid was replaced by Abu Ubayda as the overall commander of the Muslim forces in Syria, with Khalid becoming one of his lieutenant commanders.^[49] Abu Ubayda and his lieutenants besieged and recaptured Homs, making it the base of operations for the conquest of northern Syria. Abu Ubayda and/or his lieutenants proceeded to capture Qinnasrin (Chalcis), Aleppo and Antioch from their defenders in relatively quick succession.^[50]

The accounts about events in northern Syria are especially divergent. Heraclius may have deployed a force under a general, Minas, which was defeated by the Muslims in the plain between Aleppo and Qinnasrin, before or after the Muslims' capture of those cities.^[50] A Byzantine army, swelled by conscripts from several cities in Upper Mesopotamia (the 'Jazira' in Arabic), may have besieged Homs, prompting Abu Ubayda to recall his lieutenants and their armies in the north to buttress the defense of the city. As other Muslim forces proceeded east against the cities of the Jazira, the troops from those areas abandoned the siege to defend their hometowns. Khalid then bested the remaining besiegers.^[51] The Muslims suppressed rebellions in Antioch and Qinnasrin. As northern Syria, including the area east toward the Euphrates, was conquered, Heraclius abandoned his base in Edessa for Samosata and eventually Constantinople. During his withdrawal to the capital, Heraclius disbanded the garrisons, which largely consisted of local farmers, and forts in the mountainous region between Tarsus and Alexandretta so that incoming Muslim troops encountered a deserted countryside.^[51]

Siege of Jerusalem

Main article: Siege of Jerusalem (637)

Abu Ubayda, while still retaining the command of Muslim troops in the north, may have played a less active role in operations there as he left to lead the siege of Jerusalem in late 636 or early 637.^[52] Already following Ajnadayn, an advance force was sent against the city by Amr and its environs, including Bethlehem, were in Muslim hands, as indicated by a sermon of Patriarch Sophronius of Jerusalem. The actual siege was overseen by Abu Ubayda and several of the top Muslim commanders played a role.^[53]

The siege lasted for months as Jerusalem's defenders refused to capitulate except to the caliph Umar. The latter is generally held by the Islamic tradition to have visited the troops at their main camp at Jabiya at least once, around 637. From there, he negotiated with Jerusalem's representatives the capitulation treaty.^[53] In exchange for control of the city, the withdrawal of Byzantine troops, and the inhabitants' payment of the jizya, the inhabitants' lives, churches and properties would be spared.

Fall of coastal holdouts

Ruins of Caesarea Maritima, capital of Byzantine Palestine and one of the last cities in Syria to fall to the Muslims

The coastlands of Syria, especially northern Syria and the Phoenician coast, were the last areas to submit to the Muslims. The port cities were captured by different armies and withstood sieges for longer due to the Byzantines' domination of the sea. The besieged garrisons were thus easily reinforced and resupplied, while cities captured by the Muslims were subject to Byzantine naval raids.^[54]

On Palestine's coast, Yazid ibn Abi Sufyan's brother Mu'awiya led the years-long sieges of Caesarea and Asqalan, which surrendered between 639 and 641.^[32] Yazid and Mu'awiya also led the sieges and captures of Sidon, Beirut, and Byblos.^[55] A lieutenant of Abu Ubayda, Ubada ibn al-Samit, led the raids that captured Tartus and Latakia. One of the last coastal cities to fall was Tripoli, which was captured during Caliph Uthman's reign in 644. With the exception of Caesarea, the coastal cities were relatively minor operations by smaller detachments under lower-ranking commanders.^[55]

Aftermath

Rashidun Empire at its peak under third Rashidun Caliph, Uthman (654)

During the reign of Caliph Uthman, Constantine III decided to recapture the Levant, which had been lost to the Muslims during Umar's reign.^[56] A full-scale invasion was planned and a large force was sent to reconquer Syria. Muawiyah I, the governor of Syria, called for reinforcements and Uthman ordered the governor of Kufa to send a contingent, which, together with the local garrison, defeated the Byzantine army in Northern Syria.

In 645–646, Sufyan bin Mujib Al-Azdi, appointed by Muawiyah, managed to seize Tripoli to eventually capture the last Byzantine stronghold on the Levantine coast.^[57]

Uthman gave permission to Muawiyah to build a navy. From their base in Syria, the Muslims used this fleet to capture Cyprus in 649, Crete, and Rhodes. Annual raids into western Anatolia dissuaded the Byzantines from further attempts to recapture Syria.^[56] In 654–655, Uthman ordered the preparation of an expedition to capture Constantinople, but, due to unrest in the caliphate that resulted in his assassination in 655, the expedition was delayed for decades, only to be attempted unsuccessfully under the Umayyads.

Early Islamic administration

Further information: Bilad al-Sham § Administrative history

The new rulers divided Syria into four districts (junds): Jund Dimashq (Damascus), Jund Hims, Jund al-Urdunn (Jordan), and Jund Filastin (Palestine) (to which a fifth, Jund Qinnasrin, was later added)^[58] and the Arab garrisons were kept apart in camps. The Muslims tolerated the Jews and Christians. The taxes instituted were the kharaj, which landowners and peasants paid according to the productivity of their fields, and the jizya, paid by non-Muslims in return for state protection and exemption from military service. 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^{[citation needed]}.

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, the Rashidun Caliphate was succeeded by the Umayyad dynasty^{[citation needed]}, with Syria as its core and Damascus its capital for the next century to come.

See also

• Spread of Islam
• Umayyad conquest of North Africa
• 7th century in Lebanon § Administration
• History of Lebanon
• History of Syria
• History of Jordan
• History of Palestine
• History of the Levant

Notes

1. Modern-day Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, and eastern Turkey.
2. ^[11][12]
3. Most of the Muslim accounts are traced to the prominent 8th-century jurist of Syria, al-Awza'i, and among the Muslim historians, the Damascus-based Ibn Asakir devotes the most attention to it, recording six versions of the text. The earliest Christian accounts of the treaty were recorded by the Syriac author Dionysius of Tel Mahre and the Melkite patriarch Eutychius of Alexandria.^[38]
4. The Muslim forces entered similar agreements with nearly all the cities they besieged in Syria, including Tiberias, Beisan, Homs, Aleppo, Jerusalem, as well as Alexandria in Egypt and the cities of Upper Mesopotamia.^[42]