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The Islamic World to 1600

 North Africa

Until the mid-7th century, North Africa west of Egypt was under Byzantine

control. Egypt, as we have already seen, was conquered during Umar's reign

 between 640 and 645. The Arabs soon sought to gain territory further west, into

the region they called the Maghrib, literally, the West. This territory consisted

of present-day Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco, and was collectively

known as the Byzantine province of Africa. The Byzantines controlled several

significant trading ports on the Mediterranean coast of North Africa, but they

did not have adequate control over the Berbers of the North African interior. A

major reason for the success of the Arab conquest of North Africa would be the

ability of the Muslims to gain the loyalty of the Berbers.

  The Berbers

Byzantine influence in the region was wavering even before the first Arab

invasion, and it was further weakened by the series of raids the Arabs

conducted into the region immediately after capturing Egypt in 645. The Arabs'

goal seemed to be more the protection of Egypt than making any new,

 permanent territorial gains, and thus no attempts at settlement were made at this

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 point. The Arabs even succeeded in temporarily driving the

Byzantines out of Tripoli in 645, but they did not follow

that conquest with the establishment of a permanent Arab

 presence in the city.

 No further raids were conducted until661, when the new Umayyad dynasty

under Mu'awiya ushered in a new era of 

Muslim expansion. An official campaign

to conquer North Africa began in 663,

and the Arabs soon controlled most major 

cities in Libya. Tripoli fell again in 666,

and this time the Muslims ensured their 

control of their new lands by not

immediately retreating to Egypt after the

conquest. By 670, the Arabs had taken

Tunisia, and by 675, they had completed

construction of Kairouan, the city that

would become the Arab base in North

Africa. Kairouan would also become the

third holiest city in Islam in the medieval

 period, after Mecca and Medina, because

of its importance as the centre of the Islamic faith in the Maghrib.

From Kairouan, the Arabs were able to focus on the true "prize" of North

Africa, the ancient city of Carthage, which was located just north of Kairouan.

The Arabs first raided Carthage in 678, and by 695, they had conquered the

former Roman and Byzantine city. With the Byzantine Empire defeated in

virtually all its North African territories, the Arabs turned their attention to the

conversion of the Berbers. By the early 8th century, 12,000 Berbers had been

recruited into the Arab army, and with such Berber support, the Arabs were

able to stretch their empire all the way to the Atlantic Ocean. By 710, Arab

armies had taken Tangier under the command of a Berber, Tariq, who then led

them into Spain in 711.

 Spain

Before the Muslim invasion, the Iberian peninsula, which included present-day

Spain and Portugal, had been a Christian territory, ruled by the Visigoths. The

kingdom was weak in the early 8th century, plagued by internal strife. Tariq, a

The Great Mosque of Kairouan

Courtesy of LexicOrient

http://i-cias.com/tore.htm

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Berber who led the Muslim forces into Spain in 711, took advantage of these

weaknesses when he led the invasion. Of particular advantage to Tariq and his

army was a civil war that was raging over the kingdom's succession. Tariq's

military success in Spain led the conquerors to name the now-famous rock on

the southern tip of Spain, Jabal Tariq, or Mountain of Tariq. That name has

since become "Gibraltar."

The disorganisation of the Spanish defenders proved to be their downfall, and

the Muslims completed their conquest of most of the Iberian peninsula swiftly.

The Muslims were so confident after conquering almost all of Spain that they

continued to push northeast into present-day France. They crossed the Pyrenees

and occupied several Frankish cities, including Bordeaux. In 732 they were

finally defeated by the Franks at the Battle of Poitiers. After that, the Muslims

remained on the southern side of the Pyrenees during their 700 years in Europe.

  An Arab Chronicle of the Battle of Poitiers

The Muslims set up their Spanish capital at Cordoba in 717 and named their 

new territory Al-Andalus. A southern region of Spain today retains that name,

Andalucia. Much of the Muslim settlement in the region was accomplished by

Berber converts from North Africa who crossed the Straits of Gibraltar into

Spain to pasture their animals. As a province of the Umayyad caliphate, Spain

was a great distance from Damascus, the Umayyad capital. This distance gave

Muslim governors of Spain a great deal of independence, and it was not long

after the conquest that the Umayyads began to realise the difficulty of 

governing such a distant territory. The inability of the Umayyads to effectively

control their vast empire would be a great factor in their downfall in 750.

Central Asia

The third region that the Umayyads chose as the focus of their expansion, after 

 North Africa and Spain, was the area of Central Asia stretching east to the

Indus River. The area had been inhabited by a variety of Turkish communities,

whose disunity made them an easy target for Muslim attack. The Muslims also

wanted a route into China, to enable their participation in the lucrative silk 

trade. From Khurasan, a province in eastern Persia, the Muslims crossed the

Jaxartes River into China and briefly occupied the town of Kashgar in 714. In

715, the Muslims took the Central Asian cities of Bukhara and Samarkand.

These conquests mark the introduction of Islam to the Turks, who would later 

establish one of Islam's greatest empires under the Ottomans.

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Meanwhile, Muslim forces also conquered new territory further south, in the

Indus Valley. In 712, they invaded the Sindh, setting the stage for a further 

move into India in the future. These Muslim conquests in Central Asia were

also significant because they gained much of the territory of present-day

Pakistan for Islam. That region has been Islamic for over 1,200 years, as

Pakistan remains a Muslim state today.

The Islamic World to 1600 / The University of Calgary

Copyright © 1998, The Applied History Research Group

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