122-676: The Banu Makhzum ( Arabic : بنو مخزوم , romanized : Banū Makhzūm ) was one of the wealthy clans of the Quraysh . They are regarded as being among the three most powerful and influential clans in Mecca before the advent of Islam , the other two being the Banu Hashim (the tribe of the Islamic prophet Muhammad ) and the Banu Umayya . The Banu Makhzum were a major clan of
244-681: A decisive battle against the Byzantines on 30 July. This defeat left Syria vulnerable to the Muslim invaders. Khalid decided to capture Damascus, the Byzantine stronghold. At Damascus, Thomas, son-in-law of Emperor Heraclius, was in charge. Having received intelligence of Khalid's march towards Damascus, he prepared for its defence, writing to Emperor Heraclius in Emesa for reinforcements. Moreover, Thomas, in order to get more time for preparation of
366-516: A cavalry force, caught up to the Romans using an unknown shortcut, and attacked them at the Battle of Maraj-al-Debaj , 305 kilometres (190 miles) north of Damascus. On 22 August, Abu Bakr, the first caliph, died, having made Umar his successor. Umar's first move was to relieve Khalid from command and appoint Abu Ubaidah ibn al-Jarrah as the new commander-in-chief of the Islamic army . Abu Ubaidah got
488-575: A collection of related dialects that constitute the precursor of Arabic, first emerged during the Iron Age . Previously, the earliest attestation of Old Arabic was thought to be a single 1st century CE inscription in Sabaic script at Qaryat al-Faw , in southern present-day Saudi Arabia. However, this inscription does not participate in several of the key innovations of the Arabic language group, such as
610-435: A corpus of poetic texts, in addition to Qur'an usage and Bedouin informants whom he considered to be reliable speakers of the ʿarabiyya . Arabic spread with the spread of Islam . Following the early Muslim conquests , Arabic gained vocabulary from Middle Persian and Turkish . In the early Abbasid period , many Classical Greek terms entered Arabic through translations carried out at Baghdad's House of Wisdom . By
732-544: A decisive battle with the Byzantines. Abu Ubaidah agreed, and concentrated them at Jabiya . This maneuver delivered a decisive blow to Heraclius' plan, since the latter did not wish to engage his troops in open battle with the Muslim light cavalry. From Jabiya, again on Khalid's suggestion, Abu Ubaidah ordered the Muslim troops to withdraw to the Plain of the Yarmouk River, where the cavalry could be used effectively. While
854-1081: A dialect of Arabic and written in the Latin alphabet . The Balkan languages, including Albanian, Greek , Serbo-Croatian, and Bulgarian , have also acquired many words of Arabic origin, mainly through direct contact with Ottoman Turkish . Arabic has influenced languages across the globe throughout its history, especially languages where Islam is the predominant religion and in countries that were conquered by Muslims. The most markedly influenced languages are Persian , Turkish , Hindustani ( Hindi and Urdu ), Kashmiri , Kurdish , Bosnian , Kazakh , Bengali , Malay ( Indonesian and Malaysian ), Maldivian , Pashto , Punjabi , Albanian , Armenian , Azerbaijani , Sicilian, Spanish, Greek, Bulgarian, Tagalog , Sindhi , Odia , Hebrew and African languages such as Hausa , Amharic , Tigrinya , Somali , Tamazight , and Swahili . Conversely, Arabic has borrowed some words (mostly nouns) from other languages, including its sister-language Aramaic, Persian, Greek, and Latin and to
976-691: 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 . After successful campaigns against the Sassanids and the ensuing conquest of Iraq , Khalid established his stronghold in Iraq. While engaged with Sassanid forces, he also confronted the Ghassanids, Arab clients of the Byzantines. Medina soon recruited tribal contingents from all over
1098-399: A grandson of al-Mughira. Nonetheless, among the most ardent opponents of negotiations with Muhammad was Ikrima , the son of Abu Jahl and principal leader of the clan. Khalid participated in the city's conquest and Ikrima subsequently fled to Yemen. The leaders who remained, i.e. al-Harith ibn Hisham of the al-Mughira line and Sa'id ibn Yarbu of the cadet branches, reconciled with Muhammad and
1220-487: A lesser extent and more recently from Turkish, English, French, and Italian. Arabic is spoken by as many as 380 million speakers, both native and non-native, in the Arab world, making it the fifth most spoken language in the world, and the fourth most used language on the internet in terms of users. It also serves as the liturgical language of more than 2 billion Muslims . In 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked Arabic
1342-566: A major defeat for the Byzantines. This battle and subsequent clean-up engagements forever ended Byzantine domination of the Levant. Meanwhile, Umar occupied Yazdegerd III in a grand deception. Yazdegerd III lost his army at the Battle of Qadisiyyah in November, three months after Yarmouk, ending Sassanid control west of Persia . With the Byzantine army routed, the Muslims quickly recaptured
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#17327651495821464-690: A millennium before the modern period . Early lexicographers ( لُغَوِيُّون lughawiyyūn ) sought to explain words in the Quran that were unfamiliar or had a particular contextual meaning, and to identify words of non-Arabic origin that appear in the Quran. They gathered shawāhid ( شَوَاهِد 'instances of attested usage') from poetry and the speech of the Arabs—particularly the Bedouin ʾaʿrāb [ ar ] ( أَعْراب ) who were perceived to speak
1586-460: 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
1708-511: A relatively larger corps, moved north to conquer Northern Syria. While the Muslims were occupied at Fahl, Heraclius, sensing an opportunity, quickly sent an army under General Theodras to recapture Damascus, where a small Muslim garrison was left. Shortly thereafter, the Muslims, having just won the Battle of Fahl, were on their way to Emesa. In the meantime, the Byzantine army split in two, one deployed at Maraj al Rome ( Beqaa Valley ) led by Schinos;
1830-594: A result, many European languages have borrowed words from it. Arabic influence, mainly in vocabulary, is seen in European languages (mainly Spanish and to a lesser extent Portuguese , Catalan , and Sicilian ) owing to the proximity of Europe and the long-lasting Arabic cultural and linguistic presence, mainly in Southern Iberia, during the Al-Andalus era. Maltese is a Semitic language developed from
1952-462: A script derived from ASA attest to a language known as Hasaitic . On the northwestern frontier of Arabia, various languages known to scholars as Thamudic B , Thamudic D, Safaitic , and Hismaic are attested. The last two share important isoglosses with later forms of Arabic, leading scholars to theorize that Safaitic and Hismaic are early forms of Arabic and that they should be considered Old Arabic . Linguists generally believe that "Old Arabic",
2074-440: A siege, sent armies to delay or, if possible, halt Khalid's march to Damascus. One of these armies was defeated at the Battle of Yaqusa in mid-August near Lake Tiberias , 145 kilometres (90 mi) from Damascus. Another was defeated in the Battle of Maraj as Saffer on 19 August. These engagements had the desired effect, delaying Khalid long enough to prepare for a siege. However, by the time Heraclius' reinforcements had reached
2196-470: A single language, despite mutual incomprehensibility among differing spoken versions. From a linguistic standpoint, it is often said that the various spoken varieties of Arabic differ among each other collectively about as much as the Romance languages . This is an apt comparison in a number of ways. The period of divergence from a single spoken form is similar—perhaps 1500 years for Arabic, 2000 years for
2318-673: 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. 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
2440-507: A type of Arabic. Cypriot Arabic is recognized as a minority language in Cyprus. The sociolinguistic situation of Arabic in modern times provides a prime example of the linguistic phenomenon of diglossia , which is the normal use of two separate varieties of the same language, usually in different social situations. Tawleed is the process of giving a new shade of meaning to an old classical word. For example, al-hatif lexicographically means
2562-507: A variety of regional vernacular Arabic dialects , which are not necessarily mutually intelligible. Classical Arabic is the language found in the Quran , used from the period of Pre-Islamic Arabia to that of the Abbasid Caliphate . Classical Arabic is prescriptive, according to the syntactic and grammatical norms laid down by classical grammarians (such as Sibawayh ) and the vocabulary defined in classical dictionaries (such as
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#17327651495822684-476: A wider audience." In the wake of the industrial revolution and European hegemony and colonialism , pioneering Arabic presses, such as the Amiri Press established by Muhammad Ali (1819), dramatically changed the diffusion and consumption of Arabic literature and publications. Rifa'a al-Tahtawi proposed the establishment of Madrasat al-Alsun in 1836 and led a translation campaign that highlighted
2806-590: Is a minimum level of comprehension between all Arabic dialects, this level can increase or decrease based on geographic proximity: for example, Levantine and Gulf speakers understand each other much better than they do speakers from the Maghreb. The issue of diglossia between spoken and written language is a complicating factor: A single written form, differing sharply from any of the spoken varieties learned natively, unites several sometimes divergent spoken forms. For political reasons, Arabs mostly assert that they all speak
2928-559: Is a sister language rather than their direct ancestor. Arabia had a wide variety of Semitic languages in antiquity. The term "Arab" was initially used to describe those living in the Arabian Peninsula , as perceived by geographers from ancient Greece . In the southwest, various Central Semitic languages both belonging to and outside the Ancient South Arabian family (e.g. Southern Thamudic) were spoken. It
3050-478: Is believed that the ancestors of the Modern South Arabian languages (non-Central Semitic languages) were spoken in southern Arabia at this time. To the north, in the oases of northern Hejaz , Dadanitic and Taymanitic held some prestige as inscriptional languages. In Najd and parts of western Arabia, a language known to scholars as Thamudic C is attested. In eastern Arabia, inscriptions in
3172-408: Is credited with establishing the rules of Arabic prosody . Al-Jahiz (776–868) proposed to Al-Akhfash al-Akbar an overhaul of the grammar of Arabic, but it would not come to pass for two centuries. The standardization of Arabic reached completion around the end of the 8th century. The first comprehensive description of the ʿarabiyya "Arabic", Sībawayhi's al - Kitāb , is based first of all upon
3294-472: Is credited with standardizing Arabic grammar , or an-naḥw ( النَّحو "the way" ), and pioneering a system of diacritics to differentiate consonants ( نقط الإعجام nuqaṭu‿l-i'jām "pointing for non-Arabs") and indicate vocalization ( التشكيل at-tashkīl ). Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi (718–786) compiled the first Arabic dictionary, Kitāb al-'Ayn ( كتاب العين "The Book of the Letter ع "), and
3416-574: Is not present in the spoken varieties, but deletes Classical words that sound obsolete in MSA. In addition, MSA has borrowed or coined many terms for concepts that did not exist in Quranic times, and MSA continues to evolve. Some words have been borrowed from other languages—notice that transliteration mainly indicates spelling and not real pronunciation (e.g., فِلْم film 'film' or ديمقراطية dīmuqrāṭiyyah 'democracy'). The current preference
3538-855: Is official in Mali and recognized as a minority language in Morocco, while the Senegalese government adopted the Latin script to write it. Maltese is official in (predominantly Catholic ) Malta and written with the Latin script . Linguists agree that it is a variety of spoken Arabic, descended from Siculo-Arabic , though it has experienced extensive changes as a result of sustained and intensive contact with Italo-Romance varieties, and more recently also with English. Due to "a mix of social, cultural, historical, political, and indeed linguistic factors", many Maltese people today consider their language Semitic but not
3660-572: Is the third most widespread official language after English and French, one of six official languages of the United Nations , and the liturgical language of Islam . Arabic is widely taught in schools and universities around the world and is used to varying degrees in workplaces, governments and the media. During the Middle Ages , Arabic was a major vehicle of culture and learning, especially in science, mathematics and philosophy. As
3782-590: Is the variety used in most current, printed Arabic publications, spoken by some of the Arabic media across North Africa and the Middle East, and understood by most educated Arabic speakers. "Literary Arabic" and "Standard Arabic" ( فُصْحَى fuṣḥá ) are less strictly defined terms that may refer to Modern Standard Arabic or Classical Arabic. Some of the differences between Classical Arabic (CA) and Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) are as follows: MSA uses much Classical vocabulary (e.g., dhahaba 'to go') that
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3904-413: Is to avoid direct borrowings, preferring to either use loan translations (e.g., فرع farʻ 'branch', also used for the branch of a company or organization; جناح janāḥ 'wing', is also used for the wing of an airplane, building, air force, etc.), or to coin new words using forms within existing roots ( استماتة istimātah ' apoptosis ', using the root موت m/w/t 'death' put into
4026-418: Is unjust prospers or achieves victory over its enemies. When you meet the enemy turn not your back on him; for whoever turns his back, except to manoeuvre for battle or to regroup, earns the wrath of Allah. His abode shall be hell, and what a terrible place it is! And when you have won a victory over your enemies, don't kill women or children or the aged and do not slaughter beasts except for eating. And break not
4148-524: Is used to denote concepts that have arisen in the industrial and post-industrial era , especially in modern times. Due to its grounding in Classical Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic is removed over a millennium from everyday speech, which is construed as a multitude of dialects of this language. These dialects and Modern Standard Arabic are described by some scholars as not mutually comprehensible. The former are usually acquired in families, while
4270-445: The Lisān al-ʻArab ). Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) largely follows the grammatical standards of Classical Arabic and uses much of the same vocabulary. However, it has discarded some grammatical constructions and vocabulary that no longer have any counterpart in the spoken varieties and has adopted certain new constructions and vocabulary from the spoken varieties. Much of the new vocabulary
4392-671: 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
4514-702: The Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world . The ISO assigns language codes to 32 varieties of Arabic , including its standard form of Literary Arabic, known as Modern Standard Arabic , which is derived from Classical Arabic . This distinction exists primarily among Western linguists; Arabic speakers themselves generally do not distinguish between Modern Standard Arabic and Classical Arabic, but rather refer to both as al-ʿarabiyyatu l-fuṣḥā ( اَلعَرَبِيَّةُ ٱلْفُصْحَىٰ "the eloquent Arabic") or simply al-fuṣḥā ( اَلْفُصْحَىٰ ). Arabic
4636-531: The Arabian peninsula . Only those who had rebelled during the Ridda wars were excluded from the summons and remained excluded from Rashidun armies until 636, when Caliph Umar fell short of manpower for the Battle of Yarmouk and the Battle of al-Qādisiyyah . The tradition of raising armies from tribal contingents remained in use until 636, when Caliph Umar organised the army as a state department. Abu Bakr organised
4758-543: 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 . It was the first time since the collapse of the Neo-Babylonian Empire in 539 BC, that
4880-566: The Syrian Desert . It is recorded that his soldiers marched for two days without a single drop of water, before reaching a predetermined water source at an oasis . Khalid thus entered Northern Syria and caught the Byzantines on their right flank. According to modern historians, this ingenious strategic maneuver unhinged the Byzantine defences in Syria. Ain Tamer , Quraqir, Suwa, Arak , and
5002-568: The Xth form , or جامعة jāmiʻah 'university', based on جمع jamaʻa 'to gather, unite'; جمهورية jumhūriyyah 'republic', based on جمهور jumhūr 'multitude'). An earlier tendency was to redefine an older word although this has fallen into disuse (e.g., هاتف hātif 'telephone' < 'invisible caller (in Sufism)'; جريدة jarīdah 'newspaper' < 'palm-leaf stalk'). Colloquial or dialectal Arabic refers to
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5124-494: The northern Hejaz . These features are evidence of common descent from a hypothetical ancestor , Proto-Arabic . The following features of Proto-Arabic can be reconstructed with confidence: On the other hand, several Arabic varieties are closer to other Semitic languages and maintain features not found in Classical Arabic, indicating that these varieties cannot have developed from Classical Arabic. Thus, Arabic vernaculars do not descend from Classical Arabic: Classical Arabic
5246-419: The "learned" tradition (Classical Arabic). This variety and both its classicizing and "lay" iterations have been termed Middle Arabic in the past, but they are thought to continue an Old Higazi register. It is clear that the orthography of the Quran was not developed for the standardized form of Classical Arabic; rather, it shows the attempt on the part of writers to record an archaic form of Old Higazi. In
5368-708: The "purest," most eloquent form of Arabic—initiating a process of jamʿu‿l-luɣah ( جمع اللغة 'compiling the language') which took place over the 8th and early 9th centuries. Kitāb al-'Ayn ( c. 8th century ), attributed to Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi , is considered the first lexicon to include all Arabic roots ; it sought to exhaust all possible root permutations —later called taqālīb ( تقاليب ) — calling those that are actually used mustaʿmal ( مستعمَل ) and those that are not used muhmal ( مُهمَل ). Lisān al-ʿArab (1290) by Ibn Manzur gives 9,273 roots, while Tāj al-ʿArūs (1774) by Murtada az-Zabidi gives 11,978 roots. Muslim conquest of
5490-454: The 11th and 12th centuries in al-Andalus , the zajal and muwashah poetry forms developed in the dialectical Arabic of Cordoba and the Maghreb. The Nahda was a cultural and especially literary renaissance of the 19th century in which writers sought "to fuse Arabic and European forms of expression." According to James L. Gelvin , " Nahda writers attempted to simplify the Arabic language and script so that it might be accessible to
5612-519: The 4th to the 6th centuries, the Nabataean script evolved into the Arabic script recognizable from the early Islamic era. There are inscriptions in an undotted, 17-letter Arabic script dating to the 6th century CE, found at four locations in Syria ( Zabad , Jebel Usays , Harran , Umm el-Jimal ). The oldest surviving papyrus in Arabic dates to 643 CE, and it uses dots to produce the modern 28-letter Arabic alphabet. The language of that papyrus and of
5734-648: The 6th century A.D. cannot be established with any certainty". Based on the traditional Arabic sources, they formed part of the Ahlaf ("allies") faction of the Quraysh alongside the clans of Abd al-Dar , Banu Sahm , Banu Jumah and Banu Adi , in rivalry to the clans of the Banu Hashim and Banu Abd Shams . Toward the end of the 6th century, a scion of the Makhzum, Hisham ibn al-Mughira, grew to such prominence in Mecca that
5856-834: The 8th century, knowledge of Classical Arabic had become an essential prerequisite for rising into the higher classes throughout the Islamic world, both for Muslims and non-Muslims. For example, Maimonides , the Andalusi Jewish philosopher, authored works in Judeo-Arabic —Arabic written in Hebrew script . Ibn Jinni of Mosul , a pioneer in phonology , wrote prolifically in the 10th century on Arabic morphology and phonology in works such as Kitāb Al-Munṣif , Kitāb Al-Muḥtasab , and Kitāb Al-Khaṣāʾiṣ [ ar ] . Ibn Mada' of Cordoba (1116–1196) realized
5978-657: The Banu Makhzum formed part of the nascent Muslim order. Muhammad died in 632 and Ikrima was meanwhile pardoned and played an active role, along with Khalid, in the suppression of the Arab tribes that defected from the Muslim state after Muhammad's death in the Ridda wars (632–633). Ikrima later died fighting Byzantine forces, possibly at the Battle of Ajnadayn , while other members of the Makhzum, al-Muhajir ibn Abi Umayya and Abd Allah ibn Abi Rabi'a ibn al-Mughira served various terms as governors of part or all of Yemen under
6100-467: The Byzantine forces, according to rough estimates, was about 100,000. Abu Ubaidah informed the Caliph about the preparations made by the Byzantines in the third week of May 634. Because Abu Ubaida did not have experience as a commander of military forces in such major operations, especially against the powerful Roman Army, Abu Bakr decided to send Khalid ibn Walid to assume command. According to early Muslim chronicles, Abu Bakr said, "By Allah, I shall destroy
6222-498: The Byzantines. The communication between Northern Syria and Palestine was now cut off. Abu Ubaidah decided to march to Fahl , which is about 150 metres (500 ft) below sea level, where a strong Byzantine garrison and survivors of the Battle of Ajnadayn were present. The region was crucial because from here the Byzantine army could strike eastwards and cut Muslim communications with Arabia. Moreover, with this large garrison at their rear Palestine could not be invaded. Khalid, commanding
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#17327651495826344-421: The Byzantines. The forty or so male descendants of Khalid died in a plague in Syria toward the end of Umayyad rule. Arabic language Arabic (endonym: اَلْعَرَبِيَّةُ , romanized : al-ʿarabiyyah , pronounced [al ʕaraˈbijːa] , or عَرَبِيّ , ʿarabīy , pronounced [ˈʕarabiː] or [ʕaraˈbij] ) is a Central Semitic language of
6466-714: 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
6588-590: The Jizya. I entrust you to the care of Allah. Moving to their assigned target beyond Tabouk, Yazid's corps made contact with a small Christian Arab force that was retreating after a skirmish with the Muslim advance guard, after which Yazid made for the Valley of Arabah where it meets the southern end of the Dead Sea . As the main Byzantine defence line started from the coastal regions near Ghazahh, Yazid arrived at
6710-570: The Levant Byzantine Empire Sassanid Persia Caucasus Other regions The Levant Egypt North Africa Anatolia & Constantinople Border conflicts Sicily and Southern Italy Naval warfare Byzantine reconquest The Muslim conquest of the Levant ( Arabic : فَتْحُ الشَّام , romanized : Fatḥ al-šām ; lit. ' Conquest of Syria ' ), or Arab conquest of Syria ,
6832-571: The Makhzum sustained led to a significant weakening of their position in Mecca and they were passed in prominence by the Banu Abd Shams under the leadership of Abu Sufyan . At least three members of the Makhzum, all from cadet branches, fought alongside Muhammad at Badr, and by the time he launched his conquest of Mecca in January 630, several others had defected to him, including one of their eminent military commanders, Khalid ibn al-Walid ,
6954-412: The Middle East and North Africa have become a badge of sophistication and modernity and ... feigning, or asserting, weakness or lack of facility in Arabic is sometimes paraded as a sign of status, class, and perversely, even education through a mélange of code-switching practises." Arabic has been taught worldwide in many elementary and secondary schools, especially Muslim schools. Universities around
7076-468: The Muslim armies were gathering at Yarmouk, Khalid intercepted and routed the Byzantine advance guard, ensuring a safe path of retreat. The Muslim armies reached the plain in July. A week or two later, around mid-July, the Byzantine army arrived. The Byzantine commander-in-chief, Vahan, sent Ghassanid forces, under their king, Jabala, to gauge the Muslim strength. Khalid's mobile guard defeated and routed them,
7198-690: The Qur'an is referred to by linguists as "Quranic Arabic", as distinct from its codification soon thereafter into " Classical Arabic ". In late pre-Islamic times, a transdialectal and transcommunal variety of Arabic emerged in the Hejaz , which continued living its parallel life after literary Arabic had been institutionally standardized in the 2nd and 3rd century of the Hijra , most strongly in Judeo-Christian texts, keeping alive ancient features eliminated from
7320-410: The Quraysh established a dating system that began with his death. His family, the Banu Hisham, thenceforth became the leading house of the Mughira line of the Makhzum. At the time, Hisham, his brothers al-Walid, Hashim and Abu Umayya and a number of their sons dominated Meccan trade with Yemen and Ethiopia. The Banu Makhzum were among the foremost opponents of the Islamic prophet Muhammad in Mecca in
7442-413: The Romance languages. Also, while it is comprehensible to people from the Maghreb , a linguistically innovative variety such as Moroccan Arabic is essentially incomprehensible to Arabs from the Mashriq , much as French is incomprehensible to Spanish or Italian speakers but relatively easily learned by them. This suggests that the spoken varieties may linguistically be considered separate languages. With
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#17327651495827564-420: The Romans and the friends of Satan with Khalid Ibn Al Walid." Khalid immediately set out for Syria from Al-Hirah , in Iraq , in early June, taking with him half his army, about 8000 strong. There were two routes towards Syria from Iraq: one was via Daumat-ul-Jandal, and the other was through Mesopotamia, passing through Raqqa . The Muslim armies in Syria were in need of urgent reinforcement, so Khalid avoided
7686-460: The Sassanids' Arab allies, the Lakhmids . 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. 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 . Part of
7808-428: The Valley of Araba at about the same time as Amr bin Al Aas reached Elat . The two forward detachments sent by the Byzantine army to prevent the entry of Yazid's and Amr's corps, respectively, into Palestine, were easily defeated by them, though they did prevent the Rashidun forces from reaching their assigned objective. Abu Ubaidah and Shurhabil, on the other hand, continued their march, and by early May 634 they reached
7930-421: The advance guard of the larger Muslim army to come, sallied out of the fortified city and attacked Shurhabil, surrounding him from all sides; however, Khalid reached the arena with his cavalry and saved Shurhabil. The combined forces of Khalid, Shurhabil, and Abu Ubaidah then resumed the siege of Bosra , which surrendered some time in mid-July 634 CE, effectively ending the Ghassanid Dynasty. Here Khalid took over
8052-460: The advance guard, reached Fahl first and found that the Byzantines had flooded the plains by blocking the River Jordan . The Byzantine army was eventually defeated at the Battle of Fahl on 23 January 635. Next, the Muslim armies consolidated their conquest of the Levant as Shurhabil and Amr went deeper into Palestine. Bet She'an surrendered after a little resistance followed by the surrender of Tiberias in February. Umar, after having learned of
8174-498: The area was ruled by the Arab vassal state of the Ghassanids ' symmachos . 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. 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
8296-424: The army into four corps, each with its own commander and objective. Not knowing the precise position of the Byzantine army , Abu Bakr ordered that all corps should remain in touch with each other so that they could render assistance if the Byzantines were able to concentrate their army in any operational sector. In case the corps had to concentrate for one major battle, Abu Ubaidah was appointed Commander-in-Chief of
8418-413: 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
8540-435: The caliphs Abu Bakr ( r. 632–634 ) and Umar ( r. 634–644 ). The most prominent role by a member of the Makhzum during this period was played by Khalid who scored key victories against Musaylima in the Yamama during the Ridda wars and against the Byzantines during the Muslim conquest of Syria (634–638). His son Abd al-Rahman was appointed governor of Homs and the Jazira and fought reputably against
8662-521: The capital of the Ghassanids. He ordered other Muslim commanders to concentrate their armies, still near the Syrian-Arabian border, at Bosra. At Maraj-al-Rahab, Khalid defeated a Ghassanid army in a quick battle, called the Battle of Marj-al-Rahit . Meanwhile, Abu Ubaida ibn al-Jarrah, the supreme commander of the Muslim armies in Syria, had ordered Shurhabil ibn Hasana to attack Bosra. The latter laid siege to Bosra with his small army of 4000. The Roman and Ghassanid Arab garrison, realizing that this might be
8784-442: The cavalry and relied heavily on his advice during the whole campaign. Soon after the appointment of Abu-Ubaidah as commander in chief, he sent a small detachment to the annual fair held at Abu-al-Quds, modern day Ablah , near Zahlé 50 kilometres (31 miles) east of Beirut. There was a Byzantine and Christian Arab garrison nearby, but the size of the garrison was miscalculated by the Muslim informants. The garrison quickly encircled
8906-552: The city Khalid had begun his siege, having reached Damascus on 20 August. To isolate the city from the rest of the region Khalid placed detachments south on the road to Palestine and in the north at the Damascus-Emesa route, and several other smaller detachments on routes towards Damascus. Heraclius' reinforcements were intercepted and routed at the Battle of Sanita-al-Uqab , 30 kilometres (20 mi) from Damascus. Khalid's forces withstood three Roman sallies that tried to break
9028-491: The command of the Muslim armies in Syria from Abu Ubaidah, according to the instructions of the Caliph. Massive Byzantine armies were concentrating at Ajnadayn to push the invading armies back to the desert. Early Muslim sources claim the Byzantine strength to have been 90,000, although most modern historians doubt the figures, yet consider this battle to be the key to breaking Byzantine power in Syria. On Khalid's instructions, all Muslim corps concentrated at Ajnadayn, where they won
9150-662: The command was given to Khalid ibn al-Walid and he succeeded in saving the rest of the forces. The surviving Muslim forces retreated to Medina . After the Farewell Pilgrimage in 632, the 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
9272-417: The conquest of all Palestine, while Shurahbil moved against the coastal towns of Acre and Tyre . Yazid advanced from Damascus to capture the ports of Sidon , Arqa , Byblos and Beirut . By 635 CE , Palestine, Jordan and Southern Syria, with the exception of Jerusalem , Caesarea and Ashkelon , were in Muslim hands. On the orders of Umar, Yazid next besieged Caesarea, which, barring a suspension around
9394-531: The conventional route to Syria via Daumat ul Jandal, as it was the longer route, and would take weeks to reach Syria. Khalid avoided the Mesopotamian route because of the presence of Roman garrisons there and in Northern Syria. To engage them at a time when Muslim armies were being outflanked in Syria was not a wise idea. Khalid selected a shorter route to Syria, an unconventional route passing through
9516-574: The conversion of Semitic mimation to nunation in the singular. It is best reassessed as a separate language on the Central Semitic dialect continuum. It was also thought that Old Arabic coexisted alongside—and then gradually displaced— epigraphic Ancient North Arabian (ANA), which was theorized to have been the regional tongue for many centuries. ANA, despite its name, was considered a very distinct language, and mutually unintelligible, from "Arabic". Scholars named its variant dialects after
9638-469: The early 7th century. One of their chieftains, Abu Jahl , led Meccan opposition to the Muslims and organized a boycott of Muhammad's clan, the Banu Hashim, in circa 616–618. The Muslims gained the advantage at the Battle of Badr , inflicting heavy losses on the Makhzum, with seven or eight nobles from the al-Mughira line slain and a roughly equal number from other cadet lines of the clan. The casualties
9760-587: The emergence of Central Semitic languages, particularly in grammar. Innovations of the Central Semitic languages—all maintained in Arabic—include: There are several features which Classical Arabic, the modern Arabic varieties, as well as the Safaitic and Hismaic inscriptions share which are unattested in any other Central Semitic language variety, including the Dadanitic and Taymanitic languages of
9882-587: The entire army. In the first week of April 634, the Muslim forces began to move from their camps outside Medina. The first to leave was Yazid's corps, followed by Shurahbil, Abu Ubaidah and Amr, each a day's march from the other. Abu Bakr walked for a short distance by the side of each corps commander. His parting words which he repeated to each of the corps commanders, were as follows: In your march be not hard on yourself or your army. Be not harsh with your men or your officers, whom you should consult in all matters. Be just and abjure evil and tyranny, for no nation which
10004-728: The eve of the conquests: Northern and Central (Al-Jallad 2009). The modern dialects emerged from a new contact situation produced following the conquests. Instead of the emergence of a single or multiple koines, the dialects contain several sedimentary layers of borrowed and areal features, which they absorbed at different points in their linguistic histories. According to Veersteegh and Bickerton, colloquial Arabic dialects arose from pidginized Arabic formed from contact between Arabs and conquered peoples. Pidginization and subsequent creolization among Arabs and arabized peoples could explain relative morphological and phonological simplicity of vernacular Arabic compared to Classical and MSA. In around
10126-517: The exhaustion of his government, could not coordinate with the Heraclian offensive, frustrating the plan. Five massive armies were launched in June to recapture Syria. Khalid, having grasped Heraclius' plan, feared that the Muslim armies would become isolated and then destroyed piecemeal. He thus suggested to Abu Ubaidah in a council of war that he consolidate all the Muslim armies at one place to force
10248-607: The fact that they participate in the innovations common to all forms of Arabic. The earliest attestation of continuous Arabic text in an ancestor of the modern Arabic script are three lines of poetry by a man named Garm(')allāhe found in En Avdat, Israel , and dated to around 125 CE. This is followed by the Namara inscription , an epitaph of the Lakhmid king Imru' al-Qays bar 'Amro, dating to 328 CE, found at Namaraa, Syria. From
10370-558: 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 . During the battle the Muslim army was routed. After three Muslim leaders were killed,
10492-510: The fourth most useful language for business, after English, Mandarin Chinese , and French. Arabic is written with the Arabic alphabet , an abjad script that is written from right to left . Arabic is usually classified as a Central Semitic language . Linguists still differ as to the best classification of Semitic language sub-groups. The Semitic languages changed between Proto-Semitic and
10614-621: The great Temple of Jupiter stood. In May 636, Heliopolis surrendered to the Muslims after little resistance and agreed to pay tribute. Abu Ubaidah sent Khalid straight towards Emesa . Emesa and Chalcis offered a peace treaty for a year. Abu Ubaidah accepted the offer and, rather than invading districts of Emesa and Chalcis, he consolidated his rule in conquered land and captured Hamah , and Maarrat al-Nu'man . Having mustered sizeable armies at Antioch, Heraclius sent them to reinforce strategically important areas of Northern Syria, like Emesa and Chalcis. The Byzantine reinforcement of Emesa violated
10736-417: The historical city of Tadmur were first to fall to Khalid. Sukhnah , al-Qaryatayn and Hawarin were captured after the Battle of al-Qaryatayn and the Battle of Hawarin. After dealing with all these cities, Khalid moved towards Damascus through a mountain pass which is now known as Sanita-al-Uqab (Uqab Pass) after the name of Khalid's army standard. From here he moved away from Damascus, towards Bosra ,
10858-597: The inclusion of new words into their published standard dictionaries. They also publish old and historical Arabic manuscripts. In 1997, a bureau of Arabization standardization was added to the Educational, Cultural, and Scientific Organization of the Arab League . These academies and organizations have worked toward the Arabization of the sciences, creating terms in Arabic to describe new concepts, toward
10980-613: The language. Software and books with tapes are an important part of Arabic learning, as many of Arabic learners may live in places where there are no academic or Arabic language school classes available. Radio series of Arabic language classes are also provided from some radio stations. A number of websites on the Internet provide online classes for all levels as a means of distance education; most teach Modern Standard Arabic, but some teach regional varieties from numerous countries. The tradition of Arabic lexicography extended for about
11102-453: The larger Quraysh tribal grouping which dominated Mecca . Though in Arab genealogical tradition, there are some twenty branches descended from the progenitor Umar ibn Makhzum, the line of al-Mughira ibn Abd Allah ibn Umar ibn Makhzum emerged as the principal family of the Banu Makhzum. According to the historian Martin Hinds , the "extent of the power and influence of Makhzum in Mecca during
11224-406: The last action before the battle started. For one month negotiations continued between the two armies and Khalid went to meet Vahan in person at the Byzantine camp. Meanwhile, Muslim reinforcements arrived from Umar. Abu Ubaidah, in another council of war, transferred field command of the Muslim army to Khalid. Finally, on 15 August, the Battle of Yarmouk was fought, lasting six days and ending in
11346-604: The late 6th century AD, a relatively uniform intertribal "poetic koine" distinct from the spoken vernaculars developed based on the Bedouin dialects of Najd , probably in connection with the court of al-Ḥīra . During the first Islamic century, the majority of Arabic poets and Arabic-writing persons spoke Arabic as their mother tongue. Their texts, although mainly preserved in far later manuscripts, contain traces of non-standardized Classical Arabic elements in morphology and syntax. Abu al-Aswad al-Du'ali ( c. 603 –689)
11468-420: The latter is taught in formal education settings. However, there have been studies reporting some degree of comprehension of stories told in the standard variety among preschool-aged children. The relation between Modern Standard Arabic and these dialects is sometimes compared to that of Classical Latin and Vulgar Latin vernaculars (which became Romance languages ) in medieval and early modern Europe. MSA
11590-667: The latter's daughter (or granddaughter, according to tradition) Manyanh. While Heraclius prepared for a major offense in the Levant, Yazdegerd was supposed to mount a well-coordinated counterattack on his front in Iraq , while Heraclius attacked in the Levant. However, it was not meant to be. Umar probably had intelligence of this alliance, and started peace negotiations with Yazdegerd III , apparently inviting him to join Islam . When Heraclius launched his offensive in May 636, Yazdegerd, probably owing to
11712-508: The letter memorializing this during the siege, but he delayed the announcement until the city had been conquered. Later on, Khalid pledged his loyalty to the new Caliph and continued to serve as an ordinary commander under Abu Ubaidah. He is reported to have said, "If Abu Bakr is dead and Umar is Caliph, then we listen and obey." Abu Ubaidah moved more slowly and steadily, which had a concomitant effect on military operations in Syria. Abu Ubaidah, being an admirer of Khalid, made him commander of
11834-883: The many national or regional varieties which constitute the everyday spoken language. Colloquial Arabic has many regional variants; geographically distant varieties usually differ enough to be mutually unintelligible , and some linguists consider them distinct languages. However, research indicates a high degree of mutual intelligibility between closely related Arabic variants for native speakers listening to words, sentences, and texts; and between more distantly related dialects in interactional situations. The varieties are typically unwritten. They are often used in informal spoken media, such as soap operas and talk shows , as well as occasionally in certain forms of written media such as poetry and printed advertising. Hassaniya Arabic , Maltese , and Cypriot Arabic are only varieties of modern Arabic to have acquired official recognition. Hassaniya
11956-782: The need for a lexical injection in Arabic, to suit concepts of the industrial and post-industrial age (such as sayyārah سَيَّارَة 'automobile' or bākhirah باخِرة 'steamship'). In response, a number of Arabic academies modeled after the Académie française were established with the aim of developing standardized additions to the Arabic lexicon to suit these transformations, first in Damascus (1919), then in Cairo (1932), Baghdad (1948), Rabat (1960), Amman (1977), Khartum [ ar ] (1993), and Tunis (1993). They review language development, monitor new words and approve
12078-424: The one whose sound is heard but whose person remains unseen. Now the term al-hatif is used for a telephone. Therefore, the process of tawleed can express the needs of modern civilization in a manner that would appear to be originally Arabic. In the case of Arabic, educated Arabs of any nationality can be assumed to speak both their school-taught Standard Arabic as well as their native dialects, which depending on
12200-614: The other, commanded by Theodras, stationed to the west of Damascus ( Al-Sabboura region). During the night, Theodras advanced to Damascus to launch a surprise attack. Khalid's spy informed him about the move and Khalid, having received permission from Abu Ubaidah, galloped towards Damascus with his mobile guard . While Abu Ubaidah fought and defeated the Roman army in the Battle of Marj ar-Rum , Khalid moved to Damascus with his cavalry and attacked and defeated Theodras there. A week later, Abu Ubaida himself moved towards Heliopolis , where
12322-549: The overhaul of Arabic grammar first proposed by Al-Jahiz 200 years prior. The Maghrebi lexicographer Ibn Manzur compiled Lisān al-ʿArab ( لسان العرب , "Tongue of Arabs"), a major reference dictionary of Arabic, in 1290. Charles Ferguson 's koine theory claims that the modern Arabic dialects collectively descend from a single military koine that sprang up during the Islamic conquests; this view has been challenged in recent times. Ahmad al-Jallad proposes that there were at least two considerably distinct types of Arabic on
12444-456: The pacts which you make. You will come upon a people who live like hermits in monasteries, believing that they have given up all for God. Let them be and destroy not their monasteries. And you will meet other people who are partisans of Satan and worshippers of the Cross, who shave the centre of their heads so that you can see the scalp. Assail them with your swords until they submit to Islam or pay
12566-622: The position and strength of the Byzantine army in Palestine, wrote detailed instructions to his corps commanders there and ordered Yazid to capture the Mediterranean coast. Amr and Shurhabil accordingly marched against the strongest Byzantine garrison and defeated them in the Second Battle of Ajnadyn. The two corps then separated, with Amr moving to capture Nablus , Amawas , Jaffa , Haifa , Gaza and Yubna in order to complete
12688-475: The process of rebuilding their authority in these territories, which in some areas had been lost to them for almost twenty years. 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
12810-499: The raid. After his past experiences, Heraclius now avoided pitched battle with the Muslim army. His plans were to send massive reinforcements to all the major cities, isolate the Muslim corps from each other, and then separately encircle and destroy the Muslim armies. Part of his plan was to coordinate his attacks with those of Yazdgerd III , the Sassanid emperor . In 635 Yazdgerd III had sought an alliance with Heraclius, marrying
12932-522: The region between Bosra and Jabiya . The Emperor Heraclius, having received intelligence of the movements of the Muslim armies from his Arab clients, began to plan countermeasures. Upon Heraclius' orders, Byzantine forces from different garrisons in the north started moving to gather at Ayjnadyn. From here they could engage Amr's corps and maneuver against the flank or rear of the rest of the Muslim corps that were in Jordan and Southern Syria. The strength of
13054-410: The region may be mutually unintelligible. Some of these dialects can be considered to constitute separate languages which may have "sub-dialects" of their own. When educated Arabs of different dialects engage in conversation (for example, a Moroccan speaking with a Lebanese), many speakers code-switch back and forth between the dialectal and standard varieties of the language, sometimes even within
13176-627: The region was ruled again by Semitic-speaking people, after centuries of Persian ( Achaemenid Empire ), and Roman-Greek ( Macedonian Empire , the Roman Empire and Byzantine Empire ) ruling periods. 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
13298-458: The same sentence. The issue of whether Arabic is one language or many languages is politically charged, in the same way it is for the varieties of Chinese , Hindi and Urdu , Serbian and Croatian , Scots and English, etc. In contrast to speakers of Hindi and Urdu who claim they cannot understand each other even when they can, speakers of the varieties of Arabic will claim they can all understand each other even when they cannot. While there
13420-499: The siege. Khalid finally attacked and conquered Damascus on 18 September after 30 days, although, according to some sources, the siege had in fact lasted for four or six months. Heraclius, having received the news of the fall of Damascus, left for Antioch from Emesa . The citizens were granted peace on the promise of annual tribute and the Byzantine army was given three days to go as far as they could. After three days, Khalid took
13542-404: The small Muslim detachment, but before it was completely destroyed, Khalid came to the rescue of the Muslim army. Abu Ubaidah, having received new intelligence, had sent Khalid. Khalid reached the battlefield and defeated the garrison on 15 October and returned with tons of looted booty from the fair and hundreds of Roman prisoners. By capturing central Syria, the Muslims had given a decisive blow to
13664-458: The sole example of Medieval linguist Abu Hayyan al-Gharnati – who, while a scholar of the Arabic language, was not ethnically Arab – Medieval scholars of the Arabic language made no efforts at studying comparative linguistics, considering all other languages inferior. In modern times, the educated upper classes in the Arab world have taken a nearly opposite view. Yasir Suleiman wrote in 2011 that "studying and knowing English or French in most of
13786-563: The standardization of these new terms throughout the Arabic-speaking world, and toward the development of Arabic as a world language . This gave rise to what Western scholars call Modern Standard Arabic. From the 1950s, Arabization became a postcolonial nationalist policy in countries such as Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, and Sudan. Arabic usually refers to Standard Arabic, which Western linguists divide into Classical Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic. It could also refer to any of
13908-405: The territory they had conquered prior to Yarmouk. Abu Ubaida held a meeting with his high commanders, including Khalid, and decided to conquer Jerusalem . The Siege of Jerusalem lasted four months, after which the city agreed to surrender, but only to Umar personally. Amr-bin al-Aas suggested that Khalid should be sent to impersonate the caliph , due to his very strong resemblance. However, Khalid
14030-574: The time of the Battle of Yarmouk , lasted until the port fell in 640. According to lexicographer David ben Abraham al-Fasi (died before 1026 CE), the Muslim conquest of Palestine brought relief to the country's Jewish citizens, who had previously been barred by the Byzantines from praying on the Temple Mount . After the battle, which proved to be the key to Palestine and Jordan, the Muslim armies split up. Shurhabil and Amr's corps moved south to capture Palestine, while Abu Ubaidah and Khalid, with
14152-501: The towns where the inscriptions were discovered (Dadanitic, Taymanitic, Hismaic, Safaitic). However, most arguments for a single ANA language or language family were based on the shape of the definite article, a prefixed h-. It has been argued that the h- is an archaism and not a shared innovation, and thus unsuitable for language classification, rendering the hypothesis of an ANA language family untenable. Safaitic and Hismaic, previously considered ANA, should be considered Old Arabic due to
14274-668: The treaty, and Abu Ubaidah and Khalid accordingly marched there. A Byzantine army that halted Khalid's advance guard was defeated. The Muslims besieged Emesa which was finally conquered in March 636 CE after two months. After capturing Emesa, Khalid moved north to capture Northern Syria, using his cavalry as an advance guard and raiding force. At Shaizar, Khalid intercepted a convoy taking provisions for Chalcis. The prisoners were interrogated and informed him about Emperor Heraclius' ambitious plan to take back Syria with an army possibly two hundred thousand (200,000) strong. Khalid immediately ended
14396-451: The world have classes that teach Arabic as part of their foreign languages , Middle Eastern studies , and religious studies courses. Arabic language schools exist to assist students to learn Arabic outside the academic world. There are many Arabic language schools in the Arab world and other Muslim countries. Because the Quran is written in Arabic and all Islamic terms are in Arabic, millions of Muslims (both Arab and non-Arab) study
14518-550: Was a 634–638 CE invasion of Byzantine Syria by the Rashidun Caliphate . A part of the wider Arab-Byzantine Wars , as well as the larger Muslim colonial project, 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
14640-591: Was recognized and Umar had to come himself to accept the surrender of Jerusalem in April 637. Umar appointed his close advisor Ali to hold the lieutenancy of Medina. After Jerusalem, the Muslim armies broke up once again. Yazid's corps went to Damascus and then captured Beirut . Amr and Shurhabil's corps left to conquer the rest of Palestine, while Abu Ubaidah and Khalid, at the head of a 17,000-strong army, moved north to conquer Northern Syria. With Emesa already in hand, Abu Ubaidah and Khalid moved towards Chalcis , which
14762-529: Was strategically the most significant Byzantine fort. Through Chalcis the Byzantines would be able to guard Anatolia , Heraclius' homeland of Armenia , and the regional capital, Antioch . Abu Ubaidah sent Khalid with his mobile guard towards Chalcis. The virtually impregnable fort was guarded by Greek troops under Menas, reportedly second in prestige only to the Emperor himself. Menas, diverting from conventional Byzantine tactics, decided to face Khalid and destroy
14884-541: 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. 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
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