Under the early Caliphates , a jund ( Arabic : جند ; plural ajnad , أجناد) was a military division, which became applied to Arab military territory in the conquered lands and, most notably, to the provinces into which Greater Syria (the Levant ) was divided. Jund later acquired various meanings throughout the Muslim world.
117-533: The term jund derives from Syriac word of "Gund" which was later on adopted by Islamic armies after the conquest of Iran . Today, "Gund" still refers to "town, village" as well as gathering (military) in Kurdish which was passed to Arabic with similar meaning of a group of supporters (also could refer to a group in general like in a city) Lisan al-Arab , and appears in the Quran to designate an armed troop. Under
234-590: A compromise was brokered with Arab commanders to respect the town and its inhabitants, a practice that was common in many towns of the Iberian Peninsula . The Umayyad troops met little resistance. Considering that era's communication capabilities, three years was a reasonable time spent almost reaching the Pyrenees, after making the necessary arrangements for the towns' submissions and their future governance. Scholars have emphasized that animosity against
351-559: A dispute with Achila II , son of his predecessor Wittiza . Later regnal lists, which cite Achila and omit Roderic, are consistent with the contemporary account of civil war. Numismatic evidence suggests a division of royal authority, with several coinages being struck, and that Achila II remained king of the Tarraconsense (the Ebro basin) and Septimania until circa 713. The nearly-contemporary Chronicle of 754 describes Roderic as
468-708: A force of about 1,700 men, to launch a military expedition against the Visigoth -controlled Kingdom of Toledo , which encompassed the former territory of Roman Hispania . After defeating king Roderic at the Battle of Guadalete in July the same year, Tariq was reinforced by an Arab force led by his superior wali Musa ibn Nusayr and continued northward. In 713, Theodemir , the Visigothic count of Murcia conditionally surrendered, and in 715, Abd al-Aziz ibn Musa
585-473: A grandson of Khosrau II and was said to be a mere child aged 8 years. After the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah in 628, Islamic tradition holds that Muhammad sent many letters to the princes, kings, and chiefs of the various tribes and kingdoms of the time, exhorting them to convert to Islam and bow to the order of God. These letters were carried by ambassadors to Persia , Byzantium , Ethiopia , Egypt , Yemen , and
702-437: A half centuries later, that "the people of Andalus did not observe them, thinking that the vessels crossing and recrossing were similar to the trading vessels which for their benefit plied backwards and forwards". They defeated the Visigothic army, led by King Roderic, in a decisive battle at Guadalete in July that year. In 712, Tariq's forces were then reinforced by those of his superior, the wali Musa ibn Nusayr , who planned
819-569: A major offence in the Levant, Yazdegerd ordered the concentration of massive armies to push the Muslims out of Mesopotamia for good through a series of well-coordinated attacks on two fronts. Umar ordered his army to retreat to the Arabian border and began raising armies at Medina for another campaign into Mesopotamia. Owing to the critical situation, Umar wished to command the army personally, but
936-415: A negotiated surrender, and thus lacked the element of personal conviction that modern ideas about religious faith would require", but the conquest of Dar al-Harb was motivated not by a goal of converting the population to Islam but by the belief that everyone was better off under Islamic rule. Abd ar-Rahman I founded an independent dynasty that survived until the 11th century. That line was succeeded by
1053-530: A prime target for the Muslims. Sasanian society was divided into four classes: priests, warriors, secretaries, and commoners. The latter formed the bulk of the population, served as its sole tax base, and remained its poorest class. At the climax of Khosrau II's ambitious Byzantine territory conquests in the Levant and much of Asia Minor , taxes rose dramatically, and most people could not pay. Years of Sassanid-Byzantine wars had ruined trade routes and industry,
1170-441: A second invasion, and within a few years both took control of more than two-thirds of the Iberian Peninsula . The second invasion comprised 18,000 mostly Arab troops, who rapidly captured Seville and then defeated Roderick's supporters at Mérida and met up with Tariq's troops at Talavera . The following year the combined forces continued into Galicia and the northeast, capturing Léon , Astorga and Zaragoza . According to
1287-538: A share in power, began to embrace Islam and the Arabic language . However, the majority of the population remained Christians using the Mozarabic Rite , and Latin ( Mozarabic ) remained the principal language until the 11th century. The historian Jessica Coope of University of Nebraska argues that the pre-modern Islamic conquest was unlike Christianization because the latter was "imposed on everyone as part of
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#17327805629311404-458: A single governor; hence they were often referred to collectively as al-Shamat , "the Syrias". The circumscriptions of the ajnad by and large followed the preexisting Byzantine provincial boundaries, but with modifications. As K. Y. Blankinship notes, their inception as elements of a system of military defense, aimed at safeguarding control over Syria and defending against any Byzantine assault,
1521-469: A usurper who earned the allegiance of other Goths by deception, and the less reliable late-9th-century Chronicle of Alfonso III shows a clear hostility towards Oppa, bishop of Seville (or Toledo) and probably a brother of Wittiza, who appears in an unlikely heroic dialogue with Pelagius. There is also a story of Julian, count of Ceuta , whose wife or daughter was raped by Roderic and who sought help from Tangier . However, these stories are not included in
1638-681: A variety of short and small emirates ( taifas ) unable to stop the push of the expanding northern Christian kingdoms. The Almoravids (1086–1094) and the Almohads (1146–1173) occupied al-Andalus, followed by the Marinids in 1269, but that could not prevent the fragmentation of Muslim-ruled territory. The last Muslim emirate, Granada , was defeated by the armies of Castile (successor to Asturias ) and Aragon under Isabella and Ferdinand in 1492. The last wave of expulsions of Spaniards of Muslim descent took place in 1614. As discussed above, much of
1755-538: Is His servant and Prophet. Under the Command of God, I invite you to Him. He has sent me for the guidance of all people so that I may warn them all of His wrath and may present the unbelievers with an ultimatum. Embrace Islam so that you may remain safe. And if you refuse to accept Islam, you will be responsible for the sins of the Magi. There are differing accounts of the reaction of Khosrau II . Years of warfare between
1872-669: Is credited with much of the strategy of conquering Al-Andalus. Consequently, the Berbers went on to stations in Galicia (possibly including Asturias) and the Upper Marches ( Ebro basin), but these lands remained unpleasant, humid and cold. The grievances resented by the Berbers under Arab rulers (attempts to impose a tax on Muslim Berbers, etc.) sparked rebellions in north Africa that expanded into Iberia. An early uprising took place in 730 when Uthman ibn Naissa (Munuza), master of
1989-614: Is dubious and argued that conquest of the far western reaches of the Mediterranean Sea was motivated by military, political and religious opportunities. He considers that it was not a shift in direction due to the Muslims failing to conquer Constantinople in 678. Precisely what happened in Iberia in the early 8th century is uncertain. There is one contemporary Christian source, the Chronicle of 754 , which ends that year and
2106-624: Is evident by the placement of the new provinces' capitals at even distances from each other—to function as control and mobilization centers—and securely in the interior, far from any seaborne attack. The army corps of the ajnad of Syria comprised exclusively Arabs, who received a regular salary ( ʿatāʾ ) drawn from the income of the land tax ( kharāj ), in addition to which they received land grants. On campaign, they were accompanied by retainers ( shākiriyya ) and reinforced by volunteers ( mutaţawwiʿa ). The division into ajnad continued in Syria under
2223-435: Is now Iraq was under Islamic control. Khalid received a call for aid from northern Arabia at Dawmat al-Jandal, where another Muslim Arab general, Iyad ibn Ghanm , was trapped among the rebel tribes. Khalid went there and defeated the rebels in the Battle of Dawmat al-Jandal in the last week of August. Upon his return, he received news of the assembling of a large Persian army. He decided to defeat them all separately to avoid
2340-738: Is now widely believed that the annexation of the Lakhmid kingdom was one of the main factors behind the fall of the Sasanian Empire and the subsequent Islamic conquest of Persia, as the Lakhmids agreed to act as spies for the Muslims after being defeated in the Battle of Hira by Khalid ibn al-Walid . The Persian ruler Khosrau II (Parviz) defeated a dangerous rebellion within his own empire, Bahram Chobin 's rebellion. He then turned his focus to his traditional Byzantine enemies, leading to
2457-500: Is probable that this army represented a continuation of a historic pattern of large-scale raids into Iberia dating to the pre-Islamic period, and hence it has been suggested that actual conquest was not originally planned. Both the Chronicle of 754 and later Muslim sources speak of raiding activity in previous years, and Tariq's army may have been present for some time before the decisive battle. It has been argued that this possibility
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#17327805629312574-491: Is regarded as reliable but often vague. There are no contemporary Muslim accounts, and later Muslim compilations, such as that of Al-Maqqari from the 17th century, reflect later ideological influence. Roger Collins writes that the paucity of early sources means that detailed specific claims need to be regarded with caution. The Umayyads took control of Hispania from the Visigoths , who had ruled for roughly 300 years. At
2691-574: Is supported by the fact that the army was led by a Berber and that Musa, who was the Umayyad Governor of North Africa, only arrived the following year – the governor had not deigned to lead a mere raid, but hurried across once the unexpected triumph became clear. The historian Abd al-Wāḥid Dhannūn Ṭāhā mentions that several Arab-Muslim writers mention the fact that Tariq decided to cross the strait without informing his superior and wali Musa. The Chronicle of 754 states that many townspeople fled to
2808-574: Is useless, though they themselves imagine that they are doing fine work. Upon them rests the curse of Allah, of the Angels and of man collectively His government and the Christian beliefs of his subjects were respected; in exchange, he pledged to pay a tax ( jizya ) and to hand over any rebels plotting against Umayyad rule or the Islamic religion. In that way, the life of many inhabitants remained much
2925-680: The Abbasid Caliphate and beyond, until well into Mamluk times . Under the Abbasids, a governor-general of Syria often presided over all of the districts, while in 785 Harun al-Rashid added the new district of Jund al-'Awasim in the north, encompassing the frontier zone with the Byzantines. In Egypt, soon after its conquest , a military district ( miṣr ) was established in Fustat . The Arab settlers who comprised it became known as
3042-484: The Battle of Ullais , fought in mid-May. The Persian court, already disturbed by internal problems, was thrown into chaos. In the last week of May, the important city of Al-Hirah fell to the Muslims . After resting his armies, in June, Khalid laid siege to the city of al-Anbar , which surrendered in July. Khalid then moved south, and conquered the city of Ayn al-Tamr in the last week of July. At this point, most of what
3159-603: The Byzantine-Sassanid War of 602–628 . For a few years, he succeeded. From 612 to 622, he extended the Persian borders almost to the same extent that they were under the Achaemenid dynasty (550–330 BC), capturing Western states as far as Egypt , Palestine (the conquest of the latter being assisted by a Jewish army), and more. The Byzantines regrouped and pushed back in 622 under Heraclius . Khosrau
3276-602: The Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628 . Following the execution of Sasanian shah Khosrow II in 628, Persia's internal political stability began deteriorating at a rapid pace. Subsequently, ten new royal claimants were enthroned within the next four years. Shortly afterwards, Persia was further devastated by the Sasanian Interregnum , a large-scale civil war that began in 628 and resulted in the government's decentralization by 632. Amidst Persia's turmoil,
3393-615: The Euphrates River. The border was constantly contested. Most battles, and thus most fortifications, were concentrated in the hilly regions of the north, as the vast Arabian or Syrian Desert (Roman Arabia) separated the rival empires in the south. The only dangers expected from the south were occasional raids by nomadic Arab tribesmen. Both empires therefore allied themselves with small, semi-independent Arab principalities, which served as buffer states and protected Byzantium and Persia from Bedouin attacks. The Byzantine clients were
3510-531: The Fourth Fitna . The jund system in some form seems to have been introduced in Muslim Spain ( al-Andalus ) as well: in 742, the troops involved in the ongoing conquest of the peninsula were allotted lands in nine districts ( mujannada ). By the 10th century, the term jund came to encompass these men alongside the enlisted volunteers ( ḥushud ) as distinct from foreign mercenaries ( ḥasham ). In
3627-538: The Ghassanids ; the Persian clients were the Lakhmids . The Ghassanids and Lakhmids feuded constantly, which kept them occupied, but that did not greatly affect the Byzantines or the Persians. In the 6th and 7th centuries, various factors destroyed the balance of power that had held for so many centuries. The conflict with the Byzantines greatly contributed to its weakness, by draining Sassanid resources, leaving it
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3744-854: The Maghrib , beginning with the Aghlabid rulers of Ifriqiya , the term jund came to be applied to the personal guard of the ruler, and henceforth "kept a restricted sense which is often difficult to define, rarely applying to the whole army" (D. Sourdel). A similar usage is evident in Mamluk Egypt , where the term applied to a specific section of the sultan 's personal troops, though not his actual bodyguard. Muslim conquest of Persia Khuzestan Central Persia Caucasus Pars Khorasan Other geographies Byzantine Empire Sassanid Persia Caucasus Other regions The Muslim conquest of Persia , also called
3861-650: The Maysan region, which the Muslims seized later as well. Muslim conquest of Hispania Byzantine Empire Sassanid Persia Caucasus Other regions The Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula ( Arabic : فَتْحُ الأَنْدَلُس , romanized : fataḥ al-andalus ), also known as the Arab conquest of Spain , by the Umayyad Caliphate occurred between approximately 711 and
3978-624: The Muslim armies. Moreover, the powerful northern and eastern Parthian families, the kust-i khwarasan and kust-i adurbadagan, withdrew to their respective strongholds and made peace with the Arabs, refusing to fight alongside the Sassanians. Another important theme of Pourshariati's study is a re-evaluation of the traditional timeline. Pourshariati argues that the Arab conquest of Mesopotamia "took place, not, as has been conventionally believed, in
4095-646: The Muslim conquest of Persia , they relied solely on the accounts of the Armenian Christian bishop Sebeos , and accounts in Arabic written some time after the events they describe. The most significant work was probably that of Arthur Christensen , and his L’Iran sous les Sassanides , published in Copenhagen and Paris in 1944. Recent scholarship has begun to question the traditional narrative: Parvaneh Pourshariati , in her Decline and Fall of
4212-538: The Muslim conquest of Iran , the Arab conquest of Persia , or the Arab conquest of Iran , was a major military campaign undertaken by the Rashidun Caliphate between 632 and 654. As part of the early Muslim conquests , which had begun under Muhammad in 622, it led to the fall of the Sasanian Empire and the eventual decline of Zoroastrianism , which had been predominant throughout Persia as
4329-590: The Muslim historian Al-Tabari , Iberia was first invaded some sixty years earlier during the caliphate of Uthman ( Rashidun era). Another prominent Muslim historian of the 13th century, Ibn Kathir , quoted the same narration, pointing to a campaign led by Abd Allah bin Nafi al Husayn and Abd Allah bin Nafi al Abd al Qays in 32 AH (654 CE), but there is no solid evidence about this campaign. The first expedition led by Tariq consisted mainly of Berbers , who had themselves only recently come under Muslim influence. It
4446-550: The Rashidun Caliph Umar is credited with dividing the region into four ajnad : Hims ( Jund Hims ), Damascus ( Jund Dimashq ), Jordan ( Jund al-Urdunn ), and Palestine ( Jund Filastin ). The Umayyad Caliph Yazid I then added the district of Qinnasrin ( Jund Qinnasrin ). This practice remained unique to Syria and was not emulated in any other province of the Caliphates , which were usually headed by
4563-631: The Safavids forcefully converted Iran to Shia Islam in the 18th century. This was the first time since the collapse of the Neo-Babylonian Empire in 539 BC with the Battle of Opis , that Mesopotamia was ruled again by Semitic -speaking people, after centuries of Persian ( Achaemenid , Parthian and Sasanian empires), and Roman-Greek ( Macedonian , Seleucid the Roman empires) ruling periods. When Western academics first investigated
4680-553: The Umayyad Caliphate it came to be applied in a more technical sense to "military settlements and districts in which were quartered Arab soldiers who could be mobilized for seasonal campaigns or for more protracted expeditions" as well as the "corresponding army corps" ( Dominique Sourdel ). We can observe the same word for a castle (Qalat Al-Gundi or Qalat Al-Jundi) built by Kurdish troops of Saladin in Sinai Peninsula. Gradually, however, and aside from its technical use for
4797-463: The jund of Egypt. They too, like the Syrian ajnad , were inscribed on the army rolls ( dīwān ) and received a regular salary. For long they provided the only Muslim military force in the province, and played a major role in the political life of the country, jealously safeguarding their privileged position for the first two centuries of the Islamic period, until their power was broken in the turmoils of
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4914-599: The "barbaric" and "decadent" Visigoth royal family. In 714, Musa ibn Nusayr headed north-west up the Ebro river to overrun the western Basque regions and the Cantabrian mountains all the way to Gallaecia , with no relevant or attested opposition. During the period of the second (or first, depending on the sources) Arab governor Abd al-Aziz ibn Musa (714–716), the principal urban centres of Catalonia surrendered. In 714, his father, Musa ibn Nusayr, advanced and overran Soria ,
5031-544: The 720s. The conquest resulted in the destruction of the Christian Visigothic Kingdom of Spain and led to the establishment of a Muslim Arabian - Moorish state (or wilayah ), Al-Andalus . During the caliphate of the sixth Umayyad caliph al-Walid I ( r. 705–715 ), military commander Tariq ibn Ziyad departed from North Africa in early 711 to cross the Straits of Gibraltar , with
5148-579: The Abbasid Caliphate. Although this was not accepted outside al-Andalus and those North African territories with which it was affiliated, Abd al-Rahman, and especially his successors, considered that they were the legitimate continuation of the Umayyad caliphate, i.e. that their rule was more legitimate than that of the Abbasids. It seems that Abd ar-Rahman never considered establishing a separate principality. (See Caliphate of Córdoba .) During
5265-614: The Arabs managed to maintain their presence in the area. Later on, the Persians defeated Abu Ubaid in the Battle of the Bridge . Muthanna bin Haritha was later victorious in the Battle of Buwayb . In 635 Yazdgerd III sought an alliance with Emperor Heraclius of the Eastern Roman Empire , marrying the latter's daughter (or, by some traditions, his granddaughter) in order to seal the arrangement. While Heraclius prepared for
5382-519: The Byzantines with Persian support. Umar, allegedly aware of this alliance and not wanting to risk a battle with two great powers simultaneously, quickly reinforced the Muslim army at Yarmouk to engage and defeat the Byzantines. Meanwhile, he ordered Saad to enter into peace negotiations with Yazdegerd III and invite him to convert to Islam to prevent Persian forces from taking the field. Heraclius instructed his general Vahan not to engage in battle with
5499-465: The Greeks [Iberians] would increase, they would fly in all directions for fear of the threatened invasion, and their dread of the Berbers waxed so greatly that it was instilled into their nature, and became in after times a prominent feature in their character. On the other side, the Berbers having been made acquainted with this ill-will and hatred of the people of Andalus towards them, hated and envied them
5616-769: The Lower Rhone to deal with the Berber revolt in the south instead. The following year, the Berber garrisons stationed in León , Astorga and other north-western outposts gave up their positions, and some of them even embraced the Christian religion. The Muslim settlement was thereafter established permanently south of the Douro 's banks. The Berber rebellions swept the whole of al-Andalus during Abd al-Malik ibn Katan al-Fihri 's term as governor. Reinforcements were then called from
5733-611: The Muslims before receiving explicit orders. Fearing more Arab reinforcements, Vahan attacked the Muslim army in the Battle of Yarmouk in August 636, and was routed. With the Byzantine threat ended, the Sasanian Empire was still a formidable power with vast manpower reserves, and the Arabs soon found themselves confronting a huge Persian army with troops drawn from every corner of the empire, including war elephants, and commanded by its foremost generals. Within three months, Saad defeated
5850-451: The Persian army in the Battle of al-Qādisiyyah , effectively ending Sasanian rule west of Persia proper. This victory is largely regarded as a decisive turning point in Islam's growth: with the bulk of Persian forces defeated, Saad with his companions later conquered Babylon ( Battle of Babylon (636) ), Kūthā , Sābāṭ ( Valashabad ) and Bahurasīr ( Veh-Ardashir ). Ctesiphon , the capital of
5967-481: The Persians decided to take back their lost territory. The Muslim army was forced to leave the conquered areas and concentrate on the border. Umar immediately sent reinforcements to aid Muthanna ibn Haritha in Mesopotamia under the command of Abu Ubaid al-Thaqafi . At that time, a series of battles between the Persians and Arabs occurred in the region of Sawad , such as Namaraq , Kaskar and Baqusiatha, in which
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#17327805629316084-526: The Roman forces, it was too slow and regimented to act with full force against the agile and unpredictable lightly armed Arab cavalry and foot archers. The Persian army had a few initial successes. War elephants temporarily halted the Arab army, but when Arab veterans returned from the Syrian fronts, where they had been fighting against Byzantine forces, they provided crucial instruction on how to effectively counter
6201-492: The Sasanian Empire. In 642, Umar ibn al-Khattab , eight years into his reign as Islam's second caliph , ordered a full-scale invasion of the rest of the Sasanian Empire. Directing the war from the city of Medina in Arabia, Umar's quick conquest of Persia in a series of coordinated and multi-pronged attacks became his greatest triumph, contributing to his reputation as a great military and political strategist. In 644, however, he
6318-412: The Sasanian Empire: The Sasanian-Parthian Confederacy and the Arab Conquest of Iran , published in 2008, provides both a detailed overview of the problematic nature of trying to establish exactly what happened, and a great deal of original research that questions fundamental facts of the traditional narrative, including the timeline and specific dates. Pourshariati's central thesis is that contrary to what
6435-412: The Sasanian towns in Mesopotamia , actions that generated a considerable amount of booty was collected. Al-Muthanna ibn Haritha went to Medina to inform Abu Bakr about his success and was appointed commander of his people, after which he began to raid deeper into Mesopotamia. Using the mobility of his light cavalry , he could easily raid any town near the desert and disappear again into the desert, beyond
6552-448: The Sasanians and the Byzantines, as well as the strain of the Khazar invasion of Transcaucasia , had exhausted the army. No effective ruler followed Khosrau II , causing chaos in society and problems in the provincial administration, until Yazdegerd III rose to power. All these factors undermined the strength of the Persian army. Yazdegerd III was merely 8 years old when he came to the throne and, lacking experience, did not try to rebuild
6669-406: The Sassanid Empire, fell in March 637 after a siege of three months. In December 636, Umar ordered Utbah ibn Ghazwan to head south to capture al-Ubulla (known as "port of Apologos" in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea ) and Basra , in order to cut ties between the Persian garrison there and Ctesiphon . Utbah ibn Ghazwan arrived in April 637, and captured the region. The Persians withdrew to
6786-418: The Umayyads. However, an Umayyad army was decisively defeated by Pelagius of Asturias at the Battle of Covadonga in the mountains of Asturias, securing a Christian stronghold in Northern Spain. By 781, Abd al-Rahman I had quashed all rebellions and rivals and consolidated Umayyad rule over an almost wholly reunified Iberia, a presence that would remain until the Reconquista, which was aimed at reclaiming
6903-476: The Visigothic rule in some regions of the Visigothic Kingdom, including to a greater extent the deep disagreements and resentment involving the local Jewish communities and the ruling authorities, weakened the kingdom and played a pivotal role in the ultimate success of the Umayyad Conquest of Iberia. In 713, Abd al-Aziz ibn Musa subdued the forces of the Visigothic count Theodemir (or Tudmir ), who had taken over southeastern Iberia from his base in Murcia after
7020-417: The area thought to be part of King Roderic's territory, Mérida also staged a prolonged resistance to the Umayyad advance but was ultimately conquered in mid-summer 712. As of 713 (or 714), the last Visigothic king, Ardo , took over from Achila II, with effective control over only Septimania and probably the eastern Pyrenean threshold and coastal areas of the Tarraconense . Islamic laws did not apply to all
7137-403: The army. The Sasanian Empire was highly decentralized, and was in fact a "confederation" with the Parthians , who themselves retained a high level of independence. After the last Sasanian-Byzantine war, the Parthians wanted to withdraw from the confederation, and the Sasanians were thus ill-prepared and ill-equipped to mount an effective and cohesive defense against the Muslim armies. Moreover,
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#17327805629317254-447: The banner of the Umayyads did not mix together, remaining in separate towns and boroughs. The Berbers, recently subdued and superficially Islamized , were usually in charge of the most difficult tasks and the most rugged terrains, similar to the ones found in their North African homeland, while the Arabs occupied the gentler plains of southern Iberia. Notable military leaders came to include Berbers in their ranks, such as Tariq Ziyad who
7371-416: The battle, though not clear, was probably the Guadalete River . Roderic was believed to have been killed, and a crushing defeat would have left the Visigoths largely leaderless and disorganized, partly because the ruling Visigoth population is estimated to have been a mere 1 to 2% of the total population. While this isolation is said to have been "a reasonably strong and effective instrument of government"; it
7488-408: The city of Al-Hirah in Iraq on the same day. This assertion has been brought under scrutiny by some modern historians of Islam—notably Grimme and Caetani. Particularly in dispute is the assertion that Khosrau II received a letter from Muhammad, as the Sassanid court ceremony was notoriously intricate, and it is unlikely that a letter from what at the time was a minor regional power would have reached
7605-408: The distant mountainous north of the peninsula. In 756, Abd al-Rahman I , a survivor of the recently overthrown Umayyad dynasty, landed in al-Andalus and seized power in Cordova and Seville , and proclaimed himself emir or malik , removing any mentions of the Abbasid Caliphs from the Friday prayers. In the wake of those events, southern Iberia became de jure and de facto independent from
7722-417: The earliest accounts of the conquest. Musa ibn Nusayr 's first reconnaissance missions to Hispania returned with reports of "great splendor and beauty", which increased Muslim desires to invade Hispania. During one of the multiple raids in 710, the Muslims "made several inroads into the mainland, which produced a rich spoil and several captives, who were so handsome that Musa and his companions had never seen
7839-410: The eastern Pyrenees (Cerretanya), allied with the duke Odo of Aquitaine and detached from Cordova. The internal frictions continually threatened (or sometimes may have spurred) the ever-expanding Umayyad military effort in al-Andalus during the conquest period. Around 739, on learning the news of Charles Martel 's second intervention in Provence , Uqba ibn al-Hajjaj had to call off an expedition to
7956-444: The entire Iberian Peninsula for Christianity . The historian al-Tabari transmits a tradition attributed to Caliph Uthman , who stated that the road to Constantinople was through Hispania, "Only through Spain can Constantinople be conquered. If you conquer [Spain] you will share the reward of those who conquer [Constantinople]". The conquest of Hispania followed the conquest of the Maghreb . Walter Kaegi says Tabari's tradition
8073-432: The entirety of the Arab Peninsula under the authority of the Caliph at Medina. Abu Bakr set in motion a historical trajectory (continued later by Umar and Uthman) that in a few decades led to one of the largest empires in history , beginning with a confrontation with the Sassanid Empire under the general Khalid ibn al-Walid . After the Ridda wars , a tribal chief of northeastern Arabia, Al-Muthanna ibn Haritha , raided
8190-503: The establishment of the Arabs in southern Septimania during Al-Samh ibn Malik al-Khawlani 's tenure as wali. Narbonne fell (720), and no sooner had he garrisoned it than the Arab commander led an offensive against Toulouse . During this Umayyad thrust or its aftermath, King Ardo died (721). In the first stage of the invasion, the armies were made up of Berbers from northern regions of North Africa, together with different groups of Arabs from Western Asia . These peoples, clustered around
8307-400: The establishment of the independent Umayyad Emirate of Cordova . It was in this period of unrest that the Frankish king Pepin finally captured Narbonne from the Andalusians (759) . In Yusuf's and Abd-ar-Rahman's fight for power in al-Andalus, the "Syrian" troops, a mainstay of the Umayyad Caliphate, split. For the most part, Arabs from the Mudhar and Qais tribes sided with Yusuf, as did
8424-702: The first Rashidun invasion of Sasanian territory took place in 633, when the Rashidun army conquered parts of Asoristan , which was the Sasanians' political and economic centre in Mesopotamia . Later, the regional Rashidun army commander Khalid ibn al-Walid was transferred to oversee the Muslim conquest of the Levant , and as the Rashidun army became increasingly focused on the Byzantine Empire ,
8541-521: The first epidemic was brought by the Sasanian armies from its campaigns in Constantinople , Syria , and Armenia . It caused the death of many Aryan and therefore contributed to the fall of the Sasanian Empire. Khosrau II was executed in 628 and, as a result, there were numerous claimants to the throne; from 628 to 632 there were ten kings and queens of Persia. The last, Yazdegerd III , was
8658-401: The first forays across the Pyrenees into Septimania . In addition, he laid out the foundations of Umayyad civil administration in Iberia, by sending civil administration officials ( judges ) to conquered towns and lands guarded by garrisons established usually next to the population nuclei. Moreover, al-Hurr restored lands to their previous Christian landowners, which may have added greatly to
8775-920: The hands of the Shahanshah. With regards to Persia, Muslim histories further recount that at the beginning of the seventh year of migration, Muhammad appointed one of his officers, Abdullah Huzafah Sahmi Qarashi, to carry his letter to Khosrau II inviting him to convert: In the name of God, the Beneficent, the Merciful. From Muhammad, the Messenger of God, to the great Kisra of Persia. Peace be upon him, who seeks truth and expresses belief in God and in His Prophet and testifies that there are no gods but one God whom has no partners, and who believes that Muhammad
8892-574: The heresy, alienating the Ghassanids and sparking rebellions on their desert frontiers. The Lakhmids also revolted against the Persian king Khusrau II. Nu'man III (son of Al-Monder IV), the first Christian Lakhmid king, was deposed and killed by Khusrau II in 602, because of his attempt to throw off Persian suzerainty. After Khusrau's assassination in 628, the Persian Empire fractured and the Lakhmids were effectively semi-independent. It
9009-576: The hills rather than defend their cities, which might support the view that this was expected to be a temporary raid rather than a permanent change of government. The Chronicle of 754 stated that "the entire army of the Goths, which had come with him [Roderic] fraudulently and in rivalry out of hopes of the Kingship, fled". This is the only contemporary account of the battle and the paucity of detail led many later historians to invent their own. The location of
9126-435: The indigenous (second- or third-generation) Arabs from northern Africa, but Yemeni units and some Berbers sided with Abd-ar-Rahman, who was probably born to a North African Berber mother himself. By 756, south and central al-Andalus (Cordova, Sevilla) were in the hands of Abd-ar-Rahman, but it took another 25 years for him to hold sway over the Upper Marches (Pamplona, Zaragoza and all of the northeast). The Iberian Peninsula
9243-497: The invaders. When the main Arab army reached the Persian borders, Yazdegerd III procrastinated in dispatching an army against the Arabs. Even Rostam-e Farokhzad , who was both Eran Spahbod and Viceroy , did not see the Arabs as a threat. Without opposition, the Arabs had time to consolidate and fortify their positions. When hostilities between the Sasanians and the Arabs finally began, the Persian army faced fundamental problems. While their heavy cavalry had proved effective against
9360-645: The last major battle of the Sassanids. The Sassanid dynasty came to an end with the death of Yazdegerd III in 651. Muhammad died in June 632, and Abu Bakr took the title of Caliph and political successor at Medina . Soon after Abu Bakr 's succession, several Arab tribes revolted, in the Ridda Wars ( Arabic for the Wars of Apostasy). The Ridda Wars preoccupied the Caliphate until March 633, and ended with
9477-400: The like of them". According to Ahmad al-Maqqari ’s chronicle, written 900 years later, the natives of Hispania viewed the Berbers in a similar way as the Byzantines viewed the Arabs, as barbarians, and feared an invasion by them. Whenever some of the scattered tribes of Berbers inhabiting along the northern coast of Africa happened to approach the sea shore, the fears and consternation of
9594-658: The local ruler, Theodemir, would remain in power as long as he recognized Muslim suzerainty, constituted in Abd al-Aziz, and paid monetary tribute. Furthermore, Abd al-Aziz agreed that his forces would not plunder or "harass" Theodemir's town or people, an agreement that extended to seven more towns as well. Abd Al-Aziz sent messages to the governors of the different Islamic provinces denouncing non-Muslims: O ye who believe! The non-Muslims are nothing but dirt. Allah has created them to be partisans of Satan; most treacherous in regard to all they do; whose whole endeavor in this nether life
9711-532: The members of Majlis ash-Shura demurred, claiming that the two-front war required Umar's presence in Medina. Accordingly, Umar appointed Saad ibn Abi Waqqas , a respected senior officer, even though Saad was suffering from sciatica. Saad left Medina with his army in May 636 and arrived at Qadisiyyah in June. While Heraclius launched his offensive in May 636, Yazdegerd was unable to muster his armies in time to provide
9828-603: The month of November. These devastating defeats ended Persian control over Mesopotamia, and left the Persian capital Ctesiphon vulnerable. Before attacking Ctesiphon, Khalid decided to eliminate all Persian forces in the south and west. He accordingly marched against the border city of Firaz , where he defeated the combined forces of the Sasanian Persians , the Byzantines and Christian Arabs in December. This
9945-562: The more, this being in a certain measure the reason why even a long time afterwards a Berber could scarcely be found who did not most cordially hate an Andalusian [people of Spanish/Christian descent], and vice versa, only that Berbers being more in want of Andalusians than these are of them According to the later chronicler Ibn Abd al-Hakam , the Tangier governor Tariq ibn Ziyad led a force of approximately 7,000 men from North Africa to southern Spain in 711. Ibn Abd al-Hakam reports, one and
10062-505: The nation's official religion. The persecution of Zoroastrians by the early Muslims during and after this conflict prompted many of them to flee eastward to India , where they were granted refuge by various kings. While Arabia was experiencing the rise of Islam in the 7th century, Persia was struggling with unprecedented levels of political, social, economic, and military weakness; the Sasanian army had greatly exhausted itself in
10179-613: The new rulers, fell out with the Roman Church during the Adoptionist controversy (late 8th century). Rome relied on an alliance with Charlemagne (in war with the Cordovan emirs) to defend its political authority and possessions and went on to recognize the northern Asturian principality ( Gallaecia ) as a kingdom apart from Cordova and Alfonso II as king. The population of al-Andalus, especially local nobles who aspired to
10296-543: The newly conquered Mesopotamian territories were retaken by the Sasanian army. The second Rashidun invasion began in 636, under Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas , when a key victory at the Battle of al-Qadisiyyah permanently ended all Sasanian control to the west of modern-day Iran . For the next six years, the Zagros Mountains , a natural barrier, marked the political boundary between the Rashidun Caliphate and
10413-651: The notable exception of the provinces along the Caspian Sea (i.e., in Tabaristan and Transoxiana ), had come under Muslim domination. Many localities fought against the invaders; although the Rashidun army had established hegemony over most of the country, many cities rose in rebellion by killing their Arab governors or attacking their garrisons. Eventually, military reinforcements quashed the Iranian insurgencies and imposed complete control. The Islamization of Iran
10530-556: The objective of Khalid, Abu Bakr sent reinforcements and ordered the tribal chiefs of northeastern Arabia, Al-Muthanna ibn Haritha, Mazhur bin Adi, Harmala and Sulma to operate under Khalid's command. Around the third week of March 633 (first week of Muharram 12th Hijrah) Khalid set out from Al-Yamama with an army of 10,000. The tribal chiefs, with 2,000 warriors each, joined him, swelling his ranks to 18,000. After entering Mesopotamia, he dispatched messages to every governor and deputy who ruled
10647-555: The other end of the Mediterranean in a military capacity: the "Syrian" junds (actually Yemeni Arabs). The Berber rebellions were quelled in blood, and the Arab commanders came up reinforced after 742. Different Arab factions reached an agreement to alternate in office, but this did not last long, since Yusuf ibn 'Abd al-Rahman al-Fihri (opposed to the Umayyads) remained in power up to his defeat by Abd al-Rahman I in 756, and
10764-405: The period from 628 to 632." An important consequence of this change in timeline means that the Arab conquest started precisely when the Sasanians and Parthians were engaged in internecine warfare over who was to succeed the Sasanian throne. When Arab squadrons made their first raids into Sasanian territory, Yazdegerd III did not consider them a threat, and he refused to send an army to encounter
10881-482: The population's main income sources. The existing Sassanid administrative structure proved inadequate when faced with the combined demands of a suddenly expanded empire, economy, and population. Rapid turnover of rulers and increasing provincial landholder ( dehqan ) power further diminished the Sasanians. Over a period of fourteen years and twelve successive kings, the Sassanid Empire weakened considerably, and
10998-588: The power of the central authority passed into the hands of its generals. Even when a strong king emerged following a series of coups, the Sassanids never completely recovered. The Byzantine clients, the Arab Ghassanids , converted to the Monophysite form of Christianity , which was regarded as heretical by the established Byzantine Eastern Orthodox Church . The Byzantines attempted to suppress
11115-467: The power vacuum after King Roderic's defeat. Theudimer then signed a conditional capitulation by which his lands were made into an autonomous client state under Umayyad rule. The Treaty of Theodemir in 713 represents a form of indirect rule that Abd al-Aziz, son of Musa the Umayyad governor of Ifriqiya, installed over "a Visigothic potentate named Theodemir (Tudmir, in Arabic)". The treaty entailed that
11232-564: The powerful northern and eastern Parthian families, the Kust-i Khwarasan and Kust-i Adurbadagan, withdrew to their respective strongholds and made peace with the Arabs, refusing to fight alongside the Sasanians . Pourshariati argues that the Arab conquest of Mesopotamia "took place, not, as has been conventionally believed, in the years 632–634, after the accession of the last Sasanian king Yazdgerd III (632–651) to power, but in
11349-479: The provinces calling on them to either embrace Islam or pay tribute. Khalid did not receive any responses and continued with his tactical plans. Khalid went on to win decisive victories in four consecutive battles: the Battle of Chains , fought in April; the Battle of River , fought in the third week of April; the Battle of Walaja the following month (where he successfully used a double envelopment manoeuvre), and
11466-471: The provinces of Syria (see below), the term acquired a broader meaning of the entire armed forces of a state. Thus one of the caliphal fiscal departments, the diwan al-jund , administered the pay and provisions of the army. In addition, the geographers of the 9th–10th centuries used the term ajnad as an equivalent of amṣar or large towns. The most notable use of the term was in Syria , where already
11583-425: The reach of the Sasanian army . Al-Muthanna's acts made Abu Bakr think about the expansion of the Rashidun Caliphate . To ensure victory, Abu Bakr used a volunteer army and put his best general, Khalid ibn al-Walid , in command. After defeating the self-proclaimed prophet Musaylimah in the Battle of Yamama , Khalid was still at Al-Yamama when Abu Bakr ordered him to invade the Sasanian Empire. Making Al-Hirah
11700-504: The revenue of the Umayyad governors and the caliph of Damascus, by increasingly imposing the vectigalia on the former, a tax that was applied on a specific region or estate, not per capitation ( jizya ). Only non-Muslims were subject to taxation, apart from a Muslim subject's compulsory alms-giving . The task of establishing a civil administration in conquered al-Andalus was essentially completed by Governor Yahya ibn Salama al-Kalbi 10 years later. The period following al-Hurr's office saw
11817-418: The risk of being defeated by a large unified Persian army. Four divisions of Persian and Christian Arab auxiliaries were present at Hanafiz, Zumiel, Sanni and Muzieh. Khalid divided his army into three units, and employed them in well-coordinated attacks against the Persians from three different sides at night, in the Battle of Muzayyah , then the Battle of Saniyy , and finally the Battle of Zumail , all during
11934-548: The same as before Tariq's and Musa's campaigns. The treaty signed with Theudimer set a precedent for the whole of Iberia, and towns surrendering to Umayyad troops experienced a similar fate, including probably the muwallad Banu Qasi based in the Ebro Valley and other counts and landowners. Some towns (Cordova, Toledo, etc.) were stormed and captured unconditionally by the Umayyads to be governed by direct Arab rule. In
12051-409: The subjects of the new rulers. Christians continued to be ruled by their own Visigothic law code ( Forum Iudicum ) as before. In most of the towns, ethnic communities remained segregated, and newly arriving ethnic groups (Syrians, Yemenites, Berbers and others) would erect new boroughs outside existing urban areas. However, that would not apply to towns under direct Umayyad rule. In Cordova, the cathedral
12168-469: The time of the conquest, the Visigothic upper class was beginning to fracture and had many problems with succession and maintaining power. That was partially because the Visigoths were only 1–2% of the population, which made it difficult to maintain control over a rebellious population. The ruler at the time was King Roderic but the manner of his ascent to the throne is unclear. There are accounts of
12285-470: The unification of al-Andalus in the reign of Abd ar-Rahman before his death in 788, al-Andalus underwent centralization and slow but steady homogenization. The autonomous status of many towns and regions negotiated in the first years of the conquest was reversed by 778, in some cases much earlier (Pamplona by 742, for example). The Hispanic Church based in Toledo, whose status remained largely undiminished under
12402-468: The war elephants. These factors contributed to the decisive Sassanid defeat at the Battle of al-Qādisiyyah. The Persians, who had only one generation before conquered Egypt and Asia Minor, lost decisive battles when nimble, lightly armed Arabs accustomed to skirmishes and desert warfare attacked them. The Arab squadrons defeated the Persian army in several more battles culminating in the Battle of Nahāvand ,
12519-467: The western Basque regions, Palencia , and as far west as Gijón or León , where a Berber governor was appointed with no recorded opposition. The northern areas of Iberia drew little attention from the conquerors and were hard to defend when taken. The high western and central sub-Pyrenean valleys remained unconquered. At this time, Umayyad troops reached Pamplona , and the Basque town submitted after
12636-538: The years 632–634, after the accession of the last Sasanian king Yazdgerd III (632–651) to power, but in the period from 628 to 632." An important consequence of this change in timeline means that the Arab conquest started precisely when the Sassanians and Parthians were engaged in internecine warfare over succession to the Sassanian throne. Since the 1st century BC , the border between the Roman (later Byzantine ) and Parthian (later Sasanian ) empires had been
12753-405: Was assassinated by the Persian craftsman Abu Lu'lu'a Firuz , who had been captured by Rashidun troops and brought to Arabia as a slave. Some Iranian historians have defended their forebears by using Arab sources to illustrate that "contrary to the claims of some historians, Iranians, in fact, fought long and hard against the invading Arabs." By 651, most of the urban centres in Iranian lands, with
12870-589: Was commonly assumed, the Sassanian Empire was highly decentralized, and was in fact a "confederation" with the Parthians , who themselves retained a high level of independence. Despite their recent victories over the Byzantine Empire , the Parthians unexpectedly withdrew from the confederation, and the Sassanians were thus ill-prepared and ill-equipped to mount an effective and cohesive defense against
12987-421: Was defeated at the Battle of Nineveh in 627, and the Byzantines recaptured all of Syria and penetrated far into the Persian provinces of Mesopotamia . In 629, Khosrau's general Shahrbaraz agreed to peace, and the border between the two empires was once again the same as it had been in 602. The Plague of Sheroe (627–628) was one of several epidemics that occurred in or close to Iran within two centuries after
13104-513: Was gradual and incentivized in various ways over a period of centuries, though some Iranians never converted and there is widespread evidence of Zoroastrian scriptures and all other pre-Islamic being systematically burnt and Zoroastrian priests being executed, particularly in areas that were centers of resistance. Islam had become Iran's predominant religion by the Late Middle Ages ; the majority of Iranians were Sunni Muslims until
13221-496: Was highly "centralised to the extent that the defeat of the royal army left the entire land open to the invaders". The resulting power vacuum , which may have indeed caught Tariq completely by surprise, would have aided the Muslim conquest. It may have been equally welcome to the Hispano-Roman peasants who were probably – as D.W. Lomax claims – disillusioned by the prominent legal, linguistic and social divide between them and
13338-526: Was named the first governor of Al-Andalus , naming Seville as his capital. By 717, the Umayyads had invaded Gaul to launch their first raids into Septimania . By 719, Barcelona and Narbonne had also been captured. From 740 to 742, the invasion was then disrupted by the Berber Revolt , and in 755 when an Abbasid force led by Yusuf ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Fihri landed to claim the territory from
13455-486: Was partitioned and shared to provide for the religious needs of Christians and Muslims. The situation lasted some 40 years until Abd ar-Rahman's conquest of southern Spain (756). An early governor (wali) of al-Andalus, al-Hurr ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Thaqafi , spread the rule of the Umayyad Caliphate up to the Ebro Valley and the northeastern borders of Iberia, pacifying most of the territory and initiating in 717
13572-603: Was the last battle in his conquest of Mesopotamia. While Khalid was on his way to attack Qadissiyah (a key fort en route to Ctesiphon), Abu Bakr ordered him to the Roman front in Syria to assume command there. According to the will of Abu Bakr, Umar was to continue the conquest of Syria and Mesopotamia. On the northeastern borders of the Empire, in Mesopotamia, the situation was rapidly deteriorating. During Abu Bakr 's era, Khalid ibn al-Walid had left Mesopotamia with half his army of 9000 soldiers to assume command in Syria, whereupon
13689-480: Was the westernmost tip of the Umayyad Caliphate of Damascus and was under the rule of the governor of Ifriqiya . In 720, the caliph even considered abandoning the territory. The conquest was followed by a period of several hundred years during which most of the Iberian peninsula was known as al-Andalus, dominated by Muslim rulers. Only a handful of new small Christian realms managed to reassert their authority across
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