page_title: Muslim conquest of Persia
section_title: Conquest of Armenia
hierarchical_section_title: Muslim conquest of Persia / Conquest of Persia (642–651) / Conquest of Armenia
caption_attribution_description: English: Kura river at Tbilisi
context_page_description: The Muslim conquest of Persia, also known as the Arab invasion of Iran, led to the fall of the Sasanian Empire of Iran in 651 and the eventual decline of the Zoroastrian religion.
  The rise of Muslims coincided with an unprecedented political, social, economic, and military weakness in Persia. Once a major world power, the Sasanian Empire had exhausted its human and material resources after decades of warfare against the Byzantine Empire. The internal political situation quickly deteriorated after the execution of King Khosrow II in 628 AD. Subsequently, ten new claimants were enthroned within the next four years. With civil war erupting between different factions, the empire was no longer centralized.
  Arab Muslims first attacked the Sassanid territory in 633, when general Khalid ibn Walid invaded Mesopotamia, which was the political and economic center of the Sassanid state. Following the transfer of Khalid to the Byzantine front in the Levant, the Muslims eventually lost their holdings to Sasanian counterattacks. The second invasion began in 636 under Sa`d ibn Abi Waqqas, when a key victory at the Battle of al-Qadisiyyah led to the permanent end of Sasanian control west of Iran.
context_section_description: The Muslims had conquered Byzantine Armenia in 638–639. Persian Armenia, north of Azerbaijan, remained in Persian hands, along with Khurasan. Umar refused to take any chances; he never perceived the Persians as being weak, which facilitated the speedy conquest of the Persian Empire. Again Umar sent simultaneous expeditions to the far north-east and north-west of the Persian Empire, one to Khurasan in late 643 and the other to Armenia.
  Bukair ibn Abdullah, who had recently subdued Azerbaijan, was ordered to capture Tiflis. From Bab, on the western coast of the Caspian Sea, Bukair continued his march north. Umar employed his traditional successful strategy of multi-pronged attacks. While Bukair was still kilometres away from Tiflis, Umar instructed him to divide his army into three corps. Umar appointed Habib ibn Muslaima to capture Tiflis, Abdulrehman to march north against the mountains and Hudheifa to march against the southern mountains. With the success of all three missions, the advance into Armenia came to an end with the death of Umar in November 644. By then almost the whole of the South Caucasus was captured.
caption: View of Tbilisi, which fell to the Rashidun Caliphate in 644.
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