Muslim conquests

The first Muslim conquests (632-732), (, Fatah, literally opening,) also referred to as the Islamic conquests or Arab conquests, began after the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. He established a new unified political polity in the Arabian peninsula which under the following Rashidun and Umayyad Caliphates saw a century of rapid expansion of Arab power well beyond the Arabian peninsula in the form of a vast Muslim Arab Empire with an area of influence that stretched from northwest India, across Central Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, southern Italy, and the Iberian Peninsula, to the Pyrenees. The Arab conquests culminated in Islamic rule being established across three continents (Asia, Africa, and Europe). According to Scottish historian James Buchan: "In speed and extent, the first Arab conquests were matched only by those of Alexander the Great, and they were more lasting."The Arab conquests brought about the collapse of the Sassanid Empire and a great territorial loss for the Byzantine Empire. Though spectacular, the Arab successes are not hard to understand in hindsight. The Sassanid Persian and Byzantine empires were militarily exhausted from decades of fighting one another. This prevented them from dealing effectively with the mobile Arab raiders operating from the desert. Moreover, many of the peoples living under the rule of these empires, for example Jews and Christians in Persia and Monophysites in Syria, were disloyal and sometimes even welcomed the Arab invaders, largely because of religious conflict in both empires.
History
Some of the individual conquests are mentioned here:
Byzantine-Arab Wars: 634-750
The Byzantine-Arab Wars were between the Byzantine Empire and at first the Rashidun and then the Umayyad caliphates.
Under the Rashidun there were the conquests of Syria (637), Armenia (639), Egypt (639) and North Africa (652). Under the Umayyads the continuing conquest of North Africa (665), the second Arab siege of Constantinople (717-718) and the conquest of Tbilisi (736). In 827 there followed the conquest of southern Italy (827).
Conquests in Asia: 633 - 712
The last ruler of the Sassanid Empire in Persia was defeated by the Rashidun in 633 and 636, but the final military victory didn't come until 642 when the Persian army was destroyed.
During the seventh century the Umayyad fought successfully against the early Rajput in north India and in Central Asia.
In 711, a Muslim expedition defeated Raja Dahir at what is now Hyderabad in Sindh and established Umayyad rule by 712. The Umayyad brought under control the whole of what is modern Pakistan, from Karachi to Kashmir and reached the borders of Kashmir within three years. But rather soon afterwards semi-independent Arab ruled states developed.
Conquest of Hispania: 711-718
The conquest of the Iberian Peninsula began when the Moors (mostly Berbers with some Arabs) invaded Visigothic Christian Iberia (modern Spain, Portugal, Gibraltar, Andorra) in the year 711. They landed at Gibraltar on April 30 and worked their way northward. This territory, under the Arab name Al-Andalus, became first an Emirate and then an independent Umayyad Caliphate after the overthrowing of the dynasty in Damascus by the Abbasids. In 1031 the Christian kingdoms started the Reconquest up to 1492, when Granada, the last kingdom of Al-Andalus fell under the Spanish Kings.
Further conquests: 1200-1800
In Sub-Saharan Africa, the Sahelian kingdom expanded Muslim territories far from the coast. Muslim traders spread Islam.
The modern era saw the rise of three powerful Muslim empires: the Ottoman Empire of the Middle East and Europe, the Safavid Empire of Persia and Central Asia, and the Mughal Empire of India; along with their contest and fall to the rise of the colonial powers of Europe.
Decline and collapse: 1800-1924
The Mughal Empire declined in 1707 after the death of Aurangzeb and was officially abolished by the British after the Indian Rebellion of 1857.
Related pages
Caliph
Mehmed II
Saladin
Islamic Golden Age
Notes
References
Edward Gibbon, History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Chapter 51
Fred Donner, The Early Islamic Conquests Chapter 6
History of Islam
History of Africa