The commercial empire of the Turkic Khazars, centered in the southeastern section of modern European Russia, adopts Judaism in about 740 and continues its alliance with Constantinople against the Muslim Arabs.

The Fragmentation of the Arab Caliphate and the Rise of Independent Muslim States

Throughout this period, the Arab Caliphate, predominantly ruled by the Umayyad dynasty, is fractured by a series of civil wars, one of which leads to the split of Islam into three major branches:

• Sunnites,
• Kharijites, and
• Shi'ites.

This internal strife ultimately shatters unified Islamic rule. In 750 CE, the Abbasids overthrow the Umayyads, seizing control of the Caliphate. However, a cadet branch of the Umayyads escapes to Muslim Spain, where they establish the Emirate of Córdoba, marking the beginning of an independent Islamic state in Al-Andalus.

Elsewhere, other independent Muslim states emerge, including:

• Idrisid Morocco, and
• Aghlabid Ifriqiya (modern Tunisia, eastern Algeria, and western Libya).

These developments mark the transition from a unified Arab Empire to a diverse Islamic world, ruled by multiple, competing dynasties.

The rapid expansion of Islam from the Middle East to Spain in the seventh and eighth centuries brings a significant portion of the Jewish people under Muslim rule.

Jews, tolerated by Muslims as People of the Book, with a common ancestor in Abraham, regain religious autonomy and, as long as they pay tribute to the rulers, see to the affairs of their communities.

In 711 CE, Muslim Arab and Berber forces launch an invasion of Visigothic Spain from North Africa, swiftly defeating the Visigothic kingdom. Within a few years, they conquer nearly all of the Iberian Peninsula, except for the northernmost regions, where Christian resistance endures.

Their expansion also extends into Septimania in southern Gaul, further consolidating Muslim rule in Western Europeand marking the beginning of Al-Andalus, a new Islamic domain in Iberia.

The Fourth Fitna or Great Abbasid Civil War is a conflict between the brothers al-Amin and al-Ma'mun over the succession to the Abbasid Caliphate's throne.

Their father, Harun al-Rashid, had named al-Amin as the first successor, but had also named al-Ma'mun as the second, with Khorasan granted to him as an appanage, while a third son, al-Qasim, had been designated as third successor.

After Harun dies in 809, al-Amin succeeds in Baghdad.

Encouraged by the Baghdad court, al-Amin begins trying to subvert the autonomous status of Khorasan; Qasim is quickly sidelined.

In response, al-Ma’mun seeks the support of the provincial elites of Khorasan, and makes moves to assert his own autonomy.

As the rift between the two brothers and their respective camps widens, al-Amin declares his own son Musa to be his heir, and assembles a large army.

Al-Amin's troops march towards Khorasan, but al-Ma'mun's general Tahir ibn Husayn defeats them in the Battle of Rayy, then invades Iraq and besieges Baghdad itself.

The city falls after a year, al-Amin is executed, and al-Ma'mun becomes Caliph, but he remains in Khorasan and does not come to Baghdad.

This allows the power vacuum, which the civil war had created in the Caliphate's provinces, to grow, and several local rulers spring up in Jazira, Syria and Egypt.

In addition, the pro-Khorasani policies followed by al-Ma'mun's powerful chief minister, al-Fadl ibn Sahl, and al-Ma'mun's espousal of an Alid succession, alienates the traditional Baghdad elites, who see themselves increasingly marginalized.

As a consequence, al-Ma'mun's uncle Ibrahim is proclaimed rival Caliph at Baghdad in 817, forcing al-Ma'mun to intervene personally.

Fadl ibn Sahl is assassinated and al-Ma'mun leaves Khorasan for Baghdad, which he enters in 819.

The next years will be taken up with consolidating al-Ma'mun's authority and reincorporating the western provinces, a process that will not be completed until 827.

Some local rebellions, however, notably that of the Khurramites, will drag on for far longer.