Byzantine-Muslim War of 633-42

The Eastern Roman Empire and the Sassanid Persian Empire represent the two important world powers of the age.

The Christian Eastern Romans, or Byzantines, fight to regain the West from the various barbarian kingdoms of Iberia, Gaul, Italy and North Africa, while intermittently battling the Sasanian kings of Zoroastrian Persia.

Each empire employs Christian Arab client states, the Persian-oriented Lakhmids and the Roman-oriented Ghassanids.

The Jews, scattered in communities throughout the two empires, are often caught in the middle of great power struggles, and come under increasing persecution for adhering to their faith.

Muawiyah—the governor of Syria and leader of a branch of Muhammad's tribe, the Quraysh of Mecca—proclaims himself caliph after Ali's murder, and founds a dynasty—the Umayyad—that makes its capital in Damascus.

The Shias support the hereditary claim of Ali and his direct descendants, whereas the Sunnis favor the principle of consensual election of the fittest from the ranks of the ashrqf (or shurfa — nobles; sing., sharif).

A dispute over the caliphal succession leads to a permanent schism that splits Islam into two major branches—the Sunni and the Shia.

Abu Bakr defeats the Roman army at Damascus in 635, then begins his conquest of Iran.

The Arab forces occupy the Sassanian capital of Ctesiphon (which they rename Madain) in 637, and defeat the Sassanian army at Nahavand in 641-42.

Iran lies open to the invaders after this.

The Islamic conquest is aided by the material and social bankruptcy of the Sassanians; the native populations have little to lose by cooperating with the conquering power.

Moreover, the Muslims offer relative religious tolerance and fair treatment to populations that accept Islamic rule without resistance.

It is not until around 650, however, that resistance in Iran is quelled.

Conversion to Islam, which offers certain advantages, is fairly rapid among the urban population but occurs more slowly among the peasantry and the dihqans.

Muawiyah is considered the architect of the Islamic empire and a political genius.

Under his governorship, Syria becomes the most prosperous province of the caliphate.

Muawiyah creates a professional army and, although rigorous in training them, wins the undying loyalty of his troops for his generous and regularly paid salaries.

Heir to Syrian shipyards built for the imperial fleet, he establishes the caliphate's first navy.

He also conceives and establishes an efficient government, including a comptroller of finance and a postal system.

Muawiyah cultivates the goodwill of Christian Syrians by recruiting them for the army at double pay, by appointing Christians to many high offices, and by appointing his son by his Christian wife as his successor.

His sensitivity to human behavior accounts in great part for his political success.

The modern Syrian image of Muawiyah is that of a man with enormous amounts of hilm, a combination of magnanimity, tolerance, and self-discipline, and of duha (political expertise)—qualities Syrians continue to expect of their leaders.

The followers of the Prophet Muhammad, the founder of Islam, embark on a movement to establish their religious and civil control throughout the eastern Mediterranean from their base in the Arabian Peninsula.

Their determination to conquer other lands results both from economic necessity and from religious beliefs, which imbue them with contempt for death.

Calling for a jihad (holy war) against non-Muslims, the Prophet's successor, Caliph Abu Bakr (632-34), brings Islam to the area surrounding Lebanon.

Dividing his forces into three groups, he orders one to move in the direction of Palestine, one toward Damascus, and one toward the Jordan River.

The Arab groups under General Khalid ibn al Walid defeat the forces from Constantinople in 636 at the Battle of Yarmouk in northwestern Jordan.

After the Battle of Yarmuk, Caliph Umar appoints Muawiyah as governor of Syria, an area that includes present-day Lebanon.

Muawiyah, the founder of the Umayyad dynasty, garrisons troops on the Lebanese coast and has the Lebanese shipbuilders help him construct a navy to resist any potential imperial attack.

He also stops raids by the Marada, a powerful people who have settled in the Lebanese mountains and who are used by Constantinople's rulers to prevent any Arab invasion that would threaten the Empire.

Concerned with consolidating his authority in Arabia and Iraq, Muawiyah negotiates an agreement in 667 with Constantine IV, the Byzantine emperor, whereby he agrees to pay Constantine an annual tribute in return for the cessation of Marada incursions.

Some of the Arab tribes settle in the Lebanese and Syrian coastal areas during this period.

Muhammad, a merchant from Mecca during the first decades of the seventh century, converts many of his fellow Arabs to a new religion, Islam, which is conceived as the continuation and fulfillment of the Judeo-Christian tradition.

The religious fervor and pressures of an expanding population impel Muslim Arab tribes by 629 to invade lands to the north of the Arabian Peninsula.

They called these lands bilad ash sham, the country or land of Sham—the name Arabs often used to designate Damascus.

The word sham derives from the Arabic word for dignity, indicating the high regard most Arabs have had for Damascus.

Arabs, including Syrians, have referred to Syria by this name ever since and call Syrians Shamis.

Damascus surrenders in 635 to the great Muslim general, Khalid ibn al Walid.

The Empire, undermined by Persian incursions, religious schisms, and rebellions in the provinces caused by harsh rule, can offer little resistance to Islam.

The achievements of Islam are great and various, but after 656 these achievements cease to be controlled from Arabia.

The Muslim world is split after the third caliph, Uthman, is assassinated in 656, and the fourth caliph, Ali (murdered in 660) spends much of his time in Iraq.

After Ali, the Umayyads establish a hereditary line of caliphs in Damascus.