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Muslim Conquest Of The Levant
The Muslim conquest of the Levant (; ), or Arab conquest of Syria, was a 634–638 CE invasion of Byzantine Syria by the Rashidun Caliphate. A part of the wider Arab–Byzantine wars, the Levant was brought under Arab Muslim rule and developed into the provincial region of Bilad al-Sham. Clashes between the Arabs and Byzantines on the southern Levantine borders of the Byzantine Empire had occurred during the lifetime of Muhammad, with the Battle of Muʿtah in 629 CE. However, the actual conquest did not begin until 634, two years after Muhammad's death. It was led by the first two Rashidun caliphs who succeeded Muhammad: Abu Bakr and Umar ibn al-Khattab. During this time, Khalid ibn al-Walid was the most important leader of the Rashidun army. It was the first time since the collapse of the Neo-Babylonian Empire in 539 BCE that the region was ruled again by Semitic-speaking people, after centuries of Persian (Achaemenid Empire), and then Roman-Greek ( Macedonian Empire, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roman Theatre At Palmyra
The Roman Theatre at Palmyra () is a Roman theatre (structure), Roman theatre in ancient Palmyra in the Syrian Desert. The unfinished theatre dates back to the second-century CE Severan dynasty, Severan period. The theatre's remains have since been restored. It was occupied by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Palmyra offensive (May 2015), May 2015 and recaptured by the government forces in Palmyra offensive (March 2016), March 2016 with the support of Russian airstrikes. Overview The second-century CE theatre was built in the centre of a semicircular colonnaded piazza which opens up to the South Gate of Palmyra. The piazza was located to the south-west of the main Great Colonnade at Palmyra, colonnaded street. The unfinished ''cavea'' is in diameter and consists of only an ''ima cavea'', the lowest section of the ''cavea'', immediately surrounding the ''orchestra''. The ''ima cavea'' is organized into eleven ''cunei'' of twelve rows each and faces north-northea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Abu Bakr
Abd Allah ibn Abi Quhafa (23 August 634), better known by his ''Kunya (Arabic), kunya'' Abu Bakr, was a senior Sahaba, companion, the closest friend, and father-in-law of Muhammad. He served as the first caliph of the Rashidun Caliphate, ruling from 632 until his death in 634. Abu Bakr was granted the honorific title ''al-Ṣiddīq'' (lit. the Veracious) by Muhammad, a designation that continues to be used by Sunni Muslims to this day. Born to Abu Quhafa and Umm al-Khayr of the Banu Taym, Abu Bakr was amongst the Early Muslims, earliest converts to Islam and propagated dawah to the Mushrikites. He was considered the first Da'i, Muslim missionary as several companions of the Prophet, companions of Muhammad converted through Abu Bakr. He accompanied Muhammad on his Hegira, migration to Medina and became one of his Haras (unit), bodyguards. Abu Bakr participated in all of List of expeditions of Muhammad, Muhammad's campaigns and served as the first in 631. In the absence of Muha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Theodore Trithyrius
Theodore Trithyrius (; died 636), commonly known by his title as Theodore the Sacellarius, was a Byzantine treasurer of the state ('' sacellarius'') and a military commander during the last years of the reign of Byzantine emperor Heraclius. Life Based in Antioch during the 7th century, Trithyrius was a Greek Christian treasurer working for the Byzantine authority of Emperor Heraclius and extremely loyal to the emperor himself. He enjoyed supremacy under his title of '' sacellarius'', usually appointed to the state treasurer. In 634, the emperor sent his brother Theodore to fighting the invading armies of Arabs in Ajnadayn where he was decisively defeated. On his retreat, Theodore blamed his brother's incestuous marriage to their niece Martina for the defeat of the Byzantine empire and delved into an argument with him. Heraclius stripped him of his command and sent him to Constantinople. With Theodore gone, Heraclius appointed Trithyrius to take lead as the commander of his bro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jabalah Ibn Al-Aiham
Jabala ibn al-Ayham () was the last ruler, or phylarch, of the Ghassanid dynasty in Syria in the 7th century. He commanded Arab Christian tribal contingents on behalf of the Byzantine Empire against Arab Muslim forces during the Muslim conquest of Syria in the 630s. In the battles of Dumat al-Jandal in northern Arabia and the decisive battle of Yarmuk in southern Syria in 636, his forces were defeated. He supposedly converted to Islam, before breaking ties with the faith in protest to indignities he consequently suffered related to Islamic egalitarian principles. Afterward, he left Syria permanently, taking refuge with his tribesmen in Byzantine Anatolia. Historians are divided on the historicity of Jabala due the lack of contemporary source material, with some arguing his personality was essentially a literary device of later Islamic writers. Sources There are no contemporary sources about Jabala, with the narratives of his life derived from Abbasid-era (post-750 CE) literat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Heraclius
Heraclius (; 11 February 641) was Byzantine emperor from 610 to 641. His rise to power began in 608, when he and his father, Heraclius the Elder, the Exarch of Africa, led a revolt against the unpopular emperor Phocas. Heraclius's reign was marked by several military campaigns. The year Heraclius came to power, the empire was threatened on multiple frontiers. Heraclius immediately took charge of the Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628. The first battles of the campaign ended in defeat for the Byzantines; the Persian army fought their way to the Bosphorus but Constantinople was protected by Walls of Constantinople, impenetrable walls and a strong navy, and Heraclius was able to avoid total defeat. Soon after, he initiated reforms to rebuild and strengthen the military. Heraclius drove the Persians out of Asia Minor and pushed deep into their territory, defeating them decisively in 627 at the Battle of Nineveh (627), Battle of Nineveh. The Persian Shah Khosrow II was overthro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ikrima Ibn Abi Jahl
Ikrima ibn Abi Jahl ibn Hisham (; –634 or 636) was an opponent-turned companion of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and a military commander in the Ridda wars and the Muslim conquest of Syria. In the latter campaign, he was killed fighting the Byzantine forces. Life Ikrima's father was Amr ibn Hisham ibn al-Mughira, a leader of the polytheistic Quraysh tribe's Banu Makhzum clan who was called "Abu Jahl" (father of ignorance) by the Muslims for his stringent opposition to Muhammad. Ikrima's father was slain fighting the Muslims at the Battle of Badr in 624. At the Battle of Uhud, where the Quraysh defeated the Muslims, Ikrima commanded the tribe's left wing; his cousin Khalid ibn al-Walid commanded the right wing. The Makhzum's losses at Badr had diminished their influence and gave way to the Banu Abd Shams under Abu Sufyan to take the helm against Muhammad. However, the influence of Ikrima, by then the preeminent leader of the Makhzum, in Mecca had increased toward the end of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Muawiyah I
Mu'awiya I (–April 680) was the founder and first caliph of the Umayyad Caliphate, ruling from 661 until his death. He became caliph less than thirty years after the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and immediately after the four Rashidun ('rightly-guided') caliphs. Unlike his predecessors, who had been close, early companions of Muhammad, Mu'awiya was a relatively late follower of Muhammad. Mu'awiya and his father Abu Sufyan had opposed Muhammad, their distant Qurayshite kinsman and later Mu'awiya's brother-in-law, until Muhammad captured Mecca in 630. Afterward, Mu'awiya became one of Muhammad's scribes. He was appointed by Caliph Abu Bakr () as a deputy commander in the conquest of Syria. He moved up the ranks through Umar's caliphate () until becoming governor of Syria during the reign of his Umayyad kinsman, Caliph Uthman (). He allied with the province's powerful Banu Kalb tribe, developed the defenses of its coastal cities, and directed the war effort against ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Iyad Ibn Ghanm
Iyad ibn Ghanm ibn Zuhayr al-Fihri (; died 641) was an Arab commander who played a leading role in the Muslim conquests of al-Jazira (Upper Mesopotamia) and northern Syria. He was among the handful of Qurayshi tribesmen to embrace Islam before the mass conversion of the tribe in 630, and was a companion of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. In 634, under Caliph Abu Bakr, he governed the north Arabian oasis town of Dumat al-Jandal. Later, in 637, he became governor of al-Jazira (Upper Mesopotamia), but was dismissed by Caliph Umar (r. 634–644) for alleged improprieties. Afterward, he became a close military aide of his cousin and nephew, Abu Ubayda ibn al-Jarrah, under whose direction Iyad conquered much of Byzantine-held northern Syria, including Aleppo, Manbij and Cyrrhus. When Abu Ubayda died in 639, Iyad succeeded him as governor of Hims, Qinnasrin and al-Jazira. In the latter territory, he launched a campaign to assert Muslim rule, first capturing Raqqa after conquering ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shurahbil Ibn Hassana
Abū ʿAbd Allāh Shuraḥbīl ibn Ḥasana () was one of the earliest Muslim converts, ''sahaba'' (companion of the Islamic prophet Muhammad) and a key commander in the Rashidun army during the Muslim conquest of the Levant. Early life Shurahbil's father was a certain Abd Allah ibn Mu'ta ibn Amr, a member of the Arab tribe of Kinda (tribe), Kinda. Shurahbil was named after his mother Hasana. Through his mother's later marriages, he was connected to the Qurayshi clans of Zuhra and Jumah of Mecca. Shurahbil was an early convert to Islam and is counted among the ''sahaba'' (companions) of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. He was part of the second migration to Abyssinia, second Muslim migration to Ethiopian Empire, Abyssinia from Mecca to escape the persecution of the pagan Quraysh. Military career Battles in Muhammad's lifetime and the Ridda wars Shurahbil later took part in the ghazw, raids against the pagan Arabs during the lifetime of Muhammad. After Muhammad died in 632, many of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yazid Ibn Abu Sufyan
Yazid ibn Abi Sufyan ibn Harb ibn Umayya (; died 639) was a leading Arab Muslim commander in the conquest of Syria from 634 until his death in the plague of Amwas in 639. Following the capture of Damascus around 635, he was placed in command of the city and its military district. After the death of the overall Muslim commander of Syria, Abu Ubayda ibn al-Jarrah, in 639, he was appointed by Caliph Umar () the governor of Damascus, Jordan and Palestine. Yazid was the elder half-brother of Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan, who was appointed as his successor over Damascus and Jordan by Umar and gradually became governor over all of Syria. Early life Yazid was a son of Abu Sufyan, a chief of the Quraysh tribe of Mecca, belonging to the Umayya branch of its Banu Abd Shams clan. His mother was Zaynab bint Nawfal (also identified as Zaynab bint Hashim) of the Kinana tribe. He embraced Islam with his father and paternal half-brother Mu'awiya when the Islamic prophet Muhammad captured ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Uqba Ibn Nafi
ʿUqba ibn Nāfiʿ ibn ʿAbd al-Qays al-Fihrī al-Qurashī (), also simply known as Uqba ibn Nafi (622 – 683), was an Arab general serving the Rashidun Caliphate since the reign of Umar and later the Umayyad Caliphate during the reigns of Mu'awiya I and Yazid I, leading the Muslim conquest of the Maghreb, including present-day Libya, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco and a failed attempt in Nubia. He is credited with establishing Umayyad rule in North Africa. Uqba was the nephew of Amr ibn al-As. He is often surnamed al-Fihri in reference to the Banu Fihr, a clan connected to the Quraysh. His descendants would be known as the ʿUqbids or Fihrids. Biography Uqba was born in 622. As a general of the Rashidun Caliphate, Uqba accompanied Amr ibn al-As in his initial capture of cities in the Maghreb starting with Barqa, then proceeding to Tripolitania in 644. Upon conquering Cyrenaica in 642 or 643, Amr ibn al-As fixed the jizyah to be paid by its Berber tribes at 13,000 dinars. Afte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amr Ibn Al-As
Amr ibn al-As ibn Wa'il al-Sahmi (664) was an Arab commander and companion of Muhammad who led the Muslim conquest of Egypt and served as its governor in 640–646 and 658–664. The son of a wealthy Qurayshite, Amr embraced Islam in and was assigned important roles in the nascent Muslim community by the Islamic prophet Muhammad. The first caliph Abu Bakr () appointed Amr as a commander of the conquest of Syria. He conquered most of Palestine, to which he was appointed governor, and helped lead the Arabs to decisive victories over the Byzantines at the battles of Ajnadayn and the Yarmuk in 634 and 636. Amr launched the conquest of Egypt on his own initiative in late 639, defeating the Byzantines in a string of victories ending with the surrender of Alexandria in 641 or 642. It was the swiftest of the early Muslim conquests. This was followed by westward advances by Amr as far as Tripoli in present-day Libya. In a treaty signed with the Byzantine governor Cyrus, Amr guar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
