{"id":22,"date":"2023-06-17T00:34:03","date_gmt":"2023-06-17T00:34:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/premodernmiddleeast\/?post_type=chapter&p=22"},"modified":"2024-05-29T20:01:16","modified_gmt":"2024-05-29T20:01:16","slug":"chapter-2-the-early-arab-conquests","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/premodernmiddleeast\/chapter\/chapter-2-the-early-arab-conquests\/","title":{"rendered":"Chapter 4: The Early Arab Conquests"},"content":{"raw":"Within a century following the death of Muhammad, Arabs had established one of the largest empires in world history, a particularly impressive accomplishment given the fact that the Arabs had never ruled an empire of that size before. There is no doubt that the early Arab conquests were specifically connected with the coming of Islam and the unification of the Arabian peninsula under Muslim rule. Modern historians have debated the meaning of and explanation for the explosive and surprising nature of the Arab conquests. In an upcoming class session, you will be asked to join that debate and contribute your thoughts as to how the Arabs were able to conquer so much territory so quickly and to establish a new society that has persisted throughout the Middle East to the present day.\r\n\r\nThe readings linked below are excerpts from some of the earliest historical sources that we have regarding the Arab Conquests.\u00a0 It is important to keep in mind that most of them are not primary sources, but were recorded in writing between 150 to 200 years (sometimes longer) after the events they describe.\u00a0 In most cases these accounts were based on earlier oral sources or, in some situations, written documents that are no longer extant.\u00a0 Since this is the case, an important question for the historian to ask is \"To what extent were these accounts shaped by the perspectives of the later societies that recorded them?\u00a0 What do they tell us about how medieval Muslims and Christians understood these momentous events that would permanently change the shape of societies on both sides of the Mediterranean Sea?\"\r\n\r\nThe first document linked below was written by the Arab historian \u02beA\u1e25mad ibn Ya\u1e25y\u0101 ibn J\u0101bir al-Bal\u0101dhur\u012b (d. 892).\u00a0 An Abbasid era historian who spent most of his life in Baghdad, al-Bal\u0101dhur\u012b's writings indicate that he had strong sympathy with the early Arab conquerors.\u00a0 He conducted research for his major historical work, Kit\u0101b Fut\u016b\u1e25 al-Buld\u0101n <\/em>in Syria and Iraq during the late ninth century.\u00a0 The text that remains from this work represents a portion of a larger edition (now lost) that chronicled the geography and political history of the early Caliphates.\u00a0 Al-Bal\u0101dhur\u012b's narrative discusses in detail the early Arab conquests and the treaties and settlements that were made in the lands that the Arabs conquered.\u00a0 This text was translated into English in two volumes: vol 1 by Philip Khuri Hitti (1916) and vol 2 by Francis Clark Murgotten (1924).\u00a0 The section included in the linked text tells the story of the important Battle of Yarmuk (636) in which the Arab troops defeated the Byzantine army, opening up the lands of Syria and Palestine to Arab conquest.\r\n\r\nAl Baladhuri: The Battle of Yarmuk and After<\/a>\r\n\r\nThe second source linked below, entitled \"Accounts of the Arab Conquest of Egypt, 642\" includes another excerpt from al-Bal\u0101dhur\u012b.\u00a0 There is also an excerpt from a Christian text, entitled \"The History of the Patriarchs of Alexandria.\"\u00a0 This Christian source was originally written in Arabic and Coptic (the language of the Egyptian Christians), during the tenth and eleventh centuries, by several different Coptic historians.\u00a0 The Arabic portion, entitled Ta'rikh Batarikat al-Kanisah al-Misriyah<\/em>, was translated into English by Basil Thomas Alfred Evetts as History of the Patriarchs of the Coptic Church of Alexandria<\/em> in the early twentieth century (published 1907, 1910 and 1915).\u00a0 It mainly discusses the lives and deeds of the patriarchs (top religious officials) of the early Coptic church.\u00a0 Although written much later than the events it records, the text seems to draw on early documents that are no longer extant.\u00a0 The section linked here discusses the Muslim conquest of Egypt and recounts how the Muslim conqueror, Amr ibn al-`As, invited the Coptic patriarch Benjamin to return to Alexandria and resume leadership of the Coptic church.\u00a0 Benjamin had earlier fled from Alexandria due to persecution from the Byzantines (referred to as Romans in the text).\r\n\r\nAccounts of the Arab Conquest of Egypt, 642<\/a>\r\n\r\nThe next four documents all deal with the Islamic conquest of Spain, which began in 711 c.e.\u00a0 The first of these texts, entitled \"Ibn Abd el-Hakem: The Islamic Conquest of Spain,\" was written by Abu'l Q\u0101sim \u02bfAbd ar-Ra\u1e25man bin \u02bfAbdullah bin \u02bfAbd al-\u1e24akam, a ninth century Egyptian historian.\u00a0 Ibn \u02bfAbd al-\u1e24akam's family fell out of favor with the Abbasid caliph al-Mutawakkil, and they were tortured and imprisoned for a time. \u00a0Ibn \u02bfAbd al-\u1e24akam's main concern in his writings was to provide the historical background for the expansion of Islam into Egypt and beyond, as part of a project undertaken by Abbasid era religious scholars to collect and identify authentic traditions about the Prophet and his earliest followers.\u00a0 The author is believed to have obtained his information from the writings of early traditionists, now lost, and reports passed down orally over the 150 -200 years between the events themselves and Ibn \u02bfAbd al-\u1e24akam's text, which was entitled Fut\u016b\u1e25 mi\u0219r wa akhb\u0101rah\u0101<\/em> (The Conquest of Egypt and reports about it).\u00a0 The short section of this book that deals with the Arab conquest of Spain (excerpted here) was translated into English by John Harris Jones in 1858.\r\n\r\nIbn Abd el-Hakem: The Islamic Conquest of Spain<\/a>\r\n\r\nThe second linked document on the Arab Conquest of Spain, entitled \"Tarik's address to his soldiers, 711 C.E.,\" was written by the seventeenth century North African historian, A\u1e25mad ibn Mu\u1e25ammad al-Maqqar\u012b al-Tilmis\u0101n\u012b (d. 1632).\u00a0 \u00a0Al-Maqqar\u012b's work, Naf\u1e25 a\u1e6d-\u1e6d\u012bb min Ghusn al-Andalus ar-Ra\u1e6d\u012bb wa Dhikr Waz\u012briha Lis\u0101n al-D\u012bn Ibn al-Kha\u1e6d\u012bb<\/em><\/a> (The breath of perfumes from the branch of flourishing al-Andalus and memories of its vizier, Lis\u0101n al-D\u012bn ibn al-Kha\u1e6d\u012bb) is considered to be the most important Arab history of Islamic Spain.\u00a0 The author wrote his work following the fall of Islamic Spain to Christian conquerors in 1492, and the expulsion of Moriscos (Spanish Muslim coverts to Christianity) from Spain between 1609 and 1614.\u00a0 \u00a0Al-Maqqar\u012b completed his extensive text near the end of his life, after moving to Damascus in 1627.\r\n\r\nThe text of Naf\u1e25 a\u1e6d-\u1e6d\u012bb<\/em> is full of nostalgic accounts recalling the greatness of Muslim civilization in the Iberian peninsula and expressing sorrow over its fall to the Christian Reconquista.\u00a0 Al-Maqqar\u012b drew heavily from earlier Muslim texts (some of which are now lost) in writing his account.\u00a0 The excerpt included here claims to record a speech given by the first Muslim conqueror of Spain, \u1e6c\u0101riq ibn Ziy\u0101d, a Berber convert to Islam who led a mostly Berber army across the Straits of Gibraltar from North Africa to defeat the Visigoth army and establish Muslim rule in the Iberian peninsula in 711 C.E.\u00a0 Of course, due to the lateness of this source, it is hard to know what \u1e6c\u0101riq may or may not have actually said to his troops prior to the battle with the Visigoths.\r\n\r\nTarik's Address to his Soldiers, 711 CE<\/a>\r\n\r\nThe third linked document on the Arab Conquest of Spain, entitled \"The Battle of Poitiers, 732,\" is an account by an anonymous Muslim historian of an important battle between a Frankish army led by Charles Martel and a Muslim army advancing from Spain, which took place near Tours (modern day France) in 732 C.E.\u00a0 The account can be found in Sir Edward Shepherd Creasy's Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World<\/em>, which was published in 1851.\u00a0 Creasy, a British historian, whose work sought to identify key battles in the history of Western civilization, does not identify the source from which he obtained this text. \u00a0<\/em>He views the Battle of Poitiers as significant in that it turned back Muslim armies from conquering France.\u00a0 In this, Creasy echoes the opinion expressed by the eighteenth century British historian Edward Gibbon, who wrote in The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire <\/em>that if Charles Martel had lost this battle, \"the interpretation of the Koran would now be taught in the schools of Oxford, and her pulpits might demonstrate to a circumcised people the sanctity and truth of the revelation of Mohammed.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0While this is no doubt hyperbole, and some historians argue that the Muslim retreat from France had as much to do with internal circumstances within al-Andalus (Muslim Spain) as it did with Charles Martel\u2019s army, it is nevertheless true that the Muslim expansion into Europe came to a halt for several centuries following the Battle of Tours.\r\n\r\nThe Battle of Poitiers, 732<\/a>\r\n\r\nThe fourth linked document on the Arab Conquest of Spain, entitled \u201cArabs, Franks, and the Battle of Tours, 732: Three Accounts,\u201d includes short excerpts about this battle from both Christian and Muslim sources.\u00a0 The three excerpts included here were published in a book entitled, Readings in Ancient History: Illustrative Extracts from the Sources,\u00a02 Vols. (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1912-13), Vol. II:\u00a0Rome and the West, <\/em>which was edited by William Stearns Davis. \u00a0The first excerpt is only identified by Davis as coming from the account of \u201can Arabian chronicler.\u201d\u00a0 It purports to record a conversation between Musa \"the Saracen conqueror of Spain\" (M\u016bs\u0101 ibn Nu\u1e63ayr) and the Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik upon Musa's return to Damascus following the conquest of Spain.\u00a0\u00a0The second excerpt was originally written in Latin by an anonymous Mozarab chronicler (Spanish Christian living under Muslim rule) and is thought to date back to the eighth century.\u00a0 His text, known as The Chronicle of 754<\/em> (or The Mozarabic Chronicle<\/em>), traces the history of Visigothic Spain and the Byzantine empire through the early years of al-Andalus, 611-754 C.E.\u00a0 \u00a0Although originally attributed to a bishop named Isidorus Pacensis (Davis calls him Isidore of Beja), who may have lived in C\u00f3rdoba (other scholars say he was from Toledo), most historians now reject this attribution.\u00a0 What historians agree on is that this is the earliest remaining account of the Muslim conquest of Spain, of which the author may have been an eyewitness.\u00a0 The third excerpt is from the Chronicle of St. Denis, a history of the origins of France originally composed by monks at the St. Denis Abbey, which is located in what is today the northern suburbs of Paris.\u00a0 This text was combined with later manuscripts during the late fourteenth century in an attempt to create a coherent history that bolstered the legitimacy of the Valois dynasty, which ruled France from the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries.\u00a0 The short excerpt included here lauds the victory of Charles Martel (viewed by the authors as the initial king of France) over the Saracens (Muslims).\r\n\r\nI also include here a link to a full discussion of the background of the The Chronicle of 754 <\/em>along with a translation of the full text by Aymenn Jawad al-Tamimi (2019).\r\n\r\nArabs, Franks and the Battle of Tours, 732<\/a>\r\n\r\nThe Mozarabic Chronicle: Full Translation and Analysis<\/a>\r\n\r\nThe last source linked here is to a famous text known as The Pact of Umar<\/em>.\u00a0 Purporting to date back to the time of the second caliph, Umar, this text is actually thought to have been written in its present form during the ninth century.\u00a0 The text deals with the origins of the \u201cdhimmi<\/em> pact,\u201d according to which non-Muslims (originally primarily Christians and Jews) living in lands conquered by Muslims would agree to submit to Muslim rule in exchange for certain privileges, the primary of which was the right to continue to practice their faith with certain restrictions as well as a guarantee of security for themselves, their families and their possessions .\u00a0 Non-Muslims who agreed to abide by this pact were required to pay an additional poll tax, known as the jizya<\/em>, and were referred to as dhimmi<\/em>s (protected peoples).\u00a0 The text was allegedly written by Syrian Christians who were submitting to Muslim rule during the time of Umar, with the purpose of detailing the rules and restrictions they would abide by as dhimmi<\/em>s.\u00a0 Its contents served as the standard definition of the dhimmi<\/em> covenant during subsequent centuries of Muslim rule over non-Muslim communities.\u00a0 Although the dhimmi<\/em> covenant was mostly eliminated throughout the world during the era of European colonialism, there remain some Islamist groups who would like to see it reinstated in Muslim lands.\r\n\r\nThe Pact of Umar<\/a>\r\n\r\nThe map below traces the expansion of Islamic rule during the first century after Muhammad.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_180\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1024\"]\"Map<\/a> Age of the Caliphs - Expansion under Muhammad, 622-632 (dark reddish brown area that is now modern day Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and south of Jordan); Expansion during the Rashidun Caliphate, 632-661 (orange area that is now modern day Iraq, Kuwait, Iran, Israel, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, Eastern part of Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Southern tips of Russia and Georgia, Southeast Turkmenistan, Western edge of Afghanistan, far Western edge of Pakistan, Northern Egypt and Libya); Expansion during the Umayyad Caliphate, 661-750 (yellow area that is now modern day Portugal, majority of Spain, Southeastern tip of France, Morocco, Northern Algeria, Tunisia, , Western Libya, Northern edge of Iran, Southwestern edge of Turkmenistan, Northeastern edge of Turkmenistan, Southern edge of Uzbekistan, Southwestern Kyrgyzstan, Western Tajikistan, Eastern majority of Afghanistan, the lower two-thirds of Pakistan, and small edges of Western India). Shows modern borders as white edge lines. Source By DieBuche - Own work using: http:\/\/guides.library.iit.edu\/content.php?pid=27903&sid=322018 (archive1, archive2) (via Image:Age_of_Caliphs.png), Image:BlankMap-World6.svg. The Times Concise Atlas of World History ed. by Geoffrey Barraclough published by Times Books Ltd. ISBN 0-7230-0274-6 pp. 40-41., Public Domain, https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/w\/index.php?curid=10802592.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n ","rendered":"

Within a century following the death of Muhammad, Arabs had established one of the largest empires in world history, a particularly impressive accomplishment given the fact that the Arabs had never ruled an empire of that size before. There is no doubt that the early Arab conquests were specifically connected with the coming of Islam and the unification of the Arabian peninsula under Muslim rule. Modern historians have debated the meaning of and explanation for the explosive and surprising nature of the Arab conquests. In an upcoming class session, you will be asked to join that debate and contribute your thoughts as to how the Arabs were able to conquer so much territory so quickly and to establish a new society that has persisted throughout the Middle East to the present day.<\/p>\n

The readings linked below are excerpts from some of the earliest historical sources that we have regarding the Arab Conquests.\u00a0 It is important to keep in mind that most of them are not primary sources, but were recorded in writing between 150 to 200 years (sometimes longer) after the events they describe.\u00a0 In most cases these accounts were based on earlier oral sources or, in some situations, written documents that are no longer extant.\u00a0 Since this is the case, an important question for the historian to ask is “To what extent were these accounts shaped by the perspectives of the later societies that recorded them?\u00a0 What do they tell us about how medieval Muslims and Christians understood these momentous events that would permanently change the shape of societies on both sides of the Mediterranean Sea?”<\/p>\n

The first document linked below was written by the Arab historian \u02beA\u1e25mad ibn Ya\u1e25y\u0101 ibn J\u0101bir al-Bal\u0101dhur\u012b (d. 892).\u00a0 An Abbasid era historian who spent most of his life in Baghdad, al-Bal\u0101dhur\u012b’s writings indicate that he had strong sympathy with the early Arab conquerors.\u00a0 He conducted research for his major historical work, Kit\u0101b Fut\u016b\u1e25 al-Buld\u0101n <\/em>in Syria and Iraq during the late ninth century.\u00a0 The text that remains from this work represents a portion of a larger edition (now lost) that chronicled the geography and political history of the early Caliphates.\u00a0 Al-Bal\u0101dhur\u012b’s narrative discusses in detail the early Arab conquests and the treaties and settlements that were made in the lands that the Arabs conquered.\u00a0 This text was translated into English in two volumes: vol 1 by Philip Khuri Hitti (1916) and vol 2 by Francis Clark Murgotten (1924).\u00a0 The section included in the linked text tells the story of the important Battle of Yarmuk (636) in which the Arab troops defeated the Byzantine army, opening up the lands of Syria and Palestine to Arab conquest.<\/p>\n

Al Baladhuri: The Battle of Yarmuk and After<\/a><\/p>\n

The second source linked below, entitled “Accounts of the Arab Conquest of Egypt, 642” includes another excerpt from al-Bal\u0101dhur\u012b.\u00a0 There is also an excerpt from a Christian text, entitled “The History of the Patriarchs of Alexandria.”\u00a0 This Christian source was originally written in Arabic and Coptic (the language of the Egyptian Christians), during the tenth and eleventh centuries, by several different Coptic historians.\u00a0 The Arabic portion, entitled Ta’rikh Batarikat al-Kanisah al-Misriyah<\/em>, was translated into English by Basil Thomas Alfred Evetts as History of the Patriarchs of the Coptic Church of Alexandria<\/em> in the early twentieth century (published 1907, 1910 and 1915).\u00a0 It mainly discusses the lives and deeds of the patriarchs (top religious officials) of the early Coptic church.\u00a0 Although written much later than the events it records, the text seems to draw on early documents that are no longer extant.\u00a0 The section linked here discusses the Muslim conquest of Egypt and recounts how the Muslim conqueror, Amr ibn al-`As, invited the Coptic patriarch Benjamin to return to Alexandria and resume leadership of the Coptic church.\u00a0 Benjamin had earlier fled from Alexandria due to persecution from the Byzantines (referred to as Romans in the text).<\/p>\n

Accounts of the Arab Conquest of Egypt, 642<\/a><\/p>\n

The next four documents all deal with the Islamic conquest of Spain, which began in 711 c.e.\u00a0 The first of these texts, entitled “Ibn Abd el-Hakem: The Islamic Conquest of Spain,” was written by Abu’l Q\u0101sim \u02bfAbd ar-Ra\u1e25man bin \u02bfAbdullah bin \u02bfAbd al-\u1e24akam, a ninth century Egyptian historian.\u00a0 Ibn \u02bfAbd al-\u1e24akam’s family fell out of favor with the Abbasid caliph al-Mutawakkil, and they were tortured and imprisoned for a time. \u00a0Ibn \u02bfAbd al-\u1e24akam’s main concern in his writings was to provide the historical background for the expansion of Islam into Egypt and beyond, as part of a project undertaken by Abbasid era religious scholars to collect and identify authentic traditions about the Prophet and his earliest followers.\u00a0 The author is believed to have obtained his information from the writings of early traditionists, now lost, and reports passed down orally over the 150 -200 years between the events themselves and Ibn \u02bfAbd al-\u1e24akam’s text, which was entitled Fut\u016b\u1e25 mi\u0219r wa akhb\u0101rah\u0101<\/em> (The Conquest of Egypt and reports about it).\u00a0 The short section of this book that deals with the Arab conquest of Spain (excerpted here) was translated into English by John Harris Jones in 1858.<\/p>\n

Ibn Abd el-Hakem: The Islamic Conquest of Spain<\/a><\/p>\n

The second linked document on the Arab Conquest of Spain, entitled “Tarik’s address to his soldiers, 711 C.E.,” was written by the seventeenth century North African historian, A\u1e25mad ibn Mu\u1e25ammad al-Maqqar\u012b al-Tilmis\u0101n\u012b (d. 1632).\u00a0 \u00a0Al-Maqqar\u012b’s work, Naf\u1e25 a\u1e6d-\u1e6d\u012bb min Ghusn al-Andalus ar-Ra\u1e6d\u012bb wa Dhikr Waz\u012briha Lis\u0101n al-D\u012bn Ibn al-Kha\u1e6d\u012bb<\/em><\/a> (The breath of perfumes from the branch of flourishing al-Andalus and memories of its vizier, Lis\u0101n al-D\u012bn ibn al-Kha\u1e6d\u012bb) is considered to be the most important Arab history of Islamic Spain.\u00a0 The author wrote his work following the fall of Islamic Spain to Christian conquerors in 1492, and the expulsion of Moriscos (Spanish Muslim coverts to Christianity) from Spain between 1609 and 1614.\u00a0 \u00a0Al-Maqqar\u012b completed his extensive text near the end of his life, after moving to Damascus in 1627.<\/p>\n

The text of Naf\u1e25 a\u1e6d-\u1e6d\u012bb<\/em> is full of nostalgic accounts recalling the greatness of Muslim civilization in the Iberian peninsula and expressing sorrow over its fall to the Christian Reconquista.\u00a0 Al-Maqqar\u012b drew heavily from earlier Muslim texts (some of which are now lost) in writing his account.\u00a0 The excerpt included here claims to record a speech given by the first Muslim conqueror of Spain, \u1e6c\u0101riq ibn Ziy\u0101d, a Berber convert to Islam who led a mostly Berber army across the Straits of Gibraltar from North Africa to defeat the Visigoth army and establish Muslim rule in the Iberian peninsula in 711 C.E.\u00a0 Of course, due to the lateness of this source, it is hard to know what \u1e6c\u0101riq may or may not have actually said to his troops prior to the battle with the Visigoths.<\/p>\n

Tarik’s Address to his Soldiers, 711 CE<\/a><\/p>\n

The third linked document on the Arab Conquest of Spain, entitled “The Battle of Poitiers, 732,” is an account by an anonymous Muslim historian of an important battle between a Frankish army led by Charles Martel and a Muslim army advancing from Spain, which took place near Tours (modern day France) in 732 C.E.\u00a0 The account can be found in Sir Edward Shepherd Creasy’s Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World<\/em>, which was published in 1851.\u00a0 Creasy, a British historian, whose work sought to identify key battles in the history of Western civilization, does not identify the source from which he obtained this text. \u00a0<\/em>He views the Battle of Poitiers as significant in that it turned back Muslim armies from conquering France.\u00a0 In this, Creasy echoes the opinion expressed by the eighteenth century British historian Edward Gibbon, who wrote in The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire <\/em>that if Charles Martel had lost this battle, “the interpretation of the Koran would now be taught in the schools of Oxford, and her pulpits might demonstrate to a circumcised people the sanctity and truth of the revelation of Mohammed.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0While this is no doubt hyperbole, and some historians argue that the Muslim retreat from France had as much to do with internal circumstances within al-Andalus (Muslim Spain) as it did with Charles Martel\u2019s army, it is nevertheless true that the Muslim expansion into Europe came to a halt for several centuries following the Battle of Tours.<\/p>\n

The Battle of Poitiers, 732<\/a><\/p>\n

The fourth linked document on the Arab Conquest of Spain, entitled \u201cArabs, Franks, and the Battle of Tours, 732: Three Accounts,\u201d includes short excerpts about this battle from both Christian and Muslim sources.\u00a0 The three excerpts included here were published in a book entitled, Readings in Ancient History: Illustrative Extracts from the Sources,\u00a02 Vols. (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1912-13), Vol. II:\u00a0Rome and the West, <\/em>which was edited by William Stearns Davis. \u00a0The first excerpt is only identified by Davis as coming from the account of \u201can Arabian chronicler.\u201d\u00a0 It purports to record a conversation between Musa “the Saracen conqueror of Spain” (M\u016bs\u0101 ibn Nu\u1e63ayr) and the Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik upon Musa’s return to Damascus following the conquest of Spain.\u00a0\u00a0The second excerpt was originally written in Latin by an anonymous Mozarab chronicler (Spanish Christian living under Muslim rule) and is thought to date back to the eighth century.\u00a0 His text, known as The Chronicle of 754<\/em> (or The Mozarabic Chronicle<\/em>), traces the history of Visigothic Spain and the Byzantine empire through the early years of al-Andalus, 611-754 C.E.\u00a0 \u00a0Although originally attributed to a bishop named Isidorus Pacensis (Davis calls him Isidore of Beja), who may have lived in C\u00f3rdoba (other scholars say he was from Toledo), most historians now reject this attribution.\u00a0 What historians agree on is that this is the earliest remaining account of the Muslim conquest of Spain, of which the author may have been an eyewitness.\u00a0 The third excerpt is from the Chronicle of St. Denis, a history of the origins of France originally composed by monks at the St. Denis Abbey, which is located in what is today the northern suburbs of Paris.\u00a0 This text was combined with later manuscripts during the late fourteenth century in an attempt to create a coherent history that bolstered the legitimacy of the Valois dynasty, which ruled France from the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries.\u00a0 The short excerpt included here lauds the victory of Charles Martel (viewed by the authors as the initial king of France) over the Saracens (Muslims).<\/p>\n

I also include here a link to a full discussion of the background of the The Chronicle of 754 <\/em>along with a translation of the full text by Aymenn Jawad al-Tamimi (2019).<\/p>\n

Arabs, Franks and the Battle of Tours, 732<\/a><\/p>\n

The Mozarabic Chronicle: Full Translation and Analysis<\/a><\/p>\n

The last source linked here is to a famous text known as The Pact of Umar<\/em>.\u00a0 Purporting to date back to the time of the second caliph, Umar, this text is actually thought to have been written in its present form during the ninth century.\u00a0 The text deals with the origins of the \u201cdhimmi<\/em> pact,\u201d according to which non-Muslims (originally primarily Christians and Jews) living in lands conquered by Muslims would agree to submit to Muslim rule in exchange for certain privileges, the primary of which was the right to continue to practice their faith with certain restrictions as well as a guarantee of security for themselves, their families and their possessions .\u00a0 Non-Muslims who agreed to abide by this pact were required to pay an additional poll tax, known as the jizya<\/em>, and were referred to as dhimmi<\/em>s (protected peoples).\u00a0 The text was allegedly written by Syrian Christians who were submitting to Muslim rule during the time of Umar, with the purpose of detailing the rules and restrictions they would abide by as dhimmi<\/em>s.\u00a0 Its contents served as the standard definition of the dhimmi<\/em> covenant during subsequent centuries of Muslim rule over non-Muslim communities.\u00a0 Although the dhimmi<\/em> covenant was mostly eliminated throughout the world during the era of European colonialism, there remain some Islamist groups who would like to see it reinstated in Muslim lands.<\/p>\n

The Pact of Umar<\/a><\/p>\n

The map below traces the expansion of Islamic rule during the first century after Muhammad.<\/p>\n

\"Map<\/a>
Age of the Caliphs – Expansion under Muhammad, 622-632 (dark reddish brown area that is now modern day Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and south of Jordan); Expansion during the Rashidun Caliphate, 632-661 (orange area that is now modern day Iraq, Kuwait, Iran, Israel, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, Eastern part of Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Southern tips of Russia and Georgia, Southeast Turkmenistan, Western edge of Afghanistan, far Western edge of Pakistan, Northern Egypt and Libya); Expansion during the Umayyad Caliphate, 661-750 (yellow area that is now modern day Portugal, majority of Spain, Southeastern tip of France, Morocco, Northern Algeria, Tunisia, , Western Libya, Northern edge of Iran, Southwestern edge of Turkmenistan, Northeastern edge of Turkmenistan, Southern edge of Uzbekistan, Southwestern Kyrgyzstan, Western Tajikistan, Eastern majority of Afghanistan, the lower two-thirds of Pakistan, and small edges of Western India). Shows modern borders as white edge lines. Source By DieBuche – Own work using: http:\/\/guides.library.iit.edu\/content.php?pid=27903&sid=322018 (archive1, archive2) (via Image:Age_of_Caliphs.png), Image:BlankMap-World6.svg. The Times Concise Atlas of World History ed. by Geoffrey Barraclough published by Times Books Ltd. ISBN 0-7230-0274-6 pp. 40-41., Public Domain, https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/w\/index.php?curid=10802592.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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