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Muslim conquest of the Maghreb
The conquest of the Maghreb by the Rashidun and Umayyad Caliphates commenced in 647 and concluded in 709, when the Byzantine Empire lost its last remaining strongholds to Caliph Al-Walid I. The North African campaigns were part of the century of rapid early Muslim conquests.
By 642 AD, under Caliph Umar, Arab Muslim forces had taken control of Mesopotamia (638 AD), Syria (641 AD), Egypt (642 AD), and had invaded Armenia (642 AD), all territories previously split between the warring Byzantine and Sasanian empires, and were concluding their conquest of Sasanian Persia with their defeat of the Persian army at the Battle of Nahāvand. It was at this point that Arab military expeditions into North African regions west of Egypt were first launched, continuing for years and furthering the spread of Islam.
In 644 at Medina, Umar was succeeded by Uthman, during whose twelve-year rule Armenia, Cyprus, and all of modern-day Iran, would be added to the expanding Rashidun Caliphate. With Afghanistan and North Africa being targets of major invasions and Muslim sea raids ranging from Rhodes to the southern coasts of the Iberian Peninsula, the Byzantine navy was defeated in the eastern Mediterranean.
The earliest Arab accounts are those of ibn Abd al-Hakam, al-Baladhuri, and Khalifah ibn Khayyat, all of which were written in the ninth century, some 200 years after the first invasions. These are not very detailed. In the case of the most informative, the History of the Conquest of Egypt and North Africa and Spain by Ibn Abd al-Hakam, Robert Brunschvig has shown that it was written with a view to illustrating points of Maliki law rather than documenting history and that some of the events it describes are probably ahistorical.
Beginning in the 12th century, scholars at Kairouan began to construct a new version of the history of the conquest, which was finalised by Ibrahim ibn ar-Raqiq. This version was copied in its entirety and sometimes interpolated, by later authors, reaching its zenith in the 14th century by scholars such as ibn Idhari, ibn Khaldun and al-Nuwayri. It differs from the earlier version not only in greater detail but also in giving conflicting accounts of events. This, however, is the best-known version and is the one given below.[citation needed]
It is recorded by Ibn Abd al-Hakam that during the siege of Tripoli by Amr ibn al-As, seven of his soldiers from the clan of Madhlij, sub branch of Kinana, unintentionally found a section on the western side of Tripoli beach that was not walled during their hunting routine. These seven soldiers managed to infiltrate the city through this way without being detected by the city guards, and then managed to incite riots within the city while shouting Takbir (God is the greatest), causing the confused Byzantine garrison soldiers to think the Muslim forces were already inside in the city and to flee towards their ship leaving Tripoli, thus, allowing Amr to subdue the city easily.
Later, the Muslim forces besieged Barqa (Cyrenaica) for about three years to no avail. Then Khalid ibn al-Walid, who was previously involved in the conquest of Oxyrhynchus, offered a radical plan to erect catapult which filled by cotton sacks. Then as the night came and the city guard slept, Khalid ordered his best warriors such as Zubayr ibn al-Awwam, his son Abdullah, Abdul-Rahman ibn Abi Bakr, Fadl ibn Abbas, Abu Mas'ud al-Badri, and Abd al-Razzaq to step into the catapult platform which filled by cotton sacks. The catapult launched them one by one to the top of the wall and allowed these warriors to enter the city, opening the gates and killing the guards, thus allowing the Muslim forces to enter and capturing the city. Then caliph Umar, whose armies were already engaged in conquering the Sassanid Empire, did not want to commit his forces further in North Africa while Muslim rule in Egypt was still insecure and ordered 'Amr to consolidate the Muslims' position in Egypt and that there should be no further campaigning. 'Amr obeyed, abandoning Tripoli and Burqa and returning to Fustat towards the close of 643.
The next invasion of the Maghreb, ordered by Abdallah ibn Sa'd, commenced in 647. 20,000 soldiers marched from Medina in the Arabian Peninsula, with another joining them in Memphis, Egypt where Abdallah ibn Sa'd then led them into the Byzantine Africa, the Maghreb region. The invading army took Tripolitania (in present-day Libya). Count Gregory, the local Byzantine governor, had declared his independence from the Byzantine Empire in Africa. He gathered his allies, confronted the invading Islamic Arab forces and suffered defeat (647) at the Battle of Sufetula, a city 240 kilometres (150 mi) south of Carthage. With the death of Gregory, his successor, probably Gennadius, secured the Arab withdrawal in exchange for tribute. The campaign lasted fifteen months and Abdallah's force returned to Muslim territories in 648.
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Muslim conquest of the Maghreb
The conquest of the Maghreb by the Rashidun and Umayyad Caliphates commenced in 647 and concluded in 709, when the Byzantine Empire lost its last remaining strongholds to Caliph Al-Walid I. The North African campaigns were part of the century of rapid early Muslim conquests.
By 642 AD, under Caliph Umar, Arab Muslim forces had taken control of Mesopotamia (638 AD), Syria (641 AD), Egypt (642 AD), and had invaded Armenia (642 AD), all territories previously split between the warring Byzantine and Sasanian empires, and were concluding their conquest of Sasanian Persia with their defeat of the Persian army at the Battle of Nahāvand. It was at this point that Arab military expeditions into North African regions west of Egypt were first launched, continuing for years and furthering the spread of Islam.
In 644 at Medina, Umar was succeeded by Uthman, during whose twelve-year rule Armenia, Cyprus, and all of modern-day Iran, would be added to the expanding Rashidun Caliphate. With Afghanistan and North Africa being targets of major invasions and Muslim sea raids ranging from Rhodes to the southern coasts of the Iberian Peninsula, the Byzantine navy was defeated in the eastern Mediterranean.
The earliest Arab accounts are those of ibn Abd al-Hakam, al-Baladhuri, and Khalifah ibn Khayyat, all of which were written in the ninth century, some 200 years after the first invasions. These are not very detailed. In the case of the most informative, the History of the Conquest of Egypt and North Africa and Spain by Ibn Abd al-Hakam, Robert Brunschvig has shown that it was written with a view to illustrating points of Maliki law rather than documenting history and that some of the events it describes are probably ahistorical.
Beginning in the 12th century, scholars at Kairouan began to construct a new version of the history of the conquest, which was finalised by Ibrahim ibn ar-Raqiq. This version was copied in its entirety and sometimes interpolated, by later authors, reaching its zenith in the 14th century by scholars such as ibn Idhari, ibn Khaldun and al-Nuwayri. It differs from the earlier version not only in greater detail but also in giving conflicting accounts of events. This, however, is the best-known version and is the one given below.[citation needed]
It is recorded by Ibn Abd al-Hakam that during the siege of Tripoli by Amr ibn al-As, seven of his soldiers from the clan of Madhlij, sub branch of Kinana, unintentionally found a section on the western side of Tripoli beach that was not walled during their hunting routine. These seven soldiers managed to infiltrate the city through this way without being detected by the city guards, and then managed to incite riots within the city while shouting Takbir (God is the greatest), causing the confused Byzantine garrison soldiers to think the Muslim forces were already inside in the city and to flee towards their ship leaving Tripoli, thus, allowing Amr to subdue the city easily.
Later, the Muslim forces besieged Barqa (Cyrenaica) for about three years to no avail. Then Khalid ibn al-Walid, who was previously involved in the conquest of Oxyrhynchus, offered a radical plan to erect catapult which filled by cotton sacks. Then as the night came and the city guard slept, Khalid ordered his best warriors such as Zubayr ibn al-Awwam, his son Abdullah, Abdul-Rahman ibn Abi Bakr, Fadl ibn Abbas, Abu Mas'ud al-Badri, and Abd al-Razzaq to step into the catapult platform which filled by cotton sacks. The catapult launched them one by one to the top of the wall and allowed these warriors to enter the city, opening the gates and killing the guards, thus allowing the Muslim forces to enter and capturing the city. Then caliph Umar, whose armies were already engaged in conquering the Sassanid Empire, did not want to commit his forces further in North Africa while Muslim rule in Egypt was still insecure and ordered 'Amr to consolidate the Muslims' position in Egypt and that there should be no further campaigning. 'Amr obeyed, abandoning Tripoli and Burqa and returning to Fustat towards the close of 643.
The next invasion of the Maghreb, ordered by Abdallah ibn Sa'd, commenced in 647. 20,000 soldiers marched from Medina in the Arabian Peninsula, with another joining them in Memphis, Egypt where Abdallah ibn Sa'd then led them into the Byzantine Africa, the Maghreb region. The invading army took Tripolitania (in present-day Libya). Count Gregory, the local Byzantine governor, had declared his independence from the Byzantine Empire in Africa. He gathered his allies, confronted the invading Islamic Arab forces and suffered defeat (647) at the Battle of Sufetula, a city 240 kilometres (150 mi) south of Carthage. With the death of Gregory, his successor, probably Gennadius, secured the Arab withdrawal in exchange for tribute. The campaign lasted fifteen months and Abdallah's force returned to Muslim territories in 648.