The prolonged and escalating Byzantine–Sassanid wars of the 6th and 7th centuries and the recurring outbreaks of bubonic plague (Plague of Justinian) left both empires exhausted and vulnerable in the ...
With Emesa already in hand, Abu Ubaidah and Khalid moved towards Chalcis, which was strategically the most significant fort of Byzantines. Through Chalcis, the Byzantines would guard Anatolia, Heracli ...
Khalid was born c. 592 in Mecca. His father was Walid ibn al-Mughira, the chief of the Banu Makhzum, a clan of the Arab tribe of Quraysh. Walid was known in Mecca by the title of Al-Waheed - "the One ...
In his book The Early Islamic Conquests (1981), Fred Donner argues that the standard Arabian practice at the time was for the prominent men of a kinship group, or tribe, to gather after a leader's dea ...
Only Muslims were allowed to join the Rashidun army as regular troops. During the Ridda wars in the reign of Caliph Abu Bakr, the army mainly consisted of the corps from Madinah, Mecca and Taif. Later ...
When the Roman and Parthian Empires first collided in the 1st century BC, it appeared that Parthia had the potential to push its frontier to the Aegean and the Mediterranean. However, under Pacorus an ...
According to James Howard-Johnston, "from the third century BC to the early seventh century AD, the rival players were grand polities with imperial pretensions, which had been able to establish and s ...
The Sassanid Dynasty, like the Achaemenid, originated in the province of Pars. The Sassanids saw themselves as successors of the Achaemenids, after the Hellenistic and Parthian interlude, and believed ...
Origins and early history (205–310)Ghal'eh Dokhtar (or "The Maiden's Castle") in present-day Fars, Firuzabad, Iran, built by Ardashir in 209, before he was finally able to defeat the Parthian empire. ...
Bernard Lewis believes that the advent of Islam was a revolution which only partially succeeded due to tensions between the new religion and very old societies that the Muslims conquered. He thinks th ...
Muslim Iranian dynasties Tahirids (821–873) The Tahirid dynasty, (Persian: ????? ???????) was an Iranian Persian dynasty that ruled over the northeastern part of Greater Iran, in the regi ...
Government sponsorship The government heavily patronized scholars. The money spent on the Translation Movement for some translations is estimated to be equivalent to about twice the annual research bu ...
The individual Muslim conquests, together with their beginning and ending dates, are as follows:Muhammad's campaigns Main article: Military career of MuhammadByzantine–Arab Wars: 634–750 Main articl ...
The caliph was often known as Amir al-Mu'minin (Arabic: ???? ????????? "Commander of the Believers"). Muhammad established his capital in Medina; after he died, it remained the capital du ...
The Ancient Greek form Euphrátēs (Ancient Greek: Ε?φρ?τη?) was borrowed from Old Persian Ufrātu, itself from Elamite ú-ip-ra-tu-i?. In Akkadian the river was similarly called Purattu, whi ...
