Essay: Arab-Islamic conquest in the seventh and eighth centuries AD

Throughout the scope of history fewer events have been more consequential than the Arab-Islamic conquest in the seventh and eighth centuries AD. The Islamic Empire, by the late ninth century AD, reached its height, making it one of the largest territorial conquests since the height of the Roman Empire and forever changed the social and religious landscape of the Middle East and North Africa. Although there is no doubt about the Conquest’s scope and achievements, many contemporary scholars in the past several decades have pointed to Islamic historians  overrepresenting the religious and spiritual aspect of many of the conquerors and converts to Islam during the Arab conquest from Eurasia to Northern Africa (“Early Rise of Islam,”2009). While not to underplay to faith or victories of the many conquerors during the time period, but this misrepresentation by Islamic historians in the ninth and tenth centuries AD, have rendered many Islamic primary sources unreliable for contemporary study and use.
On the eve of the Islamic conquest, the Middle-Eastern region was characterized by constant conflict between the two major superpowers of the region—the Byzantine and Sassanid Empires. The fights raged on the outer frontiers of the Byzantine Empire in what is modern day Syria and Israel, many times over land and power of important trade routes and resources (Hoyland, 12). This conflict—over the course of many decades and centuries—left both empires weak, leaving themselves vulnerable to attacks from the Arabs in the Arabian peninsula, a place not many believed could pose a threat to major empires of the time (“Early Rise of Islam,” 2009). In Arabia, the Prophet managed to gain many converts to Islam due to his teachings and leadership and gained controlled of Mecca and Medina by 625 AD. Following the death of the Prophet Muhammad in 631 AD and subsequent succession crisis, the new Caliphate successfully—with a united Arabia—invaded Persia in 638 AD, laying the blueprint for the future empire. In the following century, the Arab conquerors would seize the rest of the Middle East—defeating the Byzantines—and most of North Africa by the beginning of the eighth century AD.
While much of what Islamic historians wrote in later years after the end of the conquest in the 740s AD was rich and factual, many scholars now see the how many wrote to make the Arab people seem more divine and “chosen”  in the eyes of Allah. Robert Hoyland, an Islamic scholar from New York University, wrote in his 2014 book In God’s Path, that the conquest should be called “Arab” instead of “Islamic,” because many of the conquerors did so because of personal and political reasons. One of the main reasons for using Arab was that most of the conquerors—coming from the Arabia or elsewhere—wanted to gain political power and influence that was given mainly to Arabs coming from the Mecca and Medina. Similarly, many people who were in the path of the conqueror decided to convert and join the invasion, rather than being slaughtered or being put into slavery. This was especially true of the North African population, where the word of incoming Arab conquerors led to many in Egypt to quickly surrender to the conqueror in exchange for a few concessions (Hoyland, 96). These few major point are evidence that many scholars, like Hoyland, why much of the religious glorification by Islamic historians in year after the conquest are likely misleading.
While there is no doubt of the difficulties in trying to find the truth of the past, scholars have successfully be able to identify information that can distort the reality of events. The conquest of the Middle East and Northern Africa in the seventh and eighth centuries still has profound impacts on the region today in modern times. The Islamic historians who wrote about conquest no doubt wanted to see their religion be seen as powerful and righteous during the conquest, but failed to acknowledge many other factors that contributed to its success. Factors like the fears of the conquerors, the desire for power, and the popularity of Islam in an era where monotheism was becoming “vogue” are all the reason to see the Arab conquest was about personal reason rather than religious.