Expansion of the Islamic/Arab Empire

Although Muhamed was able to greatly spread the message of Islam, it was not until after his death in 632 CE that the real expansion of the Arab Empire began. Only a few years after the death of Muhamed the Arab armies began to engage the Byzantine and Persian Sassanid Empires, which were the most powerful empires of the region, in battle. These engagements were a continuation of a long tradition of tribal raids into surrounding civilizations. These raids had taken place long before Muhamed and Islam were around. The difference now was that they finally had a centralized state of their own and a central command which could mobilize the military potential of the entire Arab nation. The Arabs were able to use this new found power to attack the Byzantine and Persian Empires, which were weakend from decades 0f war against each other. During the 650s the Arabs were finally able to defeat the Sassanid Empire and while they were not able to completely defeat the Byzantines, they were able to capture the southern half of Byzantium.

After defeating these two great empires the Arabs, who now operated on both land and sea, were able to sweep westward across North Africa. By the early 700s CE the had conquered Spain and had begun to attack southern France. Besides this great expansion west the Arabs army also moved east toward the Indus. Along the way they were able to capture some of the major oases towns of Central Asia. In 751CE the Arab Empire battle Chinese forces in the Battle of Talas River and were able to deal the Chinese a crushing defeat. This battle would have a major effect on the cultural evolution of Asia, as it halted the expansion of China to the west. It also helped to convert the Central Asian Turkic speaking people to Islam. This great expansion was important for multiple reasons. It was obviously important for great religous effect that it had, massively expanding Islam to both the east and west, but it was also important because of the effect that it had on Arab trade. During this expansion the Arab Empire was able to capture to capture profitable trade routes, as well as wealthy agricultural regions, both of which were able to greatly increase the wealth of the Islamic community.

Strayer, Robert W. Ways of the World. Vol. 1. Boston: Bedford/ St. Martin's, 2009. 2 vols. Print.
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