The Islamic Conquests (632–1071): From Arabia to Spain and Anatolia

Within about a century of Muhammad’s death in 632, Arab Muslim armies conquered the Sasanian Persian empire, most of the Byzantine Near East and North Africa, and Spain, and they reached the Indus and central France. The conquests were military. Conversion of the conquered populations followed slowly, over centuries, under a tax and a set of restrictions on Christians and Jews.

Key Points

• The Rashidun caliphs (632–661) campaigned into Iraq, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, Iran, and Armenia. Britannica is the survey. Yarmuk in 636 and al-Qadisiyyah in 636/637 are the two decisive battles in the sources used here.
• Jerusalem surrendered to Umar in 637, or 638 in some accounts. Britannica on Sophronius says the patriarch negotiated civil and religious liberty for Christians in exchange for tribute.
• In Egypt, a Coptic history says Amr was told to make a treaty with those who consented and to plunder and take prisoner those who did not. The same source says churches were burned, including the church of Saint Mark. It also says the Coptic patriarch Benjamin, who had suffered under Chalcedonian rule, was restored.
• Tariq ibn Ziyad’s landing in 711 brought most of Iberia under Muslim rule. Tours, in October 732, is described by Britannica as closer to a large-scale raid than to a war that decided Europe. An Arab chronicle says the raiders took captives without number.
• Sahih Muslim 1731aCloseFight in the name of Allah and in the way of Allah. Fight against those who disbelieve in Allah. Make a holy war, do not embezzle the spoils; do not break your pledge; and do not mutilate (the dead) bodies; do not kill the children.Sahih Muslim 1731a · Abdul Hamid SiddiquiOpen source (Abdul Hamid Siddiqui) tells an army to offer Islam, then the jizya, then battle, and not to kill children. What Does Jihad Mean in the Qur’an and Hadith? is the verse-by-verse page. This page does not repeat that exegesis.
• Qur’an 2:256CloseThere shall be no compulsion in [acceptance of] the religion. The right course has become distinct from the wrong. So whoever disbelieves in ṭāghūt and believes in Allāh has grasped the most trustworthy handhold with no break in it. And Allāh is Hearing and Knowing.Qur’an 2:256 · Saheeh InternationalOpen source (Saheeh International) says there is no compulsion in religion. The conquests were still conquests. What Is the Jizya?

The Rashidun Campaigns

Britannica dates the Rashidun caliphate from 632 to 661 and traces its armies into Iraq, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, Iran, and Armenia. What Is the History of Islam? is the longer timeline. What Is a Caliphate? is the office. The Battle of Badr and Banu Qurayza are events in Muhammad’s own life, before these wars.

At Yarmuk in 636, al-Baladhuri, in the 1916 English of P. K. Hitti and F. C. Murgotten, gives 24,000 Muslims and some 70,000 Byzantine dead. Those figures are a ninth-century tradition. They are not a modern battlefield count. At al-Qadisiyyah in 636/637, Britannica calls the battle the beginning of Arab and Islamic rule in Persia.

Jerusalem fell in 637. Some sources say 638. Sophronius negotiated liberty for Christians in exchange for tribute. That is a surrender with a tax, not a report that the city was left untouched.

Egypt was invaded in 639 and Alexandria fell in 642. The History of the Patriarchs, in Basil Evetts’s 1904 English, gives Amr’s instruction:

make a treaty with them, and do them no injury. But plunder and take as prisoners those that will not consent

The same Coptic source says the army “burnt many churches with fire. And they burnt the church of Saint Mark.” It also says Copts had suffered under Chalcedonian Byzantium and that their patriarch Benjamin was restored. A community can prefer a new ruler to an old one and still have its churches burned. Both sentences are in the one book. Sunni and Shia is a later split. These campaigns belong to the years before that split hardened into two states.

Spain, Tours, and the Umayyads

The Umayyad caliphate (661–750) ruled from Damascus. Britannica traces expansion toward Khorasan, Sindh, and Central Asia, and naval campaigns against Constantinople in 669–678. Those sieges of Constantinople failed.

In 711 Tariq ibn Ziyad defeated the Visigothic king. Most of Iberia came under Muslim rule within a few years. Narbonne was taken in 719. Covadonga, about 718, is the traditional start of the Christian recovery in the north. Were the Crusades Justified? follows that recovery into the later crusades.

At Tours, or Poitiers, in October 732, Charles Martel defeated Abd al-Rahman. Britannica says the battle more closely resembled a large-scale razzia, a raid, than a conquest stopped forever at one field. The Berber revolt of 739 and the Abbasid revolution of 750 did more to halt the western line. An unidentified Arabian writer, quoted in Edward Creasy and reprinted from that book, says the army laid waste the country and “took captives without number.”

From the Abbasids to Manzikert

In 750 the last Umayyad caliph, Marwan II, was defeated at the Great Zab. An Umayyad survivor founded an emirate at Córdoba in 756. What Is the History of Islam? dates the later Norman conquest of Sicily.

The Fatimid caliph al-Hakim persecuted Christians, Jews, and Sunnis, and he disappeared in 1021. In 1009 the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was demolished. Rodulfus Glaber says it was utterly overthrown at the command of the prince of Babylon, meaning that caliph. Pruitt’s 2013 article in Muqarnas 30 places the demolition in al-Hakim’s broader policy. The year is the one Glaber’s report supports.

On 26 August 1071 the Seljuk sultan Alp Arslan defeated and captured Romanus IV at Manzikert. Britannica dates the battle. Antioch fell to the Seljuks in 1085. Those two losses are the immediate eastern background of Urban II’s sermon. Were the Crusades Justified?

Much later, Ottoman armies took Constantinople on 29 May 1453. The siege of Vienna failed in 1529, and a second siege was broken in 1683. Those campaigns are outside the years 632–1071. They show that conquest did not stop when the Abbasid map stabilized.

Conquest Is Not the Same as Conversion

The armies won by fighting. The populations did not all become Muslim in the same year. Christians and Jews who stayed and paid the tax kept a restricted worship. That arrangement is What Is the Jizya?.

Sahih Muslim 1731aCloseFight in the name of Allah and in the way of Allah. Fight against those who disbelieve in Allah. Make a holy war, do not embezzle the spoils; do not break your pledge; and do not mutilate (the dead) bodies; do not kill the children.Sahih Muslim 1731a · Abdul Hamid SiddiquiOpen source (Abdul Hamid Siddiqui) is Sunni hadith. Shia Muslims do not treat this collection as their canon. The report says:

Fight in the name of Allah and in the way of Allah. Fight against those who disbelieve in Allah. Make a holy war, do not embezzle the spoils; do not break your pledge; and do not mutilate (the dead) bodies; do not kill the children.

Sahih Muslim 1731a · Abdul Hamid Siddiqui

Sunni hadith

The same hadith says that if people refuse Islam, the army is to demand the jizya, to accept it and hold off if they pay, and to fight if they refuse. Three options are in the one report: Islam, the tax, or battle. Muwatta Malik 21.11CloseDo not mutilate and do not kill childrenMuwatta Malik 21.11 · sunnah.com EnglishOpen source says, “Do not mutilate and do not kill children.”

Muwatta Malik 21.10CloseYou will find a people who claim to have totally given themselves to Allah. Leave them to what they claim to have given themselves. You will find a people who have shaved the middle of their heads, strike what they have shaved with the sword. "I advise you ten things: Do not kill women or children or an aged, infirm person. Do not cut down fruit-bearing trees. Do not destroy an inhabited place.Muwatta Malik 21.10 · sunnah.com EnglishOpen source is Abu Bakr’s charge to Yazid ibn Abi Sufyan, in the sunnah.com English. He says to leave people who claim to have given themselves wholly to God. He then says that if the army finds a people who have shaved the middle of their heads, it is to “strike what they have shaved with the sword.” The same speech begins, “I advise you ten things: Do not kill women or children or an aged, infirm person. Do not cut down fruit-bearing trees. Do not destroy an inhabited place.” The English excerpt used here ends at that sentence. The limit on women, children, and the aged, and the order to strike the shaved heads, are both in the excerpt.

The Qur’an points both ways, and the reading of each verse is on What Does Jihad Mean in the Qur’an and Hadith?. Qur’an 9:5CloseAnd when the inviolable months have passed, then kill the polytheists wherever you find them and capture them and besiege them and sit in wait for them at every place of ambush. But if they should repent, establish prayer, and give zakāh, let them [go] on their way. Indeed, Allāh is Forgiving and Merciful.Qur’an 9:5 · Saheeh InternationalOpen source (Saheeh International) says, after the inviolable months, to kill the polytheists wherever you find them unless they repent, pray, and give zakat. Qur’an 9:29CloseFight against those who do not believe in Allāh or in the Last Day and who do not consider unlawful what Allāh and His Messenger have made unlawful and who do not adopt the religion of truth [i.e., Islām] from those who were given the Scripture - [fight] until they give the jizyah willingly while they are humbled.Qur’an 9:29 · Saheeh InternationalOpen source says to fight People of the Scripture until they pay the jizya and are humbled. Qur’an 8:39CloseAnd fight against them until there is no fitnah and [until] the religion [i.e., worship], all of it, is for Allāh. And if they cease - then indeed, Allāh is Seeing of what they do.Qur’an 8:39 · Saheeh InternationalOpen source says to fight until there is no fitnah and the religion is for God. Sahih al-Bukhari 25CloseNarrated Ibn 'Umar: Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) said: "I have been ordered (by Allah) to fight against the people until they testify that none has the right to be worshipped but Allah and that Muhammad is Allah's Messenger (ﷺ), and offer the prayers perfectly and give the obligatory charity, so if they perform that, then they save their lives and property from me except for Islamic laws and then their reckoning (accounts) will be done by Allah."Sahih al-Bukhari 25 · Muhammad Muhsin KhanOpen source says he was ordered to fight the people until they testify, pray, and give zakat.

Qur’an 2:190CloseFight in the way of Allāh those who fight against you but do not transgress. Indeed, Allāh does not like transgressors.Qur’an 2:190 · Saheeh InternationalOpen source says to fight those who fight you and not to transgress. Qur’an 2:256CloseThere shall be no compulsion in [acceptance of] the religion. The right course has become distinct from the wrong. So whoever disbelieves in ṭāghūt and believes in Allāh has grasped the most trustworthy handhold with no break in it. And Allāh is Hearing and Knowing.Qur’an 2:256 · Saheeh InternationalOpen source says there is no compulsion in religion. Qur’an 8:61CloseAnd if they incline to peace, then incline to it [also] and rely upon Allāh. Indeed, it is He who is the Hearing, the Knowing.Qur’an 8:61 · Saheeh InternationalOpen source says to incline to peace if they incline to it. Qur’an 9:4CloseExcepted are those with whom you made a treaty among the polytheists and then they have not been deficient toward you in anything or supported anyone against you; so complete for them their treaty until their term [has ended]. Indeed, Allāh loves the righteous [who fear Him].Qur’an 9:4 · Saheeh InternationalOpen source and Qur’an 9:6CloseAnd if any one of the polytheists seeks your protection, then grant him protection so that he may hear the words of Allāh [i.e., the Qur’ān]. Then deliver him to his place of safety. That is because they are a people who do not know.Qur’an 9:6 · Saheeh InternationalOpen source keep a treaty and grant protection to a polytheist who asks for it. Qur’an 22:39ClosePermission [to fight] has been given to those who are being fought, because they were wronged. And indeed, Allāh is competent to give them victory.Qur’an 22:39 · Saheeh InternationalOpen source permits fighting to those who are fought because they were wronged. Sahih al-Bukhari 3166CloseWhoever killed a person having a treaty with the Muslims, shall not smell the smell of Paradise though its smell is perceived from a distance of forty years.Sahih al-Bukhari 3166 · Muhammad Muhsin KhanOpen source says the killer of a person under treaty will not smell the scent of Paradise. A book that contains both the command to fight and the limit on compulsion is not read by deleting either sentence.

What Is Sharia Law? is the later legal path. The conquests are the history. The verses are the book.

What Muslim Writers Answer

Islamweb fatwa 377392 separates a later spread of the religion from the seventh-century armies:

Indonesia is the largest Islamic country today in terms of the number of the population, yet Islam did not enter it and was not spread in it by fighting and by the sword.

The same fatwa says fighting “is not an objective in itself” and is “only to pave the way for calling people to Allah and to remove all the obstacles that prevent people from choosing this religion.” Indonesia is a real case of Islam arriving without an Arab army of the seventh century. It does not rewrite Yarmuk, Egypt, or 711. Those were armies. Calling people to God, in the fatwa’s own next sentence, is what the fighting is said to clear the way for.

Another answer treats the fighting verses as defense. Qur’an 2:190CloseFight in the way of Allāh those who fight against you but do not transgress. Indeed, Allāh does not like transgressors.Qur’an 2:190 · Saheeh InternationalOpen source limits the fight to those who fight you. Qur’an 9:13CloseWould you not fight against a people who broke their oaths and determined to expel the Messenger, and they had begun [the attack upon] you the first time? Do you fear them? But Allāh has more right that you should fear Him, if you are [truly] believers.Qur’an 9:13 · Saheeh InternationalOpen source speaks of broken oaths and of an attack already begun. Britannica’s jizya article, by Asma Afsaruddin, reads Qur’an 9:29CloseFight against those who do not believe in Allāh or in the Last Day and who do not consider unlawful what Allāh and His Messenger have made unlawful and who do not adopt the religion of truth [i.e., Islām] from those who were given the Scripture - [fight] until they give the jizyah willingly while they are humbled.Qur’an 9:29 · Saheeh InternationalOpen source against the Byzantine campaign of Tabuk in 630. That is a scholar’s setting of the verse. The verse’s own words are the jizya and the humbling.

A further answer is comparative tolerance. Dhimmis kept worship and a measure of their own law. The Coptic patriarchs’ history, cited above, can be read as a community that had suffered under Chalcedon and then lived under a treaty. The burned church of Saint Mark is in that same history.

The Christian Claim

The New Testament does not send the church out to offer baptism, a tax, or the sword. Matthew 26:52CloseThen said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.Matthew 26:52 · King James VersionOpen source tells Peter to put the sword back. Were the Crusades Justified? admits what Christians later did with armies, including the Rhineland, Jerusalem in 1099, Acre in 1191, and Constantinople in 1204. A conquest by Muslim armies and a later crusade are not the same act. Neither one is the gospel. Jesus is God. The Islamic Dilemma is what the Qur’an says about him and about the earlier books.

Frequently Asked Questions

Was Islam Spread by the Sword?

The conquests from 632 to 711 were military, and the Arabic and Coptic sources say so. Mass conversion inside the conquered lands came later. Qur’an 2:256CloseThere shall be no compulsion in [acceptance of] the religion. The right course has become distinct from the wrong. So whoever disbelieves in ṭāghūt and believes in Allāh has grasped the most trustworthy handhold with no break in it. And Allāh is Hearing and Knowing.Qur’an 2:256 · Saheeh InternationalOpen source forbids compulsion in religion. Sahih Muslim 1731aCloseFight in the name of Allah and in the way of Allah. Fight against those who disbelieve in Allah. Make a holy war, do not embezzle the spoils; do not break your pledge; and do not mutilate (the dead) bodies; do not kill the children.Sahih Muslim 1731a · Abdul Hamid SiddiquiOpen source still offers Islam, the jizya, or battle.

Did Everyone in the Conquered Lands Become Muslim at Once?

No. Christians and Jews could remain as taxed, restricted peoples. That status is What Is the Jizya?. The Coptic source records both a treaty and burned churches.

What Did the Battle of Tours Decide?

Britannica treats October 732 as closer to a large raid than to the end of Islamic expansion. The Berber revolt and the Abbasid revolution did more to stop the western campaigns.