The Great Arab Conquests: How the Spread of Islam Changed the World We Live In

by Hugh Kennedy

Overview

This history of Arabia's overpowering cultural expansion across the globe is “a brisk account of Islam's momentous first century” (New York Times).

Today's Arab world was created at breathtaking speed. In just over one hundred years following the death of Mohammed in 632, Arabs had subjugated a territory with an east-west expanse greater than the Roman Empire, and they did it in about one-half the time. By the mid-eighth century, Arab armies had conquered the thousand-year-old Persian Empire, reduced the Byzantine Empire to little more than a city-state based around Constantinople, and destroyed the Visigoth kingdom of Spain. The cultural and linguistic effects of this early Islamic expansion reverberate today.

The Great Arab Conquests is the first popular English-language account in many years of this astonishing remaking of the political and religious map of the world. Hugh Kennedy's sweeping narrative reveals how the Arab armies conquered almost everything in their path, and brings to light the unique characteristics of Islamic rule. One of the few academic historians with a genuine talent for storytelling, Kennedy offers a compelling mix of larger-than-life characters, fierce battles, and the great clash of civilizations and religions.

“States historical truths most nonexperts, general readers, and politicians ignore.” —Philadelphia Inquirer

“An eminently readable history of one of the most significant periods in world history.” —Charleston Post and Courier

“History at its most vivid and enthralling. . . . [A] truly magnificent achievement.” —New Statesman

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780306817281
Publisher:	Grand Central Publishing
Publication date:	04/08/2025
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	467
File size:	5 MB

About the Author

Hugh Kennedy is a professor of Arabic at SOAS, University of London. The author of many books, including The Courts of the Caliphs and The Great Arab Conquests, Kennedy lives in London and Scotland, Great Britain.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations and Maps     vii
Acknowledgements     xxv
Preface     1
Foreword: Remembrance of Things Past     12
The Foundations of Conquest     34
The Conquest of Syria and Palestine     66
The Conquest of Iraq     98
The Conquest of Egypt     139
The Conquest of Iran     169
Into the Maghreb     200
Crossing the Oxus     225
The Road to Samarqand     255
Furthest East and Furthest West     296
The War at Sea     324
Voices of the Conquered     344
Conclusion     363
Notes     377
Bibliography     398
Index     409

Editorial Reviews

Hugh Kennedy describes and convincingly analyzes the astonishing story of how the Arabs took over the Middle East.

Books & Culture

A brisk account of Islam's momentous first century.

New York Times Book Review

By painstakingly reconstructing the series of Arab conquests, Mr. Kennedy paints a picture strikingly at odds with the popular clich‚s.Mr. Kennedy tells a remarkable tale with skill and authority.

The Economist

Send a copy to the frat boys in the State Department...in the hope that they might remember the past so the rest of us aren't condemned to repeat it.

San Diego Union-Tribune

This excellent guide to the campaigns initiated by Mohammed is highly relevant today.Not least, the account helps explain many of the current borders of the Muslim world. It also provides the early context for religious ideas that continue to motivate believers.A highly-readable account of remote events that still have a striking relevance for the shape of our modern world.

Financial Times

The Bush administration might have given all the Annapolis participants a swag bag-the mix of goodies Hollywood presenters get at the Oscars-packed with a copy.of The Great Arab Conquests.That would guarantee heated but honest future negotiations.State[s] historical truths most nonexperts, general readers and politicians ignore. The key truth laid out in fine narrative style by Kennedy.is that the Islamic and Arabic character of every Mideast nation outside of present-day Saudi Arabia is the blunt result of military conquest.

Philadelphia Inquirer

Though the scope of the book appears slightly daunting, Kennedy surprises in giving unexpected texture and depth to these large-scale religious, military and political events.An eminently readable history of one of the most significant periods in world history.A dynamic, well-written account of the spread of Islam.

Charleston Post and Courier

An extremely readable work.in the flowing narrative style for which [Kennedy] has become known.An extremely valuable addition to the discipline.Highly recommended.

Choice

Talk about your clash of civilizations. How is it, wonders Kennedy (When Baghdad Ruled the Muslim World: The Rise and Fall of Islam's Greatest Dynasty, 2005, etc), that a comparative handful of desert herdsmen could conquer much of the known world and topple several venerable empires in the bargain?In 632 CE, when Muhammad died, Islam was confined to a few parts of the Arabian Peninsula. The dominant power in the region was the Byzantine Empire, with Greek the lingua franca of Egypt and the Holy Land; in much of the Middle East, Arabic was unknown. Yet, notes Kennedy, something unexpected happened; within the next century, Arabic-speaking armies, most smaller than 20,000 men, emerged from the Arabian desert and took down states from Portugal to Pakistan. The Muslim doctrine of jihad fit nicely with this unprecedented expansion, but it seems clear from Kennedy's anecdote-rich narrative that there was more to it than all that; the possibility of leaving the desert for more congenial, better-watered climes beckoned, and so did the prospect for wealth and booty figure. One telling tale, in that regard, concerns a man who tried to enlist, was warned that he might be martyred as a holy warrior and tried to back out-until he dreamed that should he join he would become rich, "which proved more enticing than the spiritual benefits." But the larger explanation for success, as Kennedy observes, is that the Arab armies were just that-armies: "The early Muslim conquests were not achieved by a migration of Bedouin tribesmen with their families, tents and flocks in the way that the Saljuk Turks entered the Middle East in the eleventh century," he writes. "They were achieved by fighting men underorders." Blend discipline, training and ideology with hunger, set all this up against ripe, decadent, even corrupt targets, and the Arab conquest seems nearly inevitable. A little-known history lucidly told, with episodes that might have come out of today's headlines.

Kirkus Reviews

Saudi Aramco World
“A lively tour d’horizon of the Muslim world circa 750…Each section’s tight geographical focus and ample bibliography make this a helpful guide.”

Claremont Review of Books, Fall 2008
“Comprehensive and scholarly…[Kennedy] is a real historian, doing what a historian ought to do…Kennedy has a good eye for a colorful story.”

Military History Quarterly, Fall 2008
“Kennedy’s account is a thoughtful reminder of how even the most epochal world-changing events can turn on the unanticipated intersection of a handful of diverse contingencies.

From the Publisher