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. This 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 story telling, Kennedy offers a compelling mix of larger-than-life characters, fierce battles, and the great clash of civilizations and religions.
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
