Rise of Islam
Also called: Arab conquests · Topic: The Roman Empire · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 2 "An Empire Across Three Continents"
Meaning
The rise of Islam means the spread of the new Islamic state out of Arabia in the seventh and eighth centuries CE. The key to its success was that it had first united the Arab tribes. Their armies then struck two old superpowers that had been worn out by long wars with each other: the eastern Roman Empire and Sasanian Iran. Historians have called it "the greatest political revolution ever to occur in the history of the ancient world". It closed the period of late antiquity.
Example
The first phase of conquest ran from 633 to 642. By 642, large parts of both the eastern Roman and Sasanian empires were in Arab hands. Within a century the conquests reached Spain (from 711), Sind and Central Asia.
Don't confuse with
- The Germanic invasions: these broke up only the western Roman Empire into post-Roman kingdoms. The Arab conquests took over much of the eastern Roman lands and destroyed the Sasanian empire.
Related concepts
- Diocletian
- Constantine
- Edict of Milan 313
- Christianisation of the Roman Empire
- Constantinople
- Post-Roman kingdoms
- Byzantine empire
- Justinian
- Late antiquity
- Prophet Muhammad