Islamic World: Military History and Notable Events

627 - Battle of the Trench (All Facts)

• Battle in which the Muslims defeated the Quraysh in Medina by digging a trench around their settlement and successfully defending themselves as a result

629 - 1050s - Arab-Byzantine Wars (All Facts)

• Series of wars between multiple Arab dynasties and the Byzantine Empire

630 - Conquest of Mecca (All Facts)

• Event in which Mohammed and his followers took control of the namesake city

634 - Siege of Damascus (All Facts)

• Battle in which Khalid ibn-al Walid and the Rashidun Caliphate defeated and took control of the namesake city in Syria, the first major city in Byzantine Syria to fall to the Arab Muslims

636 - Battle of the Yarmuk (All Facts)

• Battle in which Khalid ibn-al Walid and the Rashidun Caliphate defeated the Byzantines decisively, taking Damascus and eventually all of Syria

• Battle which decisively ended the 700+ year Roman / Byzantine rule over and occupation of Syria

• Battle which heralded the rapid spread of Islam into Christian Syria

• Battle which took place on the namesake river east of the sea of Galilee

637 - Battle of al-Qadisiyyah (All Facts)

• Battle in which Khalid ibn-al Walid and the Rashidun Caliphate defeated the Sassanids

637 - Siege of Ctesiphon (All Facts)

• Battle in which Khalid ibn-al Walid and the Rashidun Caliphate captured the namesake Sassanid city, upon which, after putting the Sassanid armies to flight

  • Took its sumptuous royal palace

    • Pillaged its treasures

    • Cut up its famous jeweled carpets

    • Adorned it so that each of the Bedouin victors could be given a share

636 - 638 - First Muslim Conquest of Jerusalem (All Facts)

• Event in which Abu Ubayda and the Rashidun Caliphate defeated and took control of the namesake city during the reign of Umar

Conquest of Caesarea Maritima (634–641)

• Event in which the Muslim Arabs of the Rashidun Caliphate under Umar defeated the Byzantines and took control of the namesake coastal city

• Event in which, after it, all resistance to the Muslim invaders in Syria and Palestine ceased

641 - First Battle of Dongola (All Facts)

• Battle in which the Rashidun Caliphate was defeated by the Nubian-Christian Kingdom of Makuria, the first defeat of the Rashidun Caliphate despite outnumbering their Makurian opponents

641 - Siege of Alexandria (All Facts)

• Battle in which the Muslims Arabs of the Rashidun Caliphate under Umar defeated the Byzantines and took control of the namesake Byzantine Egyptian city - the great metropolis of Byzantine Egypt and center of Greek culture, thus marking the claim of the Muslim conquests after Mohammed’s death

• Battle which contributing to the eventual end of Byzantine maritime control and economic dominance of the Eastern Mediterranean, thus it continued to shift geopolitical power further in favor of the Rashidun Caliphate

639 - 642 - Muslim Conquest of Egypt (All Facts)

• Event in which Amr ibn al-As and the Rashidun Caliphate defeated and took control of the namesake Byzantine region during the reign of Umar

• Event which decisively ended the 700+ year Roman / Byzantine rule over and occupation of the namesake region

• Event which had gone through despite the opposition to it by Umar

• Along with Alexandria, the fortress of Babylon was also taken

• Event in which the locals in the namesake region saw the Muslim conquerors as liberators from Byzantine persecution of the Coptic Church in the region

  • While not actively assisting the Muslims, they offered the Byzantines little support

642 - Battle of Nahavand (All Facts)

• Battle in which Khalid ibn al-Walid and the Islamic Rashidun Caliphate defeated Yazdegerd III and the Sassanids during the reign of Umar

• Battle which marked the end of the Sassanid Empire and its territory being controlled by the Arab Muslims

652 - Second Battle of Dongola (All Facts)

• Battle in which the Rashidun Caliphate was defeated by the Nubian-Christian Kingdom of Makuria, ending Arab Muslim expansion into Nubia and establishing trade and historic peace between Muslims and Christians in the region, allowing Makuria to grow into a dominant regional power until the 1100s

• Despite their victory, after the battle, the Makurians were forced to pay an annual tribute of 400 slaves to the Rashidun Caliphate

639 - 709 - Muslim Conquest of the Maghreb (All Facts)

• Series of conquests in which the Arab Muslims of the Rashidun and Umayyad Caliphates invaded, defeated, and took control of North Africa from the Byzantine Empire

  • 639 - Amr ibn al-As and the Rashidun Caliphate invaded, defeated, and controlled Alexandria and Egypt

  • 642 - The Arab Muslims conquered the former Byzantine province of Cyrenaica, west of Egypt and the city of Tripoli

  • 647 - Launched a raid into the Byzantine province of Africa (Tunisia), killing their usurper Gregory and effectively ending the African rebellion against Constans II of the Byzantine Empire

    • The Byzantines offered the Arabs a ransom not to continue with their invasion of North Africa and they accepted knowing they had little knowledge of the land

  • 665 - Carried out a reconnaissance raid against the towns of northern Tunisia in order to get a better knowledge of the land which they had by that point and used it to organize a proper conquest of North Africa

  • 670 - By this point, the Arab Muslims had completed their conquest of the region they called “Ifriqiyah,” which roughly covered the coast of North Africa from Egypt to Eastern Algeria

    • By this point, the Islamic Empire stretched from Kairouan in the Tunisian desert to Kabul in Afghanistan

  • 678 - Uqba ibn Nafi and his Arab Muslim armies swept across North Africa to the Atlantic, in which Nafi spurred his horse into the ocean’s waves

  • 698 - The Umayyad Caliphate took Carthage, ending Byzantine rule in North Africa

655 - Battle of the Masts (All Facts)

• Battle in which Abu al-Awar and the Rashidun Caliphate, under the direction of Muawiya, defeated Constans II and the Byzantines which solidified the Arab Muslim control and command by sea of the Eastern Mediterranean

• Battle which took place off the coast of Lycia

656 - 661 - First Fitna (All Facts)

• First Islamic Civil War fought between the Rashidun Caliphate and its major political rivals at the time including the up and coming Umayyad Caliphate (which won the war) and the Kharijites

656 - Battle of Basra / Battle of the Camel (All Facts)

• Battle in which Ali’s forces defeated rebels against him who disputed his succession as caliph

657 - Battle of Siffin (All Facts)

• Battle in which Muawiya and his Umayyad Muslim factions defeated Ali and his Rashidun Muslim factions, ending in a truce

• Battle which saw Muawiya’s Syrian troops attack copies of the Quran to the ends of their spears in a reluctant and symbolic attack on Ali and his forces

• Battle which began because of Muawiya’s insistence that Ali hand over the assassins of Caliph Uthman, but after which both sides agreed to arbitration instead

• Battle which thus ended the long stalemate between the two Muslim factions led by Muawiya and Caliph Ali

658 - Battle of Nahrawan (All Facts)

• Battle in which the Kharijites rebelled against Caliph Ali after his un-Quranic decision, according to the Kharijites, of negotiating with rather than continuing to fight against Muawiya in the Battle of Siffin

• Battle in which Ali attacked them, which triggered their desire to assassinate him in return in Kufa

  • Battle which has been Ali’s attempt to punish the Kharijites for the way they had turned against him

  • They had turned against him because he had chosen arbitration in preference to fighting on against Muawiya

674 - 678 - Siege of Constantinople (All Facts)

• Series of battles in which the Muslim Arabs of the Umayyad Caliphate failed to defeat the Byzantines in their empire’s namesake capital city due to a violent storm which destroyed the Arab fleet and put an end to their harassment of the city

• Series of battles which culminated in a peace treaty between the Muslims Arabs of the Umayyad Caliphate and the Byzantines

680 - 692 - Second Fitna (All Facts)

• Second Islamic Civil War fought between the Umayyad Caliphate and its three major political rivals including Husayn ibn-Ali and the Shia, Abdullah ibn-Zubayr and his Zubayrid Caliphate and the Qais tribe of Syria, and the Kharijites in which it worked to defeat all three rivals over the course of the war

680 - Battle of Karbala (All Facts)

• Battle in which Yazid and the (Sunni) Umayyad Caliphate defeated Husayn ibn-Ali and his 70 Shia forces

• Battle in which the Sunni-Shia divide within Islam emerged

• Battle in which Husayn ibn-Ali is killed and became a martyr for Shia Islam

  • Before he could reach Kufa, ibn-Ali was killed after having been confronted by its governor ibn-Ziyad who defeated him with a large force

684 - Battle of Marj Rahit (All Facts)

• Battle in which the Umayyad Caliphate ultimately defeated the usurper Abdullah ibn al-Zubayr and his Zubayrid Caliphate during the Second Fitna

690 - 691 - Battle of Maskin (All Facts)

• Battle in which Abd al-Malik and the Umayyad Caliphate defeated Mus'ab ibn al-Zubayr and the Zubayrid Caliphate during the Second Fitna

692 - Siege of Mecca (All Facts)

• Battle in which Abd al-Malik via his general Al-Hajjaj ibn-Yusuf and his Umayyad Caliphate forces definitively defeated Abdullah ibn al-Zubayr and his Zubayrid Caliphate forces, thus ending the Second Fitna

• Battle in which the namesake city is defeated and captured, allowing Abd al-Malik to once again become sole master caliph of the Umayyad Empire

693 - Battle of Sebastopolis (All Facts)

• Battle in which the Umayyad Caliphate defeated the Byzantines after they broke their previous treaty with the Caliphate

• Battle in which the Umayyad Caliphate took control of Armenia from the Byzantine Empire

698 - Battle of Carthage (All Facts)

• Battle in which the Umayyad Caliphate captures the namesake North African city, ending Byzantine rule in North Africa

698 - Battle of Meskiana (All Facts)

• Battle in which Hassan ibn al-Nu'man and the Umayyad Caliphate were defeated by Al-Kahina and the Berbers in retaliation of the Umayyad Caliphate’s invasion of North Africa

711 - Battle of Guadalete (All Facts)

• Battle in which Tariq ibn Ziyad and a small expeditionary force of the Umayyad Caliphate crossed the Straits of Gibraltar and defeated Roderic and the Visigoths on the namesake river

• Battle in which much of Spain was given over to the Umayyad Caliphate as a result

718 - 719 - Siege of Constantinople (All Facts)

• Battle in which the Arab Muslims were defeated by Leo III and the Byzantine Empire due to the naval superiority of the Byzantines

• Battle which blocked further Arab Muslim expansion into the Byzantine Empire

• Battle in which an Arab Muslim army of 80K men and fleet of 1,800 ships besieged the namesake capital of the Byzantine Empire after moving into Syria and Anatolia

• 12 miles of the namesake city’s walls helped foil the Arab Muslim’s intent on seizing the “city of the world’s desire”

721 - Battle of Toulouse (All Facts)

• Battle in which al-Sanh ibn Malik and the Umayyad Caliphate were defeated by Duke Odo the Great and the Franks, preventing an Arab Muslim invasion of Gaul

722 - Battle of Covadonga (All Facts)

• Battle in which the Arab Muslims of the Umayyad Caliphate were defeated by Pelagius and the Visigoths, who had rebelled against them, in Visigothic Spain, marking the start of the Spanish Reconquest of Spain from the Umayyad Caliphate and the founding of the tiny independent Christian kingdom of the Asturias in northern Spain by Pelagius

722 - Battle of Tours (All Facts)

• Battle in which Abd al-Rahman and the Umayyad Caliphate were defeated by Charles Martel and the Franks, essentially preventing further Arab Muslim invasions into Europe

• Battle in which the Arab Muslims cried “paradise lies in the shadow of the sword”

740 - Battle of Akroinon (All Facts)

• Battle in which the Umayyad Caliphate was defeated by the Byzantines, successfully defending Anatolia from the Arab Muslims

740 - 743 - Zaydi Revolts (All Facts)

• Series of failed revolts initially led by Zayd ibn Ali and later his son and successor Yahya ibn Zayd against the Umayyad Caliphate in attempt to restore the Rashidun Caliphate of his ibn-Ali’s great grandfather Caliph Ali of the Rashidun Caliphate

  • Members of the Alids, they tried and failed to topple Umayyad power

740 - 743 - Berber Revolt / Kharijite Revolt (All Facts)

• Series of suppressed revolts by the two namesake groups against the Umayyad Caliphate

744 - 750 - Third Fitna (All Facts)

• Series of civil wars and uprisings against the Umayyad Caliphate including

  • The Abbasid Revolution

747 - 750 - Abbasid Revolution (All Facts)

• Overthrow of the Umayyad Caliphate, the second of the four major caliphates in Islamic history, by the namesake Caliphate, the third of the four major caliphates in Islamic history

  • The namesake armies overran Mesopotamia and defeated the Umayyad Caliphate, killing the last Umayyad Caliph

  • Although they appealed to the Shia Alids for support, their leader, al-Saffah announced it was the namesake branch of the Great Prophet Mohammed’s family, descended from the Great Prophet Mohammed’s namesake uncle, that would rule the Islamic World thereafter

    • This duping of the Shia Alids would come to be a source of trouble for the namesake caliphate later on when the Shia Fatimid Dynasty was established which would rival the Abbasid Caliphate

• Revolution which saw Al-Saffah and his armies having

  • Swept west, obliterating members of the Umayyad family wherever they had found them

  • Dug up the bodies of the Umayyad caliphs and publicly flogged their remains before scattering their bones back into the earth

  • Gruesomely invited the remaining male members of the Umayyad families that survived to a dinner party, where he had them massacred and then feasted over their corpses

• Originated in the eastern province of Khorasan, in Persia (in modern-day Iran) fueled by widespread discontent with Umayyad rule in which the namesake Caliphate capitalized on various grievances against the Umayyads including

  • Discrimination against non-Arabs

  • Heavy taxation

  • Perceived impiety of Umayyad rulers

• Revolt which began because many had felt that true Islam could only be restored when the family of the Great Prophet Mohammed held the reins of power again

  • After all, the Umayyad’s ancestors were the most bitter enemies of the Great Prophet Mohammed

• Revolt in which Abu Muslim and the namesake group urged the people of Khorasan to march west and overthrow the Umayyad caliphs

  • Cleverly, the namesake group urged the people of Khorasan to do this in the name of the “Family of the [Great] Prophet” in order to win support from the Alids

750 - Battle of the Zab (All Facts)

• Battle in which Al-Saffah and the Abbasids defeated Marwan II and the Umayyads

• Battle in which the Umayyad Caliphate ended and the Abbasid Caliphate begun

• Battle which took place in Syria

751 - Battle of Talas (All Facts)

• Battle in which the Abbasid Caliphate defeated the Tang Chinese on the namesake river

• Battle which allowed the Abbasid Caliphate to expand Islamic influence into Central Asia

• Battle which occurred after the Tang Chinese occupied Tashkent, Samarkand, and Bokhara

• Battle in which, famously, two Tang Chinese POWs revealed to their Arab captors how to make paper, which contributed to the Islamic Golden Age experienced during the Abbasid Caliphate as a result of this battle

752 - 759 - Siege of Narbonne (All Facts)

• 7-year Battle in which the Umayyad Caliphate was defeated by Pepin the Short and the Franks, who defended the namesake city from being taken by the Arab Muslims

  • Following the battle, they retook control of Septimania from the Umayyad Caliphate as well

755 - Sunpadh Rebellion (All Facts)

• Failed revolt by the Zoroastrians in Khorasan against the Abbasid Caliphate for their assassination of Abu Muslim

• Revolt in which the Abbasids defeated Abu Muslim’s supporters following his assassination by the Abbasid Caliphate

762 - 763 - Alid Revolt / Revolt of Mohammed the Pure Soul (All Facts)

• Revolt of the Shia against the Abbasid Caliphate in Mesopotamia and at Medina in Arabia

778 - Siege of Zaragoza (All Facts)

• Battle in which Umayyad Emirate of Cordoba defeated Charlemagne and the Carolingian Empire

786 - 1258 - Islamic Golden Age (All Facts)

• Period of scientific, economic, and cultural flourishing in the Islamic World during the Abbasid Caliphate

• Period during which the Abbasids

  • 760 - Adopted the Indian system of numerals

786 - Battle of Fakhkh (All Facts)

• Battle in which the Abbasid Caliphate defeated the Alids, who revolted against them

• Idris was a part of this battle, but after it failed, he fled in disguise to Egypt and further on to Morocco

811 - 837 - Fourth Fitna (All Facts)

• Series of conflicts involving the succession crisis that involved the brothers al-Amin and al-Mamun who vied for the throne

812 - 813 - Siege of Baghdad (All Facts)

• Battle in which al-Mamun and his forces defeated al-Amin and his forces during the Fourth Fitna

• Al-Amin fled from the namesake city and died while fleeing, allowing his brother al-Mamun to become the next caliph

827 - 902 - Muslim Conquest of Sicily (All Facts)

• Series of conflicts in which the Arab Muslims eventually took control of the namesake region in the Mediterranean from the Byzantine Empire

  • 831 - Arab Muslims captured Palermo, which dealt a major blow to Byzantine prestige

  • 902 - Aghlabids of Ifriqiyah captured Taormina and complete their conquest of Sicily from the Byzantine Empire

• Once conquered, it provided a base from which the Arab Muslims could spread through to rest of the Mediterranean

827 - 828 - Siege of Syracuse (All Facts)

• Battle in which Asad ibn al-Furat and the Aghlabids try and fail to take the namesake province in Sicily from the Byzantine Empire during the reign of Ziyadat Allah

838 - Siege of Amorium (All Facts)

• Battle in which Al-Mutasim and the Abbasid Caliphate defeated Theophilos and the Byzantine Empire, in which the namesake city in Anatolia was taken by the Arab Muslims from the Byzantines

• The Arab Muslims celebrated their victory in this battle in poetry and stories

849 - Battle of Ostia (All Facts)

• Battle in which the Arab Muslims were defeated by a fleet of Italian ships, some of which were papal (a part of the Papal States)

869 - 883 - Zanj Rebellion (All Facts)

902 - Siege of Taormina (All Facts)

• Battle in which the Aghlabids of Ifriqiyah (Tunisia) completed the Arab Muslim conquest of Sicily from the Byzantine Empire

904 - Siege of Thessalonica (All Facts)

• Battle in which the Abbasid Caliphate defeated the Byzantine Empire and took the namesake city for themselves, ravaging it before withdrawing

930 - Sack of Mecca (All Facts)

• Battle in which Hamdan Qarmat and the Qarmatians sacked the namesake city amidst the rituals of the Hajj pilgrimage at the heartland of the Abbasid Caliphate

968 - 969 - Siege of Antioch (All Facts)

• Battle in which the Byzantine Empire took back the namesake city of northern Syria from the Arabs, ending 300 years of Arab rule over the city and reincorporating it under Christian rule

982 - Battle of Stilo (All Facts)

• Battle in which Fatimid Caliphate, who had called a Holy War against the Germans, defeated Otto II and the Germans