The Journey to al-Andalus - The Muslim Conquest of North Africa - WOTW EP 2

[Music] welcome back to flashpoint history's war of the worlds this is episode two the journey to al-andalus in our last episode we left off with the rise of islam in arabia and then its expansion through persia the levant in syria this episode we're going to get into the arabic conquest of north africa which brings us to our theme song the music that you're listening to is a guitar tutorial of the zeppelin song cashmere whose author has graciously given me permission to air his work jimmy page and robert plant initially wrote this song in 1973 while traversing a road through the deserts of north africa they were on their way to a musical tour in southern morocco and the length of the song and the lyrics were meant to signify the long difficult journey that they had to endure i figured it'd be the perfect song for our talk but aside from that and more importantly i happen to be a huge zeppelin fan before i get started there's some people i'd really like to thank first i'd like to mention the musician andy who created this guitar tutorial and allowed me to use his work andy is not only amazing with the guitar but he has a channel on youtube where he is dedicated to teaching other people how to play called shut up and play guitar tutorials or you can visit him on his website at www.shutupandplay.ca that information by the way is gonna be in the description of the podcast below there's also two individuals who have helped me tremendously with my arabic pronunciation first a friend and colleague by the name of isaac and second a man by the name of arslan who has gone so far has to actually send me a voice recording of nearly every main character that we're going to be talking about finally i'd like to thank the fans who have continued to listen to the series and those who have begun to contribute on patreon remember every cent goes right back into the show folks i can't thank you enough when you look back at history you're going to notice that it's full of turning points or if you're a fan of malcolm gladwell you can also consider them tipping points there are times when a movement or trend reaches that oh so critical threshold and from that point onward gains a firm foothold on establishing itself and avoiding extinction that is whatever that event or movement is it's going to leave its mark in the history books there's tons of examples of this some examples develop over months or years and can change the way humans interact you know readily coming to mind as the iphone which by the way the history of the iphone is now a searchable item apple computers as it was once known was essentially a failing company and then steve jobs steps back in as ceo announces the device in 2007 and then whoosh apple as it is now known over the next couple of years becomes one of the most valued companies on the planet some turning points have profound political implications in 1863 the north wasn't doing very well in the american civil war but on july 3 robert e lee launches his disastrous pickets charge which leads to his defeat at gettysburg and the next day on july 4th general pemberton who was another southern general surrenders the fortress city of vicksburg to ulysses s grant thus giving lincoln a better shot of winning the 1864 election and thereby pursuing the war to a northern win other examples of turning points can be reduced down to mere moments june 4th 1942 at the battle of midway and near last ditch attack by dive bombers off the aircraft carrier uss enterprise managed to catch the japanese carrier task force in a rare moment when many of their planes and associated ordinance and fuel were spread out across their flight decks the american bombs that managed to hit sent off a chain reaction that sent several of those carriers to the bottom and after the big boom the japanese offensive capacity in the pacific was smashed they were predominantly on the defense for the rest of the second world war and eventually they had to surrender the early islamic conquest was no exception to this the movement the religion the community established by the prophet muhammad in the 7th century faced a number of near extinction events but the year 636 was in my humble opinion a major tipping point the arab armies were essentially fighting a two-front war against the largest superpowers on the block the byzantine in one corner and the persians in the other now to be fair their opponents had ravaged one another with extensive fighting over a long period of time they were not only beat up when the arab forces arrived they also had considerable political issues and infighting going on which definitively made the arab task easier however despite this both empires possessed a considerable offensive capacity and they were still dangerous they both had that coup de gras ability but 636 saw the decisive muslim victories at the battle of yarmouk against the byzantine and the battle of quad sia against the persians and from that point onward the muslim state for the most part carried the initiative however aside from just the military victories the arabs also started to transition into the formation of a more unified state with the beginnings of such things as a more centralized government standing armies and a bureaucracy which granted one doesn't always equate this with improvement you know whenever i think bureaucracy i think of my well spent time at the dmv waiting an hour or so to get that crucial sticker or stamp or something but as one of my favorite history teachers was very fond of saying bureaucracy is a critical step in the development of any civilization it's up there with like having a writing system and or having the ability to provide for the common defense now one of the men that was most responsible for the stabilization slash overhaul of the early government was the second rashidun caliph umar ibn al-qatab was a senior companion of the prophet being a companion meant that you had been alongside the prophet at some point you had traveled wherever he traveled you saw whatever he saw you ate whatever he ate and you fought whoever he fought it carried a great deal of significance you were an esteemed person in the eyes of the uma which is the muslim community he succeeded the first rashuduan caliph abu bakr on august 23rd 634 umar was a man that was more feared than loved but you know he had this amazing capacity to get the job done he had that kind of truman-esque you know the buck stops here ideology and i'm pretty sure that if machiavelli was around he probably would have given this guy a like on his facebook page the man was fierce and committed he established a more centralized government he divided up the territory into provinces each run by a governor known as a walai and then he subdivided these into districts each run by an emir now of all the items that he did from a political standpoint this is the part that i really like and i personally think that all politicians throughout history up to and including the present should follow this example he made it a rule that none of the people that were appointed to any civil administrational role were allowed to engage in any type of business dealings in order to avoid any type of conflicts of interest bravo he also had a couple of very interesting things to say to his governors and tell me what you think of this quote remember i have not appointed you as commanders and tyrants over the people i have sent you as a leader instead so that the people may follow your example give the muslims their rights do not praise them unduly as they fall into the era of conceit do not keep your doors shut in their faces lest the more powerful of them eat up the weaker ones and do not behave as if you were superior to them for that is tyranny end quote you kind of get the sense that umar was somebody that was very serious when it came to any items of public administration get a load of this he established a department of investigation for complaints against the officers of the state thus making the governors and administrators that worked underneath him accountable for their actions and this going on during a time period where most of europe was either a bunch of warlords or barbarians that were trying to kill one another he created a public ministry to maintain official records it was under his rule that there was the establishment of a police force to bring order to the people and then there were even garrison cities built to provide for the common defense you know the man had this kind of eye for the bread and butter needs of his people but the list of his accomplishments you know just from a domestic standpoint continues he began a census he started a series of public works to build canals and mosques he had resettlement of jewish and christian populations including to the city of jerusalem but he did it in a tolerant fashion now of course it wasn't all about domestic needs he also established the army as a department of the state and there was going to be a shift in how the arabian armies were going to be led up until this point you had kind of an alexander the great approach where the leader would be at the head of the army as it went into battle umar and to some extent his predecessor abu bakr on the other hand began to lead armies from a centralized headquarters and it made sense to do this because the muslims were now fighting on multiple fronts you needed someone to push pieces around on a map rather than be on a single front at any given time for anyone who's ever seen that movie dr strangelove with the circa 1960s war room you're gonna get an idea of what was going on so from a military perspective umar had to lead on multiple fronts simultaneously it was on his watch that the nascent islamic state dealt with that very critical year of 636 as i had just mentioned it was this year that served as a turning point or at least one of the major turning points for the arabian conquest 636 was the year that the byzantine and persians got serious in fighting back they had both suffered a string of just stunning defeats at the hands of abel arabian commanders and finally after facing what could only be sheer humiliation these two empires were serious enough to make an alliance they had to shake hands and make up quickly both of them raised massive armies with the intent to teach medina a lesson however they couldn't quite get their timing right they went in on the offensive several months apart the byzantines went in first and got hammered at the battle of yarmouk which i covered in my last episode and then the persians went in and were defeated at the battle of quad sia where they were beaten by many of the yarmouk veterans who were simply given enough time to rest refit and then transfer to the persian front after 6 36 the arabs really had a good momentum going and umar immediately had them fighting in several different directions now for the purposes of this podcast we were interested in what was going on on the western front meaning north africa but i think it would be a miss if we don't at least a little bit talk about persia so bear with me as we take a bit of a detour so the conquest of the persian empire actually began a little earlier in 633 when muslim forces went into lower mesopotamia and captured it however capturing the persian heartland truly began in 636 after the persian army was defeated at quartasia the battle of quadcia is one of these dramatic multi-day battles where you don't really know if much of the facts are actually facts or if it's some sort of possible propaganda it's an engagement where a massively outnumbered muslim force managed to hold the line and then press the offensive at the last second it said that on the last day of this fight a mighty sandstorm assaulted the persian position at which point the persian leader whose name is just awesome rostem farooq died and then his army just basically fell apart you see what i'm saying this is the type of battle that people later write like poetry and operas about but with this victory the arabs were able to move in and take the provincial capital city of sestephon a year later in 637 the persians were not the type of people to take something like this lying down four years later they counter attacked in 641 but failed to make any serious gains and eventually they were defeated and turned back at a place called nahavand now what's a caliph to do with an empire that just won't take defeat easily well umar decided to bring an end to this front once and for all by planning a full-scale invasion he began making his preparations in 641 shortly after the persian offensive was stopped and he did a lot of very impressive things first he chose very gifted commanders who in turn picked very gifted subcommanders because after all the early islamic army was based on meritocracy second he employed a policy where he was giving tactical command to the generals that were actually in the field this was the same exact policy that the german vermont actually used in the second world war it was the idea that the caliph who was all the way back in medina would give out the command that a certain region or city needs to be taken but it was the general on the ground with his troops that would decide how that objective would be done and third and you'd think that any army would naturally do this but it's surprising how many times this was overlooked by the armies of the roman and early middle ages era umar was big on gathering intelligence he sent in recon parties ahead of the main force to bring back information about the terrain the location of forts and cities so that he and his commanders could come up with a concerted overall plan this invasion was going to happen on a relative timetable and that's how sophisticated the muslims were getting so the plan that they came up with was well it was one that didn't mess around they weren't going to go for a skirmish or to take out a weapons depot or some side garrison instead they went straight into the heart of enemy territory a force was deployed across the zagros mountains to take out the very center of persia which at the time was the city of isfahan this was a vital city in the defense system of the country you know if you looked at it on a map it's one of those where all the roads led into and out of it so taking it out would sever communications and divide the rest of persia into manageable chunks it was the classic divide and conquer to make a long story short the arabs were extremely successful with this indeed they took the city and also managed to capture the southern portion of persia known as fars at the same time the country was divided and so they pressed the offensive they went after azerbaijan in the northwest and finally coruscant in the northeast and coruscant being the second largest province of persia was also the final stronghold of the emperor yazdagar the third the astragard and his forces fought courageously to give you an idea how long he managed to drag out this fight the start of the invasion began in 642 his last army was defeated at the battle of ox's river in 651 yazdagerd had to flee into asia and essentially became a fugitive he continued to organize resistance and uprisings which led to a few rebellions but by 651 his crusade to retake his country came to a close outside the city of merv his death was well it was unbefitting for an emperor in his book the great arab conquest hugh kennedy who is a professor of islamic studies at oxford and someone who i think is an exceptional scholar on the subject comments on yazdegard's death this account takes place shortly after the battle of ox's river in 651 the emperor or as kennedy refers to him as the king is now reduced to wandering alone in the wilderness on the outskirts of the city his army destroyed and he's he's essentially begging for food from one of the local millers quote the king replied i am one of the persians who fled from the army of the tehran meaning the turks the miller said in his confusion i have never known anything but poverty but if you could eat some of the barley bread and some of the common herbs which grow on the riverbank i'll bring them to you and anything else i can find a poor man is always aware of how little he has in the three days that had passed since the battle the king had had no food he said bring whatever you have and a sacred bar some now just as a side note a barsoom is a bundle of twigs from the sacred heioma bush which are bound together and held by anybody reciting a zoroastrian grace prior to a meal but it's it's usually a reserve for aristocracy so it's a little unusual for somebody that's a vagrant to want this back to the story quote the man quickly brought a basket of barley bread and herbs and then hurried off to find a bar some at the river there he met up with the head man of zarc which is the local province and asked him for a barsoom the headman who was actively searching for the king because the king was basically a wanted man at this point said now my man who is it that wants a barsom the miller answered him there's a warrior on the straw in my mill he's as tall as a cypress tree his face as glorious as the sun his eyebrows however are like a bow his eyes sad like a narcissy his mouth is filled with size his forehead with frowns it is he who wants the barsoom to pray the headman dooley sent the miller on to mojoy who was the local leader who ordered him to return to the mill and kill the king threatening that he himself would be executed if he did not the reluctant miller returned and did as he was told stabbing the king with a dagger mojoy's henchmen soon appeared and stripping off the insignia of royalty through the body into the river end quote this is probably the nicer version of the story in other variants you have the miller finding the king sitting on a rock or something he tries to mug him but ends up killing him in the process and then steals his wallet for good measure no matter which way you look at it with yazdagurt's death the sassanid dynasty came to an end now of all the lands that the arabs had taken persia was very reticent to accept them and this had a lot to do with the fact that it was an ancient and proud culture that had a certain degree of sophistication that the arabs just didn't possess so there was a very slow conversion to islam zoroastrianism to a greater extent persisted and it wasn't well until the 10th century that there was a majority of muslims even the language remained middle persian or palavi for a considerable amount of time in fact even to this day the modern language which is farsi is very distinct from arabic but the arabs seem to gain quite a bit from the persian culture there's a great quote by a sir muhammad iqbal who was a late 19th early 20th century poet and academic and thinker and writer this was a man that was actually knighted by king george v and in his book stray reflections he states and i quote if you ask me what is the most important event in the history of islam i shall say without any hesitation the conquest of persia the battle of nihawan gave the arabs not only a beautiful country but also an ancient civilization or more appropriately a people who could make a new civilization with the semitic and aryan material our muslim civilization is a product of the cross-fertilization of the semitic and the aryan ideas it is a child who inherits the softness and refinement of his aryan mother and the sterling character of his semitic father but for the conquest of persia the civilization of islam would have been one-sided the conquest of persia gave to us what the conquest of greece gave to the romans end quote sir muhammad iqbal i get the impression is one of those glass half-full people you'd like to see the bright side of things in what was otherwise a military conquest but there are others out there that have other opinions bernard lewis in his book iran and history makes a good point quote the arab muslim conquests have been variously seen in iran by some as a blessing the advent of the true faith the end of the age of ignorance and a heathenism but by others as a humiliating national defeat the conquest and subjugation of the country by foreign invaders both perceptions are of course valid depending on one's angle iran was indeed islamicized but it was not arabicized persians remained persians and after an interval of silence iran re-emerged as a separate different and distinct element within islam eventually adding a new element even to islam itself culturally politically and most remarkably of all even religiously the iranian contribution of this new islamic civilization is of immense importance the work of iranians can be seen in every field of cultural endeavor in a sense iranian islam is a second advent of islam itself a new islam sometimes referred to as islami ajam it was this persian islam rather than the original that was brought to new areas and new peoples to the turks in central asia and then into the middle east to turkey and of course to india end quote as you can imagine persia was going to be an ongoing project but by the year 750 the eastern border of the caliphate would firmly be extended all the way to the indus river valley but as this was going on fighting was occurring on other fronts as i had mentioned before as the rashidun caliphate continued he didn't have the caliph leading the armies into confrontations himself but rather he had him sitting back in like medina in an armchair surrounded by advisors and coming up with a grand plan for multiple fronts at the same time you can almost imagine umar having his subordinates relaying to him the location of all of his forces and then some underlying using like a stick or something to move pieces around on a grand map that was laid out on a table in the main headquarters if there was a way somehow that you could see this map you would see that persia was collapsing slowly its armies being pushed further east not to mention that the war on the northern front the byzantine front was going really well the byzantine empire had pulled back from syria and had been fought to relative submission and the taurus mountains were going to serve as the boundary now between the two empires this northern front however was going to be an active front the arabs would launch raids into anatolia of varying degrees some of these attacks would be insanely lucrative and some would make it even as far as constantinople this all goes back to that klingon proverb that war is more fun when you're winning so as the other fronts were doing well the path was definitively clear for the armies of arabia to move west into byzantine held north africa where the focus of our tale dear listener lies the expansion into north africa was something that the romans were neither expecting or prepared for their emperor heraclius was told repeatedly by his generals that north africa wouldn't be touched forget about it egypt is in our pocket i can almost see them in the byzantine war room also equipped with a map and little pieces on it as well perhaps some other little underling with a stick pushing the pieces around and all of heraclius's advisors pointing out on that map that the arabian armies were only poised for the attack on persia in fact the statement that was going viral in the upper echelon in constantinople was it would take a whole generation to subdue the persians so when a muslim force entered egypt in 639 a mere year after jerusalem fell it came as well a bit of a surprise byzantine north africa was a house that was ready to fall constantinople's control over her province had been weakened repeatedly a plague had broken out in 541 egypt had been invaded and then occupied by a persian army in 617 and was only returned to byzantine rule in 629 by diplomatic negotiation and keep in mind that this is only 10 years before arabian army started moving in but there was also considerable animosity in the population due to the harsh control the high taxes and because of religious differences many christians who held heretical beliefs of course i say that with quotes found refuge here but the romans who garrisoned the cities ruled with an iron hand attempting to force the population back into what they perceived as christian orthodoxy sometimes at the tip of the sword to many being invaded by another empire was almost welcome in late 639 it was perhaps december an army of 4 000 was sent in 4 000 is obviously not enough to capture egypt let alone all of north africa but it wasn't an ordinary force this was an elite force under the command of a really good general named amer ibn al-az omar and his 4 000 troops were like the second rangers battalion in the movie saving private ryan if you recall that great scene which in my opinion gets overlooked where after the initial fight for the beach the sergeant character is piling dirt into a tin can with the word france labeled on it and then he puts that into a bag with other tins labeled africa and italy to signify where this unit had been this was a force that was similar to that this arab force had been in multiple engagements and had stared their enemies down on several different battlefields after crossing into africa they advanced quickly and took the city of palusium which was considered at the time to be the eastern gate of egypt a month or so later in early 640 they had moved on to the city of bilbius which was near the nile and then moved south to lay siege to the old remains of heliopolis now 4 000 as i had mentioned does not a good invasion force make amer however being on top of his game began to ask for reinforcements but the caliph being wise back in his cush armchair in the central command bunker in medina you know again looking down at all the pieces on the map moving around had already sent them in the reinforcements that the caliph umar had ordered arrived in june of 640 and this happened just in the nick of time as the byzantine were busy building up an army that actually outnumbered the arabs the forces that arrived to back up armor were pretty impressive however not so much in terms of quantity but rather in quality these weren't simple raw green recruits or some poor schmucks that had just been drafted in fact quite the opposite the muslim army was strengthened to about 12 to 15 000 depending on which book you read and it included about 4 000 cracked syrian veterans who were brought in by another excellent general named zubair ibinar awam this was a man who was a veteran of the battle of yarmouk a member of the elite mobile guard that operated under the command of the impressive general who i raved about in my last episode khalid ibn al-waleed what this force lacked in number it made up for an expertise if you think about it it was like sending in the navy seals to back up the army rangers now going back for a second heliopolis was an old city when the arab conquest came through but it needed to be neutralized as it was strategically located at the head of the nile delta and so muslim troops were in the process of laying siege as the aforementioned larger byzantine army was dispatched to attack them many historians by the way criticized this move as the byzantine probably would have benefited more by staying behind one of their fortified cities but my guess is that they might have seen this smaller force and figured it was going to be easy pickings but as we have seen many times in history sometimes having simple numerical superiority is offset by many factors improved composition of one's army better leadership motivation and of course having an idiotic opponent readily come to mind and in this case the arabs had all of these advantages ahmer ibn al-az did something that went against military convention he divided his smaller force into three groups and you don't usually do this especially when you got a bigger force coming at you unless you absolutely know what you're doing and this is the plan that he came up with he took 500 horsemen and placed them in hiding in order to surprise the enemy rear after they had marched by he left the bulk of his army to attack the incoming force but then he did something kind of interesting he determined the best path that the enemy would take in retreat and deployed the remainder of his force to block this exit this implies that omar had already figured he was going to win and i questioned whether this was hubris or if he fully understood the potential of his men or perhaps he got a whiff of the incoming force and realized he was not exactly dealing with the best and the brightest as expected the romans fell for it and plowed right in having no idea what they were getting into or who they were going up against the confrontation went down like clockwork for amer at least his elite veterans made quick work of the enemy front line and then his cavalry emerged from hiding and surprised the enemy rear who after evacuating their bowels proceeded to panic and then flee right into the third force which was waiting in ambush this was going to be another bad day in the annals of byzantine history the casualties were staggering the battle of heliopolis wasn't going to be just a tactical victory but also a strategic one it removed all roman resistance in the field 20 000 soldiers killed minimum and to make things more interesting many of the oppressed natives who were not happy with byzantine rule including the monophysite christians and many others who were religiously persecuted rose up in rebellion the romans were forced to retreat to a fortress city called babylon which is not to be confused with the babylon of mesopotamia this was taken after prolonged siege in december 640 and then they had to run to their last bastion which was the city of alexandria the siege began in march of 641 and it was going to be another example of how things were going to go just right for the muslims and terrible for the byzantine emperor heraklius seeing the danger of losing his egyptian province assembled a huge relief army in constantinople and he was about to send it in and the defenders of the city were overjoyed they were resolute to hold on but then news reached them that heraclius of all people died and the army he was about to send in dispersed morale in egypt collapsed as the defenders learned that there was no one coming for help after six months of siege the arabs launched a direct assault that worked and thus in september of 641 alexandria fell just to emphasize this achievement this was an a-list city it wasn't a town in the midwest with a triple digit population whose claim to fame was like the world's largest frying pan or something this was alexandria alfred j butler in his book the arab invasion of egypt gives us an account of what it must have been like to be marching alongside that army quote the soldiers in that arab army must have seen beautiful cities in palestine like odessa damascus and jerusalem but nothing could have prepared them for the extraordinary magnificence of the city which now rose before them alexandria was even in the 7th century the finest city in the world with the possible exception of ancient carthage and rome beyond and above them gleamed domes impediments columns statues temples and palaces to the left the view was bounded by the lofty serapium with its gilded roofs and by the citadel on which diocletian's column stood conspicuous to the right the great cathedral of saint mark was seen and in the background stood that stupendous monument known as the pharos which was the lighthouse of alexandria which rightly ranked as one of the wonders of the world even these half barbarian warriors from the desert must have been strangely moved by the stateliness and the grandeur as well as by the size and strength of the city that they had come to conquer end quote egypt was now a definitive part of the caliphate the byzantine would try to come back and later invade in 645 and again in 654 both attempts didn't really work out very well the arabs brought with them a new way of life and a new religion that had a very unifying effect they had at least initially a better taxation system and if you were willing to convert to islam this would decrease your tax bracket even more the arab high command had some serious plans for egypt they were thinking very strategically on this one amar ibn al-az established a city near the nile delta he named it fustat which is arabic for the word tent which is exactly what this was it was initially just a tent city this was going to turn into a base of operation for further military expansion and the administrative capital of this new area oh and by the way if you can't find fustat on a map look for the city that it would eventually morph into it's now called cairo egypt was once the granary of rome and then constantinople and now it would be the same to medina the caliph was so anxious to secure these grain shipments that he went so far as to order a canal to connect the nile to the red sea armor also had a revolutionary idea he wanted to build another canal which would connect the mediterranean to the red sea but the caliph umar rejected him because he was worried that the byzantine would use her navy to go through the canal and then attack medina i guess sometimes great ideas are overlooked but don't worry the suez canal would eventually be built about well 1200 years later going back to the home front for a second a few years later in 644 on october 31st while leading morning prayers the second rashidun caliph umar was assassinated apparently he was stabbed six times in the belly by a persian slave and then a seventh time for good measure in the navel which was what eventually did him in he was succeeded by uthman ibn afan who was a companion of the prophet who then promptly became the third caliph of the rashidun caliphate uthman was a man who had inherited a great deal of wealth from his father he was at his core an excellent businessman and he was going to push the economic agenda he adjusted the commerce policies to more strongly favor trade which began to flourish and to the credit of the empire it benefited both muslim and non-muslim alike the middle class began to boom which is the hallmark of a healthy civilization he was also a big proponent of establishing a navy which began to be created in the newly acquired shipyards of alexandria the arabs began then raiding islands like cyprus and roads but the navy was really just a precursor to the bigger goal of attacking constantinople the arab navy learned how to fight really quickly they won their first major naval sea battle at a place called the battle of the masts in 655 which effectively opened up the mediterranean and challenged byzantine sea power it was also under uthman that the conquest of persia was completed and finally it was part of uthman's prerogative to promote further advances into north africa he wanted to go into the maghreb well what do we mean when we say the maghreb in arabic the word means west or sunset it was the term that was applied to lands that were west of egypt all the way to morocco hugh kennedy in his book the great arab conquest has an amazing description and it's a bit long so bear with me quote if you travel along the coast road it is over 2 000 kilometers from alexandria to carthage which was the capital of roman africa proconsularis and it's about 1500 more from there to the straits of gibraltar at a good regular traveling pace at 20 kilometers a day it would have taken almost half a year to make the journey the expedition would have taken you through many varied landscapes and environments on the eastern half of the journey you would have had to have kept close to the coast along the flatlands of the egyptian littoral in saranaca the mountains of the jabal akhtar the green mountain came down almost to the sea and attracted enough rainfall to allow permanent settlement pushing further west the traveler skirted the gulf of surte it was a long haul the desert comes down to the sea and for perhaps a month the traveler passed almost nothing in the way of orchards fields villages and towns not until tripolitania were settled lands once again reached west of tripoli the route led to the settled lands of what is now tunisia it was here that the wheat wine olives and pottery that constituted the main exports were produced and it was here that the cities and country towns were most numerous carthage at the northeast corner of africa pro proconsularis was the real capital not just of tunisia but of the whole of roman north africa the capital of hannibal and the ancient carthaginians had become the roman capital and survived as a major political center until late antiquity west of carthage the main route continues further inland along the high plateau on the coast there are little ports built around the mouth of wadi and sheltered anchorages eventually the traveler would reach the twin cities of suta and tangier fortified settlements which looked across the straits of gibraltar to spain rich and tempting end quote so the maghreb was essentially a massive melting pot of different cultures the indigenous people who had been there ever since before antiquity were referred to as the berber berber was derived from the latin barbari or the greek barbaros which means foreigner but would eventually imply barbarian but many civilizations had left their mark the carthaginians the romans the vandals when they came through and took carthage in 439 the byzantine when the great emperor justinian sent in an expedition in 533 to recapture it byzantine control at this point was very limited when the arabs made their appearance and most of north africa was in a great state of decline many cities were impoverished and in complete disarray the expansion into the maghreb wasn't exactly a continuous thing it happened in spurts and in several different subsequent invasions the early invasions were very limited in 642 a small muslim force entered in what was essentially a raid they arrived at the city of barca in libya which the byzantine forces abandoned and quickly took ship back to constantinople the berbers who were left there agreed to pay the arabs tribute with a bizarre treaty stipulation that they could sell their own children into slavery in order to pay for the tribute five years later in 647 a force of 20 000 marched out of medina and were then joined by another 20 000 in egypt this force made it all the way to tunisia where they met a force of defenders commanded by a former byzantine governor who was known to history as count gregory they fought in an area about 150 miles south of carthage which became known as the battle of sufa tula the army of the caliphate won again that day they seized enormous spoils and now with their pockets full of gold they quickly returned back to egypt in 648 again a big raid without any real attempt to settle in the area but then the move westward was stopped for 20 years the conquest came to a full hold because civil war broke out in the empire in 656 with the death of the caliph uthman the road that led up to the first muslim civil war was felt to be associated with the dissatisfaction with uthman ibn afan's governing policies the exact reasons are a little unclear some historians argued that it had to do with his more capitalistic approach you know that while he was trying to make arabia great again he had lost touch with the common man other historians reasoned that it was his more lenient style that allowed for previously suppressed animosities to arise between rival clans some attest and i like this reason the best was his policy to use only close associates and family members in high levels of government apparently nobody liked the idea of his nepotism no matter which way you looked at it the upper aristocracy began to withdraw their support and by 654 655 things had gotten so bad that he had to actively start looking into anti-government issues he went so far as to set up a meeting for anybody who wished to air their grievances but even despite this measure armed revolts began to break out and in several different areas including egypt where a coalition of protesters started to get up and march on medina the caliph seemed like he was a pretty reasonable guy his response was to promise to hear them out if they returned peacefully he must have made a good argument because he did manage to convince them to return but as the story goes as they were making their way back they intercepted an official courier who had a letter with the seal of the caliph commanding the governor of egypt to kill all protesters when they got back when uthman heard about the letter he strenuously denied that he ever wrote it i mean what else are you gonna do if you were in his shoes right but by now there was no way the rebels were gonna go back they immediately returned to medina found their way in and began to lay siege to uthman's house the siege began to draw out attempts at reconciliation failed and it was at this point that ali ibn abi talib stepped in ali was the son-in-law of the prophet muhammad this man sent in his own two sons to guard uthman he wanted to show his support yet despite this intervention angers began to flare the house was eventually stormed and on july 20th 656 uthman was killed ali ibna abi talib again the son-in-law of muhammad was quickly appointed the fourth caliph of the rashidun caliphate he was backed up by the shia faction of islam there were two main factions going on at this point the larger group was known as the sunni which held the view that muhammad never really appointed a successor but rather a caliph was to be appointed by the muslim community whereas the shia where we get the term shiite which was by the way the other faction believed that muhammad explicitly named ali to lead the shahaba which was the term given to muhammad's companions you know his entourage appointed ali to lead in 656 and this didn't go over very well many viewed ali as the major contributor to uthman's opposition indeed many of ali's supporters felt that uthman had aired in his ways and was thus rightfully brought down so even after ali was appointed caliph many did not support him and doubted his legitimacy to rule one particular group that was really upset were those from the lineage of uthman and his clan which was known as the umayya this was now led by the governor of syria who also happened to be uthman's cousin again you just gotta really love the nepotism here this was a man named mua via ibna abi sufayan mua via wanted vengeance against the rebels who had assassinated the prior leader and as we're about to see ali was just not able to accomplish this the first fitna which in arabic means trial was what the civil war was going to be labeled this started off with armed rebels who arose to exact vengeance for the murder of uthman ali was a conflicted man on one side he wanted to give these people the justice that they demanded but on the other side he didn't want to have any internecine violence he wanted to adhere to muhammad's main point that muslims should never fight one another so at this critical point he made the mistake of dithering which proved to his antagonist that he was unable to punish those who had killed the prior caliph this just added fuel to the fire so even more rose up against him including and this is always a bad sign muhammad's widow ayesha who also began to preach open rebellion against him she managed to gain the support of several of the companions and secured the backing of the umayya clan ali and his army eventually rode out to meet the rebels near basra in present-day iraq and though he wanted a peaceful settlement a fight ensued november 7th in the year 656 was the battle of the camel which is called this as ayesha attempted to flee the battlefield on a camel but of course you can't exactly mess with or kill for that matter any family member of the prophet so the camel was instead brought down by this kind of herculean effort ali won that day and put down the rebels but then he granted them amnesty ayasha was spared and sent back to medina but this was only a minor respite in the grand scheme of things and i get the impression that his leniency was interpreted by his enemies as weakness mua via ibna abi sufyan couldn't take it any longer he directly challenged ali for the position of caliph of course he didn't make this decision randomly he wasn't sitting at a dartboard and the dart hit the target which read we attacked today you ever heard that expression when someone retorts yeah you and what army well mua via had the largest army a hundred and twenty thousand strong if the records are to be believed the two men fought in 657 at the battle of safin ali's army of 80 000 which included many of the companions of muhammad met up with the army of mua via with a hundred and twenty thousand syrians and the support of amar ibn al-az who is now the governor of egypt ali managed to get the upper hand he inflicted 45 000 casualties while only taking about 25 000 of his own he was on the verge of winning at this point and then mua via played the psychological card he had his soldiers tie little qurans to the ends of their spears and when many of ali's soldiers after seeing the carnage and being completely horrified and of course if the account is to be credible when they saw the little korans they realized that they were attacking their own they had had enough and opted not to continue the fight edward gibbons the author of the decline and fall of the roman empire has his own account of what happened and see if you can figure out which man he liked more quote the caliph ali displayed a superior character of valor and humanity his troops were strictly enjoined to wait the first onset of the enemy to spare their fleeing brethren and to respect the bodies of the dead and the chastity of the female captives the ranks of the syrians were broken by the charge of the hero who was mounted on a horse and welded with irresistible force his ponderous and two-edged sword appalled by the carnage ali sent a message to mua via and challenged into single combat saying that whoever won should be caliph in given's words ali generously proposed to save the blood of the muslims by a single combat but his trembling rival declined the challenge as a sentence of inevitable death end quote according to the historical record ali gave at this point a speech which reminds me of abraham lincoln's incredible first inaugural address where lincoln states that in times of stress and civil war we must be guided by as he called it the better angels of our nature ali's speech which wasn't quite so eloquent went something like this quote the point of contention between us was the question of the murder of uthman it had created the split they wanted to lay the murder at my door while i'm actually innocent of it i advise them that this problem cannot be solved by excitement let the excitement subside let us cool down let us do away with sedition and revolt let the country settle down into a peaceful atmosphere and when once a stable regime is formed and the right authority is accepted then let this question be dealt with on the principles of equity and justice because only then the authority will have power enough to find the criminals and bring them to justice end quote the battleless of finn ended with both sides deciding an arbitration and in 659 the decision was reached that neither man should be caliph mua via who would still be the governor of syria and therefore really had nothing to lose accepted the decision however ali who would then no longer be caliph refused to accept the verdict and with this choice he lost a considerable amount of support indeed ali's most strenuous and militant supporters who felt that the arbitration was a violation of their loyalty broke off and formed a group known as the kharagits which in arabic meant those who leave were the outsiders ali now had to fight them as well as his opposition but in 659 he was able to defeat the kharagits at the battle of naruwan this group now had no choice but to go underground however a few years later in 661 this same underground resistance found ali while he was at the great mosque in the city of kufa and then proceeded to assassinate him at the death of ali mua via had the largest army under his control he held syria and with his alliance with amar ibn al-az he also controlled egypt thus he was in a prime position to move in on the lead role which he did very quickly mua via ibna abi sufyan was a smart guy his first move was to restore the peace he opened negotiations with hussaan who was the son of ali and hence the grandson of the prophet and as hussaan was militarily outnumbered he really had no choice but to accept the terms so in the same year 661 that ali died mua via was crowned caliph in jerusalem and since he was part of the umayya clan his ascension marked the beginning of what would be known as the umayyad dynasty now there were going to be a lot of changes under this man first he moved the capital up to damascus and then he instituted a military expansion with the creation of standing armies with modernized equipment of course he also encouraged peaceful coexistence and religious tolerance up to a certain point and it was under the umayyad dynasty that arabic would eventually become the language of administration overall however he became very unpopular as he went against his own vows and appointed his son yazid the first as successor and thus established his own dynasty but as an aside from here onwards the role of caliph would almost always be hereditary mua via was also a man that had an eye for conquest he pressed the offensive on the eastern front and managed to take the city of kabul in afghanistan in 664. he also was going to give the byzantine a hard time he commanded his son the aforementioned yazid the first to lay siege to constantinople which happened between 674 and 678 this attack by the way came both on land and by sea because the arabs now had an oppressive navy however the romans managed to drive them back the impressive walls of theodosis ii held off the ground assault and the sea offensive did much much worse because at this point the byzantine had developed a secret weapon known as greek fire which was essentially medieval napalm the arab navy in this encounter had no idea what hit them i can almost imagine my mind's eye the defenders of constantinople looking down after the battle seeing the charred barely recognizable remains of their enemies and saying you know there's nothing like the smell of greek fire in the morning it smells like victory the siege of constantinople was going to be one of the high water marks on the northern front but it's beginning to digress from the focus of our narrative this new caliph as i just mentioned was big into the whole expansion thing which included and of course this is most important as it actually is the focus of our talk a renewed offensive into the maghreb a new arab invasion was started in 665 which basically played out like a recon in force but then later an expedition in 670 was assembled and placed under the command of akba ibn nafi now i find this guy really interesting he had a bit of the alexander the great syndrome going with him in reading about him it felt like he had something to prove but this man was going to go the distance he pushed beyond libya into tunisia establishing in 670 the city of cairo wan just south of carthage and just to point this out the word kairuan it means camp but not in arabic but rather persian which gives a sense of how pervasive the persian culture was getting at this point this forward base became the administrative capital of central north africa and served as a jump point for further operations it was here that the great mosque of cairo won was built and then later named after akba and any place you have a great mosque implies that the arabs are here to stay after this the army of the caliph moved on past tunisia through algeria and onwards into morocco now here's the point where you need the dramatic music in 682 akba arrived at the atlantic ocean this process wasn't easy many local berber populations had to be suppressed the byzantine empire would send in forces from time to time just to make things more interesting but the arabs managed to hold their ground but this explains why it took them 12 years to make it this far now i'm curious if anybody's heard that line about alexander the great i think it might have been from plutarch and i might be misquoting this it was said that when he took in the breath of his domain he wept for there were no more lands for him to conquer akbar was going to have a similar though somewhat overly dramatic moment edward gibbons brings us home quote the fearless akbar plunged into the heart of the country traversed the wilderness and at length penetrated to the verge of the atlantic in the great desert the career though not the zeal of akbar was checked by the prospect of a boundless ocean he spurred his horse into the waves and raising his eyes to heaven exclaimed great god if my course were not stopped by the sea i would still go on to the unknown kingdoms of the west preaching the unity of the holy name and putting to the sword rebellious nations end quote the only thing akbar is missing is like a catch phrase however on his return trip to the homeland in 682 he and his army were ambushed at a place called vessera which in some sources is labeled biskra and this was an ambush by a combined byzantine and berber coalition he and his entire army were wiped out now speaking of the homeland while akbar was off cutting a path to the atlantic ocean back in 680 instability once again gripped the empire with the death of the caliph mua via he had done the very unpopular move of appointing his own son yazid the first as the next caliph many were opposed to this and didn't acknowledge his ascendancy especially the grandson of the prophet hussein who saw this as an opportunity to reclaim the lead yet as hussein ibn ali was moving out to gather his supporters in the early phases of what was going to be the second fitna the second civil war he and his immediate entourage of about 150 people were intercepted and then later surrounded by yazid's army in what was going to be known as the battle of karbala just to make it clear this really wasn't a battle at least not in my book you had the grandson of the prophet with his 150 people which part of that census according to the record at least was a six-month-old baby going up against a professional army of 10 to 15 000 some estimates as high as 30 000 this was a famous last stand akin to something more like thermopylae with the spartan 300 hussain ibn ali gave his men the option to leave under the cover of night but instead they all decided to stand and die together as far as the rules for civil wars go i think the take home message is that you never mess with the direct family of the prophet hussein's death galvanized many against the umayyads this hatred by the way was going to linger long beyond the second fitna it was seen now as the battle between right and wrong justice and truth against falsehood many refer to this conflict as the definitive break between shia and sunni islam the second fitna was a convoluted time period it basically burned its way through four caliphs i'm not going to get too deep into it as the records about it are not always consistent suffice it to say that it was a very destructive time period for the muslims to give you an example even sacred structures were not spared you had severe damage to the mosque of medina and even the kaaba in mecca was blemished the war finally came to an end with the fifth umayyad caliph abd al-malik ibn marwan who came to power in 685 and after seven years of a combination of military reconquest and bribery managed to restore the caliphate in 692 after his destructive siege of mecca abd al-malik ibn marwan after re-establishing power and becoming the fifth caliph of the umayyad dynasty did some pretty impressive things it was he who made arabic the administrative language of the land he created an islamic currency and postal service even repaired the kaaba and created a silk cover for it you know this after he got done bombarding it with catapults but arguably one of his most impressive creations was the establishment of the kwabat sakhra kwaba meaning dome and sakura meaning rock hence the dome of the rock was created under his watch which has served as an iconic landmark of jerusalem ever since now aside from the domestic improvements he of course at this point had complete control of the arabic armies and so in 694 he renewed the attack into north africa malik sent in a man by the name of hassan ibn with about 40 000 troops hassan was one of these type a personalities you know kind of a total go-getter he managed to blitz his way through regain control of central north africa and then he did something that was really quite impressive in 695 he managed to capture carthage you know i just can't speak enough about this place carthage was the home of a vast empire she was the repository of wealth and culture and learning she was a mighty city approximately 400 years old when the tiny city-state of rome was getting plundered and sacked by a bunch of gulls she was the birthplace of one of the greatest generals in history hannibal and she was refounded by another great general julius caesar there was a distinct mystique about the place by the 7th century she had fallen into disrepair shacks and huts now filled her circus maximus her harbor which was once a wonder of the world was essentially abandoned but despite this she still served as a vitally strategic spot so naturally as soon as hassan and his army had moved on the byzantine empire sent in a force and quickly retook it hassan now angered by roman boldness came back he assembled his forces in tunisia in the city of cairo 1 which if you think about it cairo 1 was a pretty impressive forward base at this point and proceeded to lay siege to carthage once again and in 698 the city was taken but now hassan had had enough and to quote cato carthago de lenda est carthage was destroyed again i was a little dismayed by all this carthage's destruction happened in the exact same standard method that one does when they get to this point you know you uproot all the structures you take out all their foundations you burn down everything else and then you sell the people into slavery and leave the area wilderness for at least 100 years i'd have to say you'd have to give the arabs an a for effort but a c plus for originality taking out carthage in this way it's been done so going back a second to hassan his biggest problem at this point wasn't the byzantine empire but rather the natives there was a massive berber uprising in numidia which is present-day algeria a sorceress at least that's what the arabs called her by the name of kahina united the local tribes and began to fight back edward gibbons picks up the story quote under the standard of their queen kahina the independent tribes acquired some degree of union and discipline and as the moors respected in their females the character of a prophetess they attacked the invaders meaning the arabs with an enthusiasm similar to their own the veteran bands of hassan were inadequate to the defense of africa the conquest of an age were lost in a single day and the arabian chief overwhelmed by the torrent retired to the confines of egypt end quote so yes you heard that right hassan got his butt kicked and was driven all the way back to egypt but being the type a personality that he was and being reinforced by the caliph in 702 he came back with a vengeance he targeted the berber queen he managed to find her and went on to defeat her and her army at the battle of tabarca unfortunately the caliph wasn't happy with hassan's lack of progress apparently getting caught with your pants down as a berber force wipes your army out and then allowing the byzantine to continue to attack north africa doesn't really bode well with the high command in 704 hassan was dismissed from command and replaced by a musa ibn nusayer remember this guy's name he was impressive from a military standpoint but definitely had a really dark streak about him this guy's exploits would become the source of legend musa ibn nussar was going to bring order to chaos he led an absolutely brutal campaign of conquest and it was said that during his offensives he managed to capture 300 000 people and sent them all back to the slave markets of egypt by 708 he had successfully taken morocco and had subjugated the city at tangier installing as governor a man named tariq ibn al-zaid he's going to be another one of those names to remember as he was going to be moussa's right-hand man in future endeavors by the year 709 most of north africa was now in arab hands trade began to expand and the cities of fustat karuwan and tangier became administrative centers for control even the berbers seeing which way the wind was blowing began to adopt the new religion and began signing up to join the arab army i guess if you can't beat them join them it was now that musa and tariq looked across a relatively narrow expanse of water a body that would one day be named the strait of gibraltar the shores of iberia lay beyond tempting inviting and rich it was here that an old kingdom was ready to fall spain was ripe for the taking well ladies and gentlemen that is the end of part two please join us next time when the muslim army declares open season on the iberian peninsula and one of spain's most rapid conquests begin now keep in mind that the video accompaniment for this episode will be up and running on youtube in a couple of days but in the meantime i really hoped you enjoyed this episode and of course the theme music as well if you liked what you were listening to please consider contributing to flashpoint history on patreon the link for which will be in the description of the podcast below and for those of you out there who feel so inclined you can send me some feedback the email for the show is flashpoint history that's all one word flashpointhistory gmail.com or also consider following along on facebook or twitter and finally if you have the time and again this is the lifeblood of any podcast out there please consider leaving a review on apple itunes or spread word about the podcast so until next time thank you for your time and for listening [Music] you

Channel: Flash Point History

Views: 193,136

Rating: 4.8019114 out of 5

Keywords: Early, islamic, Conquest, history, Arabia, Maghreb, Byzantine, Empire, Persian, Isfahan, Persia, Sassanid, Constantinople, Siege, Battle, Heliopolis, Egypt, Tunisia, Carthage, Fustat, Kairouan, Tangier, Morocco, Amr, Hussan, Yazid, Muawiyah, Ali, uthman, Umar, Malik

Id: aYkn2KfYvFw

Length: 73min 21sec (4401 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 15 2017