When we think about the early conquests of Islam, we imagine vast numbers of warriors riding camels across deserts, waving banners adorned with the crescent moon and Quranic verses. However, this expansion also took place by sea. In the year 655, after the conquest of the Sasanian Empire, the Rashidun Caliphate turned against the Byzantine […]
Muslims
The Mystery of the Mardaites: The Christian Highlanders Who Maintained Their Autonomy Between Byzantium and the Caliphate
In the province of Hatay, in southern Turkey, there is a mountain range locally known as Nur Dağları. Arabs call it Jabal al-Lukkam, and in Spanish, its Greek name, Amanus, has been adopted. It spans approximately 200 kilometers in length, with its highest peak being Mıgır Tepe or Bozdağ, standing at 2,240 meters. It was […]
The Site of the Battle of al-Qadisiyyah, which in 637 CE Pitted the Arabs against the Sassanian Empire and Was Key in the Expansion of Islam, Has Been Discovered
A team of archaeologists led by Dr. William Deadman from the Department of Archaeology at Durham University has successfully pinpointed the site of the historic Battle of al-Qadisiyyah. This battle, which took place between 637 and 638 CE, is known as a key confrontation in the expansion of Islam beyond the Arabian Peninsula, culminating in […]
The Zanj Rebellion, when slaves and Bedouins rose against the Abbasid Caliphate
In the year 869 AD, the Great Heathen Army of Danish Viking Ivar the Boneless was conquering the English kingdom of East Anglia, an earthquake followed by a tsunami ravaged the northwest of Japan, Stela 11 was erected in Tikal, and the Byzantine fleet under Emperor Basil I was struggling to expel the Muslims from […]
Mujahid al-Amiri, the Slavic ruler of the taifa of Denia who gathered the best Andalusian intellectuals of the 11th century
In the Christian part of the Iberian Peninsula, the 11th century saw the rise of the kingdoms of Castile and Aragon, the birth of Portugal, the dominance of the county of Barcelona over the other Catalan counties, the adventures of El Cid, and the opening of the Way of St. James. In the Muslim zone, […]
The Battle of Lucena, in which the Nasrid Sultan Boabdil was captured for the first time
Among the many curious pieces that can be seen on a visit to the Spanish Army Museum, which is located in the Alcázar of Toledo, is Boabdil’s sword. It is a jineta weapon (with a straight blade, double-edged, and rounded hilt, typical of the Nasrids and introduced into Al-Andalus by the Zenata Berbers) that was […]
Pact of Theodemir, the Treaty by which a Visigothic Governor Saved his Cities and Inhabitants during the Muslim Conquest of Al-Andalus
The swift conquest of the Iberian Peninsula by the Umayyad Caliphate, taking advantage of the Visigothic kingdom’s succession civil war, cannot be explained so much by the strength of those troops, which were few in number, but by the implementation of a strategy of pacts that followed the initial resistance—especially in the south—after the Battle […]
Archaeologists uncover the ancient city of Jalula, where Sasanians and Muslims engaged in a historic clash back in 637 AD
In an exciting announcement, the General Authority for Antiquities and Heritage of Iraq has revealed the discovery of the boundaries and various structures of the ancient city of Jalula, the city that witnessed the famous battle of the same name 1386 years ago. The Director-General of the Directorate of Research and Archaeological Excavations, Professor Ali […]
Ibn Wahshiyya, the Nabataean who could have translated Egyptian hieroglyphs before Champollion
Today we are going to discover an almost unknown individual, a good representative from other times, who may have been the first to decipher the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs almost nine centuries earlier than is believed. We are referring to the Arab scholar Ibn Wahshiyya. In mid-September 1822, Jean-François Champollion managed to finish off the work […]