The Study Of Early Relationship Between Arab And Byzantine(7-8Century)

This paper discusses the main content of the earlier relationship between the Arab and Byzantine, and the time period is mainly concentrated in the7-8century. Taking the war as the main line, the paper discusses the background and process of major battles of the two sides, and the impae. on both sides’domestic and foreign policies and the world situation at that time.The first part discusses the political, economic and religious exchanges between the Arabs in pre-Islamic era and Byzantines. The Prophet Muhammad rallied each Arab tribe with the ideological weapon of the Islam. Under his leadership the war of Muslims and the Byzantine Empire outbroke for the first time. After Heraclius reached a withdrawal agreement with the Sassanid Persian Empire a few months, the Byzantine army faced the Muslim army. After Muhammad’s death in632, Abu Bakr became the first caliph; he used force to put down the insurgency in the Arabian Peninsula, controlled the entire peninsula indisputably, and strengthened the nascent Islamic regime. The Arabs got ready for the foreign conquest.The second part focuses on the Arabs’conquest of the Byzantine Empire of Syria, Palestine, Mesopotamia and Armenia territorial. And this part analyzes the reasons for the failure of the defenses of Syria and the Palestinian by Byzantine and the motivation of Arab conquest. The Arab people who had accomplished unification crossed the desert in southern Syria under the guidance of flags in Islam, while the Byzantine and Sassanid Persian Empire became exhausted for long and the increasingly fierce war. After a series of battle, the Arabs occupied the large territory of the Byzantine Empire in Asia. Byzantine territory area was significantly reduced, and suffered great losses on manpower, material resources, they had to take active defense strategy for the attack from the Arabs.The third part, mainly discusses the Arabs with expansion of the confidence made efforts on stepping from the desert nation towards a naval power.Although the Arabs conquered the great Byzantine territory in Asia, the Byzantines’first great power status in the Mediterranean and even the whole Europe was still unshakable by relying on their powerful navy. Desiring to enter the political arena of Mediterranean, destroy the Byzantine Empire, the Arabs had to establish a strong naval force. In order to achieve this purpose, the Arabs first conquered Egypt; then established two powerful navies in Egypt and Syria relying on the Byzantine legacy of shipbuilding technology. Seeking hegemony with the Byzantine Empire in the Mediterranean for decades of war, Arabs had besieged Constantinople the capital of the Byzantine for several times, and put the Byzantine Empire in the edge of collapse. After a long struggle, Byzantine shattered the Arab attack against Constantinople, since then the Arab army never appeared under the Constantinople.The fourth part depicts the Arabs’defeat under the Constantinople in718, which became the sign of the end of war-oriented way of the communication between the Arab and Byzantine. After the establishment of the Abbasid dynasty in750, Arabs moved the capital to Baghdad. The Oriental trend of the Arab Empire strengthened. Their relation with the Byzantine mainly based on cultural exchange which was peaceful, and large-scale war happened rarely. During this period the Arab-Islamic civilization formed under the influence of the Byzantine civilization, Persian civilization, Indian civilization and other civilizations. Arab and Byzantine respectively controlled the east and west Mediterranean Sea, and cut the contact of the world between east and west Mediterranean. But it promoted the rise of Western Europe in middle ages.Although Byzantine lost vast territory under the attack of Arabs, and no longer dominated the Mediterranean, Byzantine strengthened national cohesion further. The territorial scope and the influence of Byzantine Empire were moved to the east. And it accelerated the transformation process of Byzantine from the Latin Late Roman Empire to the Medieval Greek Empire.