A Re-investigation Of The Byzantine-Arab Battle Of Yarmouk

The Battle of Yamouk was a fierce battle between the Byzantine Empire and the Rashidun Caliphate in Syria in 636,which had an important impact on both empires and the Mediterranean world in terms of immediacy and duration.Based on the investigation of the battle itself,this paper focuses on the impact of the Byzantine Empire,the Arab Empire and even the Mediterranean Rim,and discusses how this battle shaped the memory and identity of the two civilizations.The thesis consists of Introduction,Main Text,Conclusion and Appendix.Among them,the main body part consists of 3 chapters.Chapter 1 is an examination of the beginning and end of the Battle of Yamouk.Based on the results of traditional resource and modern research,this thesis uses the perspective of military science to review the background,course and results of the entire campaign.Before the Battle of Yamouk,the Byzantine Empire had just finished a long war with Persia,and its overall national strength was weak;In the early 7th century,the inhabitants of Syria had limited recognition and support for the Byzantine Empire due to frequent foreign occupation and the division of Christianity;At this time,the Arabs had just been unified under the banner of Islam,but due to the death of Muhammad,their internal contradictions intensified again,religious fervor,internal contradictions,and the relative weakness of the two empires of external enemies,Byzantium and Persia,made the external expansion of the Arabs imperative.On the battlefield,Byzantine soldiers showed excellent tactical literacy,while Arab soldiers,although slightly less equipped,had high levels of combat skills and morale.As a result of the battle,the Byzantine army suffered heavy losses and the Arabs won a complete victory.Chapter 2 examines the causes of Byzantium’s defeat.The Byzantine Empire had deficiencies and mistakes in pre-war preparation and strategy and tactics.The pre-war imperial strength was damaged by the war with Persia,which determined that the Byzantine Empire was not able to withstand too many risks;Strategically,due to the leakage of its own intelligence and cooperation problems,the original strategy of defeating the Arab armies separately could not be achieved;In terms of tactics,due to the inefficiency and delay of battlefield command,the Byzantine army could not give full play to its own advantages to achieve victories,but gradually lost the initiative and suffered a tragic defeat.The Byzantine army was not without the possibility of victory,but due to the great loss of national strength and poor coordination,the final defeat was too costly and irreparable.Chapter 3 re-evaluates the impact of the campaign.The devastating defeat at the Battle of Yamouk forced the Byzantine Empire to carry out a series of institutional changes,from the Limtanei-Comitatenses system to the Thema system;Religiously,the influence of Islam gave rise to iconoclasm movements;Politically,drastic territorial changes and military and religious changes caused great shocks in the operation of central power,which generally promoted the evolution of the Byzantine Empire from late antiquity to the Middle Ages.For the Arabs,the conquest of large numbers of lands and populations in a short period of time on the one hand led to an unprecedented increase in religious fervor and a sharp increase in the influence of Arab culture and Islam;On the other hand,due to the large number of people being included in the rule,these conquered ethnic groups influenced the Arab regime,causing it to have violent internal shocks,and the theocratic republic of the early Arab countries was destroyed and the monarchy was replaced;Islam split into several sects in the process,pitted against each other.For the Mediterranean world,this event changed its political and economic landscape,with the emergence of new trade routes and trade content,and the rise of new commercial cities,changing the course of history that followed.Starting from the different historical narrative modes in the original historical sources,this campaign also has a longer-term and far-reaching impact.After this battle,both sides left their own historical records with different tones: the Byzantines attributed the defeat to ungodliness of faith,while the Muslims focused on proclaiming the greatness and justice of their conquests.The historical texts documenting these ideas form an important part of the collective memory of their respective ethnic groups.As a result,the Byzantine-Orthodox culture has survived to this day while becoming restrained and conservative;Arab-Islamic culture,on the one hand,changed the cultural identity of the ethnic groups in the conquered regions,and on the other hand,it merged these different cultures and shaped the Islamic culture of the new Arab world,and the rest of the repercussions continue to this day.