Islamic expansion1 edit1 article: Umayyad CaliphateMuslim Expansions in 7th & 8th

Centuries Islamic expansion of the 7th and 8th

centurieshammad's conquests, 622-632Rashidun Caliphate, 632-661 Umayyad
Caliphate, 661-750The Muslim conquests of the Eastern
Roman Empire and Arab wars occured between 634 and 750. Starting in 633, Muslims
conquered Iraq. The Muslim conquest of Syria would
begin in 634 and would be complete by 638. The Muslim conquest of Egypt started in
639. Before the Muslim invasion of Egypt began, the
Eastern Roman Empire had already lost the Levant and its Arab ally, the Ghassanid
kingdom, to the Muslims. The Muslims would bring
Alexandaria under control and the fall of Egypt would be complete by 642. Between
647 and 709, Muslims swept across North Africa and
established their uthority over that region.The Transoxiana region was conquered by
Qutayba ibn Muslim between 706 and 715 and loosely
held by the Umayyads from 715 to 738. This conquest was consolidated by Nsar
ibn Sayyar between 738 and 740. It was under the
Umayyads from 740-748 and under the Abbasids after 748. Sindh, attacked in 664,
would be subjugated by 712. Sindh became the
easternmost province of the Umayyad. The Umayyad conquest of Hispania (Visigothic
Spain) would begin in 711 and end by 718
The Moors, under Al-Samh ibn Malik, swept up the Iberian pennsula and by 719
overran Septimania; the area would fall under their full
control in 720. With the Islamic conquest of Persia, the Muslim Subjugation of the
Caucausus would take palce between 711 and 750.The end
of the suden Islamic Caliphate expansion ended around this time. The final Islamic
domination eroded the areas of the Iron Age Roman
Empire in the Middle East and controlled strategic areas of the Mediterranean. At
the end of the 8th century, the former Western Roman
Empire was decentralized and overwhelmingly rural. The Islamic conquest and rule
of Sicily and Malta was a process which started in the 9th
century. Islamic rule over Sicily was effective from 902, and the complete rule of
the island lasted from 965 until 1061. The Islamic presence
on the Italian Peninsula was ephemral and limited mostly to semi -permanent soldier
camps.Caliphs and empire1edit1Main article: Abbasid
CaliphateThe Abbasid Caliphate, ruled by the Abbasid dynasty of caliphs, was the
third of the Islamic caliphates. Under the Abbasids,
the Islamic Golden Age Philosophers, scientists, and engineers of the Islamic world
contributed enormously to technology, both by preserving
earlier traditions and by adding their own inventions and innovations. Scientific
and intellecual achievements blossomed in the period.

The Abbasids built their capital in Baghdad after replacing the Umayyad caliphs
from all but th Iberian peninsula. The influence held by
Muslim merchants over African-Arabian and Arabian-Asian trade routes was
tremendous. As a result, Islamic civilization grew and expanded
on the basis of its merchant economy, in contrast to their Christian, Indian, and
Chinese peers who built societies from an agricultural
landholding nobility. The Abbasids flourished for two centuries but slowly went
into decline with the rise to power of the Turkish army they
had created, the Mamluks.