Muslim conquest of the Levant

Muslim conquest of the Levant
Part of the Arab–Byzantine wars
Scene of the Roman Theatre at Palmyra, 2005
Date 634–638 CE Location Levant:[a] at that time Diocese of the East under the Praetorian prefecture of the East Result Arab victory Territorial changes Annexation of the Levant by the Rashidun Caliphate
Belligerents
Rashidun Caliphate	Byzantine Empire Ghassanids Tanukhids
Commanders and leaders
Abu Bakr Umar ibn al-Khattab Khalid ibn al-Walid Abu Ubaidah ibn al-Jarrah Amr ibn al-As Uqba ibn Nafi Yazid ibn Abu Sufyan Shurahbil ibn Hassana Iyad ibn Ghanm Muawiyah I Ikrima ibn Abi Jahl	Heraclius Jabalah ibn al-Aiham Theodore Trithyrius † Vahan † Vardan Thomas Buccinator Gregory

The Muslim conquest of the Levant (Arabic: فَتْحُ الشَّام, romanized: Fatḥ al-šām; lit. 'Conquest of Syria'), or Arab conquest of Syria,^[1] was a 634–638 CE invasion of Byzantine Syria by the Rashidun Caliphate. A part of the wider Arab-Byzantine Wars, as well as the larger Muslim colonial project, the Levant was brought under Arab Muslim rule and developed into the provincial region of Bilad al-Sham. Clashes between the Arabs and Byzantines on the southern Levantine borders of the Byzantine Empire had occurred during the lifetime of Muhammad, with the Battle of Muʿtah in 629 CE. However, the actual conquest did not begin until 634, two years after Muhammad's death. It was led by the first two Rashidun caliphs who succeeded Muhammad: Abu Bakr and Umar ibn al-Khattab. During this time, Khalid ibn al-Walid was the most important leader of the Rashidun army.

It was the first time since the collapse of the Neo-Babylonian Empire in 539 BC, that the region was ruled again by Semitic-speaking people, after centuries of Persian (Achaemenid Empire), and Roman-Greek (Macedonian Empire, the Roman Empire and Byzantine Empire) ruling periods.

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