Byzantium and the Early Islamic ConquestsCambridge University Press
Walter E. Kaegi
ISBN: 0521484553
price: $29.95 paperback
This is a study of how and why the Byzantine empire lost many
of its most valuable provinces to Islamic conquerors in the
seventh century, provinces that included Syria, Palestine,
Mesopotamia and Armenia. It investigates conditions on the eve of
those conquests, mistakes in Byzantine policy toward the Muslims,
the course of the military campaigns, and the problem of local
official and civilian collaboration with the Muslims. It also
seeks to explain how after some terrible losses the Byzantine
government achieved some intellectual rationalization of its
disasters and began the complex process of transforming and
adapting its fiscal and military institutions and political
controls in order to prevent further disintegration.
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