Kaegi Walter E. Byzantium and the Early Islamic Conquests

Cambridge University Press, 2005. — 327 p.This book presents an inquiry into a fundamental historical problem in early Byzantine history: why the Byzantine Empire failed to contain emergent Islam in the new religion's initial years, and in particular how and why the Byzantines first lost Syria, Palestine, Mesopotamia, and Armenia before a partial recovery.
Using Greek and Arabic as well as other primary sources (including coinage) in the light of recent advances in late Roman, early Islamic, and Byzantine studies, Professor Kaegi assesses imperial conditions on the eve of the appearance of Islam, including ethnic stereotypes, military and religious miscalculations, dangerous strains and inertia in obsolescent fiscal, military, and political institutions and attitudes, as well as some principal military campaigns and battles. He places local officials' and civilians' collaboration with the Muslims in a longer late Roman context, and shows that it was neither unique to the seventh century nor was it primarily the result of Christian doctrinal disputes. Byzantine stabilization and resilience appeared in intellectual rationalizations of defeat and in institutional transformations and readjustments: demarcation of new borders, improvisations in new military commands and controls to prevent or discourage local collaboration with the Muslims, and new fiscal measures, all intended to prevent further disintegration of the empire.List of illustrations

List of abbreviations
The problem of Byzantium and the early Islamic conquests
The Byzantine Empire in an era of accelerating change
Difficulties in devising defenses for Syria
The first Muslim penetrations of Byzantine territory
Early tests in southern Palestine
Problems of cohesion: the battle of Jabiya-Yarmuk reconsidered
The brief struggle to save northern Syria and Byzantine Mesopotamia
Byzantium, Armenia, Armenians, and early Islamic conquests
Controversy and confidence in the seventh-century crisis
Appendix 1: Author and date of the anti-Jewish treatise
Elements of failure and endurance
Bibliography
Index