Islamic Conquests Begin

The early Muslim conquests were a series of wars initiated by Muhammad and continued by the early Muslims, and after his death in 632 Muslim armies expanded rapidly out of Arabia under the Rashidun Caliphate and then the Umayyad Caliphate. Over the following century Muslim rule was established across most of the Middle East and North Africa, parts of South Asia and Central Asia, and parts of Southern Europe. Muslim armies overran the Sasanians and confined the Byzantines to part of Anatolia and Southeastern Europe. The historian James Buchan judged that the first Arab conquests were matched in speed and extent only by those of Alexander the Great, and that they were more lasting.