Muslim conquest of the Maghreb

Overview

The Rashidun and Umayyad Caliphates conquered the Byzantine Exarchate of North Africa commencing in 647 and concluding in 709, when the Byzantine Empire lost its last remaining strongholds in the Maghreb to Caliph al-Walid I. The North African campaigns form part of Arab-Byzantine wars, as well as part of the century of rapid early Muslim conquests.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Significance

The Muslim conquest of the Maghreb, commencing in 647 and concluding in 709, resulted in the Rashidun and Umayyad Caliphates seizing the entirety of the Byzantine Exarchate of North Africa, with the Byzantine Empire losing its final strongholds in the region to Caliph al-Walid I at the campaign's close. The conquest forms a component of both the broader Arab–Byzantine wars and the wider century of rapid early Muslim expansion. The campaigns required successive commanders — including Amr ibn al-As, Uqba ibn Nafi, Hassan ibn al-Nu'man, and Musa ibn Nusayr — to overcome Byzantine resistance led by figures including Gregory the Patrician, Kusaila, and Dihya across more than six decades of intermittent warfare. The elimination of Byzantine authority in North Africa removed a strategically significant imperial presence from the southern Mediterranean littoral and established Caliphate control over territory that would serve as the staging ground for subsequent operations, including the crossing into Iberia under Tariq ibn Ziyad.

Commanders (15)