Starting in the 630s CE, the history of the world was transformed by a new force exploding out of the Arabian Peninsula. It was from there that a series of Arab armies spread rapidly to the north, east, and west to destabilize kingdoms, roll back empires, and reshape the map of a broad swath of the world. By the time it was over little more than a century later, not only had they established the foundations for the Arab world as it is commonly known today, they had introduced across three continents a new religion, Islam, that became the faith of millions of people over the generations that followed. 

While such a significant event has long been the subject of historical interest, many of its details remain obscure or unknown. As Hugh Kennedy notes in the forward to his book, for all of its scope surviving records were few and the handful of contemporary accounts are often fragmentary. Much of what remains is based on the recording of oral accounts taken down decades or even centuries after the events they describe. Reconstructing the details of the conquests from this circumscribed pool of information makes for a formidable challenge, yet it is one that Kennedy ventures with this book. From these limited sources he works to provide a narrative of events that not only recounts the major events of the Arab conquests, but the factors that determined their outcome as well. 

Central to this were the conditions in the Arabian Peninsula in the 7th century. As he explains, Muhammad’s introduction of the Islamic faith brought a measure of stability to a region that was coping with considerable economic and social strains. The conversion of the Arabic population, however, created a new problem, as one of the core principles of early Islam was that Muslims should not attack one another, which challenged the traditional Bedouin practice of living off raiding and tribute. This left the community with a stark choice: disintegration, or striking out beyond Arabia. Given the options, the choice was perhaps inevitable. 

What was not inevitable, however, was the success the Arabs enjoyed from the outset. Here Kennedy notes the circumstances that favored their initial expansion. Though bounded to the north by two larges empires, those of the Byzantines and the Sassanians, the devastating war between them that had only recently been concluded left both powers weakened. While the Arabs suffered several defeats on the battlefield, their mobility, their leadership, and their high morale proved critical in overcoming setbacks and grinding down their enemies in wars waged over the next several decades. Starting with initial conquests in Syria and Iraq, they pushed westward into Palestine and Egypt and eastward into Persia. 

While Kennedy’s focus is on conquest rather than rule, the process of absorbing new territories into their growing empire was key to their ability to continue the expansion. Though their initial conquests were undertaken by Berbers skilled in combat, over time the gradual conversion of conquered populations added others to their ranks. Because of this, by the time the conquerors reached Spain in the early 8th century, the ranks of the invading forces were composed not of Arabs but of North African Berbers who had recently converted to Islam and were eager to profit from new conquests. Advances in the east were similarly supplemented by local warriors supporting the advance into central Asia and the Hindu Kush. Thanks to such conquests, by 750 the Arabs possessed a vast empire that was relatively secure from external pressures and able to acculturate over time the populations within their borders. 

As a specialist in early Islamic history, Kennedy is well suited to write a narrative history of the Arab conquests. This he does extremely well, as he uses the latest scholarly research to supplement and interpret the sources on which he relies. While his book worth is reading just for this, his examination of both the experiences of the conquered and the social memory of the events only adds to its value for understanding the impact of the conquests and how they have been remembered. When combined with his astute analysis of the factors that shaped the conquests, it makes for an excellent survey of the conquests and their impact on world history, one that for English-language readers is unlikely to be surpassed anytime soon.