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The Muslim conquest of Syria (Arabic: الفتح الإسلامي لبلاد الشام) occurred in the first half of the 7th century,〔"Syria." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2006. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 20 Oct. 2006 (Syria -- Britannica Online Encyclopedia )〕 and refers to the conquest of region known as the Levant, later to become the Islamic Province of Bilad al-Sham. Arab Muslim forces had appeared on the southern borders even before the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad in 632, resulting in the Battle of Mu'tah in 629, but the real invasion began in 634 under his successors, the Rashidun Caliphs Abu Bakr and Umar ibn Khattab, with Khalid ibn al-Walid as their most important military leader.〔 ==Roman Syria== Syria had been under Roman rule for seven centuries prior to the Arab Muslim conquest and had been invaded by the Sassanid Persians on a number of occasions during the 3rd, 6th and 7th centuries; it had also been subject to raids by the Sassanid's Arab allies, the Lakhmids.〔"Syria." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2006. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 20 Oct. 2006 (Syria -- Britannica Online Encyclopedia )〕 During the Roman period, beginning after the fall of Jerusalem in the year 70, the entire region (Judea, Samaria, and the Galilee) was renamed ''Palaestina'', subdivided into Diocese I and II.〔 The Romans also renamed an area of land including the Negev, Sinai, and the west coast of the Arabian Peninsula as ''Palaestina Salutoris'', sometimes called ''Palaestina III''.〔Kaegi, 1995, p. 41.〕 Part of the area was ruled by the Arab vassal state of the Ghassanids' ''symmachos''.〔"Ghassan." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2006. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 18 Oct. 2006 (Ghassan (ancient kingdom, Arabia) -- Britannica Online Encyclopedia )〕 During the last of the Roman-Persian Wars, beginning in 603, the Persians under Khosrau II had succeeded in occupying Syria, Palestine and Egypt for over a decade before being forced by the victories of Heraclius to conclude the peace of 628.〔"Iran." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2006. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 20 Oct. 2006 (Iran -- Britannica Online Encyclopedia )〕 Thus, on the eve of the Muslim conquests the Romans (by now conventionally called Byzantines) were still in the process of rebuilding their authority in these territories, which in some areas had been lost to them for almost twenty years.〔 Politically, the Syrian region consisted of two provinces: Syria proper stretched from Antioch and Aleppo in the north to the top of the Dead Sea. To the west and south of the Dead Sea lay the province of Palestine. Syria was mostly a Syriac and Hellenized land with some Jewish presence and with a partly Arab population, especially in its eastern and southern parts. The Syriac Christians, Jews and Arabs had been there since pre-Roman times, and some had embraced Christianity since Constantine I legalized it in the fourth century and moved the capital from Italy to Byzantium (renamed Constantinople), from which the name Byzantine is derived. The Arabs of Syria were people of no consequence until the migration of the powerful Ghassan tribe from Yemen to Syria, who thereafter ruled a semi-autonomous state with their own king under the Romans. The Ghassan Dynasty became one of the honoured princely dynasties of the Empire, with the Ghassan king ruling over the Arabs in Jordan and Southern Syria from his capital at Bosra. The last of the Ghassan kings, who ruled at the time of the Muslim invasion, was Jabla bin Al Aiham. The Byzantine (Roman) Emperor Heraclius, after re-capturing Syria from the Sassanians, set up new defense lines from Gaza to the south end of the Dead Sea. These lines were only designed to protect communications from bandits, and the bulk of the Byzantine defenses were concentrated in Northern Syria facing the traditional foes, the Sassanid Persians. This defense line had as a drawback that it enabled the Muslims, who emerged from the desert in the south, to reach as far north as Gaza before meeting regular Byzantine troops. The 7th century was a time of fast military changes in the Byzantine Empire. The empire was certainly not in a state of collapse when it faced the new challenge from Arabia after being exhausted by recent Roman–Persian Wars, but failed completely to tackle the challenge effectively.〔Nicolle, David (1994). Yarmuk AD 636: The Muslim Conquest of Syria. Osprey Publishing.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Muslim conquest of the Levant」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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