The Mediterranean World in Late Antiquity, 395-700 AD

THE MEDITERRANEAN WORLD IN LATE ANTIQUITY

economy as a whole of this prolonged warfare, alternating with periods of
annual heavy payments, must have been very great, and the operational
requirements in the east were also expensive and complex.^31 Meanwhile the
Avars and Slavs were able to overrun western Illyricum and Greece and mount
serious raids on Thessalonica; the city’s survival was attributed to the inter-
vention of St Demetrius in the Miracles of St Demetrius.^32 The Persian wars have
been given a major role in the acute downturn in the fortunes of old classical
cities, especially in Asia Minor,^33 but as we saw, recent archaeological work on
Syria and Palestine suggests that the material impact of the Persian invasions
there was limited (Chapter 7). There is, however, evidence that they provoked
flight in some sectors of the population in the wanderings of Sophronius and
Maximus Confessor, who settled in North Africa, the influx of monks and
clergy from the east in Sicily and south Italy, the impact of which is still evident
today in the churches and villages, and the case of St John the Almsgiver, who
fled from Egypt to Cyprus, justifying his action in Scriptural terms. It may be
dangerous to draw general conclusions from limited evidence, and warfare
and conquest were not the only factors causing urban downturn, but the com-
bined effects of the successful Persian and then Arab invasions caused disrup-
tion in particular places, brought negative economic consequences, ended the
grain supply to the capital and detached large areas of territory and the tax
base from the control of Constantinople.

The Arab conquests and the coming of Islam

Scarcely had Heraclius returned to Constantinople after his entry into Jerusa-
lem than another, and this time unforeseen, threat emerged in the east. Also in
630, Muhammad and his followers returned to Mecca from Medina, and Mu-
hammad’s leadership was established in Arabia. Muhammad himself died in
632, but Muslim raids into Palestine had begun by 634. It would seem in fact
that a major advance was already taking place further south while Heraclius
was occupied with the celebration of his victory over the Persians. Despite a
defeat at Mu’ta in 629, largely at the hands of other Arab tribes, an Arab army
took Tabuk in the northern Hejaz, whereupon three important Byzantine
centres in eastern Palestina Tertia – Udruh and Aila (Aqaba), both legionary
fortresses, as well as Jarba – simply surrendered, giving the Muslims access to
southern Palestine. Again, the chronology of these events is hard to establish,
but when the Muslims did reach the Negev and Gaza it seems clear that these
areas were undefended, and they met relatively little resistance. Whatever the
reasons, the infrastructure of defence which might have stopped the Muslims
as they moved from Arabia into Palestine and Syria was absent.
The Arab advance was spectacular. Three battles took place between
634 and 637 at Ajnadayn, between Jerusalem and Gaza, Fihl (Pella), and the
river Yarmuk. Damascus fell after a long siege, and according to tradition
Jerusalem was dramatically handed over, according to Arabic sources, to
the Caliph ‘Umar I, walking on foot and dressed in dirty clothes to show