Map 2.2: The Islamic World to 750
What explains their astonishing triumph? Above all, they were formidable
fighters, and their enemies were relatively weak. The Persian and Byzantine Empires
had exhausted one another after years of fighting. Nor were their populations
particularly loyal; some—Jews and Christians in Persia, Monophysite Christians in
Syria—even welcomed the invaders. In large measure they were proved right: the
Muslims made no attempt to convert them, imposing a tax on them instead. Then,
too, the Muslims sometimes did not need to fight; they conquered through diplomacy
instead. In Spain, for example, they treated with a local leader, Theodemir (or
Tudmir), offering him and his men protection—“[they will not] be separated from
their women and children. They will not be coerced in matters of religion”—in return
for loyalty and taxes.^10
Although Arabic culture was not strikingly city-based, Muhammad himself was
attached to Mecca and Medina, and the Muslims almost immediately fostered urban
life in the regions that they conquered. In Syria and Palestine, most of the soldiers
settled within existing coastal cities; their leaders, however, built palaces and hunting
lodges in the countryside. Everywhere else the invaders created large permanent
