Muslim Expansion and Byzantine Collapse in North Africa

This book investigates the failure of the Byzantine Empire to develop successful resistance to the Muslim conquest of North Africa.

Walter E. Kaegi (Author)

9781107636804, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 11 June 2015

366 pages, 10 b/w illus. 10 maps 1 table
22.9 x 15 x 2 cm, 0.52 kg

'… Kaegi has produced an interesting and learned book. He clearly knows the range of surviving literary, numismatic, epigraphic and archeological sources extremely well …' Bryn Mawr Classical Review

Who 'lost' Christian North Africa? Who won it and how? Walter Kaegi examines these perennial questions, with maps and on-site observations, in this exciting book. Persisting clouds of suspicion and blame overshadowed many Byzantine attempts to defend North Africa, as Byzantines failed to meet the multiple challenges from different directions which ultimately overwhelmed them. While the Muslims forcefully and permanently turned Byzantine internal dynastic and religious problems and military unrest to their advantage, they brought their own strengths to a dynamic process that would take a long time to complete - the transformation of North Africa. An impartial comparative framework helps to sort through identity politics, 'Orientalism' charges and counter-charges, and institutional controversies; this book also includes a study of the decisive battle of Sbeitla in 647, helping readers to understand what befell Byzantium, and indeed empires from Rome to the present.

1. Challenges of the subject and the sources
2. Historiographical hurdles
3. Fragmented geographical and logistical realities
4. Christian contexts in seventh-century North Africa
5. The military heritage of Heraclius on the eve of Muslim military operations
6. The shock of Sbeitla
7. Options for offensives and resistance
8. The riddle of Constans II
9. Muslim interests, calculations, and leadership
10. The shift to tribal resistance
11. The fall of Carthage and its aftermath
12. The failures of two cities of Constantine.

Subject Areas: Medieval history [HBLC1], Early history: c 500 to c 1450/1500 [HBLC], Ancient history: to c 500 CE [HBLA], European history [HBJD]