Arab conquest of North Africa
| Muslim conquest of North Africa | |||||||||
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| Part of the Muslim conquests and the Arab–Byzantine Wars | |||||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
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Byzantine Empire Berbers |
 Rashidun Caliphate Umayyad Caliphate
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| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
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Gregory the Patrician † Dihya Kusaila John the Patrician |
Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr Abdallah ibn Sa'ad Uqba ibn Nafi † Abu al-Muhajir Dinar † Musa bin Nusayr Hasan ibn al-Nu'man
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The Muslim conquest of the Maghreb continued the century of rapid Arab Muslim military expansion following the death of Muhammad in 632 AD and into the Byzantine-controlled territories of Northern Africa. In a series of three stages, the conquest of the Maghreb commenced in 647 and concluded in 709 with the "Byzantine" Roman Empire losing its last remaining strongholds to the then Umayyad Caliphate.
By 642 AD, under Caliph Umar, the Arabs had laid control of Mesopotamia (636), Syria (641), Egypt (642), and had invaded Armenia, all previously territories split between the warring Byzantine and Persian Empires, and were concluding their conquest of the Persian Empire with their defeat of the Persian army at the Battle of Nahāvand. It was at this point that Arab military expeditions into North African regions west of Egypt were first launched, continuing for years and furthering the spread of Islam.
In 644 at Madinah, Caliph Umar (Omar) was succeeded by Uthman ibn Affan (Othman), during whose twelve-year rule Armenia, Cyprus, and all of Iran, would be added to the growing Islamic empire; Afghanistan and North Africa would receive major invasions; and Muslim sea raids would range from Rhodes to the southern coasts of the Iberian Peninsula. The Byzantine navy would be defeated in the eastern Mediterranean.
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