Muslim conquest of the Maghreb
| 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. By 642, the Arabs controlled Mesopotamia, Egypt and Syria, had invaded Armenia, and were concluding their conquest of the Persian Empire with their defeat of the Persian army at the Battle of Nihawānd (Nehawand). 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.
The earliest Arab accounts that have come down to us are those of Ibn Abd-el-Hakem, Al-Baladhuri and Ibn Khayyat, all of which were written in the 9th century some 200 years after the first invasions. These are not very detailed. In the case of the most informative, the History of the Conquest of Egypt and North Africa and Spain by Ibn Abd-el-Hakem, Brunschvig has shown that it was written with a view to illustrating points of Maliki law rather than documenting a history, and that some of the events it describes are probably historical.
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