The Levant Egypt North Africa Anatolia & Constantinople Border conflicts Sicily and Southern Italy Naval warfare Byzantine reconquest The Muslim conquest of the Maghreb (Arabic: فَتْحُ اَلْمَغْرِب, romanized: Fath al-Maghrib, lit.

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.

With Afghanistan and North Africa being targets of major invasions and Muslim sea raids ranging from Rhodes to the southern coasts of the Iberian Peninsula, the Byzantine navy was defeated in the eastern Mediterranean.

[4] Then Khalid ibn al-Walid, who was previously involved in the conquest of Oxyrhynchus, offered a radical plan to erect catapult which filled by cotton sacks.

20,000 soldiers marched from Medina in the Arabian Peninsula, with another joining them in Memphis, Egypt where Abdallah ibn Sa'd then led them into the Byzantine Africa, the Maghreb region.

He gathered his allies, confronted the invading Islamic Arab forces and suffered defeat (647) at the Battle of Sufetula, a city 240 kilometres (150 mi) south of Carthage.

In 670, the city of Kairouan (roughly 150 kilometers [80 mi] south of modern Tunis) was established[citation needed] as a refuge and base for further operations.

After this, as Edward Gibbon writes, the fearless general "plunged into the heart of the country, traversed the wilderness in which his successors erected the splendid capitals of Fes and Morocco, and at length penetrated to the verge of the Atlantic and the great desert".

[citation needed] In his conquest of the Maghreb (western North Africa), he besieged the coastal city of Bugia as well as Tingi or Tangier, overwhelming what had once been the traditional Roman province of Mauretania Tingitana.

Luis Garcia de Valdeavellano writes: In their invasions against the Byzantines and the Berbers, the Arab chieftains had greatly extended their African dominions, and as early as the year 682 Uqba had reached the shores of the Atlantic, but he was unable to occupy Tangier, for he was forced to turn back toward the Atlas Mountains by a man who became known to history and legend as Count Julian.

On his return, a Berber-Byzantine coalition under the berber king of Altava known as Kusaila ambushed and crushed his forces near Biskra, killing Uqba and wiping out his troops.

Gibbon writes: the standard was delivered to Hassan governor of Egypt, and the revenue of that kingdom, with an army of forty thousand men, was consecrated to the important service.

But the seacoast still remained in the hands of the Greeks; the predecessors of Hassan had respected the name and fortifications of Carthage; and the number of its defenders was recruited by the fugitives of Cabes and Tripoli.

The arms of Hassan were bolder and more fortunate: he reduced and pillaged the metropolis of Africa; and the mention of scaling-ladders may justify the suspicion, that he anticipated, by a sudden assault, the more tedious operations of a regular siege.

[citation needed]Having lost Carthage to the Muslims in 695,[9] the Byzantine Empire responded with troops from Constantinople, joined by soldiers and ships from Sicily and a powerful contingent of Visigoths from Hispania.

Then, writes Gibbon, “the Christians landed; the citizens hailed the ensign of the cross, and the winter was idly wasted in the dream of victory or deliverance.” In 698, the Arabs conquered Carthage under Hassan ibn al-Nu'man and completed the conquest of the eastern Barbary coast.

Gibbon writes: Under the standard of their queen Kahina, the independent tribes acquired some degree of union and discipline; and as the Moors respected in their females the character of a prophetess, they attacked the invaders with an enthusiasm similar to their own.

The veteran bands of Hassan were inadequate to the defence of Africa: the conquests of an age were lost in a single day; and the Arabian chief, overwhelmed by the torrent, retired to the confines of Egypt.

Gibbon writes that “the friends of civil society conspired against the savages of the land; and the royal prophetess was slain in the first battle.”[citation needed] The successful general Musa bin Nusair was appointed the governor of Ifriqiya.

In 698-702 AD all the major capitals in the Berber states were taken definitively by the Arabs: Christian Carthago was completely destroyed, half the inhabitants were killed (only a few hundreds could escape by boats toward Byzantine Sicily) and the rest enslaved, erasing forever the main center of Greco-Roman influence in the Maghreb.

Musa bin Nusair, a successful Yemeni general in the campaign, was made governor of "Ifriqiya" and given the responsibility of putting down a renewed Berber rebellion and forcefully converting the population to Islam.

"[citation needed] In any case, being an able diplomat who was adept in Visigothic, Berber, and Arab politics, Julian might well have surrendered to Musa on terms that allowed him to retain his title and command.

These included family and confederates of the late King Wittiza, Arian Christians fleeing forced conversions at the hands of the Visigothic Catholic church, and Jews.

[citation needed] As Gibbon puts it, Musa received an unexpected message from Julian, "who offered his place, his person, and his sword" to the Muslim leader in exchange for help in the civil war.

Disembarking from Ceuta aboard ships provided by Julian, Tariq plunged into the Iberian Peninsula, defeated Roderic, and went on to besiege the Visigothic capital of Toledo.

[21] This led to much dissatisfaction and ultimately the death of Maghreb Arab governor, Yazid ibn Abi Muslim at the hands of one of his bodyguards after ordering them to tattoo his name on their arms to signal his ownership.

The fall of Carthage brought Tiberios the imperial throne, for his officers, afraid of being held responsible for the defeat, elevated him to the position of anti-emperor and overthrew Leontios, who had his nose cut off.

With the conquest of Carthage, the Arabs laid the basis for domination of the western Mediterranean, since they could now use the African ports there as a springboard for operations against the Balearic Islands, Sardinia and Sicily.

[citation needed] On the territory of the Exarchate of Carthage, after the conquest, a rather gradual but ultimately complete Arabization of the Latin and Punic speaking population began.

[45] In June 1225, Honorius III issued the bull Vineae Domini custodes, which permitted two friars of the Dominican Order, named Dominic and Martin, to establish a mission in Morocco and look after the affairs of Christians there.