In the period before the coming of Islam, the Byzantine Empire, the eastern half of the Roman Empire with its capital at Constantinople, was known as one of the two great powers in the region, alongside the Persians. The Byzantines controlled the provinces of the Middle East, Syria, Palestine, Anatolia and parts of Mesopotamia, and they exerted influence over the Arab peripheries.
The Arab world lay in the borderland between Byzantium and the Sasanian Empire, which gave rise to exchanges in trade, culture, religion and diplomacy. The Byzantines maintained a system of allied Arab tribes, among them the Ghassanids, who served as an Arab Christian vassal kingdom along the Byzantine frontier and were partly responsible for defending the Byzantine provinces against incursions by tribes or allies of the Persians.
Relations with the Arabs and the influence upon Arabia
The sources indicate that Arab tribes sometimes entered Byzantine service or stood as their allies, and that these bonds could be of a military, political or religious nature.
Some Arab tribes in the Hijaz or along the fringes of Syria stood under Christian influence or were familiar with Christian missionary activity, for in regions such as the northwest of Arabia Christianity had been present since the fourth century. Within the context of Arabia there was frequent mention of Arab tribes that embraced Christianity or came into contact with Byzantine elements.
In the seerah of the Prophet ﷺ itself there is no extended conflict with the Byzantines at Mecca, yet later episodes of the Islamic expansion touched upon Byzantine interests, such as the expedition to Tabuk, where a Byzantine intervention was anticipated.¹
Significance in the time of the Prophet
Although the Byzantines were not directly the primary opposing bloc within Mecca itself, they did constitute a structural power against which Islam would ultimately contend, for the Arab community in which the Prophet ﷺ lived found itself in an environment of geopolitical rivalry between Byzantium and Persia.
The campaign of Tabuk is one of the examples in which the presence of a Byzantine threat made itself felt: the Prophet ﷺ marched northward to forestall possible Byzantine support for Arab tribes against the Muslims.¹ Although no battle took place, this campaign marks the geopolitical tension between the rising power of the Muslims and Byzantium.
The Byzantines were also part of the religious landscape, for in later decades Christian communities in Syria, Palestine and the Middle East stood in cultural and religious interaction with Muslim communities.