Cross → Conquest Without Europeans · Arabization of North Africa · The Ottomans — the argued, source-graded version of this table. Citations here are Wikipedia; treat as a finding aid.

Arab Colonization

• History of Conquering
  • Constantinople
  • Ireland & England
  • Nobody was a bigger colonizer than the Arab Caliphates
  • Christian Kosovo → Muslim

Table of Islamic Caliphates

Here is a comprehensive table summarizing the major Islamic caliphates and their wars of expansion:

The early caliphates conquered and absorbed the pre-existing Byzantine (Eastern Roman) and Sassanid Persian empires in the 7th-8th centuries CE2[15][16]. Later caliphates often fought against and lost territory to Turkic peoples like the Seljuks and Ottomans, as well as to European Christian powers during the Crusades and Reconquista11[17]. The Ottoman Empire was the last major caliphate, which collapsed after World War I14.

Some key points:

• The Rashidun Caliphate achieved the most dramatic initial expansion, conquering the Persian Empire and much of Byzantium2.

• The Umayyad Caliphate reached the maximum extent, stretching from Iberia to India, before being defeated at the Battle of Tours in 7327.

• The Abbasid Caliphate presided over the Islamic Golden Age but faced fragmentation and Mongol invasion7.

• Later caliphates like the Fatimids and Almohads struggled against Turkic dynasties and the Crusaders/Reconquista[12][17].

• The Ottoman Caliphate conquered much of the Middle East and North Africa but declined and fell after WWI12.

So in summary, the Islamic caliphates achieved stunning early expansion, absorbing major empires, before facing increasing external threats and internal fragmentation over the centuries. But they left an immense religious, cultural and political legacy across a vast region.

Citations:
1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFiuxMB9yQw
2 https://pressbooks.nscc.ca/worldhistory/chapter/chapter-12-islam-and-the-caliphates/
3 https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslim_conquests
4 https://www.mometrix.com/academy/the-islamic-empire/
5 https://study.com/academy/lesson/the-spread-of-islam-and-the-progress-of-the-caliphates.html
6 https://www.britannica.com/place/Caliphate
7 https://louis.pressbooks.pub/westernciv/chapter/chapter11/
8 https://www.ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2020/09/umayyad-abbasid.html
9 https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-hccc-worldcivilization/chapter/islamic-conquest-of-the-maghreb/
10 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_Muslim_conquests
11 https://books.openedition.org/obp/9091
12 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_and_war
13 https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780191737275.timeline.0001
14 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caliphate
15 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslim_conquest_of_Persia
[16] https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/world-history/medieval-times/spread-of-islam/a/the-rise-of-islamic-empires-and-states
[17] https://www.metmuseum.org/learn/educators/curriculum-resources/art-of-the-islamic-world/introduction/chronology
[18] https://www.worldhistory.org/image/14212/islamic-conquests-in-the-7th-9th-centuries/
[19] https://www.worldhistory.org/article/1571/early-muslim-conquests-622-656-ce/

European Invasions

A concise, chronological survey of major Islamic incursions, conquests, and demographic entries into Europe

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How the phases fit together

1. Early Arab conquests (8th c.) pushed across the western Mediterranean littoral but were checked at Tours and by Frankish reconquest of Septimania.
2. Maritime & raiding enclaves (9th–10th c.)—Crete, Sicily, Bari, Fraxinetum—turned the central Med into a corsair zone until Byzantines, Carolingians and, later, Normans drove them out.
3. Ottoman advance (14th–17th c.) represents the only sustained Muslim land empire in Europe: a rolling annexation of the Balkans that twice reached Vienna and dominated Hungary for a century-and-a-half.
4. Retreat and dissolution (1683–1923) began after the failed 1683 siege; the Karlowitz peace, subsequent Balkan uprisings and the Balkan Wars reduced Ottoman Europe to a sliver around Istanbul.
5. Modern era involves population movement rather than armed invasion. According to Pew, Europe’s Muslim share is rising mainly because the Muslim population is younger and more fertile, not because of military conflict.

Bottom line: From the lightning Umayyad sweep into Iberia (711) to the demographic shifts of the 21st century, “Islamic invasions” of Europe have taken very different forms—military conquest, maritime raiding, imperial expansion and now peaceful migration—each shaped less by religion alone than by the prevailing strategic, political and demographic forces of its age.

Maps

Spain

According to the provided search results, the Umayyad Caliphate conquered most of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) in the early 8th century:

• The conquest began in 711 CE when the Umayyad commander Tariq ibn Ziyad led an army of Berbers from North Africa that landed at Gibraltar and defeated the Visigothic king Roderic14.

• In 712, Tariq’s forces were reinforced by the Umayyad governor Musa ibn Nusayr. Over the next few years, they conquered most of the Iberian Peninsula except for remote areas in the north24.

• By 714, when Musa departed, most of Iberia was under Umayyad control and organized as the province of Al-Andalus, subordinate to the Umayyad Caliph in Damascus2.

• In 756, the Umayyad prince Abd ar-Rahman I, who had fled to Iberia after the Abbasids overthrew the Umayyads in Damascus, established an independent Umayyad Emirate in Cordoba25. This later became the Caliphate of Cordoba and ruled much of Iberia until 1031.

So in summary, the Umayyad Caliphate conquered most of Spain and Portugal between 711-714 CE, absorbing it into their expanding empire. An independent Umayyad dynasty then ruled the region, known as Al-Andalus, for nearly 300 years after that initial conquest. The Muslim domination of Spain lasted until the 13th-15th centuries.

Citations:
1 https://study.com/academy/lesson/factors-that-led-to-the-decline-of-islamic-spain.html
2 https://www.britannica.com/place/Al-Andalus
3 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Andalus
4 https://www.britannica.com/place/Spain/Muslim-Spain
5 https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Umayyad_conquest_of_Hispania
6 https://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/islam/history/spain_1.shtml
7 https://www.metmuseum.org/learn/educators/curriculum-resources/art-of-the-islamic-world/introduction/chronology
8 https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/the-last-muslim-king-in-spain

Umayyad - Largest Caliphate

• 5.17 million square miles is 1.36 times bigger than U.S.
• EU is 1.7 million square miles

Based on the information provided in the search results, the Umayyad Caliphate (661-750 CE) controlled the largest amount of territory at its peak:

• At its greatest extent, the Umayyad Caliphate covered 5.17 million square miles (13.4 million square kilometers), making it one of the largest empires the world had yet seen and the fifth largest empire in history in terms of area13.

• The Umayyad Caliphate became one of the largest unitary states in history and one of the few states to ever extend direct rule over three continents (Africa, Europe, and Asia)9.

• By the mid 8th century, the Umayyad Caliphate’s territories spanned across the Caucasus, Transoxiana, Sindh, the Maghreb and most of the Iberian Peninsula (Al-Andalus)19.

So in summary, the Umayyad Caliphate reached its territorial peak around 720-750 CE, controlling over 5 million square miles across Europe, North Africa and Asia. This made it likely the largest empire in the world at the time and one of the largest in history. Later Islamic caliphates and empires like the Abbasids and Ottomans, while vast, do not appear to have exceeded the Umayyads in total land area controlled at their respective zeniths based on the information provided.

Citations:
1 https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umayyad_Caliphate
2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umayyad_Caliphate
3 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Ottoman_Empire
4 https://www.worldhistory.org/Umayyad_Dynasty/
5 https://www.thecollector.com/umayyad-caliphate-empire-largest-islamic-state/
6 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbasid_Caliphate
7 https://www.britannica.com/place/Ottoman-Empire
8 https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-hccc-worldcivilization/chapter/the-abbasid-empire/
9 https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-hccc-worldcivilization/chapter/expansion-under-the-umayyad-caliphates/
10 https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/why-ottoman-empire-rose-fell
11 https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/world-history/medieval-times/cross-cultural-diffusion-of-knowledge/a/the-golden-age-of-islam
12 https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/limits-of-universal-rule/early-islamic-imperial-space/80FF78FB352B3D43B19B9D483BC268C1
13 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caliphate
14 https://www.worldhistory.org/Abbasid_Dynasty/
15 https://pressbooks.nscc.ca/worldhistory/chapter/chapter-12-islam-and-the-caliphates/
[16] https://www.britannica.com/topic/Abbasid-caliphate
[17] https://academic.oup.com/jogss/article/6/2/ogaa020/5826288
[18] https://human.libretexts.org/Courses/Sacramento_City_College/HIST_307:_History_of_World_Civilizations_to_1500_%28Lisuk%29/09:_Week_9/9.01:_Islam_to_the_Mamluks/9.1.10:_The_%27Abbasid_Caliphate
[19] https://www.worldhistory.org/image/12482/the-greatest-extent-of-the-ottoman-empire-in-europ/