What is the name of the conquests that began after Muhammad's death?
Q: What is the name of the conquests that began after Muhammad's death?
A: The first Muslim conquests (632–732), also referred to as the Islamic conquests or Arab conquests.
Q: What did Muhammad do when he established a new unified political polity in the Arabian peninsula?
A: He saw a century of rapid expansion of Arab power well beyond the Arabian peninsula in the form of a vast Muslim Arab Empire with an area of influence that stretched from northwest India, across Central Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, southern Italy, and the Iberian Peninsula, to the Pyrenees.
Q: What happened as a result of these conquests?
A: The Arab conquests brought about the collapse of the Sassanid Empire and a great territorial loss for the Byzantine Empire.
Q: Why were these empires unable to defend themselves against mobile Arab raiders?
A: They were militarily exhausted from decades of fighting one another which prevented them from dealing effectively with mobile Arab raiders operating from desert areas.
Q: How did some people living under these empires respond to Arab invaders?
A: Many welcomed them due to religious conflict in both empires.
Q: Who was responsible for this rapid expansion of power beyond Arabia?
A: Muhammad was responsible for this rapid expansion through his establishment of a new unified political polity in Arabia.
