The 2nd Battle of Yarmouk - Battle for the Middle East

Late Roman Reenactors

The Roman Middle East Ends

Battle for the Middle East Part IX

Here we are at Part IX of the titanic Battle for the Middle East.

Where Eastern Roman military history is addressed at all there are casual references to the Battle of Yarmouk in 636 AD. "Historians" effectively say the Arabs just magically showed up one day at Yarmouk and defeated a weak Roman Empire.

Nothing could be further from the truth.  This series details a Roman-Muslim slug fest taking place over many years and many battles over a huge geographical area.

In 629 AD the Roman Empire was enjoying a much deserved period of peace after a brutal 26 year long war of all wars with the Persian Empire.  Finally there was peace.  No one in Constantinople had any idea that a fresh invasion from the southern deserts would happen in a matter of months.

Part I  -  In Part I of this series we saw the first military contact between Romans and Muslim Arabs at the Battle of Mota (Mu'tah) in the Roman province of Palaestina Salutaris.  In 629 AD a force of Romans and their Christian Arab allies mauled the invading Muslim army forcing them to return to Medina.

Part II  -  In Part II we saw the Muslims turn their attention to a weakened Persian Empire. Muslims defeated the Persians in a series of battles. In 634 the Muslims marched up the Euphrates River through Persian Mesopotamia finally coming within 100 miles of the Roman frontier at Firaz. 

Firaz was at the outermost edge of the Persian Empire but it still contained an undefeated Persian garrison. There the Persians joined forces with the local Roman garrison and with Christian Arabs to take on the invaders. They were soundly defeated.

Part III  -  In Part III we have the Emperor Heraclius organizing the defense of Palaestina Salutaris.  Muslims made a wide flanking movement of hundreds of miles through waterless deserts to threaten Damascus.

The Romans held their own in eastern Syria against this attack and effectively defeated the Arabs at the Battle of Marj Rahit in 634. They drove the Arabs south away from Damascus. The Romans had also dug in at the Daraa Gap fortifications in eastern Palestine and held their positions against Arab attacks.

But the Romans were defeated in southwest Palestine allowing Muslim forces to fan out reaching as far north as Lydda and Jaffa.

Roman Archers

Part IV  -  Battle of Ajnadayn 634. The Romans were dug in at Daraa in Syria and were successfully holding off the invading Muslim army. Emperor Heraclius sent a second army down coastal Palestine with the support of the Roman Navy. The goal was to defeat the smaller Muslim army at Beersheeba and then block the lines of communications to Mecca of the Muslim army at Daraa forcing them to retreat back to Arabia.

Part V  -  1st Battle of Yarmouk (634 AD).  In a huge multi-day battle the Roman Army is pushed out of their prepared defenses at the Daraa Gap. The Romans began to withdraw and made an orderly retreat north to Damascus and other walled cities.

The door to Syria had been forced open.

Part VI  -  After a siege lasting for six months Damascus falls to Muslim invaders who lacked any siege equipment. Traitor Christians inside the city opened the gates and allowed the Muslim troops to enter the city. Damascus was sort of a great victory for the Arabs. After months of a siege the Muslims could not carry the city's defenses and needed Christian traitors within the walls to win the day.

The Muslims may have opened the door to Syria, but victory was a long way off. There were Roman armies operating all over Palestine and Syria and holding walled cities such as Jerusalem, Caesarea, Tyre and Tripoli. The coastal cities could also be resupplied and reinforced by the Roman Navy.

Part VII  -  After the fall of Damascus, Syria Muslim forces started their move north. Escaping Roman civilians and soldiers were massacred at Maraj-al-Debj in September of 635. Many survivors were sold into slavery by the Muslims.

The Muslims went on to lay Siege to the city of Homs from December 635 to March 636. After the fall of Homs the Muslims set out once again for the north, intending to take the whole of Northern Syria this time, including Aleppo and Antioch. They went past Hama and arrived at Shaizar. 

There they stopped as they faced a new Roman army raised by the Emperor Heraclius.

Part VIII  -  In the early months of 636 the Empire stuck back in Syria. Simply, the Muslims abandoned all their gains and ran south as fast as possible.

The great walled cities of Damascus and Homs captured with months of siege warfare and much blood were abandoned without a single arrow fired. The story was the same for all the other towns and villages. The Muslims ran.

The Muslims fell back to the Daraa Gap where in the 1st Battle of Yarmouk (September 634) they had forced the Romans to leave their prepared fortifications. The Muslims passed through the Gap with the Romans hot on their heals. The Romans re-occupied their old defenses and slammed shut the Door to Syria.

Lieutenant-General Sir John Bagot Glubb, KCB, CMG, DSO, OBE, MC

Explaining the 2nd Battle of Yarmouk

The fact that "historians" have no clue that there was ever a 1st Battle of Yarmouk two years earlier tells you a lot about their true knowledge of events.

As far as I am concerned Glubb Pasha's 1964 book The Great Arab Conquests is the Holy Grail on the Arab invasions. 

Glubb was fluent in Arabic and able to read the original documents. In addition he was commander of the British Arab Legion and personally campaigned on the very ground the Romans and Muslims fought over. Because the "history" of the early invasions is a jumbled mess I have been using Glubb Pasha's dates and timeline for events.

Glubb Pasha:   

"The records of the fighting which occurred between the Arabs and the Byzantine army in Syria are extremely confusing. Our sources are virtually restricted to the Arab historians who wrote more more than a century after the events . . . and who themselves were obviously ignorant of, or indifferent to, the course of the military operations. It was purely by accident that I discovered what appears to me now to be the key to the comprehension of the Arab campaigns in Syria, namely the narrow defile between the Yarmouk River and the Jebel Druze at Derra. . . .

In July 1941 . . . it was feared that the German army, which had seized the Balkans, would attack Turkey and move southwards through Syria and Palestine to Egypt. . . . It was important to discover all the available narrow defiles, where armoured mechanized forces would be at a disadvantage . . . . to hold up German mechanized columns. . . . I myself was employed to examine the area round Deraa.

The Yarmouk River . . . . has cut a deep gorge down which it falls into the Jordan valley . . . . This gorge begins near the town of Deraa. East and northeast of Deraa lies a large group of mountains formed by extinct volcanoes, all the slopes of which are strewn with large black boulders of lava. In place, movement in this area is difficult even to men on foot, while horses and camels are almost immobilized and wheels entirely so. The lava-strewn spurs run down into the plain very nearly to the point at which the Yarmouk becomes an impassable gorge. . . . In 1941, we named this narrow defile the "Deraa gap". We decided to dig an anti-tank ditch across it and to build an entrenched position for an infantry brigade to close the gap.

All the European historians of the Muslim conquest of Syria complain of the vagueness and inaccuracy of the Arab records. Again and again the rival armies are reported to be facing one another on the Yarmouk. Then they disperse again without result. Were there several encounters on the Yarmouk, and why does that name keep recurring? It was only when I myself reconnoitered the area for a military purpose that, all of a sudden, the veil fell, as it were, from my eyes. Useful as this defile would be to prevent a German attack from the north, it was obvious to me that it would be  of even great importance in resisting an army coming up from the south. In so far as invasion from Arabia was concerned, the Deraa gap would be the Thermopylae of Syria.

In 1941, the Germans were invincible at their lightning mechanical warfare. . . . The only way to oppose these mechanized-avalanche tactics was to fight in close country, in mountains, in passes in narrow gaps . . . .

The Muslims were extremely light and mobile, and their tactics consisted of a wild charge . . . retreat and turning movements, cutting communications and supplies. In the open plain, the heavy slow-moving Byzantine troops could not compete with this mobility. But the Arabs could not fight a close-order infantry battle, by push of pike as it were. They had not sufficient body-armour, they were not trained to fight in close, well disciplined ranks. More over they had no heavy support weapons. A cloud of arrows was their only covering fire. Thus they easily overran the deserts and plains of Trans-Jordan and southern Palestine but were afraid of the mountains and defiles.

Dreading the Arab blitzkrieg, the Byzantine army in 634 (the 1st Battle of Yarmouk), like the British army in 1941, established an entrenched camp near Deraa in the gap between the Yarmouk's gorge and the lava beds. The Arabs would sometimes skirmish in front of this camp and sometime withdraw, but their lack of military science made it difficult for them to assault it. Khalid's operations round Palmyra and Damascus would thus have the object of persuading the Byzantines to withdraw from Deraa, a result, however, which they failed to achieve."

The fact that "historians" have no clue that there was ever a 1st Battle of Yarmouk two years earlier tells you a lot about their true knowledge of events.

The prepared, fortified Roman positions in the Daraa Gap were protected on the left by the deep gorges created by the Yarmouk River above and on the right by the lava mountains of Jebel Hauran.

Roman Victory in Syria

In 636 the Emperor Heraclius assembled a large army to retake Syria from Muslim Control.

We may not know the exact size or makeup of the Roman Army. All we can do is judge the reaction of the Muslim forces facing them.

Simply, the Muslims abandoned all their gains and ran south as fast as possible.

The great walled cities of Damascus and Homs captured with months of siege warfare and much blood were abandoned without a single arrow fired. The story was the same for all the other towns and villages. The Muslims ran through the Daraa Gap and out into the desert beyond.

The Roman army moved in and re-occupied their old defenses slamming shut the Door to Syria.

Heraclius' policy was to stonewall and gain time to build up his forces to liberate Palestine..

The 2nd Battle of Yarmouk

The Yarmouk Defences

This is one of the greatest and most important battles in history, and yet we know next to nothing about events.

The Roman Army started their march south from Antioch in March or April of 636. The Muslims ran as fast as possible never giving battle. The Romans rapidly recaptured Syria and may have reoccupied their Daraa Gap defences around May or June.

As you can see from General Glubb's map above the Daraa Gap was not narrow. The Romans had to defend a front that was 15 miles wide. Not an easy task for any army.

So what were the "prepared defences" that Gen. Glubb spoke of? We can only guess.

Obviously there is no permanent 15 mile long Hadrian's Wall. There was no need. For centuries the enemy of Rome in the east was the Persian Empire not the Arabs so there was no need for major defences facing south.

So when the Muslims invaded the province of Palaestina Salutaris in 634 I believe the Emperor Heraclius ordered the erection of a string of the traditional fortified earthen Roman marching camps to help block the Daraa Gap. Earthen because I doubt any lumber was easily available to strengthen the walls, though the army may have brought some with them.

The Roman infantry would man the strong points and the cavalry units would patrol the gaps between the forts. Any Muslims pushing through between the forts would have Roman infantry behind them and could be caught in a vice of infantry and cavalry.

So the Roman line was anchored on the Yarmouk River on their right and the Lava fields on their left with forts and cavalry holding the center.

View of the remains of the Roman base camp when the 10th Roman Legion laid siege to Masada. With a lack of trees in the desert it is likely that the Romans erected a series of earthen forts in the Daraa Gap to block the Muslims.

(pinterest.com)

The Opposing Forces

Troop numbers are all over the map and no one can really know the true numbers.

Muslim forces may have numbered between 15,000 and 40,000. I doubt the higher number based on the difficulty in supplying a large force in the desert. I select 25,000 because . . . . well, why not? It's as good a number as any and looks practical.

The Muslim army was commanded by Khalid ibn al-Walid.  Khalid organized the army into 36 infantry regiments and four cavalry regiments, with his cavalry elite, the mobile guard, held in reserve.

The exact size and composition of the Roman Army and its units in the Yarmouk campaign is a matter of considerable debate due to the scantness and ambiguous nature of the primary sources.

A typical Eastern Empire field army often numbered 15,000 to 20,000 men. It is possible that this being a major effort to recapture Syria and Palestine then all stops might have been pulled out. I would put my guess at an army of 30,000 plus.

The Emperor appointed Theodore Trithyrius as perhaps Commander-in-Chief in the newly raised army. Trithyrius was a Greek Christian and Roman Treasurer working for Emperor Heraclius and extremely loyal to the Emperor himself. He enjoyed supremacy under his title of sacellarius, usually appointed to the state treasurer.

Many Imperial regiments had been destroyed or badly mauled in recent campaigns. So the Emperor looked east to Armenia for the bulk of his troops. With the Persians defeated Armenia would have been a quiet front well able to spare frontier troops for Syria. 

This does not mean the Armenians were mercenaries. Far from it. While some Armenians may have signed on just for this campaign the history of Armenian Legions in the Roman Army goes back centuries. It is possible many of the Armenian troops were trained professionals or maybe partly trained militia that were called into service.

The units in the other one-third of the army varied. Roman ally Jabalah ibn al-Aiham, King of the Ghassanid Arabs, commanded an exclusively Christian Arab force. Other army contingents consisted of Slavs, Franks and Georgians. Buccinator, a Slavic prince, commanded the Slavs. 

Byzantine sources mention Niketas the Persian, son of the Persian general Shahrbaraz, among the commanders. With Persia and Rome allied against the Muslims did Niketas bring with him a contingent of Persian troops? or did he command Romans? We do not know.

Perhaps two-thirds of the new army were Armenians and Christian Arabs. 

These different units coming together under one commander would not be new for the Romans. Foreign troops during the late Roman period were known as the Foederati ("allies") in Latin and often supplemented the regular army units.

The Commander-in-Chief in the army may have been Trithyrius. But Trithyrius was basically a bean counter from the Treasury. His level of military experience is unknown.  Vahan, an Armenian and the former garrison commander of Emesa, was in command of his Armenian units and may have had some command over the non-Armenian troops. . . . or perhaps command was partly shared with a somewhat joint council of the leaders of the different units.

 Colorized 1898 photo of a Bedouin warrior on horseback carrying a traditional Az-Zayah hunting spear. The Romans may have face soldiers much like this man.
(dailymail.co.uk)

The Battle

Under their king the mobile and nimble Christian Arabs acted as an ideal cavalry screen in front of the main Roman Army and pushed the Muslims almost totally out of Syria.

With the Muslims pushed out beyond the Daraa Gap the main Roman Army reocuppied the fortifications they had abandoned 18 months earlier. No doubt a lot of work was needed to strengthen the old strong points.

This second deadlock at the Daraa Gap lasted about four months.

A four month standoff between armies is a far cry from the incorrect single "Battle of Yarmouk" that historians talk about.

The Muslims tried to lure the Romans out of their prepared positions to no avail. On the other hand the Muslims had no desire to directly attack the Roman line, and that showed their weakness.

The Muslims tried to break the deadlock by working around the flanks of the Romans. Small units of Muslims infiltrated to the west over the Yarmouk River and to the east over the lava beds. These small units could threaten Roman supply lines with attacks and even pick off small units of Roman foragers.

More important there was an atmosphere of mistrust between the Romans, Greeks, Armenians and Arabs. Command lines were not clear and there appears to have been a struggle for power between Trithyrius and the Armenia commander Vahan. The effect of the feud was a decrease in coordination and planning.

Some say the Romans should have attacked the Muslims at once when they arrived. That action had seen the defeat of other Roman forces in the past. The Emperor's plan was to hold firm at Yarmouk. But while the Romans held firm Muslim reinforcements from Arabia were coming.

With the added troops the Muslims became increasingly aggressive. It is confusing but it appears that the Arabs came close to surrounding the Romans - - - or at least they had cut the Roman's communications on three sides.

A massive desert dust storm blinded the Roman Army
reducing visibility to near zero.

Some "Historians" claim the final conflict was a multi-day battle. General Glubb says it was all over in one day.

On August 20, 636 there was a massive sand storm. A hot wind was blowing clouds of sand and dust directly into the faces of the Romans.

• Gen. Glubb:  "Few experiences are more unpleasant than a really hot dust-storm in the desert. Tents are blown down, cooking is impossible, food and drink are full of grit and the blinding sand stings the face and closes the eyes. Visibility may be reduced to a few yards. To face such a wind is impossible. There is nothing to be done but to crouch on the ground, and wait miserably for the storm to blow itself out."

The Arab attack was planned. Glubb believes the dust storm started the day before on the 19th. Seeing an opportunity the Arabs appear to have early on seized the bridge over the Wadi al Ruqqad which was on the Roman's lines of communications.

• Gen. Glubb:  "While even bedouin scarcely enjoys a sand storm, it was to them a normal experience. Moreover the direction of the gale was from them to the enemy. Their vision was hampered, but with the wind behind them, they could attack with their eyes open, suffering little inconvenience. Such circumstances would obviously produce a soldier's battle. An army accustomed to fight in ranks by word of command would, under these conditions, be almost helpless." 

This was an impossible situation for any army. The Muslims could not break the Roman line - the sand storm did it for them.

• Gen. Glubb:  "Then a wild horde of screaming Arabs, suddenly appearing like ghosts through the driving sand, poured across the Byzantine fortifications. If the dust-storm was really thick, it is unlikely that the imperial army succeeded in giving battle at all. With the bridge in their rear already seized by the Muslims, an immense slaughter resulted, Theodorus himself being killed in the melee. By the next morning, the Byzantine army, which Heraclius had spent a year of immense exertion to collect, had entirely ceased to exist. There was no withdrawal, no rearguard action, no nucleus of survivors. There was nothing left."

Aftermath

Roman Syria and Palestine still existed. Roman garrisons still controlled Jerusalem and Damascus. The navy supported the garrisons holding out in coastal towns such as Carsarea, Trye, Sidon and Tripoli.

The Muslims had failed to break the Roman defensive line. One has to speculate what would history have been like if there had been no sand storm. With no storm the army at Daraa might have withdrawn to Damascus and reorganized to fight another day. The Muslims could have been stopped there while the Roman Navy supported the coastal cities. Interesting thoughts to ponder.

When the aged Emperor Heraclius in Antioch heard about Yarmouk he knew the decision was irrevocable. He would have tried to reconquer the province if he had the resources but now had neither the men nor the money to defend the province any more.

Heraclius took to the sea on a ship to Constantinople in the night. 

Tradition says as his ship set sail he bade a last farewell to Syria:

Farewell, a long farewell to Syria, my fair province. Thou art an infidel's (enemy's) now. Peace be with you, O Syria—what a beautiful land you will be for the enemy.

Heraclius abandoned Syria with the holy relic of the True Cross, which was, along with other relics held at Jerusalem, secretly boarded on ship by Sophronius, Patriarch of Jerusalem, just to protect it from the invading Arabs.

After abandoning Syria, he began to concentrate on his remaining forces for the defense of Anatolia, Egypt and Byzantine Armenia . Heraclius created a buffer zone in central Anatolia by ordering all the forts east of Tarsus to be evacuated.

But these stories are for Part X.

Limitanei static frontier guard troops existed 
through the Persian Wars and the Arab Conquest.

Read More:
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Part I - Roman Empire vs Islam - First Contact
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Part II - A Persian-Roman Army Fights Muslim Invaderskk

Part III - Muslims Invade Roman Palestinem
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Part IV - Battle of Ajnadayn
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Part V - The 1st Battle of Yarmouk

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Part VI - The Fall of Damascus

Part VII - The Swaying Struggle

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Part VIII - The Empire Strikes Back

Late Roman Empire Cavalry
The basic look of the Roman cavalry during the Arab invasions would have not changed all that much. The heavy Cataphract units would have more armor and other units would have less for better mobility. The armored cavalry would act as the mailed fist of any Roman field army.
(Roman Empire.net)

(Yarmuk)    (Yarmouk)    (Great Arab Conquests) 

Byzantine Armor Reproductions

Eastern Roman 10th century armor reproduction. The mural in  Agios Nestorios church below was used as a model by Agios Nikolaos.

From Byzantine Army Facebook

The armor of Eastern Romans are unknown to the general public largely because there are no sufficient archaeological findings to allow an easy and immediate reconstruction of their original form. 

The armor of Orthodox Military Saints reflect precisely the power of the Eastern Roman Emperors, the invincibility of the army, the grandeur of the Empire, the triumph of victories, the Roman military virtues (virtus invicta, virtus perpetua, auctoritas, dignitas, virtus, pietas), the Divine Protection and Welfare. So far there has not been found any manual that describes the exact detailed structure of Byzantine armors (also known as "Klivania"), so we are not able to know the exact method of construction.

The Byzantines had an innate preference for armors of composite construction, leather and metal being the two key elements of their Klivania. The main types of Klivanion armor of 10th and 11th centuries were the following:

• Scale armors (Klivanion)
• Chain mail
• Padded armors
• Plate armors (Muscle cuirass)
• Lamellar armors

The combination of these types of armor resulted in the production of a wide variety of defensive weapons. A heavily armed Byzantine Cataphract was almost immune to enemy attacks.

There were several military manuals written in the Eastern Roman Empire. Some of them list the pieces of armor worn by the different classes of infantry and cavalry soldiers. 

The hoplitai (‘heavy’ infantry) who formed the bulk of the foot soldiers were deployed en masse in pike blocks. Essentially a ‘mobile fortress’ for the offensive cavalry arm to sally from and retire to, they would engage in close combat only as a last resort. 

Relying mainly on their large shields and a forest of points for protection, they wore a coat (kabadion) padded with raw silk or cotton. In the first half of the 10th c. the sleeves of this coat extended to the wrist, providing some protection for the lower arm. Later, the sleeves were shortened toward elbow length. In both cases the sleeves were slit and buttoned so they could be folded back, presumably to prevent overheating on the march. 

They did not even have metal helmets - only a thick felt cap (kamelaukion) worn under a turban (phakiolion). The infantry wore boots, which could be supple and thigh-length, or thick (“doubled”) and knee-length, providing some leg protection.

Roman soldiers 6th and 7th century
Facebook.com/Numerus Invictorum

6th Century Eastern Roman Cavalry 

The 6th Century historian Procopius speaks in detail of the armored horse-archers of his time. They would use arrows to break up enemy formations and then charge in for the kill.


(Armies in the past) "were so indifferent in their practice of archery that they drew the bowstring only to the breast, so that the missile sent forth was naturally impotent and harmless to those whom it hit. Such, it is evident, was the archery of the past. 

But the bowmen of the present time go into battle wearing corselets and fitted out with greaves which extend up to the knee. From the right side hang their arrows, from the other the sword. And there are some who have a spear also attached to them and, at the shoulders, a sort of small shield without a grip, such as to cover the region of the face and neck."

"They are expert horsemen, and are able without difficulty to direct their bows to either side while riding at full speed, and to shoot an opponent whether in pursuit or in flight. They draw the bowstring along by the forehead about opposite the right ear, thereby charging the arrow with such an impetus as to kill whoever stands in the way, shield and corselet alike
 having no power to check its force. 

Still there are those who take into consideration none of these things, who reverence and worship the ancient times, and give no credit to modern improvements." 

Procopius

(500 to 560 AD)

History of the Wars

_________________________________

In later times the kaballarioi or ordinary cavalry wore helmets (kassidia) and a short klibanion (lamellar corslet) or lorikon (mail shirt), legs were unprotected except again by boots, and speculatively by padded hose (toubia). Mounted archers also had belted kabadia, padded coats with long and full skirts screening their legs (and the flanks of their horse), probably as they were not able to use their shield as cover from missiles while using the bow.

Around 950 a superheavy cavalry unit was formed - the klibanophori or kataphraktoi. Their entire body, and their horses as well were armored. Over their lamellar klibanion, which had elbow-length sleeves (manikia), they wore an epilorikon, which was a padded surcoat. Their iron helmets (kassidas sideras) had doubled or tripled zabai (‘screens’, of mail?) covering the whole face except the eyes. 

Both lower arms and thighs were protected by thickly padded silk or cotton guards, called manikelia for the arms, and kremasmata for the legs, but reinforced by zabai, here possibly meaning panels of mail or strips/plates of leather or horn (or possibly metal). On the lower leg greaves (chalkotoubai) were worn - their construction is not described and the term is a transference of an ancient one, originally referring to the solid bronze ones worn by classical Greek hoplites.

Byzantine Armor
Manufactured by Dimitrios
Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection.

Equipment included a padded leather coat( peristhethidion) underneath that extended to the elbows and then a layer of steel Lamellar scales known as the Klivanion were put on over that. Other sources indicate that one or two layers of mail were put in between the jacket and Lamellar, but whether this was adopted before or after the is unknown.  On top of all this armor was a padded and highly decorated coat known as the Epilorikion.

The Roman armor was so effective against lances and other piercing/slashing instruments that in the battle of Dyrrakhion the Emperor Alexius Commenus  sustained several lances to various parts of his body which only managed to slightly unseat him. When he finally fled he many of the lances were still stuck in him, giving him the appearance of a pincushion.  (necromoprhvsfellowship)

(members.ozemail.com.au)    (hellenicarmors.gr)

Battle For The Mediterranean - The Arab Conquest of Malta

North African Arab Warriors
(epicalm.com)

The Muslim Conquests

Starting in 639 AD the Muslims began their conquest of Roman North Africa by invading Egypt. After Egypt the Muslims moved across North Africa one by one taking the Roman provinces of Tripolitania and the lands controlled by the Exarchate of Africa.

In 708 AD the Roman fortress of Septem on the coast or Morocco and the surrounding territories were the last area of Roman Africa to be occupied by the Arabs.

With Africa under control the Muslims invaded Spain.

Then starting in the early-800s the semi-independent Emirs of Ifriqiya began a decades long battle for the control of Sicily and southern Italy.

These endless back and forth battles between the Muslims and Romans prove the historical nonsense of so-called "easy and rapid" Arab victories.

For over 200 years the Romans contested every inch of ground in Africa and Italy.  For example, after the fall of Carthage to the Muslims in 695 the Roman Navy in 697 staged an amphibious operation in North Africa, landed an army and re-captured Carthage.

And that brings us to Malta.

Battle For The Mediterranean
Malta was a key Roman Fortress
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By holding Malta the Eastern Romans could threaten Muslims in both Africa and well as when they crossed the sea and attacked Sicily and Italy.
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This map shows the dates of the endless battles between both sides. Muslim attacks and victories are in green and Roman attacks and victories are in red.

Muslims Target Malta

Sicily was first invaded by the Arab forces of Caliph Uthman in 652. The Arabs failed to make any permanent gains, and returned to Syria after gathering some booty.

By the end of the 7th century, with the Umayyad conquest of North Africa, they had captured the nearby port city of Carthage, allowing the Arabs to build shipyards and a permanent base from which to make more sustained attacks.

Around 700, the island of Pantelleria was captured by Arabs. Attacks from Muslim fleets repeated in 703, 728, 729, 730, 731, 733 and 734, the last two times meeting with a substantial Roman resistance. The first true conquest expedition was launched in 740 and captured Syracuse but then returned to Africa.

The Muslim attacks and invasions went on and on into the 800s. 

It because obvious that Malta provided a naval base and staging area for the Romans to attack Muslim ships and soldiers making runs to Italy. That base had to be eliminated.

Roman Fortress of Melite
A possible reconstruction of the Roman walls of Melite (model by Richard Azzopardi and Stephen C. Spiteri, displayed at the Fortifications Interpretation Centre)

The 868 Siege of Malta

Dates are all over the place and sometimes when events happened is just a guess.

The reason behind the attack can be better explained if one bears in mind that Malta was considered a threat to North Africa's security. The Island, with its good natural harbors, served as an important base from where to wage war on Africa. It was a well-known fact that the Romans, who were a strong maritime power in the Mediterranean by far superior to the Arabs at the time, were making use of Malta's harbors to strike against Africa.

The Aghlabid dynasty in Africa attacked Malta at least twice. Khalaf, a freed slave, masterminded the first attack in 868. Khalaf was known for his construction of mosques, bridges and wells. he had great difficulties to succeed in the campaign and met his death in the Siege of Malta.

This first attack was a complete failure. The Arab army suffered a crushing defeat.  The island and, in particular, its capital city were well fortified by the Romans to the extent that they could offer resistance to any invading army.

The Conquest of Malta in 870

Conquering Malta meant removing an obstacle which stood in the way of the Arab conquest of Syracuse in Sicily. In fact, the fall of Syracuse came eight years after that of Malta. No doubt Roman Malta had a strong political, economic and religious relationship with this important Roman city and she was offering help, through her maritime networks, to resist the onslaught of Arab attacks.

Taking into consideration the geographical situation of the times, it was impossible to keep an army in Malta for an entire winter period. While Malta had good harbors for the fleet, such a large army needed resources. Again, this possibility went against the military strategy adopted by the Aghlabids at the time. It was not their custom to set out on a two-year continuous siege.

The attack in 870 is recorded in the Chronicle of Cambridge and by an anonymous Arab geographer. Muslims laid siege to the ancient Roman city-fortress of Melite.

The city withstood the siege for some weeks or months, but it ultimately fell to the invaders, and its inhabitants were massacred and the city was sacked the local cathedral's marble columns were sent to Africa and its fortifications razed.

The events of 868 can perhaps help us to explain why the Arabs moved with such ferocity against Malta in 870, destroying everything they came across, thus rendering the Island barren for a number of years. One cannot fail to consider that such ruthless destruction was in fact a form of punishment. First of all, the Arabs wanted to avenge the death of Khalaf.

Secondly, they wanted to ensure that the Island could not be used as a base for Roman incursions against Ifriqiyya. This explains why one author described Malta as being a wasteland for many years.

The fall of Malta ended over 300 years of Eastern Roman rule.

The fall of Malta had important ramifications for the defense of what remained of Roman Sicily: with Reggio Calabria and now Malta in their hands, the Muslims completed their encirclement of Sicily, and could easily interdict any aid sent from the east.

19th Century North African Arab Warriors
The Romans would have faced troops much like these soldiers.
(epicalm.com)

Modern Malta
 Malta fell to the Roman Republic in 218 BC, and it remained part of the Roman and later the Eastern Roman Empire until 870 AD, when it was captured and destroyed by the invading Aghlabids. Muslims.

(core.ac.uk)     (Melite)    (Malta)

Latin Speaking Africa

Brutus and Cassius in HBO's Rome

Language Follows Military Power

It is rather simple, language follows military conquest and economic power.

We saw the Greek language take hold in much of Egypt with the conquest by Alexander the Great. The same is true in North Africa. With the fall of Carthage to Rome in 146 BC we saw Roman military colonies and economic activity spread the Latin language along coastal Libya, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco.

The populations of Roman North Africa that had a Romanized culture and used to speak their own variety of Latin as a result. Latin continued to be used for centuries after the fall of the Western Empire in 476 AD. 

The Latin speaking local population went on during the conquest by the Germanic Vandal tribes and on into the re-conquest period by the Eastern Roman Empire.

What happened to African Latin following the Arab conquest in 696-705 AD is difficult to trace, though it was soon replaced by Arabic as the primary administrative language. At the time of the conquest a the Latin language was probably spoken in the cities and Berber languages were also spoken in the region.

Romanization of Africa in 4th century CE
Red Latin, Pink 60 to 90% Latin

North African Roman Provinces
The province of Mauretania Caesariensis existed from 42 AD to the 7th Century. During and after the Fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century, most of the hinterland area was lost, first to the Vandal Kingdom and later to the Mauro-Roman Kingdom, with Roman administration limited to the capital of Caesarea.
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The land was reconquered by Rome during the reign of Justinian. In the late 580s, under the emperor Maurice, all of the Maghreb was granted to the Exarchate of Africa, and Mauretania Caesariensis became part of a new province, Mauretania Prima. The Muslim conquest of the Maghreb in the late 600s brought an end to Roman rule.
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Over time the use of Latin would have moved closer and closer to the coast.

Arch of Caracalla (Triumphal Arch)
In Volubilis, Roman Morocco
The city fell to local tribes around 285 and was never retaken by Rome because of its remoteness and indefensibility on the south-western border of the Roman Empire. It continued to be inhabited for at least another 700 years, as a Latinised Christian community.  The Eastern Empire retained a small island of control on the Moroccan coast until the Arab conquest.

Roman Military Colonies

Latin speaking Roman Africans lived in all the coastal cities of contemporary Tunisia, Western Libya, Algeria and Morocco.

The Roman Africans were generally local Berbers or Punics, but also the descendants of the populations that came directly from Rome itself or the diverse regions of the Empire as legionaries and senators.

The African province was amongst the wealthiest regions in the Empire (rivaled only by Egypt, Syria and Italy itself) and as a consequence people from all over the Empire migrated into the province. Large numbers of Roman Army veterans settled in Northwest Africa on farming plots promised for their military service.

Since the second half of the first century BC and as a result of increasing communities of Roman citizens living in the North African centers, Rome started to create colonies in North Africa.

1. The main reason was to control the area with Roman citizens, who had been legionaries in many cases. 
2. The second reason was to give land and urban properties to the Roman military troops who had fought for the Roman Empire and so decrease the demographic problem in the Italian peninsula. 
3. The third reason was to facilitate the Romanization of the area and so the integration of the local Berbers -through marriage and other relationships- in the Roman Empire's social and cultural world.

Emperor Septimius Severus
From Leptis Magna in the Roman province of Africa. Septimius Severus grew up in Leptis Magna. He spoke the local Punic language fluently, but he was also educated in Latin and Greek, which he spoke with a slight accent.

Under Theodosius the area east of the Fossa regia was fully Romanized with one third of the population made of Italian colonists and their descendants. The other two thirds were Romanized Berbers, who were all Christians and nearly all Latin speaking.

Called the "Granary of the Empire", Romano-berber North Africa produced one million tons of cereals each year, one-quarter of which was exported. Additional crops included beans, figs, grapes, and other fruits. By the second century, olive oil rivaled cereals as an export item. In addition to the cultivation of slaves, and the capture and transporting of exotic wild animals, the principal production and exports included the textiles, marble, wine, timber, livestock, pottery such as African Red Slip, and wool.

Berber Africa -from northern Morocco to Tripolitania- had a population of more than 3 million inhabitants in the third century.

Nearly 40% were living in more than 500 cities. But in the sixth century -after the Byzantine reconquest- the population was reduced to less than 2.5 millions and after the Arab conquest in the eighth to tenth centuries there remained only one million.

There were 20 cities in the territory of actual Tunisia with the title and privileges of "Roman Coloniae" or similar, while in Algeria there was nearly the same amount and in Morocco and Libya only a few. 

The most important was the "capital" new Carthago, with more than 300,000 inhabitants during Septimius Severus times (who enhanced Leptis Magna -where he was born- to be the second city of Berber Africa with nearly 100,000 inhabitants).  

The verified "Roman Coloniae" in Africa were:

• in Africa Proconsularis: Assuras, Carpis, Carthago, Curubis, Neapolis, Simithu, Thuburnica, Madaure, Thubursicum Numidiae and Zama
• in Numidia: Cirta, Arsacal, Rusicae, Sigus, Tiddis, Verecunda, Cuicul, Masculla, Thamugadi and Theveste
• in Mauretania Caesariensis: Caesarea, Cartenna, Oppidum Novum and Rusguniae
• in Mauretania Tingitana: Volubilis, Lixus, Tingis, Banasa, Babba and Zilil
• in Mauretania Sitifensis: Auzia and Sitifis
• in Tripolitania: Leptis Magna

 A mosaic on the floor ‘Labors of Hercules house’
in Volubilis, near Meknes, Morocco.

The End of Latin

The Muslim conquest of North Africa in the late 600s and early 700s did not end Latin. Local Latin speaking communities appear to have gone on for many centuries.

Spoken Latin is attested in the city of Gabès by Ibn Khordadbeh (died 912), in Béja, Biskra, Tlemcen and Niffis by al-Bakri (died 1094) and in Gafsa and Monastir by al-Idrisi (died 1165). 

The latter said of Gafsa that "its inhabitants are Berberised, and most of them speak the African Latin tongue."

The Normans, when they were acquiring their African kingdom in the 12th century, received help from the remaining Christian populations of Tunisia, and some historians argue that those Christians still spoke a Romance language.

The language existed until the arrival of the Banu Hilal Arabs in the 11th century and probably until the beginning of the fourteenth century. According to one historian, "Christian communities, generally labelled Afariqa or Ajam in the Arab sources and speaking a Latin dialect ... are known to have survived until the fourteenth century."

Virginie Prevost pinpointed that -between the Berbers of Afrikiya- the African Romance language was linked to Christianity, that survived in north Africa until the XIV century and according to the testimony of Mawlâ Aḥmad probably until the early XVIII century in Touzeur (south of Gafsa). 

The Arab Mawla Ahmad wrote that in 1709 "the inhabitants of Tazeur are what remains of the Christians who were once in Afrikiya, before the Arab conquest".

Click to enlarge

Languages of the Eastern Roman Empire

Portrait of the Roman African poet Terentius

Terentius may have been born in or near Carthage. He may have lived in the territory of the Libyan tribe called by the Romans Afri. 

Roman Emperor Heraclius
Heraclius brought an army from Latin speaking Carthage to Constantinople to overthrow the Emperor Phocas. He was crowned Caesar Flavius Heraclius Augustus in 610.

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