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Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Arab conquests - an extraordinary
period in the 7th and 8th centuries when the tribes of the Arabian
Peninsula conquered the Middle East, Persia, North Africa and Southern
Europe and spread the ideas of the Islamic religion. In 632 the prophet
Muhammad died and left behind the nascent religion of Islam among a
few tribes in the Arabian Desert. They were relatively small in number, they
were divided among themselves and they were surrounded by vast and
powerful empires. Yet within 100 years Arab armies controlled territory
from Northern Spain to Southern Iran and Islamic ideas had begun to
profoundly refashion the societies they touched. It is one of the most
extraordinary and significant events in world history that began the slow
and profound transformation of Greek and Persian societies into Islamic
ones. But how did the Arab armies achieve such extensive victories, how
did they govern the people they conquered and what was the relationship
between the achievements of the Arabs and the religious beliefs they
carried with them?With Hugh Kennedy, Professor of Arabic at the School
of Oriental and African Studies, University of London; Amira Bennison,
Senior Lecturer in Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at the University of
Cambridge and Robert Hoyland, Professor in Arabic and Middle East
Studies at the University of St Andrews