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The Umayyad Caliphate

As the various political intrigues that resulted in the restoration of the Republic sorted themselves out, both in Constantinople and the hinterlands of Roman territory, the rest of the world was not sitting idly by. The various peoples that bordered Rome were forging their own histories, and, in many cases, those histories are better documented than the contemporary Roman histories were.

The greatest power of the age, excepting perhaps for Tang China in the far east, was the Umayyad Caliphate, which stretched, at the time of the siege of AD 717, from India in the east to Spain in the west. Though the Umayyads had been dealt a critical blow in their failure to take Constantinople, they were still in an entirely different league of power than any of their neighbors. When they faced failure, it was, more often than not, simply due to the sheer limits of empire in such an age.

That is not, however, to say that their exploits ended at Constantinople, and that they were content to live in decadent luxury within the walls of Damascus. Far from it. The raids that had marked Arab-Roman relations for nearly a century continued almost continuously for the entire life of the Umayyad Caliphate. It was these raids, more than any other threat, that necessitated the reformation of the Roman military into the Themes. All of Rome knew all too well that the raiders were opportunistic, and what could start as a simple operation to plunder and pillage could quickly turn into an impromptu occupation. That had been, after all, how so much of the Arab empire had been formed.

With this in mind, the Roman strategy was generally to simply make the raids as unprofitable for the Arabs as possible. Riders and beacons would send the alarm to all the surrounding regions whenever raiders entered into Roman territory. Though the Romans could now boast of large numbers in their military, due to the near universal conscription inherent in the thematic system, most of these troops at this time were little better than the stereotypical feudal peasant levy. What they did excel at, however, was guerrilla warfare. As the raiders plunged deeper into the territory, the Roman strategy was to avoid battle and simply pick off targets of opportunity, while the main armies were gathered up. Nightly sorties by local farmer militias were expected, and intimate knowledge of the terrain was crucial in out-maneuvering the invaders.

As Roman forces coalesced, they would seek to deny the Arabs any useful avenues of attack, and force them onto unfavorable terrain, as would be expected. However, an implicit facet of this entire defense-in-depth strategy was that the Romans almost counted on the sacking and looting of their territory. Drunk raiders with bags full of gold were much easier targets. The field armies would often circle like vultures, waiting for the Arabs to take the bait, and then seek to whittle down their numbers until a decisive battle was as risk-free as possible for the defenders, and the looted treasure could be returned to Roman hands.

This style of warfare was not particularly glorious or honorable, and there were no great histories written of the exploits of the Roman armies in this theater. But it halted the Arab advances into Anatolia, and honed the Themes into veteran forces. Even the conscript farmers who could expect to serve only a fraction of the year became battle hardened veterans by the standards of most empires. While the Roman Empire had built its martial reputation, first on heavy infantry and then on heavy cavalry, these armies would be some of the best skirmishers of the era. It was no long before the Romans could regularly launch counter raids into Umayyad territory. This had the sad effect of turning the border regions into no-man's-lands, though the overall result was that the border was solidified, and the raids gradually decreased, year by year, until the Umayyads' own troubles directed their energies elsewhere.

One of the early such troubles that the Umayyads faced, if it could be called such, was the stemming of their expansion into Gaul. Their conquest of the Visigoths had been largely unopposed, and they began to push beyond the Pyrenees into Aquitaine. There, they faced stiffer resistance, but had little trouble subjugating most of the southern cities. When the most powerful leader in Aquitaine, Odo, sided with the Muslims, much of southern Gaul was delivered directly into their hands. Though the Aquitainian elite would remain in power under Muslim rule, they were still subject to the orders of the Umayyad governor of Al-Andalus. In AD 735, that happened to be a man by the name of Abd al-Malik, who sought to prove himself on the field of battle. He began raiding into Frankish territory, under the protection of the Merovingian dynasty, though the real power in Francia was the Mayor of the Palace, one Charles.

Charles would cement his place in history as Charles Martel at the battle of Paris in that same year. With the forces of Abd al-Malik crossing the Loire border, the Frankish armies quickly responded to the threat to their capital. Well outside the Merovingian capital, the Umayyad forces were crushed by the Frankish heavy infantry, which Charles had deployed specifically to counter the invaders. As would be true throughout so much of history, heavy infantry utilizing shield wall tactics were the bane of cavalry, particularly light cavalry. With the death of their commander and facing serious losses, the invaders retreated back to their territory. However, though the Franks would follow up by keeping pressure on the Umayyads, the Arabs still maintained their hold on most of southern Gaul for the time.

Though halted on the mainland, the Umayyads would continue to put pressure on their neighbors. From their bases in Spain and southern Gaul, raiding fleets began to visit the islands of the Western Mediterranean. The Balearics had capitulated decades earlier, and now it was Corsica and Sardinia that received the brunt of the attention. Corsica would fall in AD 729, while it was being fought over by the Romans and Lombards, and Sardinia would meet a similar fate in AD 738, as the Romans there submitted to Arab suzerainty.

From these island bases, the whole of the west coast of Italy was open for attack, and the peninsula suffered greatly from this. The Lombards, controlling the greater part of Italy between their two realms (the Kingdom of the Lombards in the north, and the Duchy of Benevento in the south), bore the brunt of the raids. This was made all the more acute by their relative lack of naval forces. The Roman strip of land surrounding Rome had a shorter coastline, and their naval forces were stronger, so they were a less appealing target overall. That said, Sicily, being more exposed, and Rome, being a high profile target, did attract more attention from the raiders than the rest of Roman territory in the west.

This constant tension in the Mediterranean would be the rule right up until the end of the Umayyad Caliphate, as the vast empire collapsed under its own massive weight.

End

I figure the best way to counter my Roman fanboyism is to simply overpower their main competitor. It was fun.