Only working with Arab sources is opening yourself up to a sort of bias that to me seems equivalent if lesser than the bias of those who only work with western sources to understand Arab history.
Expansionism and low intensity raiding a lot brought vast material gains and as you say fit into the pattern of Arab tribal warfare in pre-Islamic Arabia. This alone is pragmatic interest - war as the Umayyads waged it was very profitable and its costs in exhaustion were often easily overlooked or difficult to see in the face of massive immediate financial gain. Conquering in the name of religion was often a primary motice, but I believe it was equally often a secondary motive, especially among those groups which were at the periphery.
I wasn't responding just to you when I claimed the Umayyads weren't exceptionally bloody, but the thread as a whole.
Expansionism and low intensity raiding a lot brought vast material gains and as you say fit into the pattern of Arab tribal warfare in pre-Islamic Arabia. This alone is pragmatic interest - war as the Umayyads waged it was very profitable and its costs in exhaustion were often easily overlooked or difficult to see in the face of massive immediate financial gain. Conquering in the name of religion was often a primary motice, but I believe it was equally often a secondary motive, especially among those groups which were at the periphery.
I wasn't responding just to you when I claimed the Umayyads weren't exceptionally bloody, but the thread as a whole.