What if Constantinople is conquered by the Umayyid army in 718?

What if the second Arab siege of Constantinople was successful? Assume that when the walls are breached, the invading army razes much of the city, severely damaging the libraries retaining most of the preserved Roman records and literature. How does the fall of Constantinople and presumed final collapse of the Roman Empire along with the loss of Roman learning change history?
 
As a knock-on effect, I"m very curious what happens to the Exarchate of Ravenna along with Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica. Will they remain a unified body, a remaining remnant of Rome? Will the Italian enlaves finally be conquered by the Lombards? Or will they break into their natural parts and become feudal principalities in their own right?
 

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What if the second Arab siege of Constantinople was successful? Assume that when the walls are breached, the invading army razes much of the city, severely damaging the libraries retaining most of the preserved Roman records and literature. How does the fall of Constantinople and presumed final collapse of the Roman Empire along with the loss of Roman learning change history?

Assuming that the Siege is successful (and I have strong doubts it would). It would lead to an earlier Islamic penetration into the Balkans. Granted, the fall of Constantinople, while it would lead to the fall of the Eastern Roman Empire, it would not necessarily mean the end of Roman learning, as they still control all of Greece. Plus it would soak up the energies that the Umayyads would later dedicate to the conquests of the rest of North Africa and Visigothic Spain, so we might see those regions develop differently (or similarly in North Africa's case, I don't think they will escape Umayyad domination in the end.)
 
This has been discussed a number of times. There is some interesting stuff in these old threads:

Arab Constantinople
Arabs capture Constantinople
WI: Constantinople falls in 674 or 717

I agree with the often voiced proposition that, if the Arabs conquer Constantinople in the 7th or 8th century, they would end up adopting the Greek language and much of the culture and customs of Greece. Islam would be heavily Hellenized, just as it was "Persianized" when the Arabs conquered Persia IOTL.
 
It's probably mentioned in one of the tls Laskaris has given, but I'll post a rec for Turtledove's short story 'Islands in the Sea', first published in 'Alternatives' (1989).
 
Taking Constantinople is a thing, taking over the whole Balkans are another.

First, note that I would be talking more about 670 siege, as the 718 definitely lacked material, navy and logistic to do so.
If by grace of ASB, Masalmah still manage to conquer the city, I could likely see a reconquest by Romans using the divisions and rebellions in Caliphate. They would probably be unable to take back Anatolia in the same row, but they had the naval domination and could easily blockade Arab defense or ravitail.

Now, a 670 conquest.

At the contrary of Anatolia, Africa or even Spain, Balkanic Peninsula is a really "open" region, that doesn't present a "natural" way of invasion and conquest, something that could make the posterior raids less efficient in that matter.
The Dinaric Alps poses another issue, not unlike the Cantabrian Mountains, and I think it could likely host Asturian-like Roman successor states in Balkans along with other in Africa and Italy in a worst-case scenario.
More likely, you'll end with a more decentralized ERE, centered in Ionian Sea, but who would preserve a naval predominance, that Lombards wouldn't have the possibility to immediatly takeover (but an African split is still possible, critically without an Arab pressure on it).

An Arab Thrakia (aka Saloniki/Sofia/Burgas) would be as noted hugely hellenized and open to revolts and appearance of an Islamo-Hellenic culture. I doubt this could go much far more than Danube (that is admittedly, a perfect border) and Belgrade, more or less like 1500 Ottoman Empire, minus Greece.
 
Take the city? Possibly. Take the Empire? Not logistically possible at any early point. We could definitely see a Anatolian Byzantine state and Slavic Balkan Statelet(s) resisting the Caliphate and going into counter attack mode.

Granted there is allure toward a Hellenized and Persian Capliphates dukeing it out for supremacy.
 
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