Saracens

The Saracens, or Arabs, were the people who expanded out of the Arabian Peninsula in the 630s and onwards aroused by the new religion of Islam. Within a few decades the Saracens had conquered most of the modern Middle East (including Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and the vast Persian Empire) and part of North Africa (Egypt and Libya). During the next century the rest of North Africa as well as parts of Eastern Africa, modern Pakistan and the Iberian Peninsula (Portugal and Spain) also fell to the Arab invaders. The Saracens held an empire from the Atlantic coast of Morocco in the west to the Indian Ocean coasts of Oman and Pakistan in the east. There were several different dynasties who ruled the Arab empire, and some were more concentrated in Persia or were dominated by Kurds and later on Turks. Arabic language did nevertheless hold the ground in North Africa and the old Levant, Mesopotamia and the Arabian Peninsula. The Arabs attempted many invasions of Europe, including the legendary assaults on Constantinople where the Byzantines developed "Greek fire" to withstand the Saracens. Most of the Mediterranean islands as well as parts of Italy and France were also conquered temporarily by the Arabs. Areas even as far north as Iceland were attacked and raided by Arab slavetraders. The Arab world got more and more fragmentized by the late 900s and the Byzantines and Western Europeans were able to close the gap of power and technology. The first real reaction to the 500 years long Arab expansion came with the crusades from 1099 and onwards until the late 1200s. By the time of the first crusade Western Europe was equal to the Arab world in strenght, and during the next few centuries the balance would shift ever in favor of the Europeans. The Spanish and Portuguese who lost their lands to the Arabs in 711-14 started their 700 years long "reconquista" around 800, but it was not until the mid 1000s that any real success was had. After the violent incursion of orthodox Islamic groups in the 11th and 12th centuries, Arab-occupied Spain began falling to the Christian resistance movements. By the mid 1200s all of Iberia had been liberated save the southern tip, Granada, where the famous Moorish Al Hambra would soon be constructed. The Turks had dominated the Middle East during the Crusades, and the Mamlukes reigned in Egypt. Indeed, the time of Saracen rule in Arab lands ended in the Middle Ages, as the Ottomans would be the primary Muslim power from the 1300s until modern times.