Scene of Islam and the Byzantine-Persian war

Islam was formed in its beginnings within the period of the last Persian-Byzantine war that lasted over a period of 26 years (602-628 AD). The event of the Prophet’s mission (610 AD) took place within the time frame of this war. Not only that, but there is a possibility that the Prophet attended a scene from this war in Syria, according to an inscription found at Jabla in northern Syria. I talked about this inscription in an article I published earlier in the appendix “Kalimat” in “Al-Akhbar”. “The inscription says (I am Muhammad is the Messenger of God).” If the attribution of this inscription to the Messenger is correct, then it means that the Messenger was in Syria, and he wrote this inscription on the door of a cave near Jabla.

And the presence of the Messenger in Gabala is something strange. The convoys from Mecca headed for Dhirat and Damascus, then crossed into Gaza, passing through Hebron and Jerusalem. Therefore, I assumed that the turnaround resulted from the Persian-Byzantine war. The Persians occupied Damascus in 913 and Jerusalem in 614. It appears that the war took the Prophet and the Mecca caravan as they were in the arms of (Daraa) or in Damascus, forcing them to march north to Jabla and not south to Gaza. At Jableh, the Prophet put his signature on the door of Jableh’s cave.
After this alleged incident, and after the Messenger returned to Mecca, Surat Al-Rum revealed himself: “Pain. I whipped the rum. In the depths of the earth, they will prevail after their defeat. In a few years, the commandment to God before and after, and on that day the believers will rejoice. With the help of God he helps whomever He wants, and He is the Mighty and the Merciful “(Al-Rum 1-5) Thus, this surah was revealed within the year 614. It seems that the Messenger found his weak companions in La Mecca mourning the defeat of the Persians, so he revealed the revelation of the Surat Al-Rum to comfort and strengthen them. Consequently, Phrasora al-Rum is the direct result of the Persian attack on the Levant. Most Arabic sources tend to indicate that the phrase “the lowest of the earth” refers to the Levant and, in particular, to the city of Adhraat.
If we move forward a bit in time, it can be seen that the migration of the Prophet took place in 622 AD This was the year when it seemed that the Byzantine Empire was on the brink of total collapse under the blows of the Persians. This may indicate that Mecca’s pressure on Muslims may have increased with the Persian victories, leading to emigration to Yathrib. Which means that Mecca was, in a way, viewing the Prophet as an ally of Byzantium. It is not surprising. The first Islamic immigration went to Christian Abyssinia, an ally of Christian Byzantium.

The power of the Muslims after the conquest of Mecca apparently unsettled the Byzantines

However, the Roman Byzantines regained their cohesion after the arrival of Hercules in 622 AD Two years after his arrival, that is, in the year 624, the Byzantines attacked the Persians in their own lands, seized Azerbaijan (Middle ) and destroyed the Temple of the Great Wizard, in response to the destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. As we know, in this year, in the year 624, the Battle of Badr took place, which began with the initiative of the Muslims. They attempted to capture the Quraish convoy led by Abu Sufyan, prompting the outbreak of battle with Mecca. This may indicate, in a way, that Muslims may have been aware of regional developments, that is, of the Byzantine attack on Persian lands and their victories there. There is no news about it, but the reasoning makes it assumed.
In the year 625 the Battle of Uhud took place, in which Mecca defeated the Muslims. But the battle could not alter the balance of power. Furthermore, the Mecca army did not continue the battle despite its victory. It seems that Mecca was simply seeking to stabilize the balances while waiting for the regional Byzantine-Persian scene to arrive.
In 628, the greatest victory of the Byzantines occurred at Nineveh, when the Persian army was destroyed and then the Byzantines took Al-Mada’in. And in this same year, the year 628, the Peace of God of Judaybiyah took place. So did the Byzantine victory play a role in making this reconciliation possible? I think this is possible. This possibility is supported by a report from Abu Sufyan that claims that the news of the defeat of the Persians in Nineveh reached the people of Mecca in Al-Hudaybiyah. This is very important.
However, it seems that the Muslims were unaware of the defeat, which allowed Abu Sufyan to obtain a balanced and suitable peace for him. Had the Muslims known, the conquest of Mecca might have occurred at that time, and those who rejected peace, such as Omar bin Al-Khattab, would have had the upper hand.
If this is true, it can be said, in a way, that the fate of Mecca was actually decided in Nineveh in AD 228. After two years, the Muslims quickly canceled the peace treaty, following the error of the allies of Mecca. And it seems they were excited to do so after learning of the balances that had developed in Nineveh. The reconciliation lasted only two years, and with its end the Muslims conquered Mecca.
The chronological alignment we have followed may mean one important thing: it is not possible to understand the conflict between the paganism of Mecca and the unification of Islam in Yathrib without linking it to the last war between the Persians and the Byzantines. This local conflict was linked to the regional dimension, although we still do not have enough documents to prove it.
But we must pay attention to the fact that the apparent power of the Muslims after the conquest of Mecca apparently led to the upheaval of the Byzantines, which apparently led them to rally the Arab tribes on their borders to surround Islam. Perhaps this is the reason why the Prophet directed the first (regional) Islamic invasions towards the strong Byzantines and not towards the weak Persians. The Byzantine Islamic honeymoon collapsed very quickly.
This is all a scenario that takes effort and documents to test.
* Palestinian poet

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