Arab Conquest of Syria

Timeline

1. 634Southern Syrian frontier · SyriaAbu Bakr ordered Khalid ibn al-Walid to redeploy from Iraq toward Syria; the Arab coalition broke through the Byzantine frontier defenses, capturing outposts such as Bosra and opening a path into the heart of the Levant.
2. 635Damascus · SyriaThe Arab army besieged and captured the Syrian capital Damascus, and the Byzantine garrison surrendered. The city subsequently became the capital of the Umayyad dynasty and an important political and cultural center of the Islamic world.
3. 636Yarmouk River · SyriaByzantine emperor Heraclius assembled a large army for a counteroffensive, and the two sides fought for several days along the Yarmouk River. The Arab coalition won a decisive victory, destroying Byzantine field forces in Syria and making recovery hopeless.
4. 637–638Syria · SyriaAfter Yarmouk, the Arab army successively captured Antioch, Aleppo, and other cities of northern Syria; by around 638 the military occupation and administrative integration of all Syria was complete, and Byzantine power withdrew from the northern Levant.