Introduction

THE DEFEAT of the Byzantines and the military victory of the Muslim Arabs was a major turning point which resulted in extensive political, economic and social consequences both on the individual level and in terms of society. This was the case in almost all the areas which were under Byzantine control and which later came under Muslim control. However, the process and nature of the change which took place in that period and the concomitant circumstances is a subject for further research and investigation.

In the past, archaeologists working in Greater Syria (Bilād al-Shām) tended to present a straightforward change following the Muslim conquest in their archaeological interpretations. Occupational strata and material cultural remains at archaeological sites - particularly pottery - would be designated as “Umayyad” and so would be dated to the second half of the seventh century A.D. This designation implied an observable change in the material remains with the arrival of Islam. More recent archaeological work in the area argues against such a concept, suggesting continuity in production techniques and styles, in terms of ceramics and other materials from the late Byzantine period into the early Islamic period. Consequently, a clear archaeological separation between two phases of occupation, one before and the other after the coming of Islam, remains doubtful unless there can be shown to have been an extensive replacement of population or a destruction separating the two phases. In the light of this, therefore, the terms “late Byzantine” and “early Islamic” are used in this paper only as providing a convenient historical framework for the period under study.

In the relationship between the Arab-Islamic and Roman-Byzantine civilizations, Bilād al-Shām represented the principal area of interaction. Before the coming of Islam, Christianity was dominant in this area as the official religion of the ruling Byzantine regime and a large part of the population, including Arabs, was Christian. At least some of the Arabs living in the Arabian Peninsula were in direct contact with Bilād al-Shām and this contact was one of the factors making for an easy and relatively peaceful Muslim victory at the time of the Muslim conquests. In A.D. 661, the Caliph Mu’āwiya, who had already been governor of Syria for twenty years, chose Damascus to be the capital of the caliphate, in an area where the Umayyad regime enjoyed the support not only of the Muslims but also of Christian Arabs.