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By the beginning of the eighth century (700 AD), cultural and political fragmentation had transformed what had been a more or less unified Roman world in the fifth and sixth centuries into four geographically independent and isolated worlds. For nearly a thousand years all the areas around the Mediterranean had been supported and enriched by, and integrated to some degree into, the Mediterranean-based economic system. That elaborate system finally collapsed c. 700 AD leaving each region economically orphaned, isolated and dependent on its own localized economic devices.
The surviving but greatly diminished Eastern Roman (i.e. Byzantine) Empire, centered at Constantinople, consisted by 700 of a core region made up of the coastal (but not the interior) lands of Greece and the Balkans, Eastern Macedonia, Thrace, Crete and the islands of the Aegean. Only Sicily and the Exarchate of Ravenna (parts of Italy) constitute the Byzantine West. The Byzantine East consisted of parts of western and central Turkey, very precariously held. By the beginning of the seventh century the language of the Roman Empire shifted from Latin (which was more and more confined to rural fringe areas in the Byzantine west) to Greek. Greek was now the language of military command, of law and governmental administration (including titles of offices) in both the state and the church--even in the cities of the Italian peninsula including Rome.
One of the fringe regions now becoming more and more dangerous and destructive to the Roman World was Eastern Europe. Eastern Europe and western Russia from the Ural Mountains, the Aral and Caspian Seas westward to the Frankish frontier in central Germany was a diverse region of struggling, tribal kingdoms and peoples, marginally civilized at best. From the migrating hordes of Turkestan in the east to the disorganized and ungovernable Slavs in the west, this whole region was awash in near-savage pagan life-style in the seventh century. Western Europe beginning in the eighth century (700 AD) was isolated and cut off from Eastern Europe by the disorganized chaos of Slavic tribes and peoples stretching from inland Greece northward through the the Balkans and across central Europe to the Baltic Sea.
Another fringe region that rose to encroach on the Empire was the Arabian Peninsula.
By 700 The Arab-dominated world stretched from the Atlantic shores of northwestern Africa around the entire southern and eastern coasts of the Mediterranean Sea including all the area of eastern Turkey and Armenian that had once been Roman. In addition of course they already controlled the Persian Empire, that is, the regions of Iraq and Iran.
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At the invitation of Emperor Justinian I a mixed horde of peoples called Avars migrated from what is now western Kazakstan into the Balkans. There the Avars began their subjugation of the indigenous Slavic population after 558. Their hostile presence in that region effectively closed land communication east and west across the Balkans from their appearance down until their final defeat and dispersion in c. 800.
The Avars eliminated and replaced the militarized tribes dominating those regions now including Slovakia, Hungary, Rumania, Moldova and Bulgaria together with parts of the Ukraine, Austria and Croatia. They subdued the lower class farmers, most of whom were Slavs. Their central headquarters was situated in the Theiss (modern Tisza) River Valley (east of modern Budapest), and their control stretched from the Dniester River valley in the western Ukraine to the Austrian Alps in the West.
Because of the military manpower demands on the Persian front, in AD 573 the Roman Emperor Justin II (565-578) purchased a peace with the Avars for 80,000 gold coins per year. Between 576 and 578 better than 100 thousand of the Avars' subjects sought refuge by migrating south across the Danube into Roman territory. The Romans hired the Avars to round them up. Then the Avars sent them back on purpose to pillage because the Roman's had refused to pay a larger annual subsidy. When in 581 the Avars called in their occupation forces and concentrated them against the Roman fortress at Sirmium (near modern Belgrade) their Slavic subjects again took advantage of this Avar preoccupation and departed in droves to settle deep within Roman territory seeking protection rather than spoils. Some settled as far south as northern Greece; others in the suburbs of Constantinople itself.
In AD 582 the Avars demanded and got an annual subsidy of 100,000 gold coins; the next year 120,000! Migratory settlements of Slavs, Gepids, Bulgars, and other subjects from the Avar kingdom continued to pour across the Danube River in 586 and 589. The Avars used this excuse to campaign repeatedly through the Roman area to round up their refugees and any other people they could capture. They attacked Thessalonika more than once without success and even penetrated to attack Corinth. In 626 they attacked Constantinople, but were badly defeated and driven back. Decimated and subdued, the Avars were unable to prevent the rapid exodus of their former Slavic subjects southward where they now settled permanently the vacant war-torn inland areas of the Balkans and Greece. The former Greek inhabitants were forced to take refuge in the coastal cities or elsewhere or be absorbed by the Slavs. The culture of this area remained primitive and the people basically ungovernable for the next century.
Among the subjects to the Avars, the Bulgars rose to be the heirs to the leadership along the lower Danube and eventually came to control the eastern half of the former Avar Empire. Although the Bulgar tribes had been scattered from the upper Volga to the lower Danube only a small number had come to the Danube area prior to the end of the seventh century. A new wave of Bulgars arrived at the Danube in the 670's and, despite the valient efforts of the Emperor Constantine IV (669-685), established themselves in control of the area as far south as the Balkan mountains. The Avars, nevertheless, held out in their central stronghold in the Theiss Valley of Western Hungary throughout the eighth century.
Southwest of the Avars' enclave in eastern Hungary the Slavs in Croatia and the Avars' southern neighbors, the Serbs, were gradually converted to Christianity, beginning about 635 among the Serbs and extending to the Croatians by 680. At this point in time these new churches were part of the Patriarchate of Rome. However, the government in the area was responsible ultimately to the Emperor in Constantinople.
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Another amorphous people called Rhos or Russ, who were organized as bands of merchant adventurers settled in the upper Dnieper River valley in the early eighth century. Perhaps the Rhos, like their eastern tent-nomad neighbors, the Magyars, had migrated much earlier from northwestern Russia down to the vicinity of the Black Sea. If the theory is correct the Magyars and the Rhos had lived among the Slavic and Turkic peoples, particularly those dominated by the Utigurs and Kotrigurs (two branches of the Bulgars) who subjugated the regions either side of the Sea of Azov in the Ukraine prior to the 670's. When the Utigurs and Kotrigurs migrated westward to take part in the formation of a Bulgarian state on the Danube, The Rhos moved away to the northwest along the Dnieper River and remained independent and out of reach of the more powerful Khazars.
In the eighth and ninth centuries the Rhos merchants were typically organized in autonomous gangs or associations that cut across all ethnic lines. Their bond was not blood, language or dress, but an oath of allegiance to the group. The oath broke all ethnic or family ties and bound them to their new "merchant family". The term for such merchant-adventurer groups survives in several regions in northwestern Europe. At Constantinople individuals belonging to such an association were called "varangian". We speculate that the concept ultimately derived from the Scandinavian immigrants whom the Rhos met along the Dnieper River. That would explain why similar words are preserved in English and French where Scandinavian influence was likewise felt. After 700 the Rhos continued to engage in considerable trade both with the Baltic lands to the north and down the length of the Dnieper to the Black Sea. Pirate raiding parties belonging to the Rhos were reported active in the middle of the eight century along the north coast of the Black Sea. Early in the ninth century the Rhos prince, Bravlin, led his varangian force to capture the Khazar commercial emporium at Cherson.
The increasing presence of the Scandinavian (mostly Swedish) immigrants being incorporated into the Rhos population in the ninth century was evidenced as early as 839 when Swedish envoys that came to Constantinople to visit Emperor Theophilus. One source referred to them as "men of Rhos". These merchant venturers were welcomed in the varangian associations and contributed their considerable navel and ship building skills to the Black Sea varangian pirate-merchants. Very shortly after the Rhos-Swede conquest of Cherson in the Ukraine, the Swedish element began to take the leadership among the Rhos. In 862 the Swede Rurik became prince of Novgorod; his two brothers established themselves about the same time at Beloozero and Izborsk. Still other Swedes named Askold and Dir set themselves up at Kiev. Meanwhile, clashes between the Rhos and the Byzantine merchants led to a direct attack on Constantinople in 860. A fleet of 200 ships built on the Scandinavian pattern appeared in the harbor at Constantinople. The threat was removed as suddenly as it appeared, however, by a sudden storm.
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The Magyars expanded into former Rhos territory along the lower Dnieper only to become subject to the Khazars who from their base on the lower Volga River kept them subdued until the early ninth century when as allies of the Rhos the Magyars became independent.
The Khazars were located centrally in the lower Volga river valley from which they extended their influence southward toward the Caucasus Mountains, westward to subdue the Magyars on the lower Dnieper River and northwestward against the Pechenegs. Their neighbors on the upper Volga (near the Great Bend) were descendants of the Utigurs and Kotrigurs and known as the Volga Bulgars. The Khazars had rejected the advances of Islam and Christianity, choosing rather to make Judaism the state religion. Their westward expansion allowed them to operate extensively on the Black Sea out of their commercial stronghold at Cherson in the Crimea.
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About 500 AD the southwestern Arabian region of Najran, neighboring on Yemen, began to be evangelized by a Syrian Jacobite (Monophysite) ascetic Phemion who had been captured in the north and brought there as a slave. For various reasons violence broke out between Yemen and Najran about 522 with the Jacobite Christians of Najran burning Jewish Synagogue buildings and the Jews of Yemen vandalizing Christian church buildings. In 523 in response to an appeal from the Christians of Najran the ruler of the Christian (Monophysite) Ethiopian kingdom of Axum, Ela Asbeha, drove dhu Nawas, the Jewish Himyarite King of Yemen from his capital and installed an Ethiopian garrison. The Himyarite Jewish king dhu-Nawas counterattacked, slaughtered the garrison and then ruthlessly exterminated the Christians in Najran. The Christians of Ethiopia sent a massive retaliatory force under the general Abraha who killed dhu Nawas and installed a puppet governor at San'a. This puppet ruled for about a decade before Abraha declared himself king about 535. Under Abraha's rule, till 570, Christianity flourished in southwestern Arabia. The Persian king Chosroes I conquered and ruled southwestern Arabia between 570 and 580, but the Christians survived, especially in Najran.
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The biggest problems facing the Roman rulers after Justinian I was the bankruptcy of the imperial treasury and the legacy of his unwise diplomacy. Justin II, son of Justinian's sister, ruled 565-578, although after 574 he was harmlessly insane. Although Justin and his wife Sophia (niece of Empress Theodora) had both been monophysites they had "converted" to orthodoxy in order to gain political advancement. Justin's policies of canceling diplomatic subsidies and demanding imperial rights provoked international conflicts that the Empire was unable to handle with both the Avars and the Persians. He carried his adopted orthodoxy rather lightly and did not persecute the monophysites for 6 years. Then in 572 under the influence of the Syrian John of Sirmius, the Patriarch of Constantinople, he deposed all the Monophysite clergy and launched a persecution against any individual known to be opposed to the orthodox position. This weakened the loyalty of the eastern provinces at a time when other forces tending toward regional autonomy were also building. Significantly, it allowed the Patriarch of Constantinople to intervene in the affairs of the Patriarchates of Antioch, Jerusalem and Alexandria.
Tiberius II Constantine, a loyal friend of Justin II's, reigned 578-582. He was preoccupied with the war with Persia. He gained a very favorable reputation by canceling Justin II's very unpopular taxes and at the same time spending excessively and unwisely. He did strengthen the military, but he did allow a persecution of the Gothic Arians serving in Imperial service at the insistence of Eutychius, the Patriarch of Constantinople.
Tiberius II's son-in-law, Maurice, who had been commander of the barbarian troops serving in the imperial army, was emperor during the years 582-602. Wars against the Avars in the Balkans and the Persians in the East continued and were complicated by the collapse of the military morale and command discipline in the Roman army that eventually led to Maurice's overthrow. During his reign the imperial provinces, i.e. Exarchates, in Italy (Ravenna) and North Africa (Carthage) were established. It should be noted that Maurice decreed an end to the persecution of heretics probably because of the influence of John the Faster, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople.
The next emperor, Phocas, 602-610, was the least qualified or capable person to occupy the throne since the third century. The future of the Empire was seriously in doubt. The total collapse of the military left the imperial frontiers unguarded and the interior areas vulnerable. The Avars and their Slavic subjects (See below) were overrunning the Balkan region south of the Danube River in greater numbers than before. The Persians were taking the eastern Roman provinces. The advancing threat of large armies under the Avars and the Persians penetrated deeply into Imperial territory from two directions. In the year 609 Thessalonika, about 300 miles west of Constantinople, was attacked by the Slavs while Chalcedon, thirty miles east of Constantinople, was sacked by a Persian army. The tax collection system broke down and commercial activity was disrupted. Phocas lashed out with terrorist violence against the wealthy, executing them in order to confiscate their wealth.
Emperor Heraclius, AD 610-641, the son of the Exarch (i.e., governor) of Carthage came to Constantinople and eliminated Phocas. Sergius, the patriarchal bishop of Constantinople, gained the confidence of Heraclius and became one of his closest advisors. Heroically for his first nine years he seemed to fight a loosing battle while trying to jump-start the failed economy and end the starvation in Constantinople. Although Heraclius managed a shaky peace with the Avars the Persians took Egypt! About 619 he contemplated abandoning Constantinople and ruling the Empire from his home in northwest Africa, but Bishop Sergius and others dissuaded him. Heraclius left Sergius in charge of the government and Theodosius, the Emperor's brother, in charge of the Avar frontier and took himself to Armenia where he recruited a completely new army from scratch. In 626 the Persians and Avars launched simultaneous attacks on the city of Constantinople. Theodosius and Bishop Sergius defended the city and destroyed the largest part of the Avar army. Heraclius led his new Armenian army directly to the Persian capital and dictated a peace treaty to the defeated Persians. Heraclius' later years were spoiled by physical illness, an irrational fear of bodies of water, and the methodical advance beginning in 636 of the Muslim Arab "armies" against his armies in Palestine, Syria, and Egypt.
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By occupation Muhammad (c. 570-632) was an illiterate camel tender who worked for a caravan master operating out of Mecca. When the caravan master died Muhammad married his former boss's wealthy widow. She was the brains behind the business so Muhammad no-longer tended camels or did any other manual labor. Aspiring to be a "holy man", Muhammad received messages from the angel Gabriel and recited them tirelessly to all that had the patience to listen. The city fathers whose patience had all but expired listening to his repeated revelations were delighted when envoys from the oasis community of Yathrib came searching a "holy man" to settle a local feud. Muhammad's departure from Mecca in AD 622 has special significance. It was labeled the hegira, flight, and is considered the first year of the Muslim Era calendar. Muhammad eventually renamed the oasis settlement of Yathrib as al-medina, the city. Here the first Muslim, "submitted ones", community was formed. The name of the new religion was Islam, "submission" (to allah [from al-ilah], "the god"). "The god" of Muhammad has no personal name. Before his death in 632 Muhammad returned to Mecca and converted the city making that city and its ancient pagan pilgrimage destination, the Ka'aba shrine, and other "holy" sites important to the new religion.
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"The Orthodox Caliphate" is the name given to the four companions of Muhammad who in turn became his deputy, or Caliph, following his death. Abu Bakr, 632-634, Omar, 634-644, Othman, 644-656, and Ali, 656-661. Only Ali was a relative. Omar launched the early military attacks of the Arab tribes against the Romans and Persians. A regular Roman army was destroyed in the battle of Yarmuk, south of Damascus on the desert's edge in 636. Jerusalem fell to the attackers in 638. The Persian state eventually surrendered to them in 642. Egypt was conquered in 643. Their first campaign towards Carthage was in 647, a raid against the island of Sicily was reported in 652, and the island of Rhodes was plundered in 654. Major Roman fleets were defeated near the Nile delta, in 651, and along the coasts of Lycia (southwest Turkey), in 655, where the majority of the remaining Roman navy was destroyed. The first official edition of the Koran appeared in 653.
From the first pagans and idolaters (mostly Arab tribes at the beginning) were given the choice of conversion to Islam or death. This is the Islamic concept of jihad or holy war. However, beginning with the Jews at Yathrib and elsewhere in Arabia and traditionally with the Christians of Najran, Muhammad recognized their having been blessed by Allah in possessing earlier revelations in the form of their scriptures. So while they were invited to submit to the new revelation they were only to be taxed as subjects if they did not. Later defeated non-Arab peoples outside of Arabia who were Christians or Jews or Zoroastrians were required to pay both a head tax and an annual property tax, but were not required to abandon their faith or convert to Islam. However, when non-Arabs converted to Islam they were exempted from the head tax--a substantial incentive to convert.
The Arab governor of Damascus, Muawiya, refused to recognize Ali in 656 and mounted his own claims to the Caliphate. When Ali agreed to negotiate with Muawiya his own followers were divided and began to fight among themselves. Ali sided with one group, the Shiites, and defeated the other in 658. The defeated group managed to assassinate Ali in 661.
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The Ummayad Caliphs trace their lineage from Muawiya I, 656-681, who after Ali's death was recognized as Caliph by all Muslims except the Shiites. During the Ummayad period, 656-750, the Caliphs made Damascus their headquarters. This period in Islamic history is known as the Arab Kingdom and the Caliphs acted as an emperor over an empire that eventually by 750 extended from Pakistan, western India and the frontiers of China in central Asia to northwest Africa, Spain and southern France in the West.
Muawiya made a peace treaty with Emperor Constans II that lasted from 659-661. After 661 Arab armies fought their way across what is now Turkey and took the city of Chalcedon, 30 miles east across the Bosporus from Constantinople. Every year from 673-677, the Muslim land and naval forces launched full-scale attacks on Constantinople without success. Meanwhile a second campaign against Carthage and northwest Africa was launched from 670-683. Muawiya again made a peace treaty with the Romans in 678 that lead to increasing commercial exchange and the employment of Roman technical assistance for the Muslims. Particularly, Roman craftsmen were employed to supervise the building of the Dome of the Rock at Jerusalem, and both the Umayyad palace and great mosque at Damascus.
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Heraclius' sons, Constantine III (641) and Constans II (641-66) continued the valiant but disappointing struggle against the advancing Arabs. Constantine IV (669-685), son of Constans II, successfully defended the city of Constantinople from the first great siege by the Arab armies in AD 673-677. Emperor Constantine IV signed a peace treaty with the Arabs in 678 surrendering claim to almost one-half of the former territory of the Roman Empire. Promptly thereafter in 679 the Turkic people called Bulgars began their press westward from the Dneister River valley.
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The papacy in Western Rome had taken another opportunity to assert its superiority and dominance over the teachings of the Church in Constantine IV's reign. In his Easter Letter of 680 Pope Agatho (678-682) firmly stated the claim of the Roman bishop to the primacy of teaching. In very unambiguous terms he also asserted that the record of the Roman Church was spotless: it had never been proved to be in error.
It proved to be very embarrassing that the late Pope Honorius I was condemned of heresy by an Ecumenical Council that was meeting in Constantinople in 680-681. It has been almost as embarrassing for later apologists of the Papacy that Pope Leo II (682-683) confirmed the actions of the Council including the condemnation of Pope Honorius I without any qualification. While Leo II's letter to the Spanish bishops speaks of Honorius I being "negligent in extinguishing the flame of heresy", in his letter to Emperor Constantine IV Leo II describes Honorius as having "attempted to undermine the pure faith by his profane betrayal." (Quotes reported by R. P. McBrien, Lives of the Popes, p. 112.). In fact, Emperor Constantine IV refused to confirm Leo II as Pope unless and until the Roman representatives at the Council approved the condemnation of Honorius and Bishop Leo II gave his affirmation.
It is also true that at the time of Pope Leo II Emperor Constantine IV reasserted the right of the Emperor to approve personally each new Roman bishop, instead of allowing the Exarch of Ravenna to exercise that duty. The Emperor did reduce the taxes on some of the Roman bishop's estates in Sicily and cancel the bishopric's traditional obligation to pay a fee each time a new pope was approved. The year after bishop Leo II died Emperor Contstantine IV gave in to the pleas of the newly elected pope, Benedict II (683-685), to allow the Exarch of Ravenna to once again exercise the imperial approval for the consecration of each newly elected pope. Indeed, it had been approximately eleven months between Benedict II's election and his consecration.
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Muawiya's successors Yazid I, 681-683, Muawiya II, 683-684, and Merwan, 684-685, were confronted by internal dissension and accomplished little for us to note. Abd al-Malik, 685-705, however, finally gained the upper hand and ordered attacks on external enemies to resume in the east and the west. Carthage, the last Christian city of northwest Africa, fell in 698.
Since the Arabs had no governmental institutions with which to replace those in conquered lands they took over and used the governmental structures already in place. Up to the time of Abd al-Malik cooperative subjects most of which were experienced governmental officials working under the watchful eye of Arab caretakers had administered the areas conquered from Rome and Persia. Under Abd al-Malik governmental offices everywhere in the Arab kingdom began for the first time to be placed directly in the hands of Arabs. Thus the central government's control of the local day to day government operations and economic activities were tightened up through a hierarchy of loyal Arabs in local government posts all across the Arab Kingdom. Arabic became the official language of government. Non-Arabs in the lower ranks of governmental activity also were required to use Arabic.
Abd al-Malik also inaugurated the first minting of Arabic coins, and nationalized the major Egyptian and Syrian bases of commercial operations which had not been disrupted by the Arab conquest. As a result of Abd al-Malik's actions Roman markets, especially Constantinople, which had been the major source of business for the Egyptian and Syrian commercial companies even after the Arab conquest was now closed to them by Imperial order. Without the overseas markets the Syrian and Egyptian commercial enterprises promptly collapsed and the trans-Mediterranean flow of commerce between the Near East and the western lands ceased with profound consequences for Italy, France and Spain.
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Justinian II, the son of Constantine IV and the last of the Heraclid dynasty had a two-part reign, 685-695, and 705-711. Emperor Justinian II determined to assemble a council in 692 for the expressed purpose of completing these approved agenda items left incomplete from the Fifth and Sixth Councils. The Fifth Ecumenical Council (Constantinople II, 553) as well as the Sixth (Nicaea II, 681) had dealt almost entirely with matters of faith. Little time had been found to consider and rule on the numerous questions of divergent practice that had arisen in the century since the Council at Chalcedon. These questions had been on the agendas of the Councils and approved by all participants, but they had not been resolved. Therefore, The Council in 692 was therefore called the "Fifth-Sixth" (Quinisextum) Council by some and the Second Synod in Trullo by others, for it met in the same hall in the Royal palace as the Sixth Council had.
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The Council in 692 produced 102 canons, or rules, designed to clarify the moral standards and questions on various practices among all Christians, both clergy and laymen. There were no representatives from the patriarchal bishop of Rome in attendance in Constantinople, however most of the surviving eastern church was accounted for. However, when the final, official decrees of the Council were transmitted to Rome for Bishop Sergius I (687-701) to sign, he flatly refused. The reasons for his refusal were not stated, but they are easy enough to infer. Doubtless he would have reiterated the position taken by his predecessors in opposition to the earlier council's giving the patriarchal bishops of Constantinople and Rome equal honor. While this was a centuries-old sore spot and cause of unhappiness, the past leaders at Rome had protested without effect. Nevertheless, it did seem that the Council was "rubbing it in" so to speak. More important was the condemnation of certain practices that had become customary at Rome. For example, the Roman church required celibacy of both deacons and priests--a practice the canons of 692 described as "irregular". Rather, the rule was to be that deacons and priests, if married before being ordained, must continue to live with their wives after ordination. However, in a condescending tone the actions of the Council specifically permitted this western irregularity to continue under the circumstances, which were patronizingly described as "smallness of soul, strangeness, and lack of steadfastness of customs" on the part of the churchmen "in the lands of the barbarians." Other irregular practices common in the west were condemned without any concessions. These included fasting on Saturdays during Lent, abstaining from blood and meat of strangled animals, and depicting Christ as an animal, "the Lamb of God".
The canons of Quinisextum were a diverse lot. Several condemnations were directed at surviving vestiges of paganism including such things as public dances originally dedicated to pagan religions, wearing of masks, wigs and hairpieces, leaping over bonfires in celebration of the New Moon, swearing pagan oaths, fortune telling, and casting horoscopes. Other prohibitions enjoined the clergy against loaning money for interest, working as tavern keepers, being seen at the races or playing with dice. No Christian should have confidential dealings with a Jew or share in their unleavened bread.
On Justinian II's orders, the Exarch of Ravenna came to Rome to arrest Pope Sergius, but the open hostility of the populace of Rome prevented him from doing more than arresting two of the pope's advisors. Even that action so roused the anger of the Roman mob that the Exarch was forced to seek safety by hiding in the Pope's bedroom and imploring Sergius to help him get away. Nevertheless, the arrested advisors together with the Bishop of Ravenna were sent to Constantinople where they were tried, sentenced, blinded and exiled for their rebellion.
Justinian II's heavy taxation and ruthless relocation programs provoked a reaction. After ten years Justinian II was deposed, mutilated (his nose was split lengthwise) and exiled to Cherson on the north coast of the Black Sea in 695 by Leontius (Leo the Isaurian), the governor general of the militarized province of Hellas, with the help of the Blue political faction in Constantinople. Tiberius III, former governor general of the militarized Aegean Maritime province, overthrew Leontius in 698. He had the help of the Green political faction in Constantinople. Tiberius III (698-705) neglected the land-based defenses but greatly strengthened the government's control and protection of sea borne commerce. This was a reaction to the Muslim Caliph's nationalization of the Mediterranean commerce based in Muslim Syria and Egypt.
In due time Justinian II escaped Cherson and found refuge first in the Khanate (kingdom) of the Khazars on the lower Volga River. Next he fled to the Bulgarian court of Khan Tervel in the lower Danube valley. In 705 with aid of a Bulgarian force he fought his way back to the throne at Constantinople and reigned again from 705-711 in spite of his mutilated face. His terroristic actions were evidence of mental imbalance.
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Justinian II had been deposed in 695, but he returned again to the throne in 705 despite his disfigured face. Since nothing had been done about the Pope's refusal to sign the canons of the Quinisextum Council, Justinian II invited Pope Constantine (708-715) to Constantinople where he was given a red carpet welcome. Justinian, who even bowed and kissed the Roman Patriarch's feet, confirmed the privileges of the Roman Church in the effort to win Constantine's acceptance of the decrees of 692. Pope Constantine was steadfast in his refusal, and finally Justinian II gave up.
The Church in the west has never accepted the canons of Quinisextum as having ecumenical authority, but the Church in the east has never questioned their validity. While the two areas of the Church remained united in matters of faith, unresolved differences in practice were quite obvious from this point at the beginning of the eighth century. Each considered the other to be schismatic, but there were as yet no official condemnations. As long as their contacts were infrequent and neither got in the other's way, so to speak, they disdainfully tolerated each other.
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Caliph Al-Walid (705-715), Abd al-Malik's successor, ruling from the Arab capital at Damascus continued the policies of his predecessor and launched a new wave of aggressive action against all fronts. By the end of his reign Arab armies had reached the Atlantic in the west. Northwest Africa (The Roman Exarchate of Carthage) was subdued by Musa ibn Nusair who took orders directly from Al-Walid. Another of Al-Walid's generals penetrated the frontiers of Imperial China in south central Asia.
Succeeding Ummayad Caliphs, Sulayman (715-717); Umar II (717-720); Yazid II (720-724); Hisham (724-743), Walid II (743-744), Yazid III (744), Ibrahim (744), and lastly Marwan II (744-750), sought to perpetuate their expansion and internal consolidation. One of Musa ibn Nusair's Berber generals, Tarik, led a Muslim force across the straits from northwest Africa into Spain in 711. Landing at the northern Pillar of Hercules Tarik renamed it "Tarik's Mountain" (Jebel Tarik= Gibraltar). Four fifths of Visigothic Spain fell rapidly into Muslim hands. Toledo and Saragosa fell by 713, and the rest by 718. The Muslim dominance took Spain out of the European community until the eleventh century. Building on the Visigothic institutions and culture the Muslim culture of Spain prospered. It became one of the centers of intellectual achievement in the Muslim world.
However, they were not uniformly successful; for example, Sulayman's brother, Maslama, led the disappointing campaign to conquer Constantinople in 717 and 718. Umar II exempted all non-Arab Muslims from paying the annual property taxes--a factor that increased the frequency of conversion to Islam and also strengthened the internal cohesion of the state.
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