ABSTRACT
Confrontation between the Islamic empire and the East Roman state from the middle of the seventh to the eleventh century ranged from cultural and ideological conflict through economic and diplomatic rivalry to full-scale warfare. Initial Roman efforts to defeat Arab armies in the field failed, and for a whole generation the empire focused on a strategy of avoidance and defence in depth. Only in the 730s and 740s was some degree of balance restored as the Eastern Roman state recovered the capacity to confront Islamic armies and defeat them in the field. Although the Romans were able to mount successful field operations on occasion, Arab-Islamic armies retained the upper hand, albeit within an overall equilibrium, until well into the ninth century. Changes internal to the caliphate as well as shifts in the international context and recovery of the Eastern Roman economy enabled the empire from middle of the tenth century to go on to the offensive and re-establish dominance on both land and sea. However, the appearance of the Seljuk Turks in Anatolia from the 1040s and new external pressures in the Balkans threw the empire back on to the defensive, resulting after 1071 in the loss of much of central and eastern Anatolia.
