ABSTRACT

The Sasanian occupation (611–22) had a devastating impact on Syria. It hardened the division between Christians adhering to the Orthodox (Chalcedonian) version of the faith and those attached to the churches of the eastern persuasion (Monophysites). Though the province was recovered by the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius in 622 many Christians preferred the Sasanians’ tolerance for the eastern faiths. When the forces of Islam began to explore a move into Syria in the 630s, many might have welcomed a new Arab creed as a counterweight to the Byzantines. Arab armies came together in 636 to defeat Byzantine forces at the Battle of Yarmuk so decisively that Heraclius was forced to abandon Syria. Under Muslim rule, the Umayyad dynasty chose Damascus as the capital of their new empire.