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The Byzantine-Arab Wars were a series of wars between the Arab Caliphates and the Byzantine Empire. These started during the initial Muslim conquests under the Rashidun and Umayyad caliphs and continued in the form of an enduring border tussle until the beginning of the Crusades. As result the Byzantines, also called the Romans ("Rûm" in Muslim historical chronicles, the Byzantine Empire was formerly the Eastern half of the Roman Empire), saw an extensive loss of territory.

The initial conflict lasted from 629-717, ending with the Second Arab Siege of Constantinople that halted the rapid expansion of the Arab Empire into Asia Minor. Conflicts with the Caliphate however continued between the 800s and 1169. The loss of southern Italian territories to the Abbassid forces occurred in the 9th and 10th centuries. However, under the Macedonian dynasty, the Byzantines recaptured territory in the Levant with the Byzantine's armies advance even threatening Jerusalem to the south. The Emirate of Aleppo and its neighbours became vassals of the Byzantines in the east, where the greatest threat was the Egyptian Fatimid kingdom, until the rise of the Seljuk dynasty reversed all gains and pushed Abbassid territorial gains deep into Anatolia. This resulted in the Byzantine emperor Alexius I Comnenus request for military aid from Pope Urban II at the Council of Piacenza; one of the events often attributed as precursors to the First Crusade. (Read more...)