I was taught in high school (Catholic school) that the Umayyad Caliphate was similar to the Mongol Empire — expanding through war for no particular reason until it overextended and collapsed.
Recently, I read that the ancient historian al-Tabari claimed the Umayyad invasion of what’s now Spain & France was actually an attempt to conquer Constantinople from the very far west.
Are there any reliable sources around why the Umayyads sought to conquer West Europe across the Mediterranean rather than geographically-contiguous parts of Africa, Russia, or India?
Was it seen as an attempt to get to Constantinople? Rome? Was it seen as a religious crusade by the general population? Or was it just expansion for the sake of keeping up a military empire?
More realistically, there wasn't really a particular long-range goal for Arabo-Berbers in Europe, the period between 710's and 750's being more characterized by the same mix of sheer raiding opportunism and religious-political impulse.
Even before the Arabo-Berber conquest of Spain, the Islamic West was fairly autonomous from Damas and had its own political considerations. So to speak, it was an Arabo-Islamic "Far-West" as while Arab governors were ultimately obeying caliphs' authority, they had a certain leeway doing so due to distance, relative peripheral position and factionalism among Arabs. Berber peoples tended to have a more concrete relationship with Ifriqiyan walis, trough clientship especially as the latter had some sort of supervising power over Maghrib and Andalus.
Arabo-Berbers didn't as much sought to conquer Spain in 711, but rather ended up doing so as they quickly took over Gothic Spain, not just trough conquest and raiding, but having enough knowledge of the political situation and using it at their benefit to reinforce their position while being dramatically drowned into a non-Islamic population (exemplified by the treaty passed with Theodemir/Tudmir ensuring his local power in spite of the conquest, and similarly passed with a lot of Gothic nobles).
There was the mix of a razzia tradition present in both Arabic and Berber peoples,mixed with a strong political leadership (and its absence in a Gothic Spain that felt prey to civil war) under a certain religious impetuous : not aimless, but opportunistic, planned and adaptative.
It's really made obvious by the battles between Arabo-Berbers and Franks and Aquitains in the 720's and 730's : the former simply followed the same strategic and tactic elements that worked so far, meaning raiding both for looting and probing resistence (probably after having asserted local situation), trying to establish a few garrisons and network, and no real evidence of trying to outright conquer whole regions : the raids of 725-726 along the Rhone valley, possibly up to Sens, weren't followed by conquest;and there's no evidence that the previous or later campaigns were anything else.
Does that means that the idea never took form, however? I wouldn't go this far the conquest of Maghrib and Andalus by still mostly loyal governors wasn't unnoticed. But there's no real evidence of a grand plan there : if it was discussed, it might have been as a remote afterthought without real link with what happened in Spain and Gaul. The sheer difference in means, focus and numbers between what existed in the Islamic West (and heavily relying on Berbers) and against Byzantines is quite important on this matter.
Sources
- Les Carolingiens et al-Andalus, Philippe Sénac
- Histoire du Maghreb, Abdallah Laroui
- The Arab Conquest of Spain 710-797, Roger Collins
- Visigothic Spain, Roger Collins