The rise of the Arab Empire was the most significant historical event of the 7th century AD, and profoundly influenced the history of the world for more than 1300 years. At the beginning of the expansion of the Arab Empire, the military equipment was not good, and even to describe it as shabby, the first pot of gold in their expansion was to run to Muta (weapons production base) in Syria for zero yuan purchase, and when the Arab Empire brought 50,000 troops into Central Asia in the early eighth century, the whole army had only 350 pieces of lock armor equipment far from the Persian and Byzantines of the period.
Heraclius (Byzantine Emperor), the enemy of the expansion of the Arab Empire at the beginning of the expansion, was a legendary emperor who was single-handed, strategic, and tactical (he could still behead persian macho men in his 50s, and the battle of Nineveh killed three Persian generals), and Gao Xianzhi, who was encountered by the Arab army in Central Asia, was also a famous general. The expansion of the Arab Empire, in addition to the concerted efforts, also relied on two major artifacts.
The first place of the artifact is not the Arabian horse, the Arab army in Spain north Africa and other places with the Burma expedition, this horse quality is not worse than the Arabian horse (one of the three major thoroughbred horse ancestors of The Goldofen Arabia is the Bob horse), and there are advantages of hard-working and disease resistance. The most important driving force behind the expansion of the Arab Empire was actually the camel, which helped the Arabs take Egypt, Syria and the Two Rivers Valley, and helped the Arabs defeat Gao Xianzhi. Caliph Umar (who had devastated the Persian and Byzantine empires within a decade) also made no secret of the fact that "where there are camels and deserts, the Arabs can prosper," and he publicly admonished his subordinates, "Don't let the water separate you from me, and don't set up camp in any place where I can't reach by camel." ”
Camels are not uncommon in the Mediterranean basin, and a large number of border guards used it to patrol the desert during the Roman Empire. But the first to use camels as a strategic maneuver were the Arabs, the ancient Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, and a large number of castrated cattle, which were the main desert means of transportation in North Africa for hundreds of years in classical times. The camel has a clear advantage over the castrated cow, which carries three times the cargo of the castrated cow and travels twice as fast as the castrated cow. The Byzantines may have known about these figures, but they didn't care, since it was easier for them to supplement the castrated cattle. The Persians also had large numbers of camels, but the camel caravans were only a useful complement to the Persian economy and did not rise to strategic heights.
The Arabs are completely different, many of the founders of the Arab Empire are the owners of camel caravans, relying on camels to cross the desert to make a fortune, the most typical example of which is the Umayyad family, Muawiyah's father Abu Sufyan used a huge caravan to become a local tycoon wearing silver button clothes. Camels are the most familiar tools for the inhabitants of the Arabian Peninsula to get rich, and they can rely on camels to cross the desert to make a fortune, or they can rely on camels to carry out strategic maneuvers of tens of thousands of people in the desert. Before the Arab Empire conquered Egypt, there was even a legend that the third caliph, Umar, personally took a slave and a number of camels to find a route of the march, and Khalid and others were particularly good at planning desert offensive routes.
This ability to map in the desert played a huge role in the Arab expansion wars, with Arab armies taking camels to fight on the edge of the desert in Iraq (many battles did not even use horses, and the main force of the Arab attack on the Middle East was infantry), luring the Persians to attack; the Arab army followed the desert trade route to Egypt; the Arab army also quickly passed through the desert before the Battle of Qiros, appearing behind the Tang army besieging the city of Qiros, and gained a strategic advantage. Heraclius, Gao Xianzhi and others were experienced, but they really did not have the ability of Arab generals to cross the desert, so they suffered great losses.
The second treasure of the expansion of the Arab armies was the date palm with the "reputation of desert bread", which was a convenient food for the Arabs during their expeditions to the desert. Dates are an important cash crop in the Middle East, and there are a large number of words in the Qur'an that praise dates.
Dates are the most commonly used food for Arabs to hunt, fight, and travel, each 100 grams of date palm calories is 282 kcal, equal to 250 grams of steamed rice, cooked noodles (note that not raw rice and raw noodles), nearly 50 calories higher than 100 grams of steamed buns, can easily guarantee the calories of 50 minutes of basketball, as well as easy to carry (no need to live to cook can maintain concealment), nutritious advantages, is the Marching "Chocolate" of the Arab army. Dates were very high in the Arab Empire, and caliphs such as Umar often entertained emissaries with bread and dates.
The success of the Arab armies was based on mobility and logistics, and the camels and dates, the two desert treasures, were their great help, and compared with the Arab Empire, a Chinese dynasty army that could not cross hundreds of miles of han sea was simply ...