Military History of Libya - Late Antiquity and Islamic Conquest

Late Antiquity and Islamic Conquest

Cyrenaica remained under East Roman (Byzantine) control, while Tripolitania fell under the Vandals in the mid-5th century. The Byzantines conquered the Vandal Kingdom in the Vandalic War of 533–534, including Tripolitania. The province was plagued over the next two decades by warfare between the Byzantines and the local Berber tribes, most notably the Leuathae. The Berbers were subdued however by John Troglita in the 540s.

As part of the Muslim conquest of Egypt, Cyrenaica was conquered in 642, and in 643 the Arabs took the eastern parts of Tripolitania and sacked Tripoli. In 647 an army of 20,000, led by Abdallah ibn Sa'ad, penetrated into western Tripolitania and Tunisia. In a 15-month campaign, the Arabs raided the Exarchate of Carthage and defeated and killed its ruler, Gregory. The campaign was intended as a raid rather than for conquest, however, and Ibn Sa'ad's force returned to Egypt after Gregory's successor Gennadius gave them a huge tribute in gold.