Today's episode is brought to you by audible.com. My recommendation this week is a book called

In God's Path, the Arab conquests and the creation of an Islamic empire by Robert Hoyland.

One of my frustrations in putting together a narrative of the Arab invasions was knowing

which stories were unreliable and which could be fairly included. As soon as I finish, boom,

this comes out. I have a copy and I used it in the writing of this episode. It's easy to read

and brings together all the sources into a nice narrative of the birth and growth of the caliphate,

where in the shadow of the sword explored the swirling mysteries of the invasions,

this details their solid path through the Middle East. If you'd like a free audiobook,

then go to audible.com-tv-critic.

Hello everyone and welcome to the history of Byzantium, episode 65-7-Empress.

Previously on the history of Byzantium, the emergence of a new Arab state in the Middle East

saw the Eastern Roman Empire lose control of Egypt, Palestine and Syria. For 60 years, the

descendants of Heraclius weathered relentless attacks from the caliphate, broken only by two

civil wars. Meanwhile, in the Balkans, a tribe of bulgars migrated across the Danube and set up

a new state on the empire's doorstep. In 695 AD, Justinian II, the great great grandson of Heraclius,

was dragged into the hippodrome by an angry mob and had his nose and tongue mutilated.

Signalling the end of his fitness to rule, he was exiled to the city of Cherson in the Crimea

as the new emperor Leonteus was crowned.

During the end of the century episodes, I made several comparisons between the fate of Byzantium

and that of the Sassanids in the face of the Arab attacks. The sudden loss of Herac totally

undermined the rule of Yazdegard III and as the military defeats piled up, his provincial

aristocracy abandoned him, leaving the Persian Empire to be swallowed whole by the caliphate.

...