Episode 5: Wasteful wars

I would like to be the first to admit that this episode doesn’t quite belong in this podcast. It’s just that the Arabs will take down two ancient and powerful empires with a swiftness that beggars belief, and this is my attempt at explaining how such an unthinkable act could ever take place. In this episode we discuss the final war the two empires fought with one another, and highlight the state each found itself in before the Arabs emerged from the desert united.

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Glossary

• There’s no real need for a glossary as this episode is only tangentially related to our subject matter. Instead, I’ll use this space to add some details and highlight elements I would like listeners to keep in mind going forward.
• An important take-away from this episode is the layout of the land the two empires fought over, the same land that the Arabs will shortly come to rule. The next dozen or so episodes will largely be in the area we talked about today, and the caliph will eventually be somewhat reminiscent of a Heraclius or a Khosrau.
• I avoided a discussion of monophysitism in the podcast because I feel like there must be more to it than I can relate. To reiterate, the orthodox Byzantine position was miaphysitism, which held that Christ had two natures: one human, and one divine. Monophysites instead believed that Christ had only a single, divine, nature. I came across a helpful way to think about this split in a Hugh Kennedy book. He explains that miaphysites were heirs to a Helenistic tradition of humanizing the divine. Monophysite philosophies had more neoplatonic and Judaic roots, rich with abstractions of unity, power, and perfection. The Copts of Egypts were monophysites, as were other Christians in the east, while previously pagan parts of the Byzantine empire were strictly miaphysite.
• Apart from the two empires, the Arabs will soon have to deal with the Armenians, the Khazars, the Nubians, the Berbers, and multiple Turkic powers in the east. The expansion of their world will introduce them to new ideas and ways of living, and the Arabs will invariably change as they engage with this richer world.