The 630s decade ran from January 1, 630, to December 31, 639.
The 640s decade ran from January 1, 640, to December 31, 649.
The 650s decade ran from January 1, 650, to December 31, 659.
The 660s decade ran from January 1, 660, to December 31, 669.
The 670s decade ran from January 1, 670, to December 31, 679.
Year 632 (DCXXXII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. The denomination 632 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.
Year 634 (DCXXXIV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar. The denomination 634 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.
Year 635 (DCXXXV) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar. The denomination 635 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.
Year 637 (DCXXXVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. The denomination 637 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.
Year 652 (DCLII) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar. The denomination 652 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.
Year 642 (DCXLII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar. The denomination 642 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.
Year 646 (DCXLVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar. The denomination 646 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.
Year 656 (DCLVI) was a leap year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar. The denomination 656 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.
Year 658 (DCLVIII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar. The denomination 658 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.
The Muslim conquest of the Levant, or Arab conquest of Syria, was a 634–638 CE invasion of Byzantine Syria by the Rashidun Caliphate. A part of the wider Arab-Byzantine Wars, the Levant was brought under Arab Muslim rule and developed into the provincial region of Bilad al-Sham. Clashes between the Arabs and Byzantines on the southern Levantine borders of the Byzantine Empire had occurred during the lifetime of Muhammad, with the Battle of Muʿtah in 629 CE. However, the actual conquest did not begin until 634, two years after Muhammad's death. It was led by the first two Rashidun caliphs who succeeded Muhammad: Abu Bakr and Umar ibn al-Khattab. During this time, Khalid ibn al-Walid was the most important leader of the Rashidun army.
Umar was the second Rashidun Caliph and reigned during 634–644. Umar's caliphate is notable for its vast conquests. Aided by brilliant field commanders, he was able to incorporate present-day Iraq, Iran, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Syria, Jordan, Palestine, Lebanon, Egypt, and parts of Afghanistan, Turkmenistan and south western Pakistan into the Caliphate. During his reign, the Byzantines lost more than three fourths of their territory and in Persia, Umar became the king (ruler) of Iran after the fall of the Sassanid Empire.
The Rashidun Caliphate consisted of the first four successive caliphs (lit. 'successors') — Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, and Ali — who led the Muslim community/polity from the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad in 632, to the establishment of the Umayyad Caliphate in 661. The Caliphate's first 25-years were characterized by rapid military expansion during which it was the most powerful economic, cultural, and military force in West Asia and Northeast Africa. By the 650s, in addition to the Arabian Peninsula, the caliphate had subjugated the Levant to the Transcaucasus in the north; North Africa from Egypt to present-day Tunisia in the west; and the Iranian Plateau to parts of Central and South Asia in the east. The caliphate ended in a five-year period of internal strife. The title Rashidun comes from the belief in Sunni Islam that the caliphs were 'rightly guided', and therefore constituted a religious model to be followed and emulated. The caliphs are also known in Muslim history as the "orthodox" or "patriarchal" caliphs.
The plague of Amwas, also spelled plague of Emmaus, was an ancient bubonic plague epidemic that afflicted Islamic Syria in 638–639, during the first plague pandemic and toward the end of the Muslim conquest of the region. It was likely a reemergence of the mid-6th-century Plague of Justinian. Named after Amwas in Palestine, the principal camp of the Muslim Arab army, the plague killed up to 25,000 soldiers and their relatives, including most of the army's high command, and caused considerable loss of life and displacement among the indigenous Christians of Syria. The appointment of Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan to the governorship of Syria in the wake of the commanders' deaths paved the way for his establishment of the Umayyad Caliphate in 661, while recurrences of the disease may have contributed to the Umayyad dynasty's downfall in 750. Depopulation in the Syrian countryside may have been a factor in the resettlement of the land by the Arabs unlike in other conquered regions where the Arabs largely secluded themselves to new garrison cities.
Abu al-A'war Amr ibn Sufyan ibn Abd Shams al-Sulami, identified with the Abulathar or Aboubacharos of the Byzantine sources, was an Arab admiral and general, serving in the armies of the Rashidun caliphs Abu Bakr, Umar and Uthman rejecting the fourth Rashidun caliph Ali, instead serving Umayyad caliph Mu'awiya I.
The siege of Emesa in 638 was laid by a coalition force of Arab Christian tribes from Jazira which mustered by Heraclius in an attempt to stem the losses of Byzantine territories due to rapid expansion of the Rashidun Caliphate in the Levant.
