When Clio Met Jihad: The Silence of Greek History after the Muslim Conquests of the Byzantine Empire, 630–810 CE

This paper explores the reasons why contemporary Greek observers of the seventh and eighth century Muslim conquests of the Eastern Roman Empire failed to write historical narratives about these historically significant conquests.  This long silence, which lasted almost two hundred years, was unprecedented in the Greek historiographical tradition.  Greek writers since Herodotus had always employed historical narrative and historical analysis when confronted with political rivals to the Greek-speaking world.  What caused Greek writers of the Eastern Roman Empire to turn away from history as a literary genre and an intellectual strategy when confronted by conquest from a rival Islamic empire?