Pax Islamica and It's List of Wars, Battles and Campaigns From c. 624 to c. 1999

Battles by Century: 7th Century⁵⁵ • 8th—10th Century⁶¹ • 11th Century⁶⁰ • 12th Century⁷¹ • 13th Century⁶¹ • 14th Century⁵⁴ • 15th Century⁷⁶ • 16th Century¹¹⁷ • 17th Century¹²² • 18th Century²⁰² • 19th Century²⁴⁹ • 20th Century²⁹⁵

An Ottoman admiral's galley warship in the 16th century.

According to the "Dictionary of Battles and Sieges" (2006), throughout the course of human history there have been over 8,500 known battles fought between humans since 1,468 BC; with this initial year amounting to the earliest time when the first ever known battle was written down.^[1]^{[n. 1]}^[2] As of 2006 (the time of the books publication) this has meant humans have recorded over 3,474 years of war (with an average outbreak of between 2—3 battles per year). In 1991, it was estimated over 151 million people had died as a direct result of war since 3,000 BC (previous estimates were around the region of 1—2 billion).^[3]
- The single deadliest conflict (which comprised of many battles), was World War II (1939—1945^[4]), where 60—85 million died.^[5]^[6] This was followed by the Mongol Conquests (1206—1368^[7]) with 60 million dead^[8] (who's soldiers were so ferocious, that they even invaded as far as Germany, Austria, Poland and Hungary^[9]). The US (f. 1776^[10]) is however the deadliest country by far in the modern age, who's "invasions of dozens of countries" have killed between 20—30 million since the outbreak of the Korean War (1950—1953^[11]^[12]) up to 2013.^[5] Most of those killed by the US have been civilians.^[5]
- Interestingly, between 5,034,987 and 5,434,987 Muslim soldiers participated as volunteers on the allied side of the war during World War II; with between 1,545,005—1,679,005 killed in action (for more information see Muslim Soldiers During World War II). Tragically, the contributions of these soldiers is rarely emphasised in the West, with a greater emphasis focused on a very small minority Muslims who joined the Axis side of the conflict (most notably, the "grand mufti" of Palestine who was pictured along with Adolf Hitler (1889—1945^[13]);^[14] the German chancellor^[15] and leader of the Nazi party (1920—1945^[16]) at a political meeting, and who's photo has been shared numerous times on social media, and a few Bosnian Muslim^{[n. 2]} and British Raj Indian rebel troops^{[n. 3]}).

The Rocket Torpedo, Hassan er(/al)-Rammah ca. 1280 A.D. National Air and Space Museum (Smithonian).^[17]

Islamic history is also replete with many battles, wars and campaigns; and encompasses some 1,423 battles^[18] fought and recorded between 624 and 1999 (with the Battle of Badr being the first and the 2nd Chechen War being the last) over the course of 1,375 years (which has meant an average outbreak of 1 battle per year). Overall, Islamic warfare makes up around 17% of all human battles in history. The following is a chronological list of all of these wars, battles and campaigns during this time period, separated century by century.^[18] The list of battles in not fully complete and only includes those from Alexander Mikaberidze's "Conflict and Conquest in the Islamic World: A Historical Encyclopedia" (2011; where for example the Siege of Silistria (1854) is not mentioned).^[18]*
- Conflict has erupted in the Islamic world on average every 5—6 years (based on a total of 254 campaigns); and although large parts of the Muslim world today are very safe from conflict, Muslim countries on the borders of the Islamic world continue to remain quite vulnerable. The mass persecution of Muslims has also presented itself as a new danger in countries such as India (with the Kashmir freedom struggle spanning more than several decades^[19]^[20] and where Muslims continue to suffer from state sponsored pogroms and genocides^[21]^[22]), Myanmar (Rohingya Genocide^[23]^[24]^[25]), Israel (Palestinian Genocide^[26]^[27]), China (Uyghur Genocide^[28]^[29]^{[n. 4]}) and Serbia (Bosnian Genocide^[30]^[31]), all of which are not counted as battles or wars as they only affect regular civilians.
The most peaceful period in Islamic history has been between the 8th and 10th centuries; unsurprising given that this was when the Islamic Golden Age (c. 786—c. 1258;^[32] or Islamic Renaissance) was at it's height; a cultural, intellectual and technologically advanced and influential era. The worst period was between the 19th and 20th centuries when many Muslim countries suffered extensively at the hands of European invaders, colonialists and imperialists. Broken down by era, the Early Middle-ages (7th—10th Centuries) saw 27 campaigns, the High Middle-ages (11th—13th Centuries) 37, the Late Middle-ages (14th—16th Centuries) 61, the Contemporary Era (18th—19th Centuries) 59 and the Post-Early Modern Era (19th—20th Centuries) 87.^[18]
- Some of the most famous battles have included the Battles of Yarmouk, (636), Masts (655), Xeres (711), Talas (751), Manzikert (1071), Maritsa (1371), Nicopolis (1396), Constantinople (1453), Mohacs (1526), Preveza (1538), Algiers (1541), 2nd Panipat (1556), Djerba (1560), 3rd Panipat (1761), Pollilur (1780), Gallipoli (1915), Kashmir (1947) and Chechnya (1994). Some of the most famous campaigns have consisted of the Turkish War of Independence (1919—1922^[33]) and the Crusades (1096—1272;^[34] in which the Muslims eventually triumphed^{[n. 5]}). Lastly, omitted from this list are 21st century (ongoing) conflicts; this is largely because modern conflicts and battles suffer the "fog of war"; making them difficult to contextualise until things have settled.

*Certain campaigns known elsewhere may also have names different to those remembered in Islamic history. It must further be noted that Mikaberidze is a European historian, so his research may potentially be very biased.

Working Title: Pax Islamica and It's List of Wars, Battles and Campaigns From c. 624 to c. 1999 | Original Publisher: Materia Islamica | Publication Date: December 2nd, 2016 | Updated: June 4th, 2022 | Written by: Canadian786 |
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