What if Sebeos was wrong about the Muslim Conquests?

The account attributed to the Armenian bishop Sebeos (c. 645) is regarded by scholars as the most coherent and complete account recounting the reasons motivating Arabs and Muslims in marching forward against the Byzantine army inside the Levant. The account is important since it offers a clear picture of the seventh-century venture of empire by Arabs and Muslims. However, there are problems in privileging Sebeos’s account. I, therefore, use Sebeos’s account to discuss the problems inherent in the study of Early Islam inside the western academy. In doing so, I argue how the study of early Islam is ensconced in a deep orientalist lens, ignoring the ‘larger picture’ of regional and global dynamics giving way to the Arab Muslim empire.