Heraclius’s religious persecution plans alienated eastern provinces before the Arab conquest

Evidence

Moreover, Byzantine Syria and Persia, the two great rival empires, were both weakened by their recent war. The emperor Heraclius had scored a Pyrrhic victory for Constantinople, a victory of little comfort to the inhabitants of Byzantine Syria. Heraclius was hoping to regain control over his eastern provinces and to reassert (by compromise or by force) Constantinople’s control over Christians it considered heretical, who had succeeded in establishing ecclesiastical independence: Armenian and Egyptian Monophysites and Syrian Jacobites. (Monophysites affirmed that Christ had only one nature, rejecting the “orthodox” Duophysite doctrine of distinct divine and human natures in Christ). The emperor also had plans to punish Jews for their alleged role in helping the Persian invaders in the recent war. The various inhabitants of the region felt battered by war and fearful of the reestablishment of Constantinople’s power. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 239

Categorization

• XREF: A conquering power’s harsh religious policy alienating subjects resonates with colonial and imperial overreach patterns elsewhere; the Monophysite vs Duophysite schism is a doctrinal definition worth keeping.