What is happening in Arabia in 750CE
The Arab buffer states of the Ghaznavids and the Lakhmids both fell foul of suspicions of treachery by their respective patrons, the Byzantine, and Persian emperors. This had the effect of making the borders of the two empires open to attack by nomadic Arab tribes.
Meanwhile the preaching of a prophet called Muhammad in the towns of Mecca and Medina brought about a religious revolution. It gave rise to a new religion, Islam, and led to the great Arab conquests of the mid-7th century which created a huge new empire, the Caliphate.
In the wake of these conquests, many Arabs migrated, either as individual families or as whole tribes, to the conquered lands, where they would contribute to the process of Arabization and Islamization. Arabia itself, however, lost its central political importance when Damascus, in Syria, became the seat of the Caliphate. Mecca and Medina remained the holiest cities of the Islamic world and major centers of pilgrimage. Successive caliphs lavished new mosques and monuments on them.
Arabia soon became a haven for branches of Islam considered heretical by orthodox Muslims. The first of these was the Ibadites, who believed that the caliph should be elected. One of their leaders took control of Oman and rules there with the title of Imam.
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