Ar-Rum

Ar-Rum (Arabic: الروم, romanized: ’ar-rūm, lit. 'The Romans') is the 30th chapter (sūrah) of the Quran, consisting of 60 verses (āyāt). The term Rūm originated in the word Roman, and during the time of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, it referred to the Eastern Roman Empire.

The surah references the Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628 and specifically the Sasanian conquest of Jerusalem in 614. Both sides of that war would later become military opponents of the early Muslims. Within Muhammad's own lifetime, Muslim and Byzantine forces would clash in the earliest battle of the Arab–Byzantine wars, and the Muslim conquest of Persia led to the downfall of the Sasanian Empire by the middle of the 7th century.

Summary

The chapter begins by noting the recent defeat of the Byzantine Empire to the Sasanian Empire in Jerusalem, near the Dead Sea. This defeat posed a significant theological and sociological problem for the early Muslim community because the Byzantines were Christians (considered to be "People of the Book" from the Islamic viewpoint) while the Sassanids who defeated them were Zoroastrians. Ar-Rum is in part a response to the non-Muslim Arab Meccans, who took the Sassanid victory as a sign that the traditional polytheistic practices would win out over the monotheism of the Abrahamic religions. In the third and fourth verses, the Muslim community is promised that the Byzantines will reverse their defeat into a victory and retake Jerusalem "in a few years' time".

"The Romans were vanquished in the closer region, and they, after being vanquished, will prevail within a certain number of years.