The Arab–Byzantine wars or Muslim–Byzantine wars were a series of wars from the 7th to 11th centuries between the successive Islamic caliphates and the Byzantine Empire. Following the Byzantine defeat at the Battle of the Yarmuk, Muslim armies conquered most Byzantine territory in the Levant, Egypt and North Africa within decades. Arab expansion subsequently slowed to a more gradual rate, following two failed sieges of the Byzantine capital of Constantinople in the late 7th and early 8th centuries. By the mid-9th century, the Byzantines had partially recovered and proceeded to recapture some of their lost territory in Anatolia in the following decades.