The camel was used as a military mount by pre-Islamic civilizations in the Arabian Peninsula. As early as the 1st Century AD Nabatean and Palmyrene armies employed camel-mounted infantry and archers recruited from nomadic tribes of Arabian origin. Typically such levies would dismount and fight on foot rather than from camel-back. Extensive use was made of camels during the initial campaigns of Muhammad and his followers. Subsequently, the Arabs used camel-mounted infantry to outmanoeuvre their Sassanid and Byzantine enemies during the Muslim conquests.