Cultural Diffusion: Was Muslim Influence Positive Or Negative?

From its beginnings in Mecca to its extensive empire across the Middle East, Asia, North Africa and parts of Europe, the spread of Islam in the late 600’s and 700’s A.C.E has drawn much attention. The spread of Islam began when Prophet Muhammad (579-632) (pbuh) started preaching the revelation he claimed to have received from God. Muslim dynasties were soon established and eventually the Abbasid Dynasty ruled over the vast Islamic empire, and through wealth in money and knowledge, the Muslim world experience it's Golden Age. The people of the Islamic world created numerous sophisticated centers of culture and science with far-reaching trade networks. The Islamic world achieved its Golden Age through its advancements in medicine, math and

One of the first major reasons for the swift spread of Islam was

In the beginning, Muhammad started to preach his teachings, called Islam, in a populous trade center known as Mecca. Though, at first, his preachings were resisted as the people worried that idol worship and pilgrimages, or journeys to a sacred place, would end. This, in fact, proved to be true as with enough support, Muhammad ordered that the idols be destroyed and that a shrine dedicated to Allah be built instead, making Mecca the birthplace and foundation of Islam. However, within 100 years of Muhammad’s death in 632 CE, Islam had spread to multiple other countries including Europe, North Africa, and Asia. The question is, how did Islam spread so rapidly over the course of 100 years? Briefly put, Islam spread rapidly due to trade routes, military campaigns, and non-Muslim converts.

Mecca was known as a trading city, for its camel caravans that would constantly visit, and an important religious shrine known as the Ka’ba which was economically beneficial since traders would pay to visit it and its other idols. Islam would begin with the teachings of Muhammad: monotheism, support for the weak and the poor, and that Muhammad was allah’s prophet. Muhammad would be unaccepted by the people of Mecca because his teachings threatened their economy and he wanted to eliminate idol worship. Muhammad fled to Medina and began to create a following known as the Ulma and later developed into a political leader. Eventually, Muhammad would return and conquer the city of Mecca, establishing Islam and destroying everything but the Ka’ba.

During the Post-Classical Era, the leadership of Prophet Muhammad aided in the creation of the religion of Islam. Unlike any other religion, Islam spread exponentially through trade routes, appealing to the needy and conquest of new areas. As the religion began to gain massive coverage across Afro-Eurasia, it impacted the Post- Classical World both politically and culturally. During the Post-Classical Era, the spread of Islam led to significant political effects such as rise of caliphates, sultanates and empires that expanded to new areas. Furthermore, the spread of Islam had various cultural contributions such as spread of new traditions and arts.

Islam is one of the major world religions that quickly proliferated across the world. The spread of Islam started when Prophet Muhammad began to address the public a new revelation that he received from God in 632 CE. It was later written in the Quran, which is the Islamic sacred text. The religion united everyone under one rule and appealed to all because there was no hierarchy. It particularly diffused during the Middle Ages, when Islam had a great desire in exploring new information, developing extensive trade and creating a powerful military system in the Middle East and North Africa, which helped the Islamic World dominate politically and religiously.

Though the religion started in Mecca, Islam spread far and wide. Under the rule of Muhammad, the Four Caliphs, and the Umayyad caliphs, lands from Spain and North Africa to the Middle East became Muslim territory. (Document C). The expanding of Muslim lands exposed more people to the religion. Previously they may not have heard of Islam until the areas in which they lived in came under Muslim control. Later on, a golden opportunity for the Muslims came from their neighboring kingdoms, "Persia and Byzantium had both been engaged for decades in a long . . . series of wars with one another. Both were exhausted. (Document D). With both kingdoms, Persia and Byzantium, weakened, Muslims had a quick and effortless victory and were able to double the size of their kingdom. Altogether, the expansion of Muslim territory resulted in the spread of Islam due to more people being exposed to the Islamic

The spread of Islam and Christianity. Both belief systems spread both rapidly and were efficient religions that brought great change for the greater good. They were the largest religions in the entire world and both happened to be monotheistic. Both religions share a similar history and tradition. Christianity appealed to the people because of their unwillingness to live on and how hopeless they were to move forward in poverty. Travel played an enormous role in conversion because of the missionaries sent out to unknown lands to spread the faith through trading routes (Christianity) and contacts (Islam). Islam prospered, on the other hand, with a vision of the angel Gabriel from Muhammed (became a god messenger and prophet of Allah). Interactions with other civilizations developed the Islamic World. These new religions led to more growth in the aspects of their social, economic, and political systems in addition to influencing other upcoming religions in history.

It was very different from other religions, and some things really caught people’s attention. The values of the Qur’an were absolutely fair to all people, which was something to like about the religion. In the Qur’an, it shows that all lives matter because it says saving one life is equal to saving the whole human race. It is an undeniable fact that the Qur'an is a living book that has influenced millions of people through its beauty and style. The Qur’an is a great source of Islamic faith. Many early Muslims had a great deal of faith. Due to the complete honesty and the influence of the appealing personality of Muhammad, the faith of his supporters were unusually strong. It was based on their first-hand acquaintance with his exemplary life. After hearing about ‘The Origins of the Islamic State’, the Hims adopted the religion. Since the religion was adopted, it spread all over

In the 7th and 8th centuries, Islam spread from its beginnings in Arabia to cover the entire Middle East and parts of Africa, Asia, and Europe. As (Document 8) shows, by the year 750, Islam stretched from Eastern Persia in the Middle East, all the way to the westernmost edges of Spain and North Africa, bordering the Atlantic Ocean. Islam expanded so rapidly because of its techniques on conquering unstable areas and converting people to Islam, preventing setbacks and obstructions. Islam had three main reasons for its eminent prosperity. The way that Muslims treated the conquered people allowed for peace throughout the empire. Tolerance, combined with the military power, a disciplined army, and an overall appealing religion of Islam, provided the template that allowed the empire to expand to encompass an enormous amount of area.

West Africa has experienced migration, because of the cultural, ethnic, linguistic, and religious groups it contains, and because of the minerals, and goods it can produce. Around the ninth century C.E., in the trans- Saharan route, slave trade became popular. These slaves were used by the Arabs for military service, administration, domestic service, and concubinage. Extensive trade in the region led to urbanization, as well as the introduction of Islam. Muslim Berbers contributed to the expansion of Islam, by controlling the trade routes in Africa, and becoming conduits for economic activities, by the tenth century. During the mid-11th century, cities like Gao and Timbuktu had Muslim scholars traveling the routes, because of the intrusion of the Almoravids, and this resulted in turning these cities into hotspots for study and trade. The eleventh century brought the acceptance of the Islamic culture, and led to conversion of the elites, so they can have legal, political, administrative, cultural, and economic benefits. The Islamic culture did not disrupt indigenous African shamanist and animist beliefs, it united ethnic groups, and led to the development of Islamic states throughout Africa. (Africa, 3000 B.C.-A.D. 1500 / West African Trade /

Reasons for the Spread of Islam Throughout time, Islam has come to be known as a great empire that rules from the Middle East and stretches across North Africa into Europe. The religion of Islam started off in 610 CE, when a merchant trader from Mecca, made a visit to a nearby cave called Mount Hira. The merchant trader was named, Muhammad Ibn Abdullah, according to him “it was on this visit to Mt.Hira that the archangel Gabriel squeezd him hard and cause the word to flow out, the words said that Allah wa the one god,” [Background Essay]. As years when on Muhammad preached the word of Allah and about the importance of charity. He first started preaching in a town called Medina and worked his way back to Mecca.

1 According to The Oxford History of Islam, what is one way Islam was spread to African societies? Score of 1: States a way Islam was spread to African societies according to The Oxford History of Islam Examples: through trade routes; through the work of religious leaders; merchants were carriers/opened trade routes; merchants exposing isolated societies to external influences; integration of Muslim religious leaders into African societies; Muslim religious leaders played social/political roles similar to those of traditional priests; by people trading Score of 0: • Incorrect response Examples: merchants were agents of Islamization; by religious leaders forcing their views on isolated societies; there was conflict between traditional priests and Muslim men of religion • Vague response Examples: by being carriers; isolated societies were engaged; it was extended to men of religion; people • No response

Changes in political and cultural traditions during the post-classical period occurred in Africa because of intensive Islamic contact. When Arab conquerors introduced the Islamic faith into northern Africa, they expanded the region of commerce. Muslim merchants established trading centers for copper, iron, salts, and cotton textiles. The newly established trade affected traditional social and religious beliefs. After 1000 C.E., the kin-based social structure experienced difficult challenges. Increased conflict between peoples led to the creation of military forces for both offensive and defensive use. This led to the formation of chiefdoms exhibiting more formal structures of governing such as in the kingdoms of Kongo, Ghana, and Mali. Because most traders were Muslim, many African societies converted to Islam to improve their relations with the

With the advent of an emergent Islamic culture from the seventh century CE, the Muslim realm spread to touch vast expanses of the globe. In particular, areas which had previously prospered as part of the Greek and Roman empires, exposed this incipient culture to immense medical and pharmacological knowledge; these had been produced and formulated by Classical scholars and practitioners such as Hippocrates and Galen. Thus began a lengthy process of translation and transmission of Greek medical treatises into the Islamic world, and a subsequent and unique cultural meeting ensued.