Spread Of Islam Research Paper

    Around the years of 632-750 C.E., Islamic followers created an empire that reached across North Africa into Europe and dominated the Middle East. Due to several aspects leading up to expansion such as war, geography, and establishing an organized impressionable government, the Islamic empire grew rapidly.

A. The Arab state grew to include all or part of Egyptian, Roman/Byzantine, Persian, Mesopotamian, and Indian civilizations.

During 610 CE, when Islamic belief started to spread conquest had been a major factor to its belief expanding. When the military was taking over the different territories they were also spreading their beliefs and converting the places they were taking. The military had started in Medina, and traveled in vast areas from there, from there they had spread their beliefs all over (Doc C). After the battle fought at al-Yarmuk many people had converted to Islamic belief. Allah had helped the Muslims, the Muslims had soon won the battle. After that, word had gotten spread that Allah had helped during the battle,this had intrigued many different people, and had and had gotten people interested in the religion (Doc E).

The rise of the Islamic religion and the growth of Islam’s territory happened rather quickly. During the life of their prophet and Islam’s originator, Muhammad, and interestly it even increased after his death, but how? Islam spread so fast after it was originated because of three things: trade, military conquest, and the appeal of its government.

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.

Muslim conquests lasted from 622 AD to 750 AD, and would continue to move forward until the 18th century. These expansions of religion and politics were led by dynasties of Caliphs , beginning with the prophet Muhammad and then the Four Rightly Guided Caliphs. Islam spread from Mecca to Medina and furthered into central Asia, North Africa, Spain, and parts of the old Byzantine and Persian empires. Despite this, there is a large misunderstanding about the spread of Islam during this period of time and why the expansion of the Catholic Church after the Dark Ages instead takes precedence in Western Europe. The halt of the expansion of Islamic rule in Europe can be linked back to the Battle of Tours back in 733 AD. This battle was meant to be the Islamic Empires first expansion into Europe nearing the end of the period called the Dark Ages in European history. This resulted in the expansion of the early modern Catholic Church in Europe during the Renaissance and the misunderstanding of Islamic politics.

When Muhammad died, Muslims faced the challenge of creating institutions to preserve the community. This is the Middle period of Islam. Muslims believe that the revelation was completed with the work of Muhammad, who is described as the seal of the prophets. The leaders after Muhammad were described only as caliphs, or successors to the Prophet, and not as prophets themselves. The first four caliphs were companions of the Prophet and their period of rule (632-661) is described by the majority of Muslims as the age of the Rightly Guided Caliphate. This was an era of expansion during which Muslims conquered the Sasanid (Persian) Empire and took control of the North African and Syrian territories of the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire. The Muslim community was transformed from a small city-state controlling much of the Arabian Peninsula into a major world empire, in this case the Umayyad empire, extending from northwest Africa to central Asia. The emphasis

These invasions were a primary factor of the religions spread. For example, the Islamic empire began to spread through Asia and the Middle East, where they encountered people of various religions like Christianity, Judaism, and Confucianism. Though they tolerated religions like Christianity due to their monotheistic aspect, they did not tolerate any other faith and forced conversions were made which in many cases, the alternate decision was death. These brutal methods of conversion allowed Islam to become a powerful religion throughout Asia, and by the age of discovery, Islam reached the New World. Currently, Islam is the largest ethnic religion and the second most practiced religion in the

The rise of Islam brought many important changes to Europe, both physically and culturally. Through the many conquests of Muhammad and his successors, Muslim dominion, by the middle of the eighth century, included all of the southern and eastern Mediterranean, as well as Spain. Spain would serve as a point of invasion for Islamic forces into Western Europe and it would continue to serve as an Islamic state up until 1492 when its last territory (Granada) fell to Christian forces. Muslim control of the regions south and east of the Mediterranean led to their domination of the Mediterranean sea and all the European trade that went on there. All of this contributed to a deep mistrust of Islam from Europeans, which would make way for the persecutions

By 637 AD. they had taken over the Holy land. The Muslims held the Holy Land from 637 to 1099 AD. this was known as the The Arad Period or the The Muslim Period. This reign was ended by the first crusade when the Christians took back the holy land in 1099 AD and established the four Latin Kingdoms or states in the Middle East the County of Tripoli, the County of Edessa, the Principality of Antioch and the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

The information provided by Hutchinson from Islamic Empire (2016) in Age of Conquests says that the history of Islamic conquest begins with the rise of Muhammad in Mecca where he shared his experiences with others which gained him followers of this new faith, while being persecuted by Meccans, therefore he had to flee to the Arabian City of Medina. While in Medina, Muhammad gained more followers and established an army that he led against Mecca. This battle began with raiding each other’s camps, or ghawz, until Muhammad’s forces outnumbered the Meccans, defeating them in 624. Afterwards, Muhammad rose in power in Mecca as leader and converted most of the citizens into Muslims. As the leader of Mecca, Muhammad was aided by tribes of Bedouin against Meccans who had not converted and Arab tribes until 630, when Mecca surrendered to Muhammad thus many Meccans converted. After the death of Muhammad in 632, the Muslims were prepared for a rapid territorial expansion and spread of

Lastly, Islam spread quickly through military campaigns which is depicted in “The Spread of Islam (map)” (Doc. C) This map shows how the people that were conquered by the Muslims chose to convert to Islam

Islam is a major world religion. Its origin can be traced back to 610 CE in Arabia. The basis of this religion is the revelations to the prophet Mohammad. Dissatisfied with his life, he traveled to deserts, hills, and the wilderness surrounding Mecca, where he lived, to meditate and reflect. He became a new man through his revelations, which many of his followers believe Allah transmitted to him through his angel Gabriel. Islam was originally an Arab religion, but many different beliefs and practices were added to it, making it extremely popular and aiding in its rapid spread. This new religion spread to many different areas surrounding Arabia, both under Mohammad and after his death. The Muslim Empire grew to encompass Spain and

One reason Islam spread fast was because Muslims used force. From the beginning, Muhammad believed that Arab Muslims should not attack other Muslims. However, they could raid non-Muslims and take their things. These were called ghazu raids (Document D). Later the raids got bigger and became military campaigns and spread across the middle east, North Africa, and into Spain (Document C). Without force, Islam would not have spread so quickly.

In the seventh century ad most of the Arabs were converted to the religion of Islam. They become the followers of Mohammed and now the known as the Muslims. From their homeland in Arabia, they swept across the Middle East and North Africa in the