The Religion Of Islam And The United Of Middle Spain

The prophet Muhammad sparked the rise of Islam on the Arabian Peninsula by preaching the word of Allah, and inspired the caliphs that came after him to expand the religion and lead it to a period of prosperity. Without the benefits that Islam brought and the power of the Muslim army Islamic Civilization might have secluded itself to one region like Judaism did and not spread so quickly across the region like it did. The appeals that Islamic culture and the teachings of Muhammad offered, as well as practical benefits of converting to Islam, brought many People of the Book and other non-Muslims into the religion. Muslims used military force and threats in the name of Allah to strike fear into all non believers and expand Muslim territory through

“Fight in the name of God and in the ‘path of god’. Combat those who disbelieve in God.” The quote above is an excerpt from Matthew Gordon’s book, “The Rise of Islam”. Throughout the course of history, many religions have had a profound effect on western civilization. During the early 5th century a religion arose that had an extremely important impact on western civilization. The Arabic prophet Muhammad founded the religion known today as Islam. Violence, diplomacy, Arabic tradition, and public law played a vital role in the rise and conquest of Islam. These four key elements that fostered the rise of Islam helped establish one of the largest religions in western civilization.

The early centuries following the emergence of Islam were shrouded with numerous internal conflicts and Fitnas, particularly during the Umayyad Caliphate. With the expansion of Islam so successful, why would there be such strife among the Muslims? Possible answers lie with divisions among groups on who should rule, how he should rule and how religious doctrine was to be upheld by the amir al-muminin or “commander of the faithful.” These were prominent among all other problems of the period. The seventh and eighth centuries contain evidence demonstrating that the Muslims fought each other due to matters of revenge, caliphate succession and opposition to policy; they used tribal ethics, religious association to the prophet Muhammad and Quranic doctrine to justify such actions.

    Islam’s massive growth in size can be credited to the constant battles and war with surrounding areas. The Muslims were determined to share

The expansion began with Muhammad’s ten year reign from 622 to 632, accumulating the western part of the Arabian Peninsula. Through military campaigns, the first four Caliphs that ruled for twenty-nine years after Muhammad’s death gained territory in northwestern Africa, all of the Arabian Peninsula, and areas that cover modern-day Iran and Iraq. By the year 750, the Umayyid Caliphs added territory in Spain, northwestern Africa, and modern-day Pakistan and Afghanistan, allowing the Islamic Empire to span across the western world (Document C). Despite being known as a peaceful religion and civilization, Islam had a strong army that defended its territory. In the year 636, the Muslims formed an alliance with the Hims to defeat the Byzantine Empire’s army, who resisted Islam’s expansion. In al-Baladhuri’s account of the Battle of Yarmuk, he claimed that, “By Allah’s help, some 70,000 of them [the Byzantine army] were put to death” (Document F). The Muslims fought and conquered, all while keeping faith in God, and gained a larger population, increasing the amount of

According to the documents A, and B, Islam expanded from military conquest and peace treaties. Document A talks about how the Muslims conquered land and how fierce the Muslims were. It also states that “In the battle of al-Yarmuk certain Muslim women took part of defending/fighting and fought violently. “Among them was Hind, daughter of ‘Utbah and mother of Mu’awivah ibn-abi-Sufyan, who repeatedly exclaimed, “Cut the arms of these non-Muslims with your swords!” It also says that it was one of the bloodiest battles ever fought. “The battle they fought at al-Yarmuk was of the fiercest and bloodiest kind. Document B is about the Treaty of Tudmir. It talks about how they will just make the people of Tudmir “pay one dinar every year, together with

After Mohammed's death in 632 CE, faithful Muslims waged wars to spread their faith beyond the Arabian peninsula. Even though those who were conquered were not forced to convert to Islam, the presence of Islam after the captures were enough for a magnitude of people to convert. The Muslims were commanded to, “‘Fight in the cause of God against those who fight you, but do not be the aggressors.’” Any wars that were fought against unbelievers were to be in representation of God and were to lead by example of the Prophet (Document 5). So, they brought their faith with them into battle, and therefore the

The Muslim empires proved to be forces to be reckoned with when they stretched and

The Prophet Muhammad’s large influences over the foundations of Islam helped shape its empire into a powerful militant group that would result in the unification of Arabia in 622 AD . From there, Muhammad would be looked to by many as both a religious prophet and a competent military leader. Conquests made my Muhammad lasted from 622 CE to

Islam and Medieval Christianity have had a combative attitude towards each other. Islam considers Jesus as a continuation of the line of the Prophets, while Christians consider Jesus as the Son of God who came to redeem the world from its fallen nature. These two religions are one two of the largest religions across the world and impact billions of people. Some individuals in both religions view each other as infidels and the only recourse is to remove them from the society at large. The warring nature of these two Abrahamic religions allowed for them to develop in differing ways in Western and Eastern Europe. The growth of Islamic during the 600s to the 1500s made changes to Christianity by making the Pope a powerful

The religious text of almost any religion promotes peace, love and equality. Religion is meant to increase morality and righteousness, but the misinterpretations of the religious texts promotes violence and dispute. It is evident that the most influential events of history had occurred because of the blood thirst wars - provoked due to religion. The multiple components of various religions has become the primary cause for war. The mere difference of religion culminated to the Crusades, the Holocaust and gave rise to terrorist militant groups such as ISIS.

The Middle Ages had one dominant religion, Christianity, until Islam began. It is the Muslim religion. Islam is based on the claims of a man named Mohammed. When Mohammed died, his teachings were gathered into a book called the Koran (Quran). His intrepid successor Abu Bakr with a vast victorious army conquered cities and forced the people to convert to Islam. This is how Islam widely spread through out the Middle East. Islam is now a major world religion. This is the story Muslims tell today.

Over a thousand years ago, Europe experienced one of its greatest periods of cultural enlightenment.Islam in Spain has had a fundamental presence in the culture and history of the nation. The religion was present inmodern Spanish soil from 711 until 1492 under the rule of the Arabs and Moors of al-Andalus.Islamic Spain was a multi-cultural mix of the people of three great monotheistic religions: Muslims,Christians, and Jews.For more than three centuries in Medieval Spain, Muslims, Jews and Christians lived together and prospered in a thriving multicultural civilization. Here, remarkable individuals of different faiths made lasting contributions in such areas as poetry, art, architecture, music, dining etiquette, science, agriculture,

Islam has developed its Just war theory from its early development in the time of prophet Mohammad himself, Islam began the process of political rule, exercise of power and even the exertion of political will and exercise of force and the formation of a highly effective governance and expansion. Islam the concepts of war, battle, and conduct of war, among other things are not some accretion that has to be theologically justified after well over 300 years of life of the faith, but rather they are central to the formation of Islamic theology, jurisprudence, and ethics because they happen during the life of the prophet and during the process of revelations (Amjad &Charles,240). Early sources of Muhammad and caliphates in political and social contexts become weakness in today’s context that they

However, Jihad’s age old association with violence was nearly unavoidable. Struggle can rather easily be translated into a call to conduct an external Jihad for the Islamic faith. For example, a verse in the Qu’ran states, “go forth, light armed and heavy armed, and strive with your wealth and your lives in the way of Allah” (Church 111). This verse clearly pairs Jihad (“strive”) with external violence (“go forth, light armed and heavy armed”) (Church 111). Indeed, violent Jihad was an obvious necessity because the Muslim community had always been a religious and political faction. Many lost their lives to spread and defend the newfound faith in Arabia and eventually to locations far beyond. Jihad’s association with violence and religious duty made it an ideal expression for Muslims to justify “lesser Jihad,” or the notion of external conflict, centered on the idea of spreading the faith (Church 112).