The Spread of Islam Essay

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

While praying, the archangel Gabriel appeared to him with revelations from God. He then used the revelations he received to introduce Islam to everyone around him. It was here that Muhammad was named Prophet, and Mecca became the birthplace of one of the largest religions in the world. Islam spread rapidly because of military conquests, existing trade routes, and the overall appeal to the message.

“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.

Muhammad was known as the prophet of Islam. After receiving messages from Allah ( the concept of God in Islam) for two years, he thought it was time to preach the word of Allah. Through that Muhammad successfully was able to spread the word of Allah not only through religion but also politically to. Through the government Islam was able to spread even more after the four “rightly guided” caliphs (caliph means successor or deputy) continued to spread Islam. People seeked for new religious ideas.

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.

The Quran says to accept other beliefs and religions and to live concurrently and peacefully, but some Muslims might not want to have other religions and go against other groups of people.

In its Golden Age, Islam’s influence reached all the way to Spain, Anatolia, West Africa, and India, among other regions. While these regions were all, in a way, united under a common religion, each of them both altered and were altered by Islam in their own unique ways. Although there were similarities that existed with the spread of Islam to each of those places, many more differences prevailed. Differences and similarities existed in the forms of the role of migration, role of trade, role of cultural exchange, methods of conversion to Islam, and the unique cultural developments in each region.

The spread of Islam throughout the world was among the most significant worldwide movements in history. Beginning as the faith of a small community of believers in Arabia in the seventh century, Islam rapidly became one of the major world religions. The core beliefs and culture of this faith is the belief that Muhammad (570-632), a respected businessman in Mecca, a commercial and religious center in western Arabia, received revelations from God that have been preserved in the Qur'an. The core of Islam remains the same today after 1396 years. Islam still translates to “submission” and Muslims still live by the Qur’an and follow the 5 Pillars of Islam. However, throughout the Pre-Islamic, Umayyad, and Abbasid

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.

Document 1 states that “...both Christian and Muslims committed appalling atrocities in the name of religion...crusaders sometimes turned their fury against Jews, massacring entire communities.”This is (important/interesting/relevant) No side are innocent bystanders as both Muslims and Christians created appalling crimes. With the example given that the Crusaders murdered Jews for the reason of anger as hate flew towards them from all sides of the battlefield.

Islam is not the only religion that use violence for instance, the Christian use violence to destroy Islam. In the article crusades the idea of violence was demonstrated when pope urban II send innumerable amount of solder to “Rise in a spirit of cruelty against the jewish people scattered through the cities and slaughtered ’the women, also, and with their swords pierced tender children of whatever gender and sex.” The soldier did not stop there they also “Destroy the houses, synagogue of the jews and divided among themselves a very, large, amount of money [that once belonged to the jews].” Christians were influenced by Pope Urban II to assassinate million of people. It is estimated that about 1.7 million of people died during the crusades.

Verses 2:190-194 and 216-218 of the Quran reflect what Muslims believe constitutes a just war. A part of verse 191 says, “And kill them wherever you overtake them, and expel them from where they had expelled you.” The Quran even supports a just war in sacred places and sacred times of the year. Another part of verse 191 says, “But do not fight them at the Sacred Mosque, unless they fight you there.” The first part of verse 194 mentions fighting during a sacred time when, “The sacred month for the sacred month; and sacrilege calls for retaliation.” It also addresses how it is a necessity for a Muslim to fight if there is persecution by verse 216 saying, “Fighting is ordained for you, even though you dislike it.” The rest of verse 216 says that the person who finds fighting unappealing must still fight. These people who do not like fighting do not know what is best for themselves, but God does according to verse 216.

Everyday on the news people are hearing things about ISIS and how they use religion to start wars and offend religious beliefs. Many people today are fighting for religious beliefs, wars, and other things, but that is nothing compared to how ISIS is betraying people. Throughout centuries religious beliefs have been used to persecute others, divide territories based on religion, and how they teach religion, but that shouldn’t stop anyone for having their own religious beliefs. Early teachings were tolerant of one another until the Crusades during the Middle Ages wanted to gain land and wealth for selfish reasons. Today, ISIS uses those who stray away from the original teaching of Muhammad, to fuel their reasons for war. Many groups use

The debate on whether or not the Islamic religion actually produces terrorists and condones violence continues on and will continue on for as long as the religion exists. Both sides do have valid arguments. Some say that Islamic Extremists like ISIS are only interpreting the Quran in their own sick and twisted way, but when one actually looks into the holy book and studies it to its extent, they see that it calls Muslims to war with nonbelievers more than it does to make peace with them.The Quran also states to chop off the hands of thieves, and stone adulteresses. However, many modern day Muslims express their freedom to interpret the Quran their own way. So what’s the problem with it then? The problem

The Quran states that "all Christians will be burned in the fire," meaning they want all Christians to burn in Hell as they say. When Mohammed wrote The Quran, he knew his biggest threat was the followers of Jesus, which are Christians. Mohammed knew he couldn 't just ignore Jesus because he was too important to the World so he made it clear the followers of Jesus were evil, but made Jesus a Prophet. Mohammed convinced others that Jesus was not the Son the God. They believe that if Jesus was the promised Messiah, there wouldn’t have been a need for another prophet or for Mohammed because the prophecy would have been filled. To one, that makes no sense, but to the believers of Islam it’s everything. They literally hate Christians