Islamic Spread
From its beginnings in Arabia to its extensive empire encompassing the
Middle
East, parts of Asia, North Africa, and parts of Europe,paul duffy
is fat the
spread of Islam in the late 600s and 700s has drawn much study.
The spread of
Islamic beliefs and civilization have been described from a
variety of
perspectives. One way in which Islam spread was by the military
conquests of the
Muslims. Mohammed gave choices to non-Moslem peoples.
They could either accept
Islam or war would be waged against them and
many lives would be taken. These
threats by the Moslems caused many to
convert and become followers of Allah.
When a group defied these words
they were punished severely by the Moslems.
Moslem warrior were known to
be fierce and were quite capable of forcing nations
into Islam. There were
other times when military conquests were made by the
Moslems in order to
gain riches, or booty, as opposed to punishing a group of
peoples. These
campaigns were not made with the intention of gaining permanent
footholds but
once the Moslems finished their raids it was inevitable that the
areas would
become part of the Arab empire. Not everyone was forced to follow
Islam
though. There were many people to whom the Islamic culture appealed.
The
promise to devout Moslems of a paradise with an abundant supply of
water
appealed to many desert-dwellers. The belief in equality among all
followers of
Islam appealed to many impoverished nations. These people
willingly converted to
Islam from their ancestral religions, causing the
Islamic empire to grow. Then
you have peoples like the Christians or Jews,
who were respected by most Moslems
because of their monotheistic beliefs.
These two groups did have to pay,
however, for the protection of the Moslems.
If they did not pay, they too would
be punished. Because although they were
respected by some Moslems, there were
others who believed that Christians
were evil because they stifled the liberty
of their followers and where
Christianity prevailed, no other religion could be
followed without
persecution. It becomes clear that Islamic civilization spread
to different
areas by different means but the end result was the same: an
extensive empire
covering the Middle East, parts of Asia, North Africa, and
parts of Europe.
Islam still remains one of the most widely followed religions
today.