Islam Spread
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This article talks about the social spread of Islam rather than the militant Muslim Conquests.
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[edit] Coming of Islam
The spread of Islam began shortly after the Prophet Muhammad's death in 632. By that time, he and his followers had converted most of Arabia's tribes and towns to Islam, which Muslims maintained united the individual believer, the state, and society under God's will. Islamic rulers, therefore, exercised temporal and religious authority. Islamic law (sharia), which was derived primarily from the Qur'an, encompassed all aspects of the lives of believers, who were called Muslims ("those who submit" to God's will). Muslims imposed political control over conquered territories in the name of the caliph (the Prophet's successor as supreme earthly leader of Islam)[1].
Within 25 years, Muslim Arab forces created the first empire permanently to link western Asia with the Mediterranean. Within another century, Muslim conquerors surpassed the achievement of Alexander the Great, not only in the durability of their accomplishment but in its scope as well, reaching from the Iberian Peninsula to Central Asia. Resistance was generally slight and nondestructive, and conquest through capitulation was preferred to conquest by force[2].
[edit] Arabia
At Medina, the Islamic Prophet Muhammad is said to have received repeated embassies from Christian tribes. His treatment of the Christian Arabs was distinctly more liberal and courteous than that accorded by him to the Jews. He looked on the latter as a dangerous political menace, while he regarded the former not only as subjects, but also as friends and allies.
to the Christians of his country he always showed himself generous and tolerant, although the Islamic tradition tells us that on his deathbed he changed his policy towards them and is said to have commanded that none but Muslims should dwell in the land. In one of his controversies with the Christian tribe of Taghlib, Muhammad agreed that the adults should remain Christian but the children should not be baptized (Wellhausen, op. cit.). The feelings between the Christian and the Muslim Arabs were so friendly at the time of the Prophet that many of the latter sought refuge with the former on more than one occasion.
[edit] Asia
Soon after the death of Muhammad, all these provinces fell, one after the other, into the hands of the Muslims, who threatened, for a while, the entire extinction of Christianity in Western Asia. Thanks however, to the tolerant attitude of the majority of the Umayyad, and the Abbasid caliphs of Damascus and Bagdad respectively, Christianity in the Muslim empire rose gradually to a new and unprecedented life and vigour. Nestorian and Jacobite theologians, philosophers, and men of letters soon became the teachers of the conquering Arabs, and the pioneers of Islamo-Arabic science, civilization, and learning. Nestorian physicians became the attending physicians of the court, and the Nestorian patriarch and his numerous bishops were regarded in Asia as second to none in power and authority.
Under the Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphs, Christianity enjoyed, with few exceptions, great freedom and respect throughout all the Muslim Empire, as can be seen from the facts and data collected by Assemani and Bar-Hebraeus, according to which many Nestorian and Jacobite patriarchs from the seventh to the eleventh centuries received diplomas, or firmans, of some sort from Muhammad himself, from Umar, Ali, Marwan, Al-Mansur, Haroun Raschid, Abu Ja'far, and others. (Shedd, op. cit., 239-241; Assemani, De Catholicis Nestorianis, 41-433 sqq.; Bar-Hebraeus, Chronicon Ecclesiasticum I, 309, 317, 319, 325; II, 465, 625; III, 307, 317, 229, 433, etc.; and Thomas of Marga, op. cit., II, 123, note.)
[edit] Greater Syria
- See also: Muslim conquest of Syria
In 635 Damascus surrendered, its inhabitants being promised security for their lives, property, and churches, on payment of a poll tax. by 640 the conquest was virtually complete. The Arab garrisons were kept apart in camps, and life went on much as before. Conversion to Islam had scarcely begun, apart from Arab tribes already settled in Syria; except for the tribe of Ghassan, these all became Muslim. Christians and Jews were treated with toleration, and Nestorian and Jacobite Christians had better treatment than they had under Byzantium[3] . The loyalty of his new subjects was paramount to the success of Muslim rule in the region, therefore excessive taxation or oppression was avoided[4].
Like their Byzantine and late Sasanian predecessors, the Marwanid caliphs nominally ruled the various religious communities but allowed the communities' own appointed or elected officials to administer most internal affairs. Yet the Marwanids also depended heavily on the help of non-Arab administrative personnel and on administrative practices (e.g., a set of government bureaus). As the conquests slowed and the isolation of the fighters (muqatilah) became less necessary, it became more and more difficult to keep Arabs garrisoned. As the tribal links that had so dominated Umayyad politics began to break down, the meaningfulness of tying non-Arab converts to Arab tribes as clients was diluted; moreover, the number of non-Muslims who wished to join the ummah was already becoming too large for this process to work effectively[5].
[edit] Palestine
The Muslims arrived at Jerusalem around early November 636, and the Roman garrison withdrew into the fortified city. For four months the siege continued, every day there was a fierce assault. At last, when all further resistance was hopeless, the Patriarch Patriarch Sophronius (who acted throughout as the head of the Christian defenders) appeared on the walls and demanded a conference with Abu Ubaidah. He then proposed to capitulate on fair and honourable terms; the Christians were to keep their churches and sanctuaries, no one was to be forced to accept Islam. Sophronius further insisted that these terms should be ratified by the caliph in person. Caliph Umar, then at Medina, agreed to these terms and came with a single camel to the walls of Jerusalem. He signed the capitulation, then entered the city with Sophronius "and courteously discoursed with the patriarch concerning its religious antiquities" [6]. It is said that when the hour for his prayer came he was in the Anastasis, but refused to say it there, lest in future times the Moslems should make that an excuse for breaking the treaty and confiscating the church. The Mosque of Omar (Jami 'Saidna 'Omar), opposite the doors of the Anastasis, with the tall minaret, is shown as the place to which he retired for his prayer. Under the Moslems the Christian population of Jerusalem in the first period enjoyed the usual toleration given to non-Moslem theists. The pilgrimages went on as before [7]. From that point, the rights of the non-Muslims under Islamic territory were governed by the Pact of Umar, and Christians and Jews living in the city were granted autonomy in exchange for a required poll tax (jizya) [8].
The description of Arculf, a Frankish bishop who went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in the seventh century, written down from his account by Adamnan, monk of Iona (d. 704): "De locis terrae sanctae", lib. III (P. L., LXXXVIIl, 725 sq.), gives us a not unpleasant picture of the conditions of Christians in Palestine in the first period of Muslim rule. The caliphs of Damascus (661-75O) were enlightened and tolerant princes, on quite good terms with their Christian subjects. Many Christians (e.g. St. John Damascene, d. c. 754) held important offices at their court. The Abbaside caliphs at Bagdad (753-1242), as long as they ruled Syria, were also just and tolerant to the Christians. The famous Harun Abu-Ja-'afar (Haroun al-Raschid, 786-809) sent the keys of the Holy Sepulchre to Charlemagne who built a hospice for Latin pilgrims near the shrine[7].
During the Fatimid rule, Romans were attacking Syria. It was inevitable that the Christians of Jerusalem should try to help their fellow-countrymen to reconquer the land that had been Roman and Christian; inevitable, too, that the Muslims should punish such attempts as high treason. In 969 the patriarch, John VII, was put to death for treasonable correspondence with the Romans; many other Christians suffered the same fate, and a number of churches were destroyed. The infamous Hakim (Al-Hakim bi-amr-Allah, the sixth Egyptian Caliph, 996-1021, who became the god of the Druze) determined to destroy the Holy Sepulchre (In 1010). It was one of the causes of the feeling that eventually brought about the First Crusade. It has been rebuild in 1048[7].
[edit] Iraq, Persia, and Central Asia
It is clear that Christianity was widely diffused in Persia, that in some localities the Christians were very numerous, and that the Christian religion continued to spread after the rise of Muslims. The strong rule of the early Abbasid caliphs gave opportunity for the development of commerce. The position of the Christians at the capital as bankers and merchants would give them a share in this trade. Christian artisans, including goldsmiths and jewellers, would find employment in the large cities[9].
Yet, in spite of all, Christianity failed, and Islam succeeded in gaining the Iranian race. This failure of Christianity was not wholly due to the success of Islam: internal dissensions, ambition, dishonesty, and corruption among the clergy greatly contributed to the gradual dissolution of the Church[9].
Indeed, the first two centuries of Islamic domination, especially under the Abbasids, were the most glorious period in the history of the Persian Church. The missionary work was carried on and extended. It could not take much root in Persian soil after the Persians became Muslims, but it gained more and more influence in Tatary and China, beyond the limits of Muslim conquest[9].
the Mogul conquerors were without much religion, and friendly towards all creeds. The wave of carnage and conquest swept westward, covered Persia, and overwhelmed the Caliph of Bagdad in 1258. This change was for a time favourable to Christianity, as the rulers openly declared themselves Christians or were partial to Christianity[9].
The patriarch of the Nestorians for a time hoped that they would form such an alliance with the Christians of Europe against the Muslims as should open all Asia, as far as China, to Christianity. This hope did not last long; it ended in a treat of ruin. Timur is the main person responsible for the almost complete annihilation of the Curch of the East. He put to the sword all who did not escape to the recesses of the mountains. Not a trace of them being left east of the Kurdish Mountains[9].
[edit] Turkey
- See also: Byzantine-Arab Wars
[edit] India
[edit] Southeast Asia
[edit] Africa
[edit] Egypt
- See also: Muslim conquest of Egypt
The victorious Muslims granted religious freedom to the Christian community in Alexandria, for example, and the Alexandrians quickly recalled their exiled Monophysite patriarch to rule over them, subject only to the ultimate political authority of the conquerors. In such a fashion the city persisted as a religious community under an Arab Muslim domination more welcome and more tolerant than that of Byzantium [10].
[edit] North Africa
- See also: Umayyad conquest of North Africa
Byzantine rule was ended by the Arabs, who invaded Morocco in 682 in the course of their drive to expand the power of Islam. Except for the Jews, the inhabitants of Morocco, both Christian and pagan, soon accepted the religion of their conquerors. Berber troops were used extensively by the Arabs in their conquest of Spain, which began in 711. [11]
No previous conqueror had tried to assimilate the Berbers, but the Arabs quickly converted them and enlisted their aid in further conquests. Without their help, for example, Andalusia could never have been incorporated into the Islamicate state. At first only Berbers nearer the coast were involved, but by the 11th century Muslim affiliation had begun to spread far into the Sahara[12]
The Marwanid Maghrib illustrates a kind of conversion more like that of the peninsular Arabs. After the defeat of initial Berber resistance movements, the Arab conquerors of the Maghrib quickly incorporated the Berber tribes en masse into the Muslim community, turning them immediately to further conquests. In 710 an Arab–Berber army set out for the Iberian Peninsula under the leadership of Tariq ibn Ziyad[5].
[edit] East Africa
Along the coast of Africa Islam spread among the Berbers, who joined the Muslim community and almost immediately drove north across the Mediterranean into Europe. On the east coast of Africa, where Arab mariners had for many years journeyed to trade, Arabs founded permanent colonies on the offshore islands, especially on Zanzibar, in the 9th and 10th cent. From there Arab trade routes into the interior of Africa helped the slow acceptance of Islam. In the 20th cent. Islam has gained more converts in Africa than has Christianity, which labors under the burden of identification with European imperialism. [13]
[edit] West Africa
[edit] Europe
[edit] Spain
See also: Islamic conquest of Spain Most (Christian) rulers of the seventh century enacted severe laws against Judaism. With numerous Jews in their army, the Mohammedans crossed from Africa into Andalusia, defeated and slew Roderic (July, 711); Spain was gradually conquered. In Mohammedan Spain, the Jews, to whose help the conquerors largely owed their victories, obtained their liberty. In fact, it was now given to the Jews at large to enjoy a long period of nearly unbroken peace and security. After the caliphs of the Ommiad dynasty, one of whom had a Jew as his mint-master, those of the Abassides, till after Harun al-Rashid (d. 809), do not seem to have seriously disturbed their Jewish subjects. In Mohammedan Spain (with its separate Caliphate of Cordova since A.D. 756), the Jews were undoubtedly prosperous during the century now under review. The Jewish race was politically and religiously free. Under such patrons of science and art as the Ommiad caliphs, Abd-er-Rhamman III (d. 961), Al-Hakem (d. 976), and the regent Al-Mansur (d. 1002), the Jews greatly increased in Moorish Spain, and became famous for learning as well as for commercial and industrial activity.
Muslim Andalusia is particularly interesting because there the pressure for large-scale conversion that was coming to plague the Umayyads in Syria, Iraq, and Iran never developed[5].
[edit] Balkans
Islam’s military victories outside India were followed by the conversion of the masses to Islam, with the possible exceptions of Spain and the Balkans[14].
[edit] Sources
- This article contains material from the Library of Congress Country Studies, which are United States government publications in the public domain.
- ^ Library of Congress Country Studies
- ^ "Islam world". Britannica. (2007).
- ^ "Syria - Islamic conquest". Britannica. (2007).
- ^ "Umar (634-644)", The Islamic World to 1600 Multimedia History Tutorials by the Applied History Group, University of Calgary. Last accessed March 2007
- ^ a b c "Islam world". Britannica. (2007).
- ^ Gibbon, ci, ed. Bury, London, 1898, V, 436
- ^ a b c "Jerusalem". Catholic Encyclopedia. (1910).
- ^ Marcus, Jacob Rader (March 2000). The Jew in the Medieval World: A Source Book, 315-1791, Revised ed., Hebrew Union College Press, 13-15. ISBN 087820217X. Retrieved on February 1, 2007.
- ^ a b c d e "Persia". Catholic Encyclopedia. (1910).
- ^ "Byzantine Empire - The successors of Heraclius: Islam and the Bulgars". Britannica. (2007).
- ^ "Morocco". Encarta. (2007).
- ^ "Islamic world - Berbers". Britannica. (2007).
- ^ "Islam in Africa". Columbia Encyclopedia (6). (2007).
- ^ "Hinduism". Encarta. (2007).
