Spread of Islam

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The spread of Islam spans almost 1,400 years. The early Muslim conquests that occurred following the death of Muhammad in 632 CE led to the creation of the caliphates, expanding over a vast geographical area; conversion to Islam was boosted by Arab Muslim forces expanding over vast territories and building imperial structures over time.[1][2][3][4] Most of the significant expansion occurred during the reign of the rāshidūn ("rightly-guided") caliphs from 632 to 661 CE, which were the first four successors of Muhammad.[4] These early caliphates, coupled with Muslim economics and trading, the Islamic Golden Age, and the age of the Islamic gunpowder empires, resulted in Islam's spread outwards from Mecca towards the Indian, Atlantic, and Pacific Oceans and the creation of the Muslim world. The Islamic conquests, which culminated in the Arab empire being established across three continents (Asia, Africa, and Europe), enriched the Muslim world, achieving the economic preconditions for the emergence of this institution owing to the emphasis attached to Islamic teachings.[5] Trade played an important role in the spread of Islam in some parts of the world, such as Indonesia.[6][7] During the early centuries of Islamic rule, conversions in the Middle East were mainly individual or small-scale. While mass conversions were favored for spreading Islam beyond Muslim lands, policies within Muslim territories typically aimed for individual conversions to weaken non-Muslim communities. However, there were exceptions, like the forced mass conversion of the Samaritans.[8]

First expansion of the Caliphate

Muslim dynasties were soon established and subsequent empires such as those of the Umayyads, Abbasids, Mamluks, Seljukids, and the Ayyubids were among some of the largest and most powerful in the world. The Ajuran and Adal Sultanates, and the wealthy Mali Empire, in North Africa, the Delhi, Deccan, and Bengal Sultanates, and Mughal and Durrani Empires, and Kingdom of Mysore and Nizam of Hyderabad in the Indian subcontinent, the Ghaznavids, Ghurids, Samanids in Persia, Timurids, and the Ottoman Empire in Anatolia significantly changed the course of history. The people of the Islamic world created numerous sophisticated centers of culture and science with far-reaching mercantile networks, travelers, scientists, hunters, mathematicians, physicians, and philosophers, all contributing to the Islamic Golden Age. The Timurid Renaissance and the Islamic expansion in South and East Asia fostered cosmopolitan and eclectic Muslim cultures in the Indian subcontinent, Malaysia, Indonesia and China.[9] The Ottoman Empire, which controlled much of the Middle East and North Africa in the early modern period, also did not officially endorse mass conversions, but evidence suggests they occurred, particularly in the Balkans, often to evade the jizya tax. Similarly, Christian sources mention requests for mass conversions to Islam, such as in Cyprus, where Ottoman authorities refused, fearing economic repercussions.[8]

As of 2016, there were 1.7 billion Muslims,[10][11] with one out of four people in the world being Muslim,[12] making Islam the second-largest religion.[13] Out of children born from 2010 to 2015, 31% were born to Muslims,[14] and currently Islam is the world's fastest-growing major religion .[15][16][17]

  1. ^ Polk, William R. (2018). "The Caliphate and the Conquests". Crusade and Jihad: The Thousand-Year War Between the Muslim World and the Global North. The Henry L. Stimson Lectures Series. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. pp. 21–30. doi:10.2307/j.ctv1bvnfdq.7. ISBN 978-0-300-22290-6. JSTOR j.ctv1bvnfdq.7. LCCN 2017942543.
  2. ^ van Ess, Josef (2017). "Setting the Seal on Prophecy". Theology and Society in the Second and Third Centuries of the Hijra, Volume 1: A History of Religious Thought in Early Islam. Handbook of Oriental Studies. Section 1: The Near and Middle East. Vol. 116/1. Translated by O'Kane, John. Leiden and Boston: Brill Publishers. pp. 3–7. doi:10.1163/9789004323384_002. ISBN 978-90-04-32338-4. ISSN 0169-9423.
  3. ^ Pakatchi, Ahmad; Ahmadi, Abuzar (2017). "Caliphate". In Madelung, Wilferd; Daftary, Farhad (eds.). Encyclopaedia Islamica. Translated by Asatryan, Mushegh. Leiden and Boston: Brill Publishers. doi:10.1163/1875-9831_isla_COM_05000066. ISSN 1875-9823.
  4. ^ a b Lewis, Bernard (1995). "Part III: The Dawn and Noon of Islam – Origins". The Middle East: A Brief History of the Last 2,000 Years. New York: Scribner. pp. 51–58. ISBN 9780684832807. OCLC 34190629.
  5. ^ Hassan, M. Kabir (30 December 2016). Handbook of Empirical Research on Islam and Economic Life. Edward Elgar Publishing. ISBN 978-1-78471-073-6 – via Google Books.
  6. ^ Gibbon, ci, ed. Bury, London, 1898, V, 436
  7. ^ Berkey, pg. 101-102
  8. ^ a b Tramontana, Felicita (2014). "III. Conversion to Islam in the villages of Dayr Abān and Ṣūbā". Passages of Faith: Conversion in Palestinian villages (17th century) (1 ed.). Harrassowitz Verlag. p. 69. doi:10.2307/j.ctvc16s06.8. ISBN 978-3-447-10135-6. JSTOR j.ctvc16s06.
  9. ^ Formichi, Chiara (2020). Islam and Asia: A History. Cambridge University Press. pp. 75–102. ISBN 978-1-107-10612-3.
  10. ^ "Executive Summary". The Future of the Global Muslim Population. Pew Research Center. 27 January 2011. Retrieved 22 December 2011.
  11. ^ "Table: Muslim Population by Country | Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project". Features.pewforum.org. 27 January 2011. Retrieved 23 July 2014.
  12. ^ Hallaq, Wael (2009). An introduction to Islamic law. Cambridge University Press. p. 1. ISBN 978-0-521-67873-5.
  13. ^ "Religion and Public Life". Pew Research Center. 2 April 2015. Retrieved 16 April 2016.
  14. ^ "The Changing Global Religious Landscape". Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project. 5 April 2017. Retrieved 15 February 2018.
  15. ^ "Main Factors Driving Population Growth". Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project. 2 April 2015. Retrieved 23 October 2018.
  16. ^ Burke, Daniel (4 April 2015). "The world's fastest-growing religion is ..." CNN. Retrieved 18 April 2015.
  17. ^ Lippman, Thomas W. (7 April 2008). "No God But God". U.S. News & World Report. Retrieved 24 September 2013. Islam is the youngest, the fastest growing, and in many ways the least complicated of the world's great monotheistic faiths. It is based on its own holy book, but it is also a direct descendant of Judaism and Christianity, incorporating some of the teachings of those religions—modifying some and rejecting others.