What did Muslims do in their conquered lands?

Answer 1

The usual thing was to permit Christians and Jews, as well as some other minor Middle Eastern sects also regarded as "people of the Book (Bible)" to keep their faith if they wished to do so, but to impose swingeing taxes on them, so that they would be encouraged to convert for economic reasons.

At first, pagans were forcibly converted or killed, since they were not considered "people of the Book". However, Muslims soon realised that this was not practical in Iran and neighbouring districts, where the Zoroastrians held firm to their faith. This policy was also soon abandoned in India, where most Hindus refused to convert.

When Christians could not pay the poll taxes imposed on them, they were required to give up a son, who would be brought up as a Muslim.

So, although people were usually not forced to convert, they were given a good deal of motivation to do so.

Answer 2

- First of all,I would like to say that Muslims had always had their fair justifiable reasons for the battles they had, it wasn't a desire to fight for the sake of fighting itself but each battle had its fair reasons. Just one example, the first battle between Muslims & Christian Romans (Muata) was because of killing the messenger of the prophet Muhammad PBUH to the king of Bosra (in Syria) by their allies.

- There wasn't a discrimination between the non-Muslims due to their belief to decide if they were worth being fought against or not. At all cases, fighting is a way not a purpose. Examples:

1. Muslims conquered the city of Makkah under the leadership of the prophet Muhammad PBUH & the whole city converted to Islam after an act of grace, a historical remission from the greatest prophet to its people, the pagans who assaulted the Muslims a lot! It's worth mentioning that Muslims were much more stronger than them at that time & they were able to kill all of them but they did not.

2. The city of Jerusalem was conquered by Muslims in the time of Omar Ben Al-Khattab, may Allah be pleased with him & no single drop of blood was shed. History can tell about how Muslims tolerantly treated Christians at that time.

- Non-Muslims have always been treated very well in the Islamic tolerant community. They enjoyed all their civil rights along with their religious freedom. It has been strictly prohibited to harm any non-Muslim in the Islamic society & there are several teachings of the prophet Muhammad PBUH to assure that.

Non-Muslims (mostly Jews & Christians) are called people of covenant, which means the covenant of protection & care.

They could prospered in the Islamic community & they could reach very high rank positions especially in the Abbasi age & the examples are many. None was forced to convert to Islam, the converts to Islam did willingly convert to it due to the greatness of it in all aspects.

- Aljizia is the tax that was paid by certain non-Muslims who meet certain criteria.

Aljizia was of a value much lesser than al-zakat (Alums) so it had never been a reason behind the conversion of non-Muslims to Islam. Simply because if someone converted to Islam to be exempted from paying Al-jizia then he would face another obligatory payments imposed on Muslims which are much heavier than al-jiziah, payments like al-zakat & those obligatory charities..etc. Moreover,he would be obliged to attend fighting as a Muslim & may die instead of being exempted from that.

(Refer to the related question for more details).

- There were famous recommendations for peace even at the war taught by the prophet Muhammad PBUH to the Muslims when conquering any place, examples:

"Never to cut a tree, never to kill a child, never to kill a woman , never to kill an old man, never to kill any man who doesn't fight,never to kill an injured, never to mistreat a captive, never to betray, never to cause harm to priests in their temple, never to kill an animal except for a necessity like for eating it or to be safe from it if it's dangerous......etc".

- Dr. Gustav LeBon in his book "Civilisation of the Arabs" says:

"The reader will find, in my treatment of the Arabs' conquests and the reason of their victories, that force was never a factor in the spread of the Koranic teachings, and that the Arabs left those they had subdued free to exercise their religious beliefs. If it happened that some Christian peoples embraced Islam and adopted Arabic as their language, it was mainly due to the various kinds of justice on the part of the Arab victors, with the like of which the non-Moslems were not acquainted. It was also due to the tolerance and leniency of Islam, which was unknown to the other religions".

Lastly, he also said this famous saying:

" The world had never known a conqueror that is more just & merciful than Arabs".

Answer 2

With ultimate mercy and fairness. With science and education and enlightenment. Christians converted to Islam to reach salvation from the ruthlessness of European monarchs. Islam embraced them regardless of their religion or ethnicity. Muslims never burned libraries, never killed women or children or any people other than soldiers, something never done by any other conqueror. Muslims fight for a divine cause, others fight for materials and loots. History has been distorted

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(Qur'an Surah 9:29) Conquering, subduing, subjugating, dominating, humiliating, hating dissidents, punishing With ultimate mercy and fairness

We shall cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve--3:151

Answer 3

Taxes are based on religions. Non-muslims have to pay religion-based tax (jizya) with obligation to feel themselves subdued and humiliated. (Qur'an 9:29) while muslims pays islamic zakat both with different calculations. The way of offering it for non-muslims is also regulated in a humiliating fashion (on foot, bowing, be yelled at and slapped by the neck).