How do you explain the incredible growth of the Islamic Empire?

Answer 1

The main factor militarily speaking would have to be how the Byzantine and I believe Sassanid and later Abassid Persian empires had beaten each other silly, and both were badly weakened. Prior to the rise of Islam, the Beduin of Arabia had no imperialistic ambitions. At the time, also, most of the population was not Beduin, most Arabs were concentrated in the cities of Mecca and Medina, and the surrounding towns.

Even though the Beduin were formidable warriors as they trained in warfare from the moment they could pick up a weapon (the boys), the Byzantine and Persian empires both had superior technology. The Byzantine empire, at least for about 300 years of its total 1,000 years of life, was the greatest power in Europe, however after its 300 years were over, it began a slow and steady decline from constant fighting against Persia. In fact, Byzantium was history repeating itself; at Thermopylae, as is commonly known throughout the world now, Leonidas, his Spartans, and 1,000 thespians stopped a force of Persians from invading Europe. During Byzantine times fast forwarding several hundred years later, Leonida's place was taken by Belisarius, also a Greek. Twice, the Greeks saved our sorry behinds from the Persians, TWICE, or at least all of us a part of, or influenced by western culture. The Franks and later on the Teutons, both descendants of the Goths, showed their gratitude by burning down the surrounding towns of Byzantium and raping the women. The rest of Europe was no match for the Persian war machine, not in Leonida's time, and certainly not in Belisarius' time.

When two evenly matched superpowers enter into a brawl, usually things get ugly, in fact during the centuries and decades of warfare that occured between the Byzantines, and the Sassanid and Abassid Persian empires, what is now Iraq was unlivable. The population lived in miserable poverty, and virtually every male was a soldier. In fact, it was their squable with the Byzantine empire, and I believe humiliating defeats handed to them by Belisarius, which over time caused the Sassanid empire to collapse, and so, from Sassanid to Abassid there was a sort of changing of the guard. Even though Byzantium kept a stable government, their territories were badly reduced, pretty soon the only lands they held were the eastern mediterranean and parts of the levant. The reason that, culturally speaking, Greece, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Israel and Jordan share cultural similarities, has to do with the Byzantine empire, as Byzantium held those lands. Greece, culturally speaking, had a much greater impact on the eastern mediterranean and Levant, than it did on the rest of Europe. Even though historians in the west say that Greece was the craddle of western democracy, culturally speaking Greece is NOTHING like the west. The culture of Greece, is much closer actually to that of Latin America, Italy and Spain, than it is to that of, say, Britain, Germany, and the Scandinavian circle the culture of the United States in fact, is more northern European, than it is Greek.

Whatever the case, even in a weakened state, the Byzantine empire was a formidable military machine by the standards of the time, thanks in large part to the Cataphracti. The Cataphracts were military units that were the precursors to what would become the European knight, in fact, for all intents and purposes the Cataphracts WERE knights, even though their armor was different. Armor that covered a man head to toe was not invented in Europe, it was in fact invented in Persia I believe during the Abassid period to defeat the Cataphract, it was made specifically for that purpose in mind. The Cataphract however, proved to have greater mobility; Cataphract armor concerned itself only with covering the vital areas with plate armor. See, armor in that time period was layered; first, it was the soldier's "uniform," over it, they wore light chain mail, but only over the vital areas, that is the torso, the crotch, and the head, would they were metal plating. Naturally they also used metal bracers on their forearms for archery purposes.

A cataphract was trained in horseback riding, archery, fencing, and roman shield interlocking formations. Unlike the shields of the western Roman Empire which were rounded, I believe Cataphract shields were rectangular shaped, that way they could be used both for forming a shield wall, as well as using the edge of a shield as a weapon if necessary. Additionally, they were trained in the use of the spear both for plowing someone while charging them from on top of the horse, throwing it from horse back, or, doing an old time phalanx formation Roman or Spartan style. If the enemy started fleeing, they would simply drop their shields and spears, arm themselves with their bow and arrow and, well, mow them down. The Cataphracts were a fearsome sight during the early mideval period, highly versatile, and trained with brutal Roman style discipline. In fact, even though largely ignored by western history texts, the Cataphracts were probably the best soldiers in human history.

No other type of soldier except the Samurai of Japan, which did not come until much later, were as versatile or as well trained as the Cataphracts. Those guys were every bit as tough as the Spartans whom, being Greek themselves they admired naturally, and sought to emulate, but as much as they respected the Spartans the Cataphracti vowed they would not repeat the Spartan mistake of over specializing. Even though badly outnumbered by the Persians, and sometimes even suffering attacks from Beduin raiders, the Cataphracts more than held their own. Now, this is the reason why the Cataphracts can be considered to be the best soldiers ever;

1) To the north, they dealt with barbarian Slavic tribes, the ancestors of eastern Europeans, and later on Russians, were largely nomadic savages and sometimes settled. A roving tribe eventually settled down and created the Khazar empire, but it was short lived; they ticked off both Byzantines and Persians, and having been attacked by both, they were destroyed no one knows who finished them off. Highly likely it was probably the Persians as they are geographically closer.

2) To the west they had, well, the rest of Europe, which, because of the fall of the Roman empire, the descendants of the Goths, still ticked off over the way the Roman empire treated them when they were fleeing the Huns, were constantly clawing at Byzantium's walls.

3) To the east, they had the stronger-than-ever Persian empire, who outnumbered them, and possessed better technology.

So, general Belisarius was in fact fighting a three front war to DEFEND Byzantium, and he was told by his emperor "I need you to reconquer some of 'Rome's' lands." Byzantium was in no position to be conquering anyone, let alone survive, and every general/professor at West Point military academy here in the U.S. will tell you "you do not fight a two front war." Belisarius and his cataphracts, were fighting a THREE front war. No other empire in human history has repeated that feat. The reason Byzantium eventually fell, was because constant war eventually wore down its economy, and it was relatively easy prey for the likes of General Khalid. Trust me on this, it did not take a prophet to be able to predict the eventual fall of the Byzantine empire. The reason the Cataphracts can be considered the best soldiers ever, is because like the Romans, they trained almost constantly, like the Spartans they had their own code of ethics which would later evolve into the Knight's chivalric code of honor, but unlike the Romans or Spartans, every single one of them was what the situation needed them for. Every single one was an archer, a horseman, a spear horseman, a horse archer, a part of a phalanx formation, they basically did everything.

To put it into perspective; imagine a modern army where every single soldier was a helicopter and jet fighter pilot, a sailor able to operate any part of a modern day vessel, above surface or submarine, they were also a medic, and in addition, they could also do under water demolition like the SEALS. Far as the country fighting such an army, welcome to your worst nightmare. It sounds too incredible to be true, but it is; the Cataphracts were trained in all aspects of warfare, they had to be because attacked literally on all sides, and with limited numbers and limited population, they had to resort to universally trained soldiers. A country that produced children with high I.Q.'s would be very dangerous; the higher the I.Q., the faster a person learns, and the faster they learn, the greater the odds they can train universally trained soldiers. Warfare in the 21st century will not be dominated by the country with the most manpower, technology, or even nuclear weapons, the edge in warfare will go to the country capable of fielding armies where the soldiers know everything there is to know about modern war in other words, modern Cataphracts. Specialized units have weaknesses, units trained in everything have little to know weaknesses at all, if they train hard and long enough.

Even in a weakened state tough, general Khalid never made it all the way to Byzantium, as fighting so close to the city was a suicide mission. Indeed, even in the modern western world, throughout the whole of the western world the name "Constantinople" evokes a feeling that the city was indeed very powerful in its time. But hey, expect no less from the Greeks; the reason Constantinople was as powerful as it was, was the effective application of Greek logic and philosophy to defend their city. See, the Arabs were not fools; even though they did not do as good a job, they too pretty soon began fielding armies of soldiers trained to, well, do everything. Even with "not as good a job" though, that was more than enough to conquer the whole of North Africa, and later on a good 80% of Spain.

To the east, they took Persia, and thus far the only general to have repeated Khalid's feat of destroying two empires was Genghis Khan, however of the two Genghis Khan was better. Yes, its true, Khalid was never beaten but see, he smashed two weakened empires, Genghis Khan smashed China and Persia, when both of these were strong. If someone shot Mike Tyson in the knee with a shotgun, the age that he is now, and I beat the tar out of him I'm sorry but, that's nothing to brag about. That is the logic behind my criticism of general Khalid.

Aside from being in a weakened state, these factors contributed to the growth of the Islamic empire;

1) The use of Beduin raiders. Like I said, the Beduin learn how to fight the moment they can hold a weapon, so all available males have a lifetime of training. Muhamad's achievement was in uniting the tribes, and focusing their energies towards empire building, rather than being at each other's throats. When the Beduin are united, there are few armies on earth that can stop them. Far as weaponry is concerned, they have always kept up to date, and I have even heard some Beduin tribes are armed with rocket launchers and anti aircraft missiles. However that is not what makes them dangerous; among the Arabs, Beduin marksmanship has become the stuff of legend. They have to be good marksmen, because that is how they survive in the desert part of their survival is hunting game that can only be shot from long distances. The Beduin are experts at long range shooting; in Afghanistan, some of Bin Laden's battle hardened Saudi soldiers, some of whom are Beduin, had American forces crapping themselves. There are many horror stories of shots coming from 500 yards away, sometimes 1,000 yards, and people getting their heads blown off. See, part of the reason the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) invests so much on snipers, is because IDF soldiers are well aware of the marksmanship skill of the Beduin, so as a counter attack measure many of their special operatives live entirely in the desert as part of their training.

2) Islam is basically a war religion; praying in a mosque, is like marching. Drill Sargeants around the world use marching to instill discipline, Islam uses prayer. Dictatorships use propaganda to brainwash the population, Islam uses the Koran. Additionally, that it allows polygamy, four wives and as many concubines as a man can afford, and what can be afforded is won through warfare, and, well, no worries about morale, or numbers. You have an army that is constantly drilling, constantly being brainwashed, and constantly multiplying. And, their prophet also said "seek learning, unto China." To the Arabs China was the end of the earth, so what Muhamad's famous quote meant, was to seek knowledge from every single corner of the earth so, you have an endlessly multiplying army, that has no motivation or discipline issues, that is constantly being brainwashed, and constantly absorbing knowledge. Scary isn't it? See, therein lies the reason why it the empire expanded so quickly, in the mideval world, it was the perfect army. The real reason, now this is my own personal analysis, Khalid joined Muhamad, even though Khalid had Muhamad on the run, was not out of inspiration to join Islam, but out of fear. Do not forget that Khalid was a general, and part of being a general, is having a tactical mind. Because Khalid saw through Muhamad's plan, what he felt was not respect, but fear. Better to be the right arm of the devil, than in his path. And surely enough, the Quraish that did not join Muhamad's little movement (not so little now), ended up dead. Khalid knew that even having him on the run, Muhamad would eventually recover, his army would only get bigger, and I think he realized he was fighting a hopeless fight, so he joined him. However though, Israel does not have that option; Islam's main weakness, is that its way of thinking lacks adaptability and flexibility and more crucially still, creativity. Islam destroys the creative mind; following an Islamic path in life, a man or woman may become a scientist or mathematician, but as far as developing the creativity and thinking necessary to advance either of those fields, Islam does not do that because it restricts a person's mind at every turn. In other words on paper, Islam seems like the perfect warfare religion, problem is, its only the perfect religion for war in Muhamad's time, in modern times its lack of flexibility means that any army of Islam thrown at whatever country, will end up cannon fodder, little more than bullet sponge. The Beduin are only able to win, because of constant squables among themselves in other words plenty of experience fighting, which forces a man to adapt; among the Arabs the Bedu are notoriously lax compared to their city counterparts with regards to Islam, because their minds are not so restricted, they will do whatever works to win a fight.

How do you fight a constantly brainwashed, endlessly multiplying enemy? What makes Islam dangerous, is the fact that its a religion; see Nazism is a political thought process. Brain washing through politics only goes so deep, brain washing through religion though, goes deeper still. Furthermore, as a demonstration of the power of brainwashing, endlessly repeating messages, is Latin America, the countries with large populations of native Americans. The general thinking in Latin America in those countries is, if you are part native American, you are not worth as much as a European in fact, racist sociopaths in the country constantly remind people of native American ancestry who have food to eat, and clothes to wear, to be "grateful." White people though, NEVER have to be grateful, for anything, only people of large portion native American ancestry have to be grateful. What does that tell you? Take time to think about that; despite generations of poverty and misery that mentality has created, it persists. Therein, lies the power of brainwashing; even if a person's life is miserable as a result of their thought patterns, precisely because such thought patterns are so deeply ingrained, the behavior will never stop, not until conscious effort is taken to well, program the mind with something else. Lucky for Latin America, their problem is easily fixed but what happens when the brain washing in question is a RELIGION? See, no matter how much misery, no matter how much suffering it causes, a message repated too many times, over too many years, will make it so that a person will stubornly hold on to that belief system simply because it is how their brain was programmed. No matter how much poverty, misery, and suffering and corruption there is to be found in Islamic countries, because religion goes deepest into a man or woman's mind, the thinking will never stop. Worse yet, you can not live life without some sort of ethical guidance; as much suffering as religion causes, moral confusion, moral ambiguity, causes even greater suffering indeed, the reason Buddhism spread in China, is because Daoism is a labyrinth of various belief systems that if you tried to study all of them, you'd go insane. With Daoist thought its best to keep it strictly Meng Tzu, and Lao Tzu, and Kong Fu Tze with a grain of salt, the ultra basic stuff, and not go beyond that. Because Buddhism is clear regarding what must be done, and there is no moral confusion and clearly defines good and evil while teaching its adherents not to be judgemental, many east Asians use that as a moral compass.

When morality is mixed in with tyranical ways of thinking, said tyranical ways of thinking are not readily discarded. Here is an example;

"honor thy father and they mother."

Is a mother to be honored, if she is a teenager who left her new born baby in a dumpster?

See, orthodox Judaism doesn't address that; even though people don't ask to be born, Judaism holds the mentality "we are your parents, and we can treat you however we want."

Should people be born, just to satisfy our own lusts? Should said people born out of such lusts be tyranized their entire lives?

See, despite the suffering of millions of people as a result of that commandment, it persists, hence, why brain washing through religion is so dangerous. The rapid growth of Islam, is rooted in how deeply it goes into the minds of its victims. Islam is kind of like the "Las Plagas" of Resident Evil 4; once it infects the host, its impossible to kill the plaga without killing the host if it has matured too much.

Lucky for me, I have my Hand Cannon (Greek logic), and my anti plaga laser (Daoist thought).

later.