What are the major factors that contributed to the rise and expansion of Islam?

Answer 1

The remarkable rise and success of the Arabic (and Muslim) Empire in the 7th and 8th centuries AD/CE can be attributed to a number of inter-related factors. Foremost was the zeal of the Muslim peoples who were driven by faith-related inspiration to spread their gospel throughout the world. At the same time, innovative military tactics, effective diplomacy, and the weakness of once-strong powers standing on the path of Arabic-Islamic progress were also influential.

Answer 2

In one sense, there was nothing unusual about the rise of the Islamic Caliphate. Before the invention of gunpowder, nomadic peoples had a military advantage over otherwise more advanced sedentary peoples. They were more mobile, virtually the entire male population was trained in warfare from infancy, and they generally used better weapons. There have been literally dozens of major conquests of large sedentary states by nomadic peoples like the Mongols and the Huns. Usually the conquerors were absorbed into the culture of the conquered territories, but the Arabs stuck with the religion they had brought with them.

However apart from early Islamic conquests, virtually all of these major nomadic conquests, whether in China, India, Persia, or Europe, originated in the steppes of Eurasia. There are at least two major reasons why the nomads of Arabia were able to conquer great swatches of the world in the seventh and eighth centuries, but not at any other time. Firstly, and obviously, the impulse of a new religion designed by a conqueror to suit the purposes of conquest. Secondly, preceding events laid the ground for the Arab successes. Just before the main wave of conquest, the two main powers in the Middle East (the Byzantine and Sassanid (Persian) Empires) had done immense damage to each other in a massive war that raged from 602-28, at the end of which neither side gained anything, and both were far weaker than before. If either had been in rude health, let alone both, history might have turned out very differently.

Answer 3

Causes leading to the Rise and Expansion of Islam include:

1) Union of the Arab Tribes: The Arab Tribes had been fighting each other for centuries and had thus honed their skills and their strengths in war. In addition, because of the infighting, there were many more warriors per capita than most of the surrounding territories. When Muhammad united these tribes with numerous military divisions, it created an impressive nomadic army. Many considered surrender just on seeing their arrival.

2) Weakening of the Byzantine & Sassanid Empires: The Byzantine and Sassanid Empires in their heyday could have individually held off an Arab advance, even a unified one, but the two empires had been in a war for over twenty years which drained resources, men, and introduced war weariness to the region. In addition, one of Muhammad's Apostles (Salman the Persian) was able to turn Persia over to the Caliphates peacefully because he was Persian himself. These two empires, the only two major powers that stood in the Arabs' way, were unable to hold off the advance except in Anatolia.

3) Repressed Foreign Minorities: In a number of regions, like Southern Spain, minorities were very repressed under the previous government. The Islamic government promised, and delivered, a better system of minority protection than that in place elsewhere. This prompted many minorities, such as the Jews of Córdoba to actively assist the Muslim armies even if they did not actually fight in the expansionary wars.

4) Accessibility of the Religion: Islam as a religion was a universal religion and there was no ethnic requirement for those considering conversion to have a certain race. This made it possible for the elders of a town to decide that the whole town would convert to Islam. This also led to reinforcement building during the Conquest: i.e. each conquered territory would, by volition, produce a corps of volunteers to fight in the advance guard to take the next territory. This system worked so well, that over 80% of the Muslims who attacked Spain (including their leader al-Tariq) were converted Amazigh (Berbers) not Arabs.

Answer 4

The early Caliphates (or Islamic Empires) expanded due to a number of factors. It is notable that although there are a few occurrences of Muslims carrying out the "Convert or Die" scenario, this is not the most common reason for Islam's expansion exclusively in terms of territory.

1) Arabia - What's that?: Prior to Mohammed, Arabia had been seen as a cultural and political backwater barely worth notice and therefore Mohammed's consolidation of the Arab Tribes was not seriously considered by the Byzantine and Sassanian Empires. This lead to a very porous southern defense and miscalculation of the Islamic Armies.

2) Byzantine-Sassanian Wars: Since the Byzantines and Sassanians considered each other the only real civilizations in the region, they fought each other numerous times in the early 600s C.E. over control of what is today East Turkey and Iraq. These were intense religious wars (Christian vs. Zoroastrian) and greatly weakened both empires at just the wrong time.

3) Tribal Command Structure: Arab Tribes and warriors owed their loyalty to their Sheikhs and leaders without fault because the Sheikh provided each person with all of the amenities and protection necessary to live a full life. Whenever the Arabs went to war, the Sheikhs could count on the ability to muster their tribesmen as soldiers without issue.

4) Support of the Locals: Since the Byzantine Empire and Sassanian Empire were engaged in religious zealotry, it stands to reason that they did not tolerate their religious minorities very well. The Muslims professed to (and did) treat minorities far better than either of these Empires. This led to religious minorities (especially Jews) from within the conquered territories helping Muslims to secure outposts and positions, freeing the Muslims to continue to spread the religion.

5) Citizenship by Conversion: The Islamic Empire was interesting in that being the leader or a person of import in the Empire was not contingent on ethnicity or place of birth as was the case of most prior empires. All a person had to do to gain power and prestige was to convert to Islam. This simple integration mechanism resulted in massive number of Persians, Berbers, and Turks converting to Islam. In fact, the furthest expansions of Islam (Spain, India, West China, South Russia, the Balkans) were all accomplished by non-Arabs (respectively Berbers, Persians/Mughals, Turkmen, Azeris, and Ottomans).

6) Warfare: The leaders charged with expanding the influence of Islam were thoughtful and diligent military leaders. Caliph 'Omar, who conquered much of the Levant, Egypt, Persia, and Iraq was well-known as a strategist and a fighter. It was this knowledge of warfare that allowed Muslim forces to expand the territory's influence.

7) Universality: Islam, as a religion, claims salvation for all people in all places, making the religion very attractive, especially to people born into low castes and bad economic positions.

Answer 5

main factors that led to the expansion of Islamic territory are:

Islam was spread so fast for many reasons. Most of important of them are:

1. Islam is a true and logic God religion. It is the religion and mission of all God prophets to humanity since Adam, through Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Them All), that calls for worship Allah (God in English) as the one and only one God with no partner, no son, no companion, no associate, and no equivalence.
2. Islam calls for justice among all people irrelevant to their beliefs, colors, or social classes
3. Islam calls for practicing good morals
4. Islam honors human free will of choice and thinking
5. Islam is against racism and discrimination based on color, culture, gender, or anything else except piety.
6. Quran, Muslims holy book, is authentic as true God words without single letter change
7. Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) is a true human model of good conduct. character, and leader in all aspects of human life.
8. Quran scientific miracles had been validated only with current scientific discoveries and achievements.
9. The Islamic principles control all aspects of human life in a way that lead to both individual benefits and society benefits in a wonderful balance
10. Muslim traders who were traveling every where and demonstrating the good morals and principles of Islam
11. The deviations of former religions from the main call of all God prophets to worship God (Allah) as one and only one God without a partner, son, father, partner, or companion.

Some claim that Islam was spread by war or by sword. This is a false argument for many reasons. One of these reasons is that the Muslim country of the biggest population is Indonesia while Muslims never invaded Indonesia. The claim that Islam spread by war or by sword is a false claim and is a lie propagated by enemies of Islam. For more information on this refer to related questions below.

Answer 6

For economic reasons, in that economic pressure was one important factor in launching campaign for conquests.