How did Islam spread across the middle east in the 8th century?

Answer 1

Answer 1

Islam spread through the good morals, true belief in the one and only one God, tolerance, and justice. All people were treated in Islamic countries equally irrelevant to their colors, races, gender, or faiths.

Some think that Islam spread by war which absolutely wrong. Muslims didn't go in war unless being attacked by others or when people of some countries where oppressed and deprived from practicing their own free will of belief.

Non Muslims in Islamic countries were paying what is called Jizya for being exempted from fighting with Muslims. That is why it was payed only by people who are in age and health and ability to share Muslims in their wars.

It should be differentiated between true Islam beliefs and some Muslims who deviated from real Islam teachings and accordingly commit some terrorist acts. Otherwise, Christianity would blamed because of the Christians who waged the WW1 and WW2 that resulted in killing of millions of civilians, those who committed massacres in Bosnia, Iraq, Afghanistan, and many other countries.

Refer to questions below for more information.

Answer 2

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 3It is to be emphasized that the basic for spread of Islam was the good Islam morals, true belief in the one and only one God, tolerance, and justice. All people were treated in Islamic countries equally irrelevant to their colors, races, gender, or faiths. In Islam country it was never applied the saying "Convert or Die" as it is against Quran rules and instruction that never been violated by Muslims especially in the early ages of Islam per Quran revelation by God to prophet Muhammad in the seventh century. Some non Muslims claim this saying of "Convert or Die" to impose the feature of terrorism and/or cruelty to Islam. Quran states explicitly that no compulsion in religion. All citizens in Muslim majority countries are treated equally irrelevant to their faith and/or races and colors. So, no non Muslim need to convert to Islam just to gain prestige or more power. This was the reason that the Christians in Egypt requested The Caliph Omar to get control of Egypt for them to get rid of the tyranny of the Romans. You may notice that the current Middle East Muslim majority countries became as such in hundreds of years and not in one or two years. Also in Spain that was under Muslim control for hundreds of years, Spain still a Christian majority country after Muslims lifted control over it after some 800 years. Muslim leaders didn't invade a country for gaining more power or wealth but it was either to resist attacks on their territories or to free the will of oppressed people of the country.