How did Islam spread from Arabia to Africa?

Answer 1

Aslam o Alaikum (Peace be upon you).

Islam spread by the word of mouth.

The dawa (preaching) of the religion is mandatory to every Muslim. There are good, better and best Muslims in the world. There are also those Muslims who are Muslim only by name, there are practising Muslims and those who learn, practice and then spread Islam.

Hence those people who were practicing Muslims, went on foot to Africa, hundreds of years ago, and spread the word of Allah (One God). They took along with them the Holy Quran (the last book of wisdom), revealed to Prophet Muhammad (Peace and Blessings of Allah be upon him) some 1428 years ago (today 2007).

You can get more information on the following web sites:

http://www.aswatalislam.net

http://www.aswatalislam.net/CategorySelectionMadeP.aspx?CatID=1002

http://www.Islamicity.com

etc. etc.

Allah knows best.

Waslam (peace on you)

Answerhow did the Islamic religion spread to form such a large empire? AnswerThe spread of the Ottoman Empire had a large role in the spread of Islam. " Almost all of the military conquests and annexations of other countries were done for one of two reasons: to guarantee the safe passage of Muslims to Mecca (the justification for invading non-Muslim territories) and the rooting out of heterodox or heretical Islamic practices and beliefs (the justification for invading or annexing Muslim territories)" (source: www.wsu.edu/~Dee/OTTOMAN/ORIGIN.HTM )
Well, back in the day (Muhammad S.A.W) some people spread to Ethiopia, so something must of came out of there

Answer 2

Islam spread from Arabia to Africa 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 both in terms of territory and belief.

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.

8) Commerce: Islam, like most religions, spread also through peaceful means of commerce and education whereby non-Muslims learned of the faith and adopted as their own amidst business dealings with Muslims.

Answer 3

The Umayyad conquest of North Africa continued the century of rapid Arab Muslim expansion following the death of Muhammad in 632 CE. By 640 the Arabs controlled Mesopotamia, had invaded Armenia, and were concluding their conquest of Byzantine Syria. Damascus was the seat of the Umayyad caliphate. And by the end of 641 all of Egypt was in Arab hands. Then, with the destruction of the Persian army at the Battle of Nihawānd (Nehawand) in 642, the conquest of the Persian Empire was essentially finished.

It was at this point that Arab military expeditions into North Africa were first launched by local initiative from Egypt, continuing for years and resulting in the spread of Islam. (wikipedia)

First Invasion:

The first incursion into North Africa ordered by the caliph was launched in 647. Marching from Medina, Arabia, 20,000 Arabs were joined in Memphis, Egypt, by another 20,000 and led into the Byzantine Exarchate of Africa by Abdallah ibn al-Sa'ad. Tripolitania in what is modern Libya was taken. Count Gregory, the local Byzantine governor,[2] had declared his independence from Byzantine Empire in North Africa, gathered his allies and initiated a confrontation with the Muslims and was defeated at the battle of Sufetula, a city 150 miles south of Carthage. With the death of Gregory the whole of north Africa submitted to the Rashidun Caliphate and paid tribute, and became a vassal state to the Muslims. The campaign lasted fifteen months and Abdallah's force returned to Egypt in 648.

All Muslim conquests were soon interrupted, however, by a civil war between rival Arab factions that resulted in the murder of Caliph Uthman in 656. He was replaced by Ali Ibn Abi Talib, who in turn was murdered in 661. The Umayyad (Omayyad) Dynasty of largely secular and hereditary Arab caliphs then established itself at Damascus and Caliph Muawiya I began consolidating the empire from the Aral Sea to the western border of Egypt. He put a governor in place in Egypt at al-Fustat, creating a subordinate seat of power that would continue for the next two centuries. He then launched more efforts outward, attacking Sicily and Anatolia (Turkey) in 663. In 664 Kabul, Afghanistan, fell to the invading Muslims. (wikipedia)

Answer 4

The arrival of Muslims by expansion and conquest of the Rightly-Guided and Umayyad Conquests came between the years 640-680 C.E. (with Egypt falling from the Byzantine Empire in 640 and Morocco acceding to union with the Umayyad Caliphate in 680 C.E. The drift to areas of Africa south of the Sahara, like Senegal, the Ghana, Mali, and Songhai Empires, etc. occurred in the following century of merchant exchanges with the North African areas. Islam became the dominant religion in West Africa (except along the southern coast of West Africa) by around 750-800 C.E. Exact dates are difficult to know since Islam spread by trade and commerce in these areas as opposed to conquest.

Answer 5

Islam came to North Africa by military conquest that started with the Arab Islamic Conquest in 638 C.E. up to the final overrunning of Morocco in 680 C.E. The population slowly converted to Islam over the next three centuries under the burdens of increased taxes and the desire for better social status. Islam came to areas outside of North Africa in three different ways, depending on whether we are speaking about the Horn of Africa (Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, and Somalia), West Africa (Ghana and Mali), or the lower East African coast (Kenya, Tanzania, and Mozambique).

Horn of Africa
The Horn of Africa was primarily converted by military conquest. Muslim leaders in the Sudan pressed further south and conquered several regions close to Ethiopia. By the 9th century, the Adal Sultanate, an indigenous Islamic Kingdom founded by people converted in the wake of Sudanese conquests, was competing with Aksum (the Ethiopian Christian Kingdom) for power in the Horn of Africa. Alliances between indigenous Islamic Kingdoms and more powerful Islamic States, like the Ottoman Empire, led to increased military successes for local Islamic Kingdoms against Christian Ethiopia and increased conversions to Islam.

West Africa or Sahel Region
Initially, in the 800s, Islamic Berbers and Arabs along the northern coast of Africa traded with Sahelian African merchants, especially the large and powerful Ghana Empire. As Islam was a stronger and more codified religion than those practiced by the Ghanians, Islam spread quite quickly among the cognoscenti from those interactions, primarily because the Ghanian leaders were entranced by technologies brought by the Muslims like writing. By the mid-900s C.E. Islam had come to dominate the Ghana Empire and was beginning to dominate elsewhere in Sahel region. Successor Islamic States, like the Mali Empire and the Songhai Empire, further popularized Islam in the region, the former through economic prosperity and magnanimity and the latter through violent conquest and expansionism.

East African Coast
Initially, in the late 1000s and 1100s, Islamic merchants from Arabia had interactions with East African merchants, especially on the island of Zanzibar. These contacts resulted in willful and free religious conversions by many local East Africans to Islam. In the following centuries, when Islam was the dominant religion among the coastal peoples, indigenous Islamic States were established. Additionally, Omani authorities began to form quasi-colonies along the East African coast to facilitate trade. Both indigenous Islamic States and Omani occupation resulted in increased conversions to Islam.