Early leaders of Muslims, together with the ideologies of the Muslims, played a key role in the expansion of Muslims. The expansion of Muslims is reported to have occurred mostly by conquest with the leader of Islam-Muhammad-being a charismatic leader and the activities of the converted nomadic warriors. The ideology of Muhammad in his meme played a key role in the Muslim conquest. Although in his earlier times, he is said to have won a few converts and many enemies, the advancement of Muslims, later on, took place via conquest.
The holy war also played a role in conquering then Central Asia, parts of India, most of Spain, North Africa, and the whole of the Middle East. The conquest was important to the expansion since the advancement of the Muslim doctrine would be easier for the conquered places.
Early Muslim leaders may have also contributed a great deal to expansion as they are reported to have translated what was useful and liked by people during the translations from Greek. These liked and chosen translations according to usefulness (Lewis, 275) were philosophy, mathematics, physics, chemistry, astronomy, and medicine. Philosophy was useful in advancing the doctrine of Islam by scholars. According to Lewis, there was neglect to some things like history from the infidels, and a “close contact” between history and poetry of the Greek, and also contact between the “Arab mind and Greek Drama” (Hitti, 311). Islamic dogma was stable by the 16th Century, and usefulness for philosophy lesser important (Needleman, 24). The study of Islamic history became urgent as a result of the success of the Western counterattack. The interest of leaders and scholars in key issues that contributed directly to the welfare of the people may be seen as a way of making the doctrine attractive and important, leading to its acceptance by some people. It may be important to note here that for leaders to win the support of the subjects, they must have something special, appealing to them, persuasive, or have something to offer.
Spread as a result of conquest is confirmed by history, which shows that due to the lack of religious recognition to Muhammad (he believed to be the last prophet and successor of Jesus) by some Jewish and Christian tribes in Medina as their leader, he appropriated their property and destroyed Banu Nadir and Banu Quraizah (Jewish tribes) who were also dispatched from Mecca. The Battle of Trench took place in 627 AD after an alliance (called Ahzab-consisting of tribes including Banu Quraiza) whose formation was instigated by the remnants of the Banu Nadir attacked Medina. Mohammad and his followers were saved when a cold east wind (consisted of also rain and sand) made the attackers who had besieged Medina after they had failed to cross the trench-which also consisted of a narrow point which Mohammad and followers had formed as a trap to them as they crossed-to lift the siege. Meccans were forced to convert to Islam after Muhammad and the Muslims conquered Mecca since by 630, they had been strong enough. There was also the inclusion of the powerful Quraish and Umayya tribes into the leadership of Islam, whose leaders were given positions in the government and military. This is one of a strong indication that the leaders of Islam performed a major role in the conquest and expansion of Islam. Another indication of this is the fact that there were weak times when war broke amongst the larger community, for example, due to succession battles. It will be seen in this paper that Ridda-a succession battle arose due to resistance after Muhammad died and was succeeded by Abu. This means that the Islam was prone to disintegration due to weak leadership, but may have advanced its expansion interests as a result of strong leadership.
After the conversion of the Arab, there was an effort to unify the Arab tribes into the Muslim-Arab Umma and the religion of Islam evolved in providing ideological and religious framework of unification. After the death of their leader Muhammad in 632 AD, who had failed to plan for his succession, there were wars fought-among them Ridda-as a result of failure to recognize the succession by Abu Bakr, and success in this war may have contributed to the expansion of Islamic conquest since they initiated a series of other wars to conquer people or places outside the Arabian Peninsula. Following were Persia, Egypt, Iraq, Palestine, Syria to be conquered by the Arabs who had perfected a form of desert-warfare and failure of the Persian empires and Byzantine to mount good stationary defense and fielding of large armies.
Whether the war made expansion easier, possible or not, the reality is that for a community to be so organized, there must be strong leadership. Leadership among the Islam which was willing to not only championing personal interests but also the interest of the religion also could have played a key role in expanding the religion. Successful wars by the Islam may have been out of careful planning and strategizing by leaders, which finally made it easy for conquest and expansion. It has been seen earlier that the failure of the Persian empires and Byzantine to mount enough resistance against the Arabs made it easier for the latter to expand conquests. This in itself may be a testimony to the fact that there was strong organization among the Islam led by leaders who would have ensured unity and strong army.
Maybe, a testimony to how far the doctrine of Muslim has contributed to the expansion and acceptance by people may be partly acquired from the words of Muhammad Asad, a Jewish convert that all its teachings are in “proper place” and how they work is “perfect” and complimenting to each other (Ahmad, Abdurrahman, 1987). Yet this lacks solid evidence from the fact that during translation from Greek, some things were left out as seen earlier. But the issue of the influence of the content of the doctrine has been supported by Western writer Stanley Lane (1966) who says that there could be “something in the religion itself” explaining its spread and persistence. According to him, the duration of the Islam may not be accounted by the mixed causes contributing to its first swift spread. Other conquests which were carried out by the Islamists by force include Spain in the eighth Century through successful invasions though they were finally expelled by Christians at the end of the 15th Century. Although conversion of Jews and Christians to Muslims was largely never by force, the Mu‘ahaddin-a fanatic sect, are said to have forced conversion of Spain Christians and Jews to Muslims in the 12th Century.
Other key attractions that made conversion easier were the freedom from slavery and tax reductions. Children of the captive women who had been made to marry Muslims were to be raised as Muslims though the woman was not necessarily supposed to. Thus Muslim has been recognizing tolerance to a great extent (Isseroff, 2003). The efforts to tolerate Jews or Christians may be viewed in a way as a slower but powerful tool that may have led to people to willingly accept the religion without being forced. One argument that may stand out against the claim that Muslim advanced mostly by conquest, as indicated earlier, is that Christians or Jews were not largely forced to accept the Muslim religion. One can therefore argue out that the advancement of the Islamic conquests may have only provided a good ground for the Muslims to reach out to whoever they conquered-that is by what they “offered” to the converts.
Tolerance has been mentioned as one of the reasons of the rapid spread of Muslim according to Toynbee (1956) as compares to the attitudes of Christians towards Muslims in their places of occupation, and also according to Link (both qtd in “The Main Dynamics of the Rapid Spread of Islam”, 2002). Tolerance and values, may play an important role in retaining converts in Islam, though may play little efforts to winning them rapidly.
In conclusion, there is incredible evidence that the fast and rapid expansion of Islam was as a result of conquest, which may have been championed by strong leadership who were willing to mount large and strong armies to enable conquest to take place. There is evidence that, because Islam was faced by times of weaknesses as a result of leadership wrangles and fights during succession, the unity of the people and availability of strong armies was because of strong leadership. The key to rapid expansion was largely as a result of leadership than the doctrine itself.
Advancement of Islam is also partly because of the doctrine itself. While the paper agrees that conversion of Jews and Christians to Muslim did not largely occur by force, there is evidence that the conversion was made easier by what was available to the converts-freedom from slavery and tax reduction, for example. The doctrine in this case may have presented a better alternative or compromise to other doctrines which never did so.
It has also been indicated in this paper that the doctrine values in one way or the other may have contributed to the spread, although this would have been expected to be a slow cause. The Islamic nature to tolerate people like Christians, and a fairer attitude towards them as compared to the attitudes of the Christians to them may have resulted to the doctrine being admired by some. Yet this also would have been expected to be a minor cause for a rapid expansion. The tolerance nature and the doctrine values of the Islam pitting it against other religions may however play a key role in maintaining the converts in the group, since war and conquest would not do much or anything at all.
References
Arnold Toynbee. (1956) A Historian’s Approach to Religion. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.pp.246.
Ahmad, Abdurrahman (1987). Garbin Islam’dan Ogrendikleri (Turkish trans.). Istanbul: n.d.Algul, Huseyin. Islam Tarihi. Istanbul.
Arbulan. Islamic Expansion and Decline. 2007. Web.
Hitti, History of the Arabs. p 311.
Isseroff Ami. A Concise History of Islam and the Arabs. 2003. Web.
Lewis B (2002). What went wrong? New York, Oxford University Press. pp.275.
Link, T. A History of Religion.
Needleman J. (1980). Lost Christianity. Doubleday, New York..p24.
Stanley Lane-Poole, Studies in a Mosque. (1966). Beirut: Khayats.pp 86-89.
The Main Dynamics of the Rapid Spread of Islam. 2002. Web.