Why Did Islam Spread So Fast

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How Did Islam Spread So Fast

In 610 C.E. prophet Muhammed meditated in a cave in Islam. He heard the voice of the Angel Gabriel. After he had these visions, Islam spread quickly. Historians believe the main causes of the spread of Islam were trade, military conquest, and toleration with taxation. To start Islam created treaties typically after a war with someone. Islam had a powerful army so when they conquered land they would give the citizens of the land the option to pay taxes or convert to Islam. In a treaty written by Abd al-Aziz, the commander of a Muslim force to Theodemir, a Christian king in southern spain , it says,”He (Theodemir) and each of his men shall pay one dinar every year.” Showing that he is giving them taxes for …show more content…

Islam was a center of trade, since it is located on the Arabian peninsula merchants and traders from Europe, Africa, and Asia had to cross through there to get to each others. As they crossed through the Arabian peninsula, the merchants had to have stopped or been through at least one of the cities to trade. So they would have learned at least heard of the Islamic beliefs from trading and talking to them. Islam also had valuable trading good of their own. In document A it states,”Overseas trade to the Arabian Peninsula included amazing luxury goods like spices, textiles(for clothing) and spices from Asia,” having these goods would result in more trade, which would lead to more people merchants becoming Muslims, ultimately ending up in them spreading it as they travel and trade. Although this is a way Islam spread, merchants have usually learned about many other religions through trade. This means they might not convert or spread it. Military conquest and toleration with taxation had a 100% chance of conversion to their religion, whereas trade was more of a 50/50 chance to spread Islam. This makes the evidence not as reliable and the fact that it spread through trade less important.

To conclude, Islam spread very quickly for three main reasons, taxation with toleration/ treaties, trade, and most important, military conquest. If there was no military conquest than Islam would have never necessarily spread out of the Arabian Peninsula as far as

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