Islam’s Expansion into Europe, Africa and Asia from 8th to 13th Centuries | Middle East And North Africa

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ISLAM’S EXPANSION INTO EUROPE AND ASIA

Battle of Siffin, during the first Muslim civil war in AD 657

At the time of Muhammad's death, Islam was primarily a local phenomena. It was little noticed outside Arabia but within a 100 years after Muhammad’s death, it was the glue that held together an empire that stretched from the Atlantic Ocean and the Pyrenees in the west, and Himalayas in east, and was one of the greatest unifying force in the history of mankind.

By the beginning of the eighth century Muslims ruled a vast empire that stretched from North Africa through the Middle East and into central India. In the early 700s Muslims invaded the southern part of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal). They crossed the Pyrenees Mountains into France but in 732, they were driven back by a French army led by Charles Martel (c. 688–741) at the Battle of Tours. In the 800s Muslims captured the Mediterranean islands of Sardinia and Corsica. In 902 the island of Sicily was added. In the 800s Muslims attacked cities in southern Italy and even advanced on Rome, but were driven back in the 900s and 1000s by armies led by the popes of the Roman Catholic Church. [Source: Encyclopedia.com]

From the 10th century Turkish people originating on the steppes between the Caspian Sea and the Altai mountains became increasingly important as political and military champions of Islam. The conquest of South Asia (comprising today India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh) began with the Indian campaigns of Ma mud Ghaznawi in the early 11th century, and was almost completed by the Delhi Sultanate in the 13th. The conversion of the Mongols to Islam which began in the 13th century significantly extended the boundaries of Islam. [Source: Haïm Z’ew Hirschberg, “Encyclopaedia Judaica”, 2000,Encyclopedia.com]

The manner in which Islam came to South East Asia has not been satisfactorily described so far, but it is clear that it was not by way of conquest. The presence of Muslims in the Indonesian archipelago has been attested since the late 13th century. Muslim merchants and mystics are normally credited with bringing Islam to these areas. It is clear that Muslim conquests and the establishment of Muslim dynasties are not coterminous with the spread of Islam among the population and that the former aspects of Muslim history are known much better than the processes by which Islam became the religion of a substantial part of Asian and African populations.

Websites on Islamic History: History of Islam: An encyclopedia of Islamic history historyofislam.com ; Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World oxfordislamicstudies.com ; Sacred Footsetps sacredfootsteps.com ; Islamic History Resources uga.edu/islam/history ; Internet Islamic History Sourcebook fordham.edu/halsall/islam/islamsbook ; Islamic History friesian.com/islam ; Muslim Heritage muslimheritage.com ; Chronological history of Islam barkati.net

Muslim Rule in Central Asia

battle between Arabs and Persians

The conquest of Central Asia by Islamic Arabs, which was completed in the eighth century A.D., brought to the region a new religion and culture that continue to be dominant. Before the arrival of Islam many of the people in Central Asia were animists, Buddhists and Zoroastrians. Muslims introduced an alphabet and high-level scholarship. Chinese captured in Samarkand taught the Arabs the art of papermaking, which later made its way across the Muslim world to Europe. [Source: Library of Congress, March 1996 *]

Under Arab rule, Central Asia retained much of its Iranian character, remaining an important center of culture and trade for centuries after the Arab conquest. However, until the tenth century the language of government, literature, and commerce was Arabic. Mawarannahr continued to be an important political player in regional affairs, as it had been under various Persian dynasties. In fact, the Abbasid Caliphate, which ruled the Arab world for five centuries beginning in 750, was established thanks in great part to assistance from Central Asian supporters in their struggle against the then-ruling Umayyad Caliphate. *

During the height of the Abbasid Caliphate in the eighth and the ninth centuries, Central Asia and Mawarannahr experienced a truly golden age. Bukhoro became one of the leading centers of learning, culture, and art in the Muslim world, its magnificence rivaling contemporaneous cultural centers such as Baghdad, Cairo, and Cordoba. Some of the greatest historians, scientists, and geographers in the history of Islamic culture were natives of the region. *

As the Abbasid Caliphate began to weaken and local Islamic Iranian states emerged as the rulers of Iran and Central Asia, the Persian language began to regain its preeminent role in the region as the language of literature and government. The rulers of the eastern section of Iran and of Mawarannahr were Persians. Under the Samanids and the Buyids, the rich culture of Mawarannahr continued to flourish. *

Spread of Islam to Spain

The first Arabs arrived in Spain in 710. Although the conquerors were made up of Arabs originally from the Middle East, Berbers from North Africa and mixed Arab-Berbers, the Spanish lumped them all together and called them “Moors” (“Moros” in Spanish) or Arabs. The Muslims called Spain “al-Andalus” (a name which has survived as "Anadulusia," the southern part of Spain).

In A.D. 711, 7,000 Moorish (Arab-Berber) troops led by a Berber a slave named Tariq arrived in Spain from Northern Africa and conquered the divided Christian Visagoths that occupied Spain and defeated the last Visagoth King. Roderick (Rodrigo in modern Spanish). The Rock of Gibraltar (Jabal al-Tariq) was named after Tariq. The Moors were joined by Arab soldiers from the Syria-based Umayyad dynasty. They advanced northward and conquered the entire peninsula until they were finally turned back in southern France 21 years later.

According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art : “On July 19, 711, an army of Arabs and Berbers unified under the aegis of the Islamic Umayyad caliphate landed on the Iberian Peninsula. Over the next seven years, through diplomacy and warfare, they brought the entire peninsula except for Galicia and Asturias in the far north under Islamic control; however, frontiers with the Christian north were constantly in flux. The new Islamic territories, referred to as al-Andalus by Muslims, were administered by a provincial government established in the name of the Umayyad caliphate in Damascus and centered in Córdoba. Of works of art and other material culture only coins and scant ceramic fragments remain from this early period of the Umayyad governors (711–56). [Source: Department of Islamic Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art]

Spain Under Muslim Rule

Spain is the only western European nation to be controlled by Muslims, which segregated it from the rest of Europe during much of the Middle Ages. Under the Muslim Umayyad dynasty, Spain was the richest part of Europe and Muslim cities such as Grenada and Cordoba were much more advanced in science, medicine and the arts than their counterparts in Christian Europe.

There were fairly large waves of Arab immigrants to Spain in the early stages but after a while most of the newly arriving Muslims were Berbers. Muslims initially ruled over a non-Muslim majority. Over time many people accepted Islam and some even began speaking Arabic. It is estimated that by the 10th century, majority of the inhabitants in Spain were Muslims. For the most part they lived peacefully with Christians and Jews.

Muslims stayed in Spain for seven centuries and ruled there unchallenged for three centuries. Sometimes the Muslims controlled nearly all the Iberian peninsula. Other times they controlled only the southern half. They ruled mostly with great tolerance towards non-Muslims.

Arab Expansion in Africa

In sub-Sahara Africa along the Indian Ocean, Islam was spread peacefully by missionaries and merchants on ships. In the Sahara and west Africa, Islam was brought to places like Kumbi, Gao and Timbuktu by Tuareg caravans that carried salt, ivory, slaves, gold, sugar, cloth, leather and brassware. Islam spread as far as the Niger River. Malians traded with Berbers and Arabs for centuries before adopting Islam in the 11th century. By the 13th century Muslim merchants were well established on the coast of East Africa.

The Sahara economy was largely based on camel caravans that moved goods between the heart of black Africa to the Mediterranean. Islam expanded into sub-Sahara Africa and would have spread further south were it not for tsetse flies wiping out the camels of Muslim missionaries and conquerors.

According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Between the eighth and ninth centuries, Arab traders and travelers, then African clerics, began to spread the religion along the eastern coast of Africa and to the western and central Sudan (literally, "Land of Black people"), stimulating the development of urban communities. Given its negotiated, practical approach to different cultural situations, it is perhaps more appropriate to consider Islam in Africa in terms of its multiple histories rather then as a unified movement. [Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art]

“The spread of Islam throughout the African continent was neither simultaneous nor uniform. The first converts were the Sudanese merchants, followed by a few rulers and courtiers (Ghana in the eleventh century and Mali in the thirteenth century). The masses of rural peasants, however, remained little touched. In the eleventh century, the Almoravid intervention, led by a group of Berber nomads who were strict observers of Islamic law, gave the conversion process a new momentum in the Ghana empire and beyond. The spread of Islam throughout the African continent was neither simultaneous nor uniform, but followed a gradual and adaptive path. However, the only written documents at our disposal for the period under consideration derive from Arab sources (see, for instance, accounts by geographers al-Bakri and Ibn Battuta).\^/

“Islamic political and aesthetic influences on African societies remain difficult to assess. In some capital cities, such as Ghana and Gao, the presence of Muslim merchants resulted in the establishment of mosques. The Malian king Mansa Musa (r. 1312–37) brought back from a pilgrimage to Mecca the architect al-Sahili, who is often credited with the creation of the Sudano-Sahelian building style. Musa's brother, Mansa Suleyman, followed his path and encouraged the building of mosques, as well as the development of Islamic learning. Islam brought to Africa the art of writing and new techniques of weighting. The city of Timbuktu, for instance, flourished as a commercial and intellectual center, seemingly undisturbed by various upheavals. \^/

“Timbuktu began as a Tuareg settlement, was soon integrated into the Mali empire, then reclaimed by the Tuareg, and finally incorporated into the Songhai empire. In the sixteenth century, the majority of Muslim scholars in Timbuktu were of Sudanese origin. On the continent's eastern coast, Arabic vocabulary was absorbed into the Bantu languages to form the Swahili language. On the other hand, in many cases conversion for sub-Saharan Africans was probably a way to protect themselves against being sold into slavery, a flourishing trade between Lake Chad and the Mediterranean. For their rulers, who were not active proselytizers, conversion remained somewhat formal, a gesture perhaps aimed at gaining political support from the Arabs and facilitating commercial relationships. The strongest resistance to Islam seems to have emanated from the Mossi and the Bamana, with the development of the Segu kingdom. Eventually, sub-Saharan Africans developed their own brand of Islam, often referred to as "African Islam," with specific brotherhoods and practices.\^/

Islam Arrives in South and Southeast Asia

Islam arrived in present-day Pakistan and India from the south and north. Between 711 and 1526 various Muslim armies—Arabs, Turks, Afghans and Mughals—conquered northern Indian from the west while Islam was absorbed more peacefully in the south through the efforts of maritime traders and missionaries from the Middle East and Iran. At this time the center of Muslim power was moving eastward from the Mediterranean as the second Damascus-based caliphate declined and a new one rose on Baghdad. The Baghdad rulers also expanded into Persia, Central Asia.

Islam was introduced to Malaysia by Arab, Persian and Indian traders who controlled trade on the Strait of Malacca. For the most part the process was peaceful; The people who brought Islam were traders first and missionaries second. Most were Sunnis. Shiites came later. Hinduism and Buddhism were already well rooted in Southeast Asia at the time.

Islam came to the Malay Archipelago in the 13th century, ending the age of Hinduism and Buddhism. It arrived in the region gradually, and became the religion of the elite before it spread to the commoners. The Islam in Malaysia was influenced by previous religions and was originally not orthodox.

Islam had been known in what is now Indonesia since the eighth century but does not appear to have begun to take hold until the beginning of the thirteenth century at the earliest. The first Indonesian Islamic ruler in the archipelago for whom we now have clear evidence was Sultan Sulaiman of Lamreh (northern Sumatra), who died in 1211; several other Sumatran kings, probably influenced by traders and intellectuals arriving from Gujarat and elsewhere in the Indian Ocean, became Muslims later in the thirteenth century. Javanese do not appear to have begun conversion until well into the fifteenth century, despite several centuries’ presence there of foreign Muslims. [Source: Library of Congress *]

Spread of Islam by Turkic People Beginning in the 13th Century

Another wave of military conquest was set in motion in the 14th century by Turkic peoples who had migrated from central Asia to Iran and Asia Minor and been progressively Islamized over a period of several centuries. In the 11th and 12th centuries Turks began taking over large swaths of Arab-Muslim territory. In the 13th century the Mongols occupied much of the Middle East but they didn’t remain long and Muslim dynasties once again reasserted themselves.

In 15th century Muslim Ottoman Turks conquered Constantinople and drove the Byzantines from Anatolia. Around the same time, Spain had been lost completely to Christians. Parts of Balkans embraced Islam after they were conquered by the Ottomans in the 15th century.

The Ottoman Turks established Muslim rule in large areas of southeastern Europe, maintaining it until well into the nineteenth century. The two waves of Islamic expansion into Europe left important cultural legacies in Spain and Sicily and vestigial groups of Muslims in Yugoslavia, Albania, and Bulgaria. [Source: Charles F. Gallagher, “International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences”, 1960s, Encyclopedia.com]

Limits of Arab-Muslim Expansion

After being stopped at Tours in 732 and held in check by the Byzantines and Chinese, the Muslims settled down in their newly won lands and began governing them and developing culture. The main centers were in Damascus, Baghdad, Cairo and Cordoba.

Conquering Arabs remained a minority at first. They tolerated Christians and Jews as "People of Book" and used taxes to build empire. Over the centuries the population in the Arab-Muslim controlled lands converted to Islam, encouraged by tax breaks and job opportunities.

In the central and western parts of the Arab-Muslim empire Arabic became the dominate language, but in the east indigenous languages dominated. In the places that became Arabic-speaking, the Arabs were able to impose their culture and not absorb the local cultures partly because their religious book was written in Arabic, and could not be translated, hence Arabic became the dominant language at the expense of the local one.

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons

Text Sources: Internet Islamic History Sourcebook: sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; Arab News, Jeddah; “Islam, a Short History” by Karen Armstrong; “A History of the Arab Peoples” by Albert Hourani (Faber and Faber, 1991); Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Geographic, BBC, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Smithsonian magazine, The Guardian, Al Jazeera, The New Yorker, Reuters, Associated Press, AFP, Library of Congress and various books and other publications.

Last updated April 2024