Islam
Islam is the second largest religion behind Christianity in Europe. Islam has the second most followers
in the world.
Islam started when Muhammad was visited by angel Gabriel. Gabriel
delivered the verses of the Qur’an to Muhammad that day. Muhammad remembered the
verses instead of writing them down because he was unable to read or write. He
claimed he was told by Gabriel to preach and convert his fellow Arabs. He wanted
them to believe in the one and only God, Allah, instead of many Arabian Gods.
After Muhammad’s wife and uncle passed away he flees Mecca for
Medina. He fled there to convert the people there to Islam. He taught the people
of Islam to pray toward the city of Jerusalem. When the people rejected him as a
prophet he changed the direction toward Mecca. In 624-28 Muhammad leads the
Muslims to war against Mecca. In 628 Mecca and Medina end the war with a peace
treaty. Muhammad then decides to redirect focus to surrounding Arab and Jewish
people. He attempts to convert them to Islam using military forces. By 630
Muslims had gained substantial power and population. Muhammad had commanded to
take out any other religions in the area he was in to have Islam be the number
one religion of the area.
The spread of Islam took off after the death of Muhammad in 632.
The Muslims aggressively expended north to gain control because of lake of
resources in their area. Originally Muhammad didn’t want people outside of Arabs
to be converted so it was a Arab-Muslim rule.
During the First Four Caliphs reigns Islam spread rapidly. The
expansion was so rapid because of the belief and faithfulness to jihad, the
concept of jihad was for Muslims to extend their faith to non-believers. The
jihad did not include aggressive warfare against non-Muslims, but a “holy war”
was sometimes waged by Muslims who felt threatened.
The Umayyad’s limited the number of conversions to Islam in
661-750. Although the Abbasid Dynasty made the conversions to Islam widely
available, this increased the number of Muslims from 40% to nearly 100% in the
area. Following the fall of the Abbasid Dynasty ended all Arab power over the
Muslims. Turks and Mongols converted themselves to Islam. This spread Islam all
trough Asia. The spread reached all the way through Asia and into
Europe.
As Islam spread through Europe through small wars, the travelers
to the new world spread it into the Americas through force to convert to the
religion.