How Did Islam Religion Spread

In 570 A.D. A man named Muhammad was born, and religion was forever changed. This religion that sprung out of nowhere, is called Islam. It is projected to have the largest population of followers than any other religion by 2025. Specifically, this religion became a vastly popular during the dark ages of Europe. The Islamic Empire was flourishing while Europe was in arguably its worst time in history. Islam became so popular for a variety of reasons, but it two major factors aided its expansion. The Islamic Empire spread to such vast areas from using religion to conquer, along with political ideals that invited citizens to convert. Islam provided many different political ideals that urged conversion. Specifically as Phillip K Hitti explains

Specifically, J.J. Saunders suggest from The Caliph Omar "Fight in the cause of God against those who fight you, but do not be the aggressors. The early Muslims thus fought their heathen enemies," Saunders explains how the Quran suggest ways of conversion, and if they cannot succeed using their word, they use the might of the sword. This can be interpreted many ways, but typically this was used as a way to expand the empire. Very few other religions have the word from their holy book, saying use the sword to expand. Therefor, Islam was able to expand in a way that no other religion could. It gives them a huge advantage over other religions. This idea is reinforced as Sir T.H. Holdich describes The Gates of India "The might of the sword of Islam carved the way for the slaveowner and the merchant to follow," Holdich explains how the conquest of The Islamic Empire opened trade to follow, and then even more spread of Islam. In certain instances Islam used the sword to conquer, once they established a base of followers, trade would come, therefor spread Islam even more. As we learned from several videos in class Trade spread Islam as well. In West Africa specifically trade was basically the only way of conversion. But how could anyone spread Islam through trade if they were not converted already. So first they had to spread Islam through the might of the sword as Holdich explains. Document 6 reinforces this idea from the map depicting Muslim trade routes in the 11th century. As seen from the Abbasid dynasty, almost all of the trade routes started within this territory. Conquest originated these trade routes but, trade itself expanded Islam even further. But to stress again, the ability to use force to conquer was a huge factor for The Islamic Empire. Additionally, as Sir Edward Crecy described in Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World, " " The Moslems struck