Rise Of Islam Research Paper

The emergence of Islam in the seventh century CE encouraged extensive trade that linked areas like North Africa to wider markets, in addition to the unifying the diverse peoples of Afro-Eurasia through a common culture; therefore, the rise of Islam can be considered a major turning point in world history. Islam was founded by the Prophet Muhammad in Mecca around the year 610 CE. This religion developed differently from past world religions. Islam was born without being tied to an empire, instead Islam developed as both a religion and an empire. Prophet Muhammad and the following caliphate’s role in Islam intertwined both political and religious duties. With the goal of expanding the empire, the leaders of Islam were also able to spread the religion. This allowed Islam to expand across the Middle East, North Africa, India, Southeast Asia, and parts of western Europe.

Before the arrival of Islam, these areas were largely Christian with small sects of indigenous religion. Christians often viewed trade and merchants as “sinful” for their cheating and deception, however Islam embraced trade as the Prophet Muhammad was a merchant before he founded Islam. This new encouragement of trade and the link to the Middle East and Asia created by Islam, caused trade routes, such as the Trans-Saharan route, to develop. This led to the cultural diffusion of the arabic language, crops, slaves, ideas, and wealth. Cities and states, such as Timbuktu, started popping up as a result of the wealth received from exporting gold and salt. These new cosmopolitan cities contrasted with the small villages and nomadic tribes that existed in the area before the arrival of Islam. Furthermore, Islam connected cities in Africa to other cities in Africa, the Middle East and Asia. The Islamic Empire quickly became an economic power in the known