We begin with a short summary of the events that transpired during the Expansion. Not much is known about the early conquests of Arabia under Muhammad, except for the fact that he managed to take control of and unify much of the peninsula. After his death in 632, his role as caliph was passed down to his father in law Abu Bakr, who ruled for just two more years before he died. Abu Bakr and his future successor Umar ibn Al-Khattab sent troops into modern day Syria, Israel, and Palenstine in order to secure control over the northern Middle East and to weaken the Byzantine Empire who controlled these territories. A series of successful military campaigns saw this large swathe of land become part of the Muslim Empire. After Bakr's death in 634, Umar engaged in relentless warfare against both the Byzantine Empire's southern strongholds, and the Persian Sasanian Empire. The eventual subjugation of over three-fourths of the Byzantine Empire and the destruction and reconstruction of the entire Sasanian Empire ensured Umar had full authority over the Middle East. What happened in Africa is almost identical. With continued sieges and assaults on the remaining Byzantine strongholds in Arabia, Arab troops pressured the Empire into signing a treaty relieving control of Egypt to them as well as agreeing to taxes on non-Muslim citizens. With Egypt firmly under their grasp, the Arabs could go in and out of Africa as they pleased, conquering more and more territory for themselves.
In order to fully understand how such a massive conquest was possible, one must examine the state of the Middle East and Northern Africa prior to the Expansion. The Byzantines and Sasanians been in conflict for many years, leading to weakened homeland security, confusion in both governments, and a decrease in resources available to the government. The opportunistic Arabs used the war to their advantage and swiftly took control of both powers. This gave them more resources, soldiers, and a large amount of maneuverability around the peninsula. In addition, the destruction of the Byzantines in Arabia put pressure on their African counterparts and allowed the Muslims to force Egypt from their control. Gaining ownership of such a powerful African nation was a big step forward in their conquest. From there on out, there was no empire or territory that could oppose the might of the Muslim invaders.
As in many other conquests, the ethics of the Muslim Expansion are often questioned. Many a person has repeatedly heard the same story about the mass conversion of millions to Islam; that traders and missionaries spread their faith to people who heartily received it as liberation from the outdated, oppressive dogma of their old religions without question. While this may be true in certain areas, the
fact remains that large populations of people were converted under the threat of death or second-class citizenry marked by substandard education and high taxes. It is also true that even though some people sincerely wanted to convert, Arab governments often opted to withhold the teachings of Islam from them in order to generate more revenue for the state through taxes. But were they really in the wrong? Quran (8:39) states "And fight with them until there is no more fitna (disorder, unbelief) and religion is all for Allah." With this excerpt as proof, one could argue that the conquerors were just following their beliefs in forcing people to convert to Islam. In the same way, it can also be pointed out that taxes are an essential aspect of statebuilding in any government's economy, and that the governmenr needed the money in order to give citizens the quality of life they wanted. As such, the actions of Muslim invaders cannot be presented as moral, but they can neither be brushed off as immoral.
Though it was simply one long cycle of war and conquest, the Muslim Expansion will be remembered as one of the greatest territorial expansions in world history; one that transformed a religion into an empire. The mass conquest and conversion of so much territory ushered the world into a new era known as the Islamic Golden Age.
Citations-
Gearon, Eamonn. "The Arab Invasions." 61. MAS Ultra - School Edition,
web.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail/
detail?vid=6&sid=8fd4640b-f924-4a3a-a89f-f0560d8a8ced%40sessionmgr101&hid=128&bda
ta=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#AN=61866337&db=ulh. Accessed 25 May 2017.
Originally published in Hstory Today, June 2011, pp. 47-52. History Today
is a trusted and prestigious history-based magazine. The author, Earonn
Gearon, is a seasoned writer and historian with a focus on the Middle East
and its history. He has written three books about Middle Eastern history
and contemporary issues.
Created: 05/25/17 04:19PM
Ibrahim, Raymond. "The Historical Reality of the Muslim Conquests." Middle East
Forum, 1 Mar. 2012, www.meforum.org/3182/history-muslim-conquests.
Accessed 15 May 2017. The site's description of Raymond Ibrahim is as
follows: "Raymond Ibrahim is a Shillman Fellow at the David
Horowitz Freedom Center and Associate Fellow at the Middle East
Forum." Ibrahim is a widely published Egyptian-American author who gained fame for his writings on the Middle East and Islam. He has appeared on and been interviewed by Al Jazeera, MSNBC, C-SPAN, NPR, and Reuters. Ibrahim's article on this forum is extremely popular and
has been reposted numerous times online on other trustworthy websites such
as The United West. The site on which he posted this article, the David Horowitz Freedom Center, is a conservative foundation that seeks to empower people through freedom of the press. I believed it would be a good idea to compare and contrast a conversative source (The
David Horowitz Freedom Center) to a relativley liberal source (History
Today) to see the arguments of both sides and come to a conclusion after
taking both into consideraton. Created: 05/17/17 06:44PM | Updated: 05/17/17 06:46PM
Rezakhani, Khodadad. "Arab Conquests and Sasanian Iran." History Today, Apr.
2017, pp. 28-36. History Today is a highly reputable and prestigious
historically-based magazine. According to this magazine, the author is an
"Associate Research Scholar at the Sharmin and Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani
Center for Iran and Persian Gulf Studies in Princeton University," making
him a credible source for the subject at hand. I believe the topic makes
bias in this article very hard to implement, so I do not expect there to be
any outstanding examples of it.
Generally, you want to avoid rhetorical questions in formal historical writing. However, due to the nature of this assignment, they work well.
ReplyDeleteOverall, a very well written post.