Transcript Spread of Islam

The Spread of Islam
Key Notes
Main religion by 10th c.
 During Uthman’s reign, Muslim envoy
reached Chinese palace
 Stretching from the Pyrenees and Siberia,
to China and New Guinea; covering 2/3’s
of Africa
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Expansion of Islam
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Unified contending clans
Persians and Byzantines were exhausted
by recurrent wars
Arabs able to make and hold conquests
Arabs could not govern all areas conquered
Expanded most rapidly in period following
Muhammad’s death in 632
Islamic Conquest of Spain
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Arabs brought in by rebels to expel newly
throwned King
Arabs defeated King and took over Iberia
Established a community, but lacked a
central control
Local policy determined by the settlers
Conquest of Spain cont’d
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CORDOBA
Muslim Spain was urbanized
Caliphate tolerated religious communities
Spain became staging area for raids into by
Frankish kingdom
Islamic Economy
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Embraced numerous economic systems
Maritime commerce in Mediterranean provided
until 16th c.
Commercial exchange stimulated agriculture
within the Arabic world
Trade prompted better craftsmanship
Islamic Society
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Greatly improved communications through
use of universal language, Arabic
Islamic law favored commerce
Vigorous urban life concentrated in
Damascus, Baghdad, Cairo, and Cordoba
Islam recognized no distinction between
church and state
Technology
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Progress by borrowing from China, India,
and Byzantium
Improved on fortress building
Served as conduit to the West by
introducing inventions from China
Decline of Medieval Islamic
Civilization
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Growing military weakness by 11th c.
In West, Christian armies embarked on
reconquest of Iberian Peninsula
In East, Turkish nomads took over Abbasid
caliphate
In 1055 Turks seized Baghdad
Arab economic base changing