Within a century of the advent of Islam, Muslims reached North Africa and Spain in one direction and China and Indonesia in the other, gaining an impressive number of conversions. First, Muslims responded to their enemies with surprising zeal, given they were often outnumbered by more established civilizations. Also significant for the future of the Muslim world was how the peaceable communities behaved toward the Muslims. Jews and many Christians welcomed them because of the persecution they had suffered from the Byzantines. And in their ruling, Muslims were fair, for the Prophet admonished them to “deal gently with people” of other countries.
Muslims did not destroy the places they conquered, nor put men to death or enslave women and children. Their armies did not occupy cities but built their own tent cities and military garrisons in the vicinity, some of which became cities in their own right, like Cairo. Baghdad was created for the expansion of learning and became the first major Muslim intellectual capital. Three out of four of the founders of the schools of Islamic law lived and worked there, and Baghdad was a capital for the Abbasids, the longest-reigning dynasty in Islamic history. The Mongols destroyed the city and its libraries in 1258 CE.
Despite the view that Islam was spread by the sword, Muslims were a minority in countries under Muslim rule, such as Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Tunisia, and Spain. Muslims remained a minority under Muslim governments throughout their rules in countries such as India and Sicily. Overall, Muslim rulers did not disturb Jews and Christians living in their dominions. Many conversions happened more than a century after the conquests. Islam spread to Indonesia, the largest Muslim country in the world, with no battles or conquests but via merchants.
When Mongols overran and destroyed a significant part of the Muslim world, the same Mongols converted to Islam voluntarily. Mongol descendants created Islamic civilizations and cultures of their own, such as the Mughal. Muslims’ civilized behavior is most evident in their treatment of Jews during their persecution by Christians during the early decades of Muslim expansion. Jews who fled Christian persecution sought refuge in Muslim countries. In Spain, Muslims in many instances appointed Jews to govern their regions. In other Muslim countries, Jews retained their own communities and lived according to their own laws. They also participated in Muslim life and government and academic institutions. Jewish scholarship in religion and philosophy achieved some of its most significant advances under Muslim rule, with most scholars clustered around the capital cities. Muslim Spain was the intellectual center of Judaism.
Islamic Civilization in Europe and West Asia
The Muslim world expanded even further when the Islamic empire rapidly gained full command of the oceans. For centuries, Arabs had traveled in boats and ships and transported merchandise from port to port. Muslims developed their navigation skills and added the rudder, which the West encountered during the Crusades, and then improved the astrolabe, which they acquired from the Greeks. They also gained the magnetic needle from the Chinese and developed the compass.
Muslim navigation developed rapidly and a well-equipped navy by the time of Uthman, the third Caliph, resulted in eventual control of the Mediterranean. Muslim ships later moved to trade with India and China, and down the east coast of Africa. The English word admiral derives from the Arabic for commander (amÏr).
After Spain and Sicily, Muslims made no further efforts at major conquest and expansion. Islamic civilization had a significant impact on Sicily, in the arts, learning, and agriculture. Muslims ruled there for two hundred years. Under King Roger I, the island’s administration remained in Muslim hands, as did trade and agriculture, a fusion that created a Christian-Islamic culture. Sicily continued as a Muslim culture during the reigns of Roger II and Frederick II, and Muslim expertise in shipbuilding and sailing helped Sicily ascend as a leading maritime power during the reign of Roger II. Frederick II had an extraordinary relationship with the Muslim world to the east, and Muslim rulers were his close friends, an enthusiasm that brought him enemies in Europe.
Muslim merchants and sailors traveling worldwide produced another major Muslim contribution to geography: travel writing and records, also contributed by Jews and Christians traveling in Muslim lands. Meanwhile, Muslim conquests continued into Asia: India, southern Russia, and southwestern China. Muslims created a postal system to communicate with these farther reaches, and improved it during the Abbasids with Baghdad as its center. Such advances and explorations were in keeping with Quranic verses and the Hadith (sayings) of the Prophet.
Muslims were open to other cultures and learned from them. Wherever it ventured, Islam initiated a milieu of civilized life. Muslim influence was seen in many towns and around the world. Pastoral regions across central Asia became Muslim owing to their proximity to trade routes. Central Asians Muslims brought Islam to those living away from these routes, until the religion spread both north and east. Villages in the Muslim world were therefore not as isolated as those in other parts of the world. The most important contact with the cities was from teachers of religion. Islam’s conquests were not like those of other empires, for Muslim rule was largely benign. Muslims helped to enhance life in the countries where they settled, increasing trade and engendering learning.
Paul Johnson, Civilizations of the Holy Land (New York: Atheneum, 1979), pp.169–170.
Johnson, Civilizations, p.170. Also Abba Eban, Heritage: Civilization and the Jews (New York: Summit Books, 1984), p.127.
Philip Khuri Hitti, History of the Arabs: From the Earliest Times to the Present, 9th ed. (London: Macmillan; & New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1968), pp.619–620.
Philip K. Hitti, Capital Cities of Islam (Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1973), pp.510–512.
Albert Hourani, A History of the Arab Peoples (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1991), pp.46–47.
Bernard Lewis, Islam and the West (New York, and Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1993), p.12.
Richard Bulliet, Conversion to Islam in the Medieval Period (Cambridge, MA; and London: Harvard University Press, 1979), pp.33, 34, 37, 44, 82, 97, 109 & 124.
Philip Curtin, Cross-Cultural Trade in World History (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1984), p.107.
Hitti, History, p.299.
Hitti, History, p.609.
Sayyid Fayyez Mahmud, A Short History of Islam (Karachi, Pakistan: Oxford University Press, 1960), p.209.
Trade
The Arabs had been traders for centuries before Islam, particularly in the harvesting and sale of frankincense along the Incense Road, which passed through Mecca. Muslims became enthusiastic traders and merchants. Except for early battles in Egypt and the north Mediterranean, trade and piety took the religion and its followers to sub- Saharan Africa, where Muslims engaged in trade and augmented caravan routes. This focus contributed to the rise of Islamic civilization worldwide. The combination of commercial savvy, religious faith, and cultural openness was a potent force for growth in the Muslim world. Muslim merchants effectively bridged the areas of two major powers — Persia and Byzantium — and improved commerce and increased wealth on existing trade routes and in conquered areas.
Muslims who settled in various parts of the world brought money and investments and developed into consumers as well. Remarkably, non-Muslims profited from the Muslims’ enormous enterprise, even in rural areas, and Muslims likely enjoyed a higher standard of living than was prevalent under the Byzantines and Persians. Also enhancing trade was the social status of traders in Muslim countries. Merchants belonged to society’s intellectual level and sent their children to universities, and craftsmen were highly respected.
With the advent of Islam, the Incense Road was protected by Quranic injunction and became known as the Pilgrimage Road. Trade was so important to Muslims that items could be bought and sold during the pilgrimage to Mecca, so the city became a peaceful center of religion and international commerce.
Muslims increased trade in Africa beyond historic proportions, regularly crossing the Sahara and bringing Islamic civilization to Africa. The extensive route stretched from the western Sahara to eastern Africa, with the exception of the sub-Saharan interior. Islam spread with trade until more than half of Africa was Muslim, and the continent’s regions were separated only by language. Conversions to Islam in Africa made an enormous difference to trade and the Africans were soon assimilated and actively participating as traders. Mediterranean ports were developed for trade with Europe and connected with various caravan routes.
Similar to the early encounter with Africa was the early Muslim contact with China. Many traders settled in China and created a sizable Muslim population there, leading to conversions among the Chinese and eventual acceptance by the Mongol rulers. Muslims used another trade route, the Silk Road, which was used to transport silk from China in ancient times. Muslim traders improved the route and made it safer, while taking advantage of the sea-going trade between Persia and China that existed from pre-Islamic times. On land, the earliest contacts between Muslims and Chinese occurred in western China. In Canton, the Muslim population flourished and was given its own judge in Islamic law.
Trade increased between the Chinese and Muslims, and China benefited from Muslim advances in shipping and navigation. And along the “monsoon routes” through India and China were numerous examples of the amicable relationship between merchants and the local communities. Muslims also facilitated the link between China and the West, so that merchants could travel safely and easily from the Far East through the Mediterranean to Muslim Spain. This new trading unity persisted through the centuries, even during times of war such as the Crusades, and included the Europeans. Muslim trade improved the continent of Europe, helping it to change from a conglomeration of small feudal pockets to a vast area of international trade. This together with the learning acquired from Islam helped create the Renaissance.
Qur’an 106:2.
The New York Times, March 16, 1993.
Agriculture and Technology
Agriculture was a central element of Muslim trade and another determining factor in the economic and cultural expansion of the Muslim world. Little of this history is known in the West due to distorted and stereotyped notions of the world of Islam. In fact, Muslims were very knowledgeable and helped expand available agricultural products as well as introduce new ones, such as alfalfa. They implemented some worthwhile changes that increased output and strengthened economies. These innovations included the introduction of higher-yielding crops, more specialized land use, and upgraded irrigation systems. The major effects were in the production of fruit, vegetables, rice, grains, sugar cane, palms, and cotton.
Muslims carried agricultural products and cultivation methods into Muslim Spain, leading to major economic growth and export to the Middle East and Asia. They brought fruit originating in Asia, such as citrus, bananas, and mangos, into other countries and farther west into Spain. They cultivated and spread the watermelon and introduced three vegetables in places beyond their origin: spinach, eggplant, and artichoke. Muslims contributed to the widespread cultivation of other food products such as hard wheat, sorghum, and rice, and in many cases to developing new varieties and increasing cultivation. Linguistics show a strong possibility that Muslims brought pasta to Italy. Muslims were responsible for extending rice consumption, helping it become a staple diet, and brought coconuts and dates westward. The strongest linguistic evidence of Muslims transporting an agricultural product to the West is the origin of the word “sugar,” which derives from the Arabic sukkar.
The cotton industry was also developed in the Muslim world. The word ‘cotton’ comes from Arabic and cotton became a popular and important textile under the Muslims, with wide cultivation in most Muslim countries and into Europe. Its distribution grew into a major trade with a hub in Baghdad.
All the agricultural products existed in Asia and Africa for centuries before Islam but this civilization made all the difference in their variety and distribution. Islamic civilization diffused them to many parts of the world. As demonstrated, Islam has engendered individual and community development and improvement, just as the earlier civilizations of Egypt, Mesopotamia, and China were devoted to growth rather than expansion.
Muslim government also facilitated the movement of people and products with its laws, common currency, and weights and measures, as well as a network of roads and caravan routes. Muslim engineers advanced the development of irrigation systems as well as other technologies such as developing clocks and windmills, and distillation, glassmaking, perfume-making, carpets, and more. In all, the Muslim empire exerted a massive influence over the commercial lives of Europeans, Africans, Arabs, and Asians for many centuries. Muslim success in spreading religion and culture set the stage for economic expansion. Friendliness in trade dealings allowed Muslim techniques, products, and language to penetrate various areas of the world.
Andrew M. Watson, Agricultural Innovation in the Early Islamic World (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1983), p.2.
Janet L. Abu-Lughod, Before European Hegemony: The World System AD 1250–1350 (New York, & Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1989), p.43.
Also, Andrew M. Watson, Agricultural Innovation in the Early Islamic World (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1983), p.22.