ORIGIN of Islam and its EXPANSION throughout the world

Islam is one of the most important religions of our planet today, but it was not always like that, but for many centuries it did not exist or had a lesser influence than other religions such as Christian or Jewish. To get to know this religion in depth and understand its expansion, in this lesson from a teacher we offer you a summary of the origin of Islam so you know where this important religion came from today.

Index

1. What is the Islam? Resume
2. When and where did Islam arise?
3. History of Islam and its expansion in the world: summary

Islam is a monotheistic religion arisen in the Arabian Peninsula by the preaching of Muhammad and which is based on the Abrahamic texts, although changing the god to one known as To. The faithful of this religion are called Muslims, this being a word that means subjected to the will of Allah and is currently used to refer to many peoples where Islam is the religion predominant.

At present, it is the

Like the rest of the great religions of the world, Islam also it is divided into two large branches of thought, known as Sunni and ShiiteThe former being much more predominant and the Shiite variant found in some countries such as Iran, Iraq or Azerbaijan.

Although the differences between the two branches are not as striking as the branches in other religions, this has not been enough to bring them closer together and, for years, the clashes between the two models of thought have been very common and too constant, being generally caused by the different way of seeing the origin of Islam between the two currents.

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The origin of Islam is found in the figure of Muhammad, being a member of the Arab tribes of the Arabian Peninsula who from a very young age was an orphan and had to fend for himself doing different jobs. Later in his life, Muhammad is said to have he started having dreams in which he received the word of God and where he was called the last prophet, began to write the words in text that later would be the islam word.

Muhammad started his preaching in MeccaBut at that time the city was the religious center of polytheistic beliefs and the rulers, both of the city and of nearby tribes, faced Muhammad. To escape death, Muhammad escaped to the city of Medina from where he began to increase the number of his faithful until he was able to attack Mecca and take the city to be the religious center of Islam.

From Mecca, Muhammad expanded his religion throughout the Arabian Peninsula, being the first time that the different Arab tribes were truly united, something that forever changed the meaning of the Muslim population.

In the last years of Muhammad, the spread of Islam was already impossible to stop and he asked his successors to they will seek the holy war so that the whole planet would become faithful to the religion that he had created.

To continue this lesson on the origin of Islam, we must talk about the enormous expansion achieved by Islam after the death of Muhammad. Thanks to the conquests, he was able to position himself as the second religion with the largest number of believers in the world, being the position that he still maintains today.

Muhammad's successors were the caliphs, spiritual leaders who were entrusted with the task of expanding Islam through the so-called holy war. These caliphs were leaders of the so-called caliphates, which we must list individually to understand the contribution of each one towards the expansion of Islam.

Orthodox caliphate

The first caliphs make up the so-called orthodox Caliphate, being chosen directly by consensus from among the main followers of Muhammad and being the only ones who were followed by all branches of Islam. Existing between the years 632 and 660 they were able to conquer Cyprus, Armenia, Rhodes, Syria, Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Palestine.

Umayyad Caliphate

Situating as capital Damascus, This caliphate was the first to have a monarchy and pass the office in a hereditary way. With clear Sunni influence, existed among the years 661 and 750 initiating a spectacular expansion towards the West that led them to take regions such as Carthage, North Africa, Spain and part of France.

Abbasid Caliphate

The abbasids they were descendants of Muhammad's uncle who managed to defeat the Umayyads, changing the system to one in which the ruler chose his successor and changing the capital to Baghdad. With a power already less than the previous one, among the years 750 and 925 they only took the area of ​​Crete and Sicily, but they lost regions that were occupied by other powers.

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If you want to read more articles similar to Origin of Islam - summary, we recommend that you enter our category of Story.

• Waines, D. (2008). Islam (Vol. 262). Akal editions.
• Gaudefroy-Demombynes, M. (1990). Muhammad (Vol. 132). Akal editions.
• Assens, R. C. (1999). Muhammad and the Koran. Arca Editions.