The History of Islam

Dromo's Den

MOHAMMEDANISM History. In the first three years of his mission Mohammed won 40 converts, including his wife, Khadija, Abu Bekr, and Othman. Then followed Ali, Omar ibn Khattab, and Hamza. In 615 the persecutions of the Koreish drove 15 of the converts into Abyssinia, and they were later joined by 100 more. After Mohammed's return from Taif to Mecca he won over some of the Bani Khazraj of Yathrib (Medina), who then made converts among the Bani Aus, formerly their enemies. The new faith spread rapidly from tribe to tribe, the Bani Abd al Ashhal, going over in a body. In 622 the number of Mohammedan pilgrims from Yathrib is said to have been 73. After the departure from Mecca Mohammed became the arbiter between the Aus and the Khazraj in Yathrib, and the civil head of the commonwealth. Thus Islam became a political as well as a religious movement.

Mohammed's plans included now nothing less than the conversion of the world to Islam. If he had at first hoped to accomplish this by peaceful measures alone, the aggressiveness of his enemies in advancing against Medina soon forced the preacher to become warrior also, and military success won more and more converts. In 628 Mohammed sent letters to the Byzantine Emperor, Heraclius, to the King of Persia, to the Governor of Yemen, to the Governor of Egypt, and to the King of Abyssinia, inviting them to join the new religion. In the same year he converted part of the Bani Daus of Yemen, and two years later the rest of the tribe followed; in the meanwhile 15 other tribes responded. With the fall of Mecca in 630 A.D., the triumph of Islam in Arabia was assured. Some of the Prophet's bitterest enemies became his most ardent followers; and the next year saw so many embassies suing for alliance that it became known as the "year of the deputations."

After Abu Bekr had brought about the re-subjugation of the northern tribes, who had revolted on Mohammed's death, an army was sent into Syria, as the Prophet himself had planned. A second army was sent into Irak. The latter came into contact with the Persian forces, and in Omar's caliphate, by the victory at Kadisiyyah, Chaldæa and Mesopotamia were assured to the Arabs. Christian Bedouins of both sides of the Euphrates became converted at this time, even though tolerance was extended to those who kept their own faith. In Syria almost the only opposition came from Heraclius' armies. The great mass of the people, oppressed by the Byzantines, welcomed the Arabs. By 639 the Greeks had been driven out of the province, most of the large towns having made treaties which guaranteed them toleration of religious belief and protection of life and property on the mere payment of the jizyah (poll tax) and kharaj (land tax). Friendly relations being thus established, in the following years there was a gradual assimilation of Arabic manners and customs throughout Syria., which made the conversion of the natives easy. Many Christians were converted in the 50 years between Omar and Abd al Malik in Irak, Khorasan, etc. Omar II (717-720) was particularly successful by lightening the burdens of Mohammedan landowners. In addition, the children of women captives were brought up as Moslems; and slaves were allowed to purchase their freedom at the price of conversion. In the tenth century the Nestorian Bishop of Bet Garmai was a noted convert; in 1016 Ignatius, the Jacobite Metropolitan of Takrit (at Bagdad), became Abu Muslim. Converts were won in the following centuries, even from among the Crusaders. Bainaud and his followers embraced Mohammedanism in a body; 3000 Crusaders accepted Islam in Phrygia in 1148 as a result of Mohammedan kindness contrasted with ill treatment on the part of Greek Christians. To-day over 50 per cent of the population of Syria and Palestine is Moslem.

The rapidity with which Mohammedanism spread in Syria and Mesopotamia was not duplicated in the country to the north. In Armenia, even after the Christian power had been overthrown by the Seljuks of the eleventh century, the mass of the population continued Christian. Georgia resisted until the invasion of the Mongols. After the fall of Constantinople (1453 ) the western and central portions of the country became converted, and after the ruling dynasty of Samtskhé in 1625 had become Mohammedan, progress was rapid among the aristocracy. The eastern portion of the country had submitted to Persia, and hence was naturally subject to Mohammedan influence. In the seventeenth century there were two petty kingdoms in the East the rulers of which, though native princes, were Moslems. Since the beginning of the nineteenth century Georgia has belonged to Russia, but certain parts are still Mohammedan.

After the Mohammedans had succeeded in subduing Syria they turned their attention to Egypt. Amr ibn al Asi drove the Byzantines out between 639 and 641 A.D., and the whole of the country as far south as Abyssinia and as far west as Libya came under Moslem influence. The conquerors, who treated the natives, and especially the Copts, with great favor, were welcomed by them. Many Copts accepted Islam even before the fall of Alexandria; while the number of converts, partly forced, partly willing, up to the caliphate of Omar II (717-720) was large. In the twelfth century, Islam was carried, principally by Moslem merchants, into Lower Egypt, and in the fourteenth century into Nubia. the King of Dongola becoming a Moslem in 1340. In Abyssinia conversions were first made in the coast towns in the tenth century, and towards the end of the twelfth a Mohammedan dynasty was founded. In the sixteenth century the Mohammedan Kingdom of Adal, between Abyssinia and the southern end of the Red Sea, came into existence; in the seventeenth one-third of its entire population was Moslem, while in the middle of the nineteenth one-half of the central province of Abyssinia had likewise been converted.

Amr ibn al Asi conquered northern Africa as far as Barca (Cyrenaica). Before the end of the century rapid progress had been made among the Berbers, who made their last resistance at the Spring of Kahina in 703. Musa ibn Nusair and Omar II, the Conqueror, made innumerable converts. In 789 western Africa (Mauretania) became separated from Egypt as a kingdom under Idris, founder of the Idrisite dynasty; in addition to converting many Berbers, he is said to have forced Christians and Jews to apostatize. The Berbers, however, under the ldrisites as under the Aghlabites (a dynasty founded in 800 by Ibrahim ibn Aghlab, hereditary Governor of Ifrikiyyah) were in constant revolt. In the beginning of the tenth century Abu Abd Allah appeared among them as the apostle of the Ismailian sect and succeeded in winning over the whole of the powerful Kitamah tribe to the support of the imamate of Ubaid Allah; and the dynasty of the Fatimites was thus successfully established in Kairawan. Early in the eleventh century the faith spread rapidly among the Berbers of the Sahara also, among whom it had been introduced in the ninth century. The revival was due principally to a chieftain of the Lamtuna tribe, Abd Allah ibn Yasin, who founded a monastery, ribat, and won many disciples from various tribes, to which be sent them back as missionaries. In 1042 be led his followers, known as the Murabituna (Almoravides), against the neighboring tribes, and by force and persuasion succeeded in establishing a vast empire. Before the end of the century it extended from Senegambia to Algiers; Mohammedan Spain was brought under the sway of the Almoravides. In the beginning of the twelfth century another dynasty was founded among the Berbers, when Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Tumart appeared in the Mauretanian mountains and preached especially against the laxity of morals and the excessive veneration paid to saints. His followers became known as the Muwahhiduna (Almohades, or Unitarians). The conquests and conversions of the Almohades were likewise enormous- by 1160 they had an empire extending from Barca to the Atlantic, and embracing Mohammedan Spain. After these events but few of the Berbers remained heathen.

From northern Africa Islam soon penetrated into the interior of the continent. The Almoravides made many converts in the eleventh century among the negroes of the Sudan, who had already become familiar with the new faith through the visits of merchants. and missionaries. The negro tribes of the west were first won over; as early as 1010 the King of Surhay (southeast of Timbuktu) became a Moslem; the states on the upper Niger, Timbuktu (founded in 1077) and Melle (west Sudan, founded by the Mandingos), followed and furnished active missionaries as well. The kingdoms of Bornu and Kanem, along Lake Chad, became converted in the eleventh century, the latter kingdom extending as far as Egypt and Nubia. In Darfur a Moslem dynasty was founded in the fourteenth century; at the end of the sixteenth century Wadai and Bagirmi, and in the seventeenth portions of the Hausa country. became Moslem. In the nineteenth century there was a remarkable revival of Mohammedanism due to the influence of the Wahabis. The Fulahs were united into one political organization by Sheik Othman Danfodio, and compelled all the remaining tribes to accept Islam. In French West Africa and French Equatorial Africa Mohammedanism has spread far and wide; and active missionary work has been carried on in Kamerun. The nineteenth-century movement was aided by such religious orders as the Amirghaniyyah, the Tijaniyyah, the Kadriyyah, and the Sanusiyyah. The vast theocracy of the Sanusiyyah has settlements and schools extending from Egypt to Morocco, in the Sudan, Senegambia, Somaliland, the Sahara, and the Galla country; they have gained many converts by education and the purchase of slaves.

Along the west coast of Africa Islam has made steady progress; e.g., on the Guinea coast, in Sierra Leone, in the Ashanti country, Dahomey, the Gold Coast, Lagos (where there are 10,000 Moslems), and Liberia (where there are more Moslems than heathen). Often the common people are converts where the chieftains are not. There is hardly a town along the coast for 2000 miles from the Senegal which has not a mosque.

On the east coast the Emozaydij made settlements before the tenth century; they were Shiites, and were followed by Sunnis, who founded the town of Magadoxo, and other towns on the coast from Aden to the tropic of Capricorn. Arab traders made Zanzibar Mohammedan. Inland, however, only the Galla and Somali tribes are even partly Moslem. In Cape of Good Hope there have been Moslems since the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Islam having been carried there by the Malays. Even among the Hottentots there are converts who make the pilgrimage to Mecca while in the diamond fields the coolies are said to be missionaries.

Islam was introduced into Spain in 711 by Tarik with 12,000 Berbers. The first converts were from among the ill-treated slaves. The remnant of the heathen population followed, then the nobles and the middle and lower classes of the Christians, so that the majority of the population soon consisted of Mohammedans of non-Arab blood.. In 1311 there were 200,000 Mohammedans in Granada alone, only 500 of them being of Arab descent. On the whole, conversion was carried on peacefully except when the Almoravides at the close of the eleventh century came to Spain. The Moslem power began to decline as early as the eleventh century. After the fall of the Almohades, in 1257, it continued chiefly in Granada; the last Moriscos were driven out in 1609.

The Aghlabites made themselves masters of Sicily in 827-878, and under this dynasty and their successors the Fatimites, a flourishing Moslem civilization existed in the island, the effects of which were still felt after the Norman Conquest (1061-1090) and under the Hohenstaufens (1194-1266).

The Turkish Empire made its first conquests in Europe, at the time of the decline of Islam in Spain. The inception of the Ottoman Empire dates from the beginning of the thirteenth century, when 50,000 Turks settled in the northwest of Asia Minor. In 1353 they entered Europe for the first time and in 1361 made Adrianople their capital. Before the end of the century Bulgaria, Macedonia, Thessaly, and most of Thrace had been subdued by Bajazet; Amurath II (1421-51) added to this territory, and Mohammed II (1451-81), after taking Constantinople in 1453, extended his rule over Greece, Servia, Bosnia, and Albania. A large part of Hungary was added by Suleiman II (1520-66); in the seventeenth century Crete was taken, and Podolia was ceded by the Poles. The most noted example of forced conversion was the enrollment of Christian children in the ranks of the Janizaries (q.v.). Large numbers were converted peaceably from all ranks; in the fifteenth century Adrianople was the home of countless renegades; in the seventeenth converts were made even among the Christian clergy. Progress was very rapid at this time. The power of Servia was broken by the Turks in 1389, but the country was not reduced to the position of a Turkish province until 1459, when the inhabitants chose Mohammedan rule in preference to the Roman Catholicism of Hungary. However, though the nobles became Moslems, only in Old Servia (northeast of Albania) since the seventeenth century has the spread of Islam been rapid. The same period was the date of the rapid conversion of Montenegro; in Bosnia the Bogomiles joined Islam in large numbers after Mohammed II had released over 70 cities from Catholic persecution. The other inhabitants followed gradually, and the Christians left the way clear by emigrating into the neighboring countries. The conversion of the inhabitants of Crete first took place in the ninth and tenth centuries, when the whole population joined Islam; at the beginning of the thirteenth century the Venetians acquired the island, and in 1669, when it was taken from Venice by the Turks, the inhabitants had to be reconverted; within 50 years half of them were again Moslem.

In Persia Islam made progress very early, for under Zoroastrianism the people were oppressed by priest and ruler alike. After the fall of the Sassanid dynasty in the middle of the seventh century converts were easily made, at first mainly from among the despised industrial classes and artisans. Later the Shiites met with great success, for Husain, son of Ali, had married Shahban, daughter of Yezdegerd, the last Sassanid; and in the middle of the eighth century the Ismailians showed a wonderful power of adapting themselves and their teachings to all classes and creeds. At the close of the ninth century Saman, a noble of Balkh, became a Moslem and founded the dynasty of the Samanids (874-999). Conversions were made in the ninth century by Karim ibn Shahriyar, the converted King of the Kabusiyyah dynasty, and by Nasir al Hakk of Dailam; in 912 Hasan ibn Ali, of an Abd dynasty. on the Caspian, made many converts in Dailam and Tabaristan.

North of Persia there had been much opposition to Islam, and allegiance to the Caliph was often renounced as soon as the armies were withdrawn. In Samarkand, however, conversions were brought about by Ibn Kutaibah, who burned the heathens' idols. Among the Afghans the King of Kabul was converted about 800; in Transoxiana many converts were made in the eighth century, and by the middle of the ninth Mohammedanism was general. The greatest impetus to the spread of the new faith came about the middle of the tenth century, when some of the Turkish chieftains were converted; in Turkestan the founder of the Ilak Khans converted 2000 families of his tribe, who became known as Turcomans. In 956 the Seljuk Turks had their origin, when Seljuk migrated with his clan to Bokhara from the Kirghiz steppes.

Much of the progress which Islam had made was lost by the Mongol invasion. Bokhara, Samarkand, Balkh, and Bagdad were left in ruins, and almost without inhabitants. Many Mongol rulers, such as Kublai Khan, were energetic in their opposition to Islam. But in the time of Ogdai Khan (1229-41) certain Buddhists were converted; Yisun Timur Khan (1323-28) was an earnest Moslem and made converts of his troops; Baraka Khan (1256-65 ) turned Moslem with his subjects-the first ruling Mongol prince to take this step in the eastern portion of the Mongol territory. But it was not till 1295 that Islam became the ruling religion of Persia; at that date Ghazan, seventh of the Ilak khans, joined the new faith. In the Middle, Kingdom, in the reigns of Tirneashirin Khan (1322-30) and Tughlak Timur Khan (1347-63), Islam became generally adopted, though Burak Khan (1266-70) had also been a Moslem. In the Golden Horde the leaders and aristocracy followed Baraka Khan when he became converted; Uzbeg Khan (1313-40) placed Islam on a solid basis. The Mongols were likewise successful, to some extent, in introducing Mohammedanism into Russia; e.g., in the Crimea and among the Finns, the Tcheremisses, the Tchuvashes (whole villages of which are Moslem), and the northeast Russian tribes, among whom there are many Mohammedans. In Siberia the first conversions were made in the latter half of the sixteenth century. Since 1745 the Baraba Tatars, between the Irtish and Ob, have been converted. After the proclamation in 1905 of an edict granting religious liberty large numbers of nominal Christians in Asiatic Russia have openly embraced Islam.

In India the first great Mohammedan conqueror was Mohammed Kasim (711) , who took Darbul (capital of Sind), Multan, and other cities early in the eighth century. Under Omar II the native princes were called upon to become Mohammedans, and received Arabic names; but many of them later became heathens again. In 1019 Hardat and 10,000 men accepted Islam; but it was some time before the new religion gained a firm footing in India. Down to near the close of the twelfth century Mohammedan India was only a province of Ghazni; at that time Mohammed Ghuri conquered the northern part to the mouth of the Ganges, and his slave Kutb al Din was made Viceroy of Delhi. The latter then proclaimed himself sovereign of Hindustan and founded the dynasty of the "Slave Kings," the first Mohammedan dynasty in India. Mohammed Ghuri likewise converted the Ghakkars, in the mountains north of Punjab. Under the succeeding dynasty, the Khiljis (1295-1320), Mohammedan rule was extended to the Deccan. The Tughlak dynasty which followed was troubled by revolt and desertion, and its power was much reduced; the Sayyids, as well as the Lodis (1451-1526), were rulers over but one province, Bengal, Jaunpur, Malwa, and Gujarat having independent Moslem dynasties. The Mogul Empire was established in 1526 by Baber, and then Islamic influences were more successful. Many rajputs were converted when idolatry was made a bar to advancement at court. In the eastern districts of the Punjab and in Cawnpore many converts were made in the reign of Aurungzebe.

In southern India and in Bengal the spread of Islam was more rapid. The southern coast was subject to the Mohammedan influences of traders; even in the eighth century refugees had come there from Irak, and missionaries in the eleventh. In Malabar the Mappilas, descendants of the early refugees, are estimated at one-fifth of the population. The Laccadive and Maldive islands, as well as Malabar, have an almost exclusively Moslem population. In the Deccan Arabs settled in the tenth century; it had the Mohammedan dynasties of the Bahmanids (1347-1490) and Bijapur (1489-1686). Bengal was the scene of most active propaganda, and Islam was welcomed especially among the lower-caste Brahmins. Lower Bengal has been the scene of a great Mohammedan revival even in the last few years. Kashmir had a Mohammedan king in the fourteenth century; Islam became supreme in the time of Akbar, and today claims over 70 per cent of the population. In Baltistan there has been a Mohammedan population for over three centuries, and the faith is being carried by merchants from Kashmir, as well as from Persia, even into Tibet. In the various parts of India there are about 67,000,000 Moslems, the number of annual converts being estimated at about 600,000. It is worth noticing, however, that in Agra only about one-tenth and in Delhi only about one-fourth of the population is Moslem, and these are prominent centres of Mohammedan power.

Mohammedanism penetrated into China from the south and from the west. Friendly relations were established between the caliphs and the emperors in the time of the Caliph Walid (705-717), when the general Kutaibah ibn Muslim sent ambassadors. to the Chinese court. Later Moslem traders entered from Arabia, Bokhara, and Transoxiana. The first mosque was built in 742, in the capital city, Shensi, northern China. In 758, 4000 Arab soldiers were sent by the Caliph Al Mansur to aid the Emperor Sah-Tsung in crushing a rebellion; they remained in China and intermarried with the natives. The annals of the Tang dynasty (618-907) record the arrival of Moslems at Canton; there in the ninth century they lived as a separate community. They were joined later by other arrivals, and intermarried with the natives. Mohammedans entered the Province of Kansu (part of the Empire of Hoey-hu), and the Khan was converted, in the tenth century. The Uigurs, a Turkish tribe transferred to the Great Wall in the Tang dynasty, became Moslems in the ninth century. All of these Moslem communities formed centres for the spread of Islam throughout the Empire. Further accessions of Syrians, Arabs, and Persians followed the great Mongol conquest. Under the Mongol khakans Mohammedans were well treated and rose to positions of trust (in 1244 Abd al Rahman was head of the Imperial finances). At the beginning of the fourteenth century all the inhabitants of Yunnan were Moslems, and in every town throughout the Empire there was a special Moslem quarter. After the expulsion of the Mongols the Mohammedans avoided all external signs of their religion, and assimilated themselves as far as possible to the rest of the population, while keeping the essentials of their religion intact. Missionary efforts were continued quietly and slowly but surely; the only conversion in large numbers took place in 1770, when a revolt was put down in Sungaria and the 10,000 military colonists who were sent there all embraced Islam, and after a famine in 1790 in the Province of Kwangtung, when 10,000 children are said to have been bought and brought up as Moslems. There was a general revival of interest in the eighteenth century, when commercial relations were reëstablished with the outside Mohammedan world. To-day there are about 12,000,000 Mohammedans in the Chinese Republic, of which three-fourths are in the provinces of Kansu and Shensi, in the northwest. As an example of the cities in the east, Peking has 20,000 Moslems, with 13 mosques.

The spread of Islam into the Malay Islands dates from the twelfth century, when more or less successful attempts were made to introduce it into Sumatra; in the fourteenth century the Shereef of Mecca sent missionaries to the island and succeeded in making many converts. In the fifteenth century the great Kingdom of Menang-Kaban had many converts, and the larger part of central Sumatra is now Moslem. On the Malay Peninsula the Kingdom of Malacca was converted in the thirteenth or fourteenth century; the Moslems of the peninsula to-day are said to be most strict in their religious practices, though extremely tolerant.

Converts have been made among the Siamese Buddhists of the north. and among the wild tribes of the peninsula. In Java the first notable success of Islam took place in the fourteenth century, and in the following century the new faith was firmly established on the east coast. In the fifteenth century Radan Rahmat, nephew of the Hindu King of Majapahit, made many converts in Ampel and in other places on the east coast; at the same time conversions were made in the west. Radan Patah headed a confederacy which, in 1478, defeated the King of Majapahit, replacing the Hindu with a Moslem dynasty. To-day nearly the whole of Java is Mohammedan. In Celebes general conversion along the coast began in the seventeenth century. The Macassars were the first converts; they then, after much resistance, converted the Bugis, who likewise became propagandists. In the north the Kingdom of Balaang-Mongondou, which was Christian for centuries, was finally converted in 1844. The population of this Kingdom is now half heathen and half Moslem. The island of Sumbawa has had a Moslem population since 1540; Lombok was one of the scenes of conversion by the Bugis.

In the Philippine Islands there has bean a long struggle between Christianity and Islam. In Mindanao and the Sulu Islands civilized Mohammedan tribes existed as early as 1521, when the Spaniards came to the islands. Owing to their obnoxious and ill-advised methods, the Spaniards could make no progress in the face of Islam. The Mohammedans, as elsewhere, learned the language of the people, adopted their customs and intermarried with them, thereby winning great success. The independent Kingdom of Mindanao had 360,000 Moslem subjects in the nineteenth century. The Sulu Islands have also been a Mohammedan stronghold. Among the lower classes in the northern islands Islam has not made much headway, as indeed has been the case throughout the archipelago. In New Guinea and the islands to the northwest of it progress has been made only on the coasts. In the archipelago as a whole, however, Islam is spreading. The religious orders, especially the Sanusiyyah, are very active.

It is almost impossible to give reliable figures of the total Mohammedan population of the world. According to a recent estimate (1915), the number may be placed approximately at 220,000,000. This is based in part on the latest available census reports, in part on official and private estimates of varying degrees of probability. The unwillingness of Moslem householders to give an account of the members of their harems interferes everywhere with scientific census taking, and in many lands where Mohammedan missions have been particularly active in recent times no census has ever been taken. The following figures can therefore only claim to be approximately correct. In Asia: Turkey, 15,000,000; Persia, 9,200,000; Afghanistan, 5,000,000; India (1911), 66,623,412; Russia (1911), 13,906,972; China, 12,000,000; Indo-China and Siam, 2,000.000; total in Asia, about 124,000,000; in the East Indies and other islands of the Pacific, about 35,000,000; in Africa: Egypt (1907), 10,336,526; Sudan, 3,000,000; Abyssinia, 5,000,000; Barca and Tripoli, 2,000,000; Tunis, 2,000,000; Algiers, 5,000;000; Morocco, 5,000,000; Liberia, 1,000,000; French West and Equatorial Africa, about 10,000,000; British West, East, Central, and South Africa, about 10,000,000; West and East German, Belgian, and Italian East Africa, about 3,000,000; total in Africa, about 56,000,000; in Europe: Turkey, Bulgaria, Servia, Albania, Greece, Austria, and Russia, about 5,000,000. It is significant that only about 31,000,000, or less than 15 per cent, of this Mohammedan population are found in politically independent Moslem states, viz.: in Turkey, 16,500,000; Persia, 9,200,000; Afghanistan, 5,000,000; while Great Britain has about 95,000,000, Holland about 30,000,000, France about 22,000,000, Russia about 14,000,000, China about 12,000,000, and Abyssinia about 5,000,000 Mohammedans.

The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. XVI (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 83-87.