The Spread of Islam
The historical development of Islam went through many periods, and one of the most interesting questions is its spreading in the Middle East in a quite short period soon after its appearing. The death of the Prophet Muhammad "left a great void in his followers' community, the Islamic umma". Islam and Arabs succeed in spreading throughout the Greater Middle East and Gulf against the Byzantines and Persians because both empires and the Byzantine Christianity were weak, and the Umayyad and Abbasids Arab Empires demonstrated great military successes.
After the death of the Prophet Muhammad, there was a chance that the situation in the Arab world can become very unstable. That is why the wise and powerful leader was required to strengthen the positions of the new religion in the region and, further, in the world. Such a person became Abu-Bakr (632-634), who shortly became the caliph. His main achievement during that period was the use of the military forces to stop the nonconformist tribes and clans. This step helped to save the unity of the Arabs in the Middle East and to go further with the invasion and spreading of the new religion.
When Abu-Bakr died, his successor, Umar, decided to turn the forces, which were used for saving the inside stability, into the outside world and the conquests. He was the son-in-law of Muhammad, so he was perceived with respect by Arabs, which lead to his quick acceptance among the people. Umar managed to make the series of military campaigns, which succeeded, against the Byzantine and the Persian empires, which, at first sight, were quite strong enemies. However, such a view was not true. The Byzantines and Persians have already been very weakened, mostly because of the constant fights against each other to achieve the power in the Greater Middle East and Gulf. This privilege has been successfully used by Umar and his army, and, as a result, “by 640 the whole of Syria, apart from one or two coastal towns, had come under Islamic rule”. The Byzantine Empire did not succeed in opposition to the Islam invasion as well. One of the main reasons was the fact of the religion. The Byzantine Christianity was weak and unable to opposite the Islam. It can be explained by the fact that the religion was unstable from the very inside as many sects appeared in this period, and the main religious forces of the Empire were taken to suppress them. At the same time, the newly created Islam was united and satisfied the main needs of the people, who lived in the above-mentioned territories.
Umayyad and Abbasids Arab Empires have shown great military successes during the campaigns in the Middle East and Gulf. Under the rule of Abd al-Malik, the Umayyad Empire has become the unified territory, strengthening its rule, and moving forward to the North Africa. The Empire of Abbasids is in the 9th and 10th centuries is known as a "golden age" of the Arab world. The …
