The rise and the spread of Islam can be traced back to the fight of Hijra and the conquering of the Mecca. Prophet Muhammad (the last prophet of Islam religion) was living in exile together with his followers in Medina near Mecca. They used to raid caravans going to Mecca for their food supplies and other essential needs. However, the Muslims were facing a number of problems such as, their number had increased and they needed a place to settle and engage in economic activities. Additionally, the situation was aggrieved by the mistreatment and persecution by the Mecca’s. Thus, to alleviate the situation of his followers Mohamed permitted the application of Jihad to rescue the Muslim community from the struggles they were facing. Following this permission, Prophet Muhammad sent out troops to conquer Mecca without too much resistant. When the Mecca was under Prophet Muhammad, the Islamic state was formed (Stark, 2009).
The Islam religion advocates for equality, non-discrimination, mutual respect and free from any struggle. Thus, many people who had faced persecution or exiled from their community and those who were slaves found refuge in the new religion that was gaining popularity. Therefore, many people joined the religion, and it started to expand its border from Mecca the Islamic state (Stark, 2009). The religion permitted warfare to bring equality, expansion of the Islamic nation and the spread of the Islam to other parts of the world. Since, the believers believed that the jihad was holly, and death in the battle was justified, the Islamic state expanded widely. The fall of the Roman Empire made the expansion Islam and Arabs easier since there was no resistance from the small kingdoms which had been formed to replace the Roman Empire. These small kingdoms lacked tactics, weapons and large armies to fight the Islamic troops (Landau, 2013).
The Byzantines and Persians empires had had been weakened by constant fights. The fights between Byzantines vise the Sassanid and the Persian Empire vices Alexander the Great, had devastating effects on the two empires. This is from loss of soldiers and resources in the war and exposing their weakness. Therefore, they could not offer much resistance to the Islamic advancement. The empires were also facing internal revolts since the subjects were unhappy with the heavy tax imposed on them. Both empires had imposed heavy taxes on their subject to gain finances to strengthen their military. Therefore, when the Islamic religion and empire came, promising fairness and equality, the subjects welcomed the new empire without resistance and helped the Arabs to conquer these two empires (Kennedy, 2013).
One of the major successes of the Omayyad and Abbasids Arab Empires was stopping the invasion of the Mecca from other empires after the death of the prophet Muhammad. Mecca is considered as the backbone and important element in the Islamic religion. Thus, losing the city to other empires could be a great loss to the military of empires. The other success was the invasion and conquering of the Byzantines and Persians empires. These two were the economic hub of Greater Middle-East/Gulf. Therefore, having the control of these two major kingdoms, it means the Omayyad and Abbasids Arab Empires had the control of the trade. Additionally, this two areas had fertile land for irrigation and general farming. Thus, this ensured the subjects of the Islamic state had a constant supply of food and other essential commodities. The military was also able to capture the North Africa and part of Western Europe such as Spain (Kennedy, 2013).
Reference
Kennedy, H. (2013). The armies of the caliphs: military and society in the early Islamic state. Routledge.
Landau, R. (2013). Islam and the Arabs (Vol. 35). Routledge.
Stark, R. (2009). God's Battalions. Tantor Audio
