The expansion of the community of believers

 After resolving the problem of leadership, the believers started their expansion process which is
also called the arab conquest or Islamic conquests
 The hegemony of the believers reached as far as Spain and India

Sources
 The sources used to map out the events of the expansion;
o The Quran in after the life of the HP played an important role in guiding how the expansion of
the believers will take place. It helps us understand the attitude and the actions the community
took on various issues during the first decade of expansion
o Quran provide no direct history as the revelation stopped with the departure of the HP, hence
the most important source after the Quran are the narrative. But they are voluminous, biased in
portraying events, inclined to make God and to look strong and powerful.
o After the first decade of expansion the believers started writing their own history. These are
very imp as they give a glimpse of the history and the evidence in the other sources should fit in
the description of these documents.
o The early literature written about the believers but not by them are important to as they give
an alternative perspective which can help us cover how that period was like
The community in the last years of HP
 The expansion process that took place after the life of the prophet took roots in his life;
o The treaty of hudaybiya in the 6AH, that was not liked by many of the ardent followers of the
HP due to the various reasons like not addressing HP as a prophet in the contract and not
allowing believers in Makkah that year.
o Although later this was very beneficial for the muslim community as many of the key members
of the Quraysh like Khalid bin Walid and Amr ibn al As converted who did not only had strong
family bg but also were exceptional military commanders. They later played even greater role as
influential political and military leaders after the HP’s demise.
o This treaty helped the Muslim take on other enemies, they conquer the Oasis of Khyber,
launched various raids to the north, brought many pastoral nomads into alliance with medina,
created a strong appearance in the region for the return of the Muslims from Abyssinia, and
lastly the conquest of Makkah and town if taif in the 8 AH.
o In the year of delegation 9AH many of the groups in Arabia sent in their representative to
submit. This new strong position helped the Muslim to no longer make alliances with the
pagans that he did in the earlier years after Hijira. Quranic verses were revealed that barred
these alliances and created a state of war between the believers and the mushrikuns.
o The alliance now must be full members and were given duties or payers and paying taxes (to
atone for their sins). So, their ideologies and financial terms MUST be aligned with Medinas
Will this not be a payment? How is it different from not asking worldly possession that we
discussed in class?
o As Arab was based on tribes and lineage was important for the early years these still hold true
but were asked to stick and work together. This made the community complex later as it grew
size. Many towns, cities even settlement and groups became part of the community.
o HP delegated task once the community was this big mostly important positions were given to
the early trusted subordinates but the newly converts who long opposed the HP were also given
important positions as they had strong connections and ties. In addition to this they were also
given special bonus for example Abu Sufyan. This obviously made some followers stressed.
 o However, this was important to keep them loyal and for the benefit for the community
Maybe this made the Ansar who were not as politically influential as the Quraysh of the people
of Makkah so concerned when the Prophet passed away as they might has though no one can
be as neutral as the prophet
o Muslims had expended from most of the western including the original base to the Southern
(Yemen) and eastern Arab (Oman). HP was particularly interested in the north specially Syria.
For reasons;
 It’s the largest city and a fertile ground
 Quraysh had lands in Syria and Palestine
 The commercial and economic activities are appealing
 It is the apocalyptic city so the believers, the saved one, wanted to establish presence
there

Succession and the ridda wars

 The death of the HP left the Muslims without a leader, the HP kept leadership highly personal
even though he relied in key supporters for advice and to carry out task.
 There was no clear-cut chain of command
The point of Muslims not having hierarchy is also aligned with Islamic teachings of everyone being
equal as in a chain of command there are certain privileges and status attached to it. IDK but I
found it very interesting to mention.
 There was no obvious leader assigned nor a way of choosing by the HP and the Quran is silent on
this matter as well
 In addition to this problem the muslim found themselves undivided in favour ways;
o Old hostility between Medinas tribe of awe and Khazraj
o Rivalry between the ansar and the muhajireen
o Resentment between the early supporters and the newly Quraysh converts
 Some tribes refused to pay taxes and wanted to break away from medina
 The Ansars proposed two leaders one for the medinese and while one for Quraysh asking for a
fragmented community of the believers
 A meeting was held in Banu Saida a meeting plan of clan of Khazraj where they decided that the
community should remain united and Abu Bakr was selected as the caliph
 The first set as leader he dispatched a campaign that was organised during HP’s life, overruling the
advice of keeping this at median for defence from the tribes thinking of taking advantage of the
HP’s death. The campaign was brief and returned after 2 months
 Some tribes had reaffirming their loyalties others observed their beliefs but refused to pay taxes
whiles some started organising themselves to stick medina
 Raid were sent by Abu Bakr after they return from the campaign
o break coalition of the clans of Ghatafan and Kinan
o Yemen’s governor to help with the uprising by the false prophet Aswad al Ansi
o Oman and THE Mahran country
o A series of battle took place led by Khalid bin Walid,
 he defeated a group at Najid led by people claiming they were prophets,
 Talha iba Khuwaylid of Asad with remnants from Ghatafan was defeated in the battle of
Buzakha,
 Tribe of Tamim with their false prophet Sajah who joined Musaylima another false
prophet with his tribe Hanifa was defeated at the battle was aqraba and Musaylima was
killed
 This war lasted for a year and the whole of Arabia was brought under the political control of
medina
 Many people accepted Islam looking at these victories which seemed so hopeless at first
 Their hegemony meant that one must believe in monotheism and pay their taxes that is the sadaqa
tax, that is why Jew and Christians could live and practice their faith
 The ridda wars helped the Muslim become a well organised army unlike the pre-Islamic time when
there were parties that were based on alliances and dispersed as soon as objective was met which
was because of the lack of ideological and organic structure
 The Muslim Armies had a strong ideological structure based on Jihad fighting for God even with
specific objective their structure was open ended while Abu Bakr had organised a livestock
provision for these armies at Al Rabadha which is confirmed through dating of bones of camels
found in this area. The Quraysh had management skills due to their experience with trade caravan.
This helped Muslims to start extending outside Arabia.

The character of the believer’s early expansion

 The expansion outside Arabia was a military conquest, with many battles of 2 great armies.
 The literature produced by the eastern Christian writers portray the expansion as the violent
conquest model, with bloodshed and destruction. However, the archaeological evidence suggests
the opposite.
 The archaeological evidence shows no trace of destruction, burning or other violence. Instead
shows a gradual shift in culture and social life.
 According to the sociologist to the violence model doesn’t hold true either. As it was wrongly
based on the notion that the believers came to impose their religion. As we saw before the two
terms that one group/state/person needed to come in peace were believe in monotheism and
paying taxes to the state of medina.
 The cities in these 2 empires had deeply rooted religious practices and if the believers had come
with the stubborn notion of imposing their religion then the violent model would have hold true.
 The questions are how did the believers conquer these place then? And how did they maintain
their hegemony in these wide region?
 Most of these area already had communities following monotheism, hence the goal was to
establish political hegemony and require these area to pay taxes and ask to at least initially believe
in oneness of God and the last day and avoid sin.
 Most Localities of the Fertile crescent might have accepted this some might have resisted it, but as
these localities were already paying tribute to the byzantine capital so there was not much to lose.
 Some of the old literature that talks about violence can be just raiders who were taking advantage
of the instability of the byzantine empire and had no link to the believers.
 Some of the Zoroastrian communities in the region of Iran and Iraq might have just submitted to
the believers and became part of the community of believers.
 The region in the north of Iran were hardly penetrated by the believers, the Iranian noble families
came to terms with the believer’s exchange of autonomy.
 It is important to note that to be part of the community of believers one had to accept
monotheism the one ness of God not necessarily accept HP as the prophet. This was the clear
distinction between the Muslims and others.
 The Christians did call him the prophet as their bible had accounts about him, but they interpreted
it as leader king teacher, the Christians did not notice this until the Believers movement started
expanding. So, the first part of shahada was acceptable by communities of Jews and Christians
 So, the believer’s goal was establishing Gods law and as the Quran promised the Believers will
inherit the world could mean including all the communities following monotheism into one
community in exchange of payments.
 Armenian Bishop Sebeos write in the 660s that the first governor made by the believer was a Jew.
Which if is true shows the open character of the believer’s movement
 With the arrival of the Muslims the Jews and Christians become a minority and the lowest strata of
the community and paid tax or converted. So, they fully integrated with the community this way
 The Muslims and the other monotheist used to worship together, there are archaeological
evidence proving this
 Cathisma Church between Bethlehem and Jerusalem has a modification to accommodating
believers by adding mihrab on the south wall facing Makkah while the rest function as a church.
 So, this conquest can’t just be military expansion but in addition to the battles that has literary
records with the Muslims and the opposition force.
 Although these battles took place in open ground and little building were damaged only if the
believers faced resistance to accept the terms. But there were many events when towns were
peacefully absorbed by the believers in exchange of taxes
 There was plundering and raiding which were done in small towns because the Arab tribesmen
were made up of former raiders and had little discipline.
 The we see that most of the conquest was done peaceful with limited damage to property as the
goal was to bring monotheistic population under the rule of the God and liberate people from
regimes that tolerated sinfulness