Islam+Expansion

Summary of Islam Expansion in North Africa

Islam underwent a golden age when spreading throughout Europe, Asia, and Africa forming the largest empire ever established. Islam’s expansion onto North Africa was when the Abbasid captured Damascus, one of the Umayyad princes escaped and made a long journey from there to Spain to find Umayyad rule there. The Umayyad ruled over for two centuries until they were weakened and were replaced by local rulers. Meanwhile in North Africa, various local dynasties held away until two powerful Berber dynasties succeeded in uniting much of North Africa and also Spain in the 12th and 13th centuries. One of these areas was ruled by a local dynasty such as the Sharifids of Morocco country. As for Spain itself, Muslim power continued to wane until the last Muslim dynasty was defeated in Granada in 1492 thus bringing nearly eight hundred years of Muslim rule in Spain to an end. From the end of the effective power of the caliphs in the tenth century to the beginning of the sixteenth, the size of the Muslim world almost doubled. The vehicles for expansion were not conquering armies so much as traveling merchants and intellectual teachers. North Africa was filled with stateless societies where Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, and Vandals and many other powerful classical empires traded, settled, built, battled, and destroyed. The Berbers people of Sahara had raided the coastal cities; with the rise of Islam those ties became closely linked with Sahara and the rest of Africa in many ways. In 640 and 700 C.E the followers of Muhammad swept across North Africa from Suez to Morocco Atlantic shore. By 670 C.E Muslims ruled Tunisia or Ifriqiya. The Berber armies had crossed into Spain their message found ground among the population of North Africa because they were outcastes from the rest of the world but with the rise of Islam things changed and had effectively functioned within the community. Conversions took place rapidly within a certain political unity provided by the Abbasid dynasty, but this broke out as a result of competing groups and separate states. Caravan trade of states formed by the Arabic rulers the people of the desert the Berbers formed states of their own places such as Fez in Morocco launched a course of jihad. They were the reason for the spread of Islam into sub-Saharan Africa. No previous conqueror had tried to assimilate the Berbers, but the Arabs quickly converted them and enlisted their aid in further conquests. At first only Berbers nearer the coast were involved, but by the 11th century Muslim conquest had begun to spread far into the Sahara. The Almoravid and Almohad dynasties are characterized by a tendency toward simplicity, for example in mosques with bare walls. Nevertheless, luxury arts continued to be produced in great quantity. The Marinid and Hafsid dynasties developed an important, but poorly understood, architecture, and a significant amount of painted and sculpted woodwork. The conflicts with the Frankish crusaders in 1171, Saladin seized Fatimid Egypt, and installed the Ayyubids dynasty on the throne. They were notable for innovations in metallurgy and the widespread manufacture of the Damascus steel swords and daggers and the production ceramics, glass and metalwork of a high quality were produced without interruption, and enameled glass became another important craft. The Islamic empire made ever-lasting accomplishments.