Ask a Historian: Bennett Sherry

One of my students would like to know the answer to this question:

“In unit one, a large topic covered by your texts is the spread of the Islamic religion. I’ve always thought that during this time period, the population was very separated, and while there was interaction between countries and travelers, there was not much exchange of ideals or religions. Your writings for the second unit of this class corrected this thought, by showing the interconnectedness of Afro-Eurasia during this time through trade. While I now know about how connected the people of this time were, I don't think I have a good understanding on what allowed the Islamic religion to spread so quickly, and what made people accept it into their lives so suddenly?”

Another student is curious about this: “What would happen if the information they (historians) have on a topic in history was vague what would they do or use to support their claim?”

One of my students would like to know the answer to this question:

“In unit one, a large topic covered by your texts is the spread of the Islamic religion. I’ve always thought that during this time period, the population was very separated, and while there was interaction between countries and travelers, there was not much exchange of ideals or religions. Your writings for the second unit of this class corrected this thought, by showing the interconnectedness of Afro-Eurasia during this time through trade. While I now know about how connected the people of this time were, I don't think I have a good understanding on what allowed the Islamic religion to spread so quickly, and what made people accept it into their lives so suddenly?”

Another student is curious about this: “What would happen if the information they (historians) have on a topic in history was vague what would they do or use to support their claim?”

Another student asked this thoughtful question:

“What was it like to live as a commoner during this time (1450–1750 CE)? How difficult was it to survive, and what did you have to do to do so?”

Hi Mehreen, I have been teaching this course 4 years now, but my background is in Comparative Religion and Islamic Studies. Your question has two parts - what allowed Islam to spread so quickly, and why did people accept it. The first is fairly connected to the second. Islam was/is easy to convert too. Conversion doesn't require literacy (though Arabic literacy often followed), and all a person needs is essentially sincerity and another Muslim. To convert to Islam 1000 years ago and today is the same - a person must recite the Shahadah (proclamation of faith) with sincerity to a fellow Muslim who is usually an authority figure. That's it! 

Why it was accepted requires us to consider where it was spreading. Throughout sub-Saharan and west Africa, Swahili Coast, India, and Indonesian archipelago. Throughout these regions polytheism and animism was common, so for many converts to Islam encountering a "new god" was easy to absorb into pre-existing religious beliefs. This meant Islam spread, looked different in different areas, and was easy to "accept". There is also an economic consideration here, in that folks who converted would be on the receiving end of more favorable trade conditions. 

Hope that helps! 

 Mehreen Jamal 

To add my 2 cents to what Hayden George  wrote: I agree, and I’d say that in my mind, the early and rapid expansion of Islam is a result of three factors. First: it expanded quickly for reasons similar to expansion of Christianity and Buddhism. Islam is a universal and missionary religion. Its adherents believe that it can apply to anyone, no matter where they live, and it is the duty of believers to spread the faith to new peoples and places. The universal/missionary faiths were truly revolutionary social technologies that transformed the trajectory of the world.

The second big reason, of course, was conquest. The Arab conquests under Muhammad and his successors in the 7^th and 8^th centuries spread Islamic governance from Portugal to India very quickly. Conquered peoples were sometimes treated tolerantly (especially “people of the book”), but there were big advantages to conversion, especially for local rulers and merchants. Which brings me to the third big reason for rapid expansion: trade.

Muslim merchant diasporas rapidly spread from China to West Africa, and they brought their new religious ideas along with them as they revitalized the routes of the Silk Road and the Indian Ocean trade. By the 8th century, Muslim merchants were active in China. Some sources claim the first mosque in China was built during the Tang Dynasty in the 7^th century (this is disputed and it was probably the 8^th or 9^th century). Around the 9^th century, Muslim merchants also arrived in West Africa along the Trans Saharan routes. For West African rulers and elites, like those in the Mali Empire, conversion to Islam held many benefits, including advantageous trade connections, prestigious diplomatic ties with the large Islamic empires to the north and east, and access to foreign scholars.

Mehreen Jamal The life of commoners would be very different depending on where you lived and (particularly in the Spanish Americas) who your ancestors were. Another big difference would surround whether there was a war happening in your region or not. Is there a specific society or region your student is curious about?

I will say that, speaking very generally, life for commoners was often precarious. The student might be interested in learning about the theories surrounding the Little Ice Age. For Indigenous Americans and many people in West and Central Africa, this was often an incredibly dangerous time as diseases and slavery devastated whole communities and led to massive demographic shifts. But in Europe and elsewhere, life was still precarious for peasants. Famine and war (often related) were constant threats. Peasant Revolts popped up repeatedly in the medieval period and into the 16^th century. Students might “enjoy” some of the more gruesome tales of how peasant mobs dealt with the aristocracy. (An aside: my favorite historical government is the Dithmarschen Peasant Republic. For my money, "Wahr di, Garr, de Buer de kumt." is the most wicked awesome warcry in history.

But if students really want to know what life was like for a commoner, they should get the information from the words of commoners themselves! The Cheese and the Worms (or even a summary of it) can give you the worldview of an Italian commoner (albeit one who was burnt at the stake for heresy). And then there’s Simplicius Simplicissimus, which is a fictional tale from the 30 Year’s War but told through the perspective of an everyman peasant commoner. It shows how precarious life was for people during this horrific conflict, many of whom were displaced or killed in the decades of fighting. While it reveals the brutality of the war, it also shows us how war could lead to opportunity for social mobility for some people (Simplicius changes careers many times). Then of course, there are the religious beliefs and the social chaos. And if they prefer a film, there’s always the case of Martin Guerre, which was adapted into a film and released in 1982.

One of the takeaways from these three cases is that we often don’t know much specifics about the lives of commoners from 1450 to 1750, unless something went terribly wrong for them—like getting burned alive for heresy or hanged for impersonation, for example!

 Bennett Sherry and Hayden GeorgeThank you for your detailed comments, which provide valuable explanations about the diffusion of Islam. I will cover this topic in Big History and very soon in AP Human Geography.

In March, I will be traveling with students to Southern Spain and Morocco to explore, among other things, the diffusion of Islam in both countries, so your explanation will be especially valuable during the pre-departure sessions with my students.

HI Hayden George 

Bennett Sherry