North+Africa



The spread of Islam to to North Africa began with the first caliphs succeeding the Prophet Muhammad who brought the religion past Egypt. It was soon brought through West Africa and to Spain by the Umayyad caliphs.

Before Islam spread to North Africa, the Byzantine Empire ruled Egypt and other parts of North Africa. The Byzantines replace the religion of the Egyptians and created their own imperial church. The Byzantines basically took over to get land and money out of the Egyptians. An army of 12,000 men led by Amr ibn al-'As, invaded Egypt, whose population was near 15,000,000. They overthrew the Byzantines with ease. The Egyptians were pleased with the results because they didn't like the Byzantines.

The Arabs made an alliance with the Egyptian Coptic church. The Arabs would get rid of all the Byzantines and the Egyptians would have an increase in their taxes. By 750 CE, only 5 million Egyptians were part of the Coptic Christian church. The other 10 million (approximately) had converted to Islam, thus becoming Mawali.

Abdullah b Sa'ad later became the governor of Egypt. He sought to control all of North Africa, so he sent troops west of Egypt. Some of North Africa was still controlled by the Byzantine Empire. Other major ares of North Africa were controlled by independent Berber tribes. The Muslims gained permission to start a jihad and in the battle of Subetula, the Byzantine leader, Gregory, was killed and the Muslims won the land.

By 711 CE, many of the North Africans had converted to Islam. This reduced the revenue of the Arab Empire because Muslims didn't have to pay the same taxes as those who didn't follow Islam. A law was passed saying that Malawi were still subject to the same taxes as those who weren't Muslim. This didn't go so well because it created an inequality amongst the Muslim poeples. This created a division in Africa. Now there were competing Muslim states in North Africa.

There were positive reactions to Islam in North Africa after the Arabs had driven out the Byzantines. Many converted to avoid the extra taxes, but a new law stated that Mawali still had to pay the extra taxes because the Islamic Empire's revenue had declined because many people converted to Islam.

Northern Africa was well involved with Mediterranean trade, unlike the rest of Africa. Merchants controlled most of the trade in the area. Market life was key for men and women. Also, agriculture and metalworking had also played a role in the economies.

Much of the Berber population was converted to Islam and eventually created regional states at Fez and Sijilimasa. During the eleventh and twelfth centuries, radical reformers among the Berbers moved southward to the African kingdoms of the sub-Saharan region.

media type="custom" key="7394157" This slideshow shows the directions of the spread of Islam. It also shows how powerful the caliphs and caliphates became after the death of Muhammad. The map shows the extent of Islam through 750 CE.

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