SUMMARY 

A subject that a lot of people like to talk about but ironically know little about is the history behind the spread of Islam. The reason why people like to talk about it so much is because it carries so much political weight; did Islam spread by violence or did it spread through peace?  

Painting history in black and white like this is the sign of an amateur or someone with a political agenda (either pro or anti-Islam).  

In this lesson, we overview the spread of Islam from the death of the Prophet Muhammad (s) until the Ottoman Empire. Here we demonstrate the Islam was not spread by the sword but largely through the efforts of Sufis and trade merchants. To the contrary, many Muslim rulers actually discouraged conversion to Islam as they saw Islam as a religion for Arabs only and not non-Arabs. 

To learn more, please tune into the full version of this lesson.