Islam spread through Africa via trade routes, intellectual debate, and military conquest. First and foremost, Muhammad took his new religion to Medina after being cast out from his home. There, he built a power base and began military conquests in the name of his religion.
Islam has existed in Africa for a long time. It first arrived in North Africa up until around the 8th century when the religion began to spread south and west. It spread across sub-saharan Africa since the 8th century onwards, where Islam is the majority or significant minority religion in many modern countries.
Christianity is the most widely practiced religions along with Islam and is the largest religion in Africa. Several syncretistic and messianic sects have formed throughout much of the continent, including the Nazareth Baptist Church in South Africa and the Aladura churches in Nigeria.
According to Arab oral tradition, Islam first came to Africa with Muslim refugees fleeing persecution in the Arab peninsula. This was followed by a military invasion, some seven years after the death of the prophet Mohammed in 639, under the command of the Muslim Arab General, Amr ibn al-Asi.
In 1900, there were only 8.7 million adherents of Christianity in Africa, while in 2010 there were 390 million. It is expected that by 2025 there will be 600 million Christians in Africa. In Nigeria, the percentage of Christians has grown from 21.4%, in 1953, to 50.8%, in 2010.
Islam in Africa - History Of Africa with Zeinab Badawi [Episode 9]
Why did Islam spread so quickly?
Islam spread through military conquest, trade, pilgrimage, and missionaries. Arab Muslim forces conquered vast territories and built imperial structures over time.
Why is Africa split between Islam and Christianity?
In the 7th century AD, the Umayyad and Abbasid caliphates spread Islam through their conquests along the northern edge of Africa. Meanwhile, Christianity had already spread to the continent in the first century AD. However, 15th century European colonial missions took the religion into sub-Saharan Africa.
Qurʾan—though universal in its message—is largely a book about Africa. Many (probably most) of the tales related in the Qurʾan take place in Africa, and Africans figure prominently in many stories set elsewhere.
While Muslims are found on all five inhabited continents, more than 60% of the global Muslim population is in Asia and about 20% is in the Middle East and North Africa.
The word Hindu is an exonym, and while Hinduism has been called the oldest surviving religion in the world, it has also been described by the modern term Sanātana Dharma ( lit. 'eternal dharma'). Vaidika Dharma ( lit. 'Vedic dharma') and Arya dharma are historical endonyms for Hinduism.
Largely because its teachings became an ideology through which the Berbers justified both their rebellion against the caliphs and their support of rulers who rejected caliphal authority (see below), Islam gained wide appeal and spread rapidly among these fiercely independent peoples.
What is the biggest reason Islam spread to Africa?
While the motivations of early conversions remain unclear, it is apparent that the early presence of Islam in West Africa was linked to trade and commerce with North Africa. Trade between West Africa and the Mediterranean predated Islam, however, North African Muslims intensified the Trans-Saharan trade.
Nigeria is home to Africa's largest Muslim population. In 1999, Nigeria's northern states adopted the Sharia penal code, but punishments have been rare. In fact, dozens of women convicted of adultery and sentenced to stoning to death have later been freed.
Religion in pre-Islamic Arabia was a mix of polytheism, Christianity, Judaism, and Iranian religions. Arab polytheism, the dominant belief system, was based on the belief in deities and other supernatural beings such as djinn. Gods and goddesses were worshipped at local shrines, such as the Kaaba in Mecca.
Islamic theology. Muslims do not worship Jesus, who is known as Isa in Arabic, nor do they consider him divine, but they do believe that he was a prophet or messenger of God and he is called the Messiah in the Quran.
The Prophet Muhammad and the Origins of Islam. The rise of Islam is intrinsically linked with the Prophet Muhammad, believed by Muslims to be the last in a long line of prophets that includes Moses and Jesus.
According to Gerald Flurry, the context of Ezekiel 38:5, the descendants of Cush and Phut are found in India and what is now Pakistan. To this end, "the Syriac, Chaldee, and Arabic versions frequently render that term [Cush] by India or Indians, as in 2Ch 21:16; Isa 11:11; Isa 18:1; Jer 13:23; Zep 3:10."
Islam spread through Africa on the backs of merchant trade routes and militaristic expansion. It began, however, in the small town of Mecca in what is now Saudi Arabia. The Prophet Muhammad began spreading the teachings of Islam in 610 CE.
Like all political and social systems, Islam differentiates between those who accept it and those who reject it. Salvation is only for believers. But in this world, the rights of Muslims and non-Muslims are almost equal. The Qur'an establishes religious tolerance: There is no compulsion in religion (2:256).
Muslims and Christians in much of sub-Saharan Africa have a long history of religious tolerance. Sierra Leone in particular stands out as a positive example.
The lasting influence of Islam in the region stems from the early spread and consolidation of Islamic power. By unifying the people of Northern Africa under a single religion, language, and currency, the Islamic rulers, allowed for significant growth among their trade cities.
