Was Islam spread by sword?
It is often propagated especially in the Western media that Islam was spread by sword.
It is true to some extent only in context of Middle East which forms only 10-15% of Muslim population in the world. In fact, sword was more instrumental in the spread of Christianity in early days.
If someone advocates that Islam was spread by force, he/she has to explain the following facts:
- Mongols were ruthless conquerors. Why they accepted the religion of their helpless subjects who were totally at their mercy?
- How Islam spread in India? As I will explain, Muslim kings had little role in it.
- How Islam spread in Far East in Indonesia and Malaysia where not a single Muslim soldier set his foot?
- Why currently Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world?…. especially the Western countries who are much superior in every field and there is no question of forceful conversion.
I will talk about these points in 2 parts. In first part I will cover the spread of Islam in past and in second part entitled “Spread of Islam in modern world” I will try to explain the current spread of Islam.
Mongols:
Berke Khan was the first Mongol ruler who converted to Islam. He embraced Islam in the city of Bukhara in 1252.
He was a grandson of Genghis Khan from his son Jochi. He was a Mongol military commander and ruler of the Golden Horde from 1257 to 1266. He succeeded his brother Batu Khan of the Blue Horde (West), and was responsible for the first official establishment of Islam in a khanate of the Mongol Empire.
When he was in Saray-Jük, one of his Ministers met some Turikstani Muslim merchants and was so impressed by their talks and way of life that he converted to Islam and became a zealous Muslim. He was quite close to Berke Khan and started giving references to his conversations with those Turikstani Muslim merchants and the teachings of Islam. Berke Khan got interested and asked him to arrange a meeting with those merchants. In that meeting, he was so impressed that he embraced Islam. Berke Khan then persuaded his brother Tukh-timur to become a Muslim as well.
It was the first time in history that the conquerers accepted the religion of the conquered.
Following him, most of the population under his rule became Muslim.
Berke Khan played a pivotal role in saving Islam from his cousin Hulaku Khan and in fact changed the course of history.
Halaku Khan decimated Baghdad in 1258 AD (656 Hijri) and killed 1.5 million residents.
Hulaku Khan was obstinate to go further and further in his conquests, subduing and destroying what was left of the Islamic world, including Egypt, Syria, and the holy cities of Makkah, Madina, and Jerusalem. However, after the death of the Great Khan at the time, Hulaku was forced to return to Karakorum, the capital of the Mongol Empire, having to postpone his endeavor in Muslim cities.
After settling the question of the Khan’s succession in 1262, Hulaku marched again towards Islamic lands.
Berke Khan, outraged and offended by Hulaku’s attacks on Muslim cities, especially at the destruction of Baghdad, decides to fight back and allied with the Egyptian Mamluks against Hulaku Khan.
He ordered his brilliant general Nogai Khan to attack Hulaku’s empire, the Ilkhanate.
According to Muslim historian Rashid-al-Din Hamadani, Berke Khan protesting Hulaku’s attack on Baghdad is said to have told his Mongol and Muslim subjects:
“He (Hulaku) plundered all Muslim cities and also brought the Caliph’s death. With God’s help, I will hold him accountable for all the innocent blood.”
The battle of cousins Hulaku Khan and Berke Khan took place in the 1260s, just a few years after the destruction of Baghdad. In 1263 Nogai Khan inflicted a great defeat on Hulaku Khan, killing thousands of his soldiers by the sword, as well as pushing several of them towards the Terek River, in which they eventually drowned, putting a brake on Hulaku’s dark advance towards the Islamic territories.
India:
It is usually said that Islam was introduced in India by Muhammad bin Qasim, an Arab Military Commander in 712 AD.
This is not true.
Historians Elliot and Dowson say in their book “The History of India, as Told by Its Own Historians”, that the first ship bearing Muslim travellers was seen on the Indian coast as early as 630 AD.
According to the Legend of Cheraman Perumals, the first Indian mosque was built in 624 AD at Kodungallur in present-day Kerala with the mandate of the the last ruler (the Cheraman Perumal) of Chera dynasty, who converted to Islam during the lifetime of the Prophet Muhammad (c. 570–632 AD).
According to popular tradition, Islam was brought to Lakshadweep islands, situated just to the west of Malabar Coast, by Ubaidullah in 661 AD. His grave is believed to be located on the island of Andrott.
As mentioned above, Muhammad bin Qasim conquered Sindh in 712 AD. The reasons of this invasion are obscure. His conquered area mainly included only the province of Sindh. Due to various political reasons this Islamic influence lasted for only a few years.
Next Muslim ruler to attack India was Mahmud of Ghazni who ascended the throne in 998 AD. His sole aim seemed to be plundering. He had no intention of ruling India. He attacked India seventeen times but never stayed back.
Muhammad Ghori was the first Muslim ruler who laid the foundation for the subsequent Islamic ruling dynasties of India. Muhammad Ghori invaded India in 1175 AD. After Muhammad Ghori there is a long list of Muslim rulers but none of them with the possible exception of Aurangzeb was zealous about spread of Islam. Many of them especially Akbar the Great had Hindu wives.
If Muslim kings had enforced Islam, Muslims would not be a minority (only 20%) after a 1000 years rule. Also, the areas around their strongholds would be with Muslim majority. Instead, the Muslim majority areas in India were in pockets far away from the capital cities. For example Bengal and Punjab had majority Muslim population and none of their cities was ever a capital city. Isolated communities of Muslims also existed in Western Myanmar, Central India, and Eastern Sri Lanka. These communities of Muslims are proof of Islam spreading peacefully throughout India, regardless of whether or not a Muslim government existed there.
So what were the factors instrumental for the spread of Islam in India?
In northern part of India, the greatest contributors were Sufi saints. For example, Ali Hujwiri popularly known as Data Ganj Buksh was the prime factor in spread of Islam in Punjab. He came to Lahore before first Muslim King Muhammad Ghori in the 11th century AD. He migrated to Punjab from Afghanistan and brought the light of Islam to a land where majority of the people were Hindus. Another example is of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti. He came to India from Afghanistan with the army of Shahab-ud-Din Ghori in 1192 AD and started living permanently in Ajmer from 1195 AD onwards which is now a part of Rajasthan, India.
However, in the Southern part of India, especially the coastal areas where Islam was introduced much earlier in the days of Prophet Muhammad, Muslim merchants played the most important part. They introduced teachings of Islam as given in the Holy Quran and themselves provided examples of practical Muslims. Islamic legal system that extended from Morocco in the West to Mongolia in the North East and Indonesia in the South East, proved very effective to improve the quality of life.
South East Asia
Indonesia and Malaysia are among the most populated Muslim countries. Islam spread in these and some other South East Asian countries without a single soldier setting foot in these areas.
As in India, Islam was introduced into South East Asia by travelling merchants and Sufi saints from the late 13th to 15th centuries. Underlying the spread of Islam in South East Asia was the trade between this region and India. The most pronounced influence was from Southern India.
Muslim merchants married into local ruling families and assisted local commercial enterprises. An important and overlapping role was played by Sufi missionaries, who were not only teachers founding schools but traders and politicians, and who communicated Islam in a form compatible with indigenous beliefs and practices such as saint worship and veneration of saints as healers.
Finally, Islam furnished an ideology of individual worth, and brotherhood based on faith rather than kinship, which created an integrated community to replace small village-scale communities.
In the early fifteenth century, a local ruler called Iskander was defeated by Javanese rivals and fled his native state of Palembang. He founded Malacca and converted to Islam. Thereafter Malacca became a center of trade with India, Java and China; and Malacca became a platform for the spread of Islamic influence throughout South East Asia. By the end of the fifteenth century, Islam had spread through the Malay kingdoms of Pahang, Kedah and Patani and into Sumatra in Indonesia, as well as into Borneo and the Philippines.
When Portuguesa conquered Malacca in 1511 AD (who were later defeated by Dutch in 1619 AD), Muslim teachers and missionaries fled to Sumatra, Java, the Moluccas and Borneo. European political supremacy led to a consolidation of Islam as an expression of indigenous cultural identity and political resistance. Aceh, a center of resistance to both the Portuguese and the Dutch, saw an influx of Ottoman and Mughal scholars and the promulgation of ties to the international Islamic community of scholars.
It is a historical fact that almost all the population in Indonesia and Malaysia converted to Islam whereas in India, only 20-30% of the population embraced Islam. It is usually explained by saying that in South East Asia there was no challenging ideology but in India, Hinduism and Buddhism confronted the spread of Islam.
In my opinion, it is not true because Hinduism and Buddhism had their presence in South East Asia as well before the arrival of Islam. The real challenge for spread of Islam in India was the antagonism of the local population towards Muslim rulers whereas in South East Asia, the populace was never ruled by a Muslim king.
References:
- “Introduction to Islam in Indonesia – Development of Indonesian Islam”. www.indonesia-investments.com. Indonesia Investments.
- De Weese, Devin (1994). Islamization and Native Religion in the Golden Horde. Penn State Press. p. 3. ISBN 0-271-01073-8.
- Firas AlKhateeb in Lost Islamic History. Do you know how Islam spread in the Indian subcontinent? BY Egypt Today Mon, 29 May 2017
- https://historiaislamica.com/
- Jackson, Peter (2017). The Mongols and the Islamic World: From Conquest to Conversion. Yale University Press. p. 348. ISBN 978-0-300-12533-7.
- Kuala Lumpur: Islam in Malaysia, M.A.R. Habib, Liberal Studies Program: Fall 2005 Lecture and Colloquium Series, October 26, 2005
- McLeod, John (2002). The History of India. Greenwood Press “Daily life through history” series. Greenwood Press. ISBN 978-0-313-31459-9.
- Rawlinson, H. G. (1 January 2001). Ancient and Medieval History of India. Bharatiya Kala Prakashan. ISBN 9788186050798.