Slohammed's plans included now nothing less than the conversion of the world to Islam. If he had at first hoped to accomplish this by peaceful mea..sures alone. the aggressiveness of his enemies in advancing against Medina soon forced the preacher to become warrior also, and mili tary success won more and more converts. In the sixth year of the Ilejira Mohammed sent letters to the Byzantine Emperor, Heraclins, to the King of Persia. to the Governor of Yemen, to the Governor of Egypt, and to the King of _\ln•s inia inviting them to join the neW In the same year he converted part of the Bani Paws of Yemen, and Iwo years later the rest of the tribe followed: in the meanwhile fifteen other tribes responded. With the fall of Mecca in A.11. 5, the triumph of Islam in Arabia was assured. Sore of the Prophet's bitterest enemies became his most ardent followers; and the next year so Many ellibassies suing for alliance that it became known as the 'year of the deputa tions.' After Abu Bekr had brought about the re subjugation of the northern tribes, who had re volted on Nlohanoned's death. an army was sent into Syria. as the Prophet himself had planned. A second army was sent into Irak. The latter canoe into contact with the Persian forces. and in I Miar's caliphate. by the victory at Kadisiy yah. Chabhea and Nlesopotamia were assured to the Arabs. Christian Bedouins of both sides of the Euphrates became converted at this time. even though tolerance was extended to those who kept their own faith. In Syria almost the only opposition came from Ileraelius's armies. The great mass of the people. oppressed by the Byzan tines, welcomed the Arabs. By 639 the Greeks had been driven out of the province, most of the large towns having made treat b-s which guaranteed them toleration of religions belief. and protection of life and property on the mere payment of the and kharuj (land-tax). Friendly relal ion-, being thin e.1 in the following years there was a gradual assimilation of Arabi(' Manlier- 11m1 ellsiomA throughont Syria. which nnade tlie ennvershin of the natives easy. Many ( rist ians were con verted in the fifty years between Omar and Abd al-.Malik in Irak, Khorasan, etc. Omar II. (717 720) was particularly successful by lightening the burdens of Alohannncdan landowners. In ad. lit ion, the children of women captives were brought up as Moslems; and slaves were allowed to purchase their freedom at 004 price of conver sion. In the tenth century the Nestorian Bishop of Bet Garmai was a noted convert; in 1016 Ignatius. the Jacobite _Metropolitan of Takrit (at Bagdad), became Abu :\lusIhn. Converts were won in the following centuries, even from among the Crusaders. Bainaud and his follow ers embraced Mohammedanism in a body: 3000 Crusaders accepted Islam in Phrygia in 1148, as a result of Alohannuedan kindness contrasted with ill-treatment on the part of Greek Chris tians. To-day over fifty per cent. of the popula tion of Syria and Palestine is Moslem.
The rapidity with which :Mohammedanism spread in Syria and Mesopotamia was not dupli cated in the country to the north. In Armenia, even after the Christian power had been over thrown by the Seljuks of the eleventh century, the mass of the population continued Christian. Georgia resisted until the invasion of the Mon gols. After the fall of Constantinople (1453) the western and central portions of the eonntry became converted. and after the ruling dynasty of Samtskli6 in 1625 had become Nlohainmedan, progress was rapid among the aristocracy. The eastern portion of the country had submitted to Persia, and as such was naturally subject to Mohammedan influence. In the seventeenth cen tury there were two petty kingdoms in the East the rulers of which, though native princes, were _Moslems. Since the beginning of the nineteenth
century Georgia has belonged to Russia, but cer tain parts are still :Mohammedan.
After the Alohannnedans 11:1(1 succeeded in sub duing Syria they Homed (heir attention to Egypt. Amr ibn al.Asi drove the Byzantines out in Al).. 641, and the whole of the country as far south as Abys•inhi and as far west as Libya came under Moslem influence. The conquerors. who treated the natives, and the Copts. with great favor, were welcomed by them. \iany ('opts accepted Islam even before the fall of Alexandria; while the tonnlwr of converts, partly fon.ed, partly willing. that were made up to the Caliphate of Omar II. (717.720) was large. In the twelfth century Islam was Carried, prin cipally by Moslem merehants. into Lower Egypt. and in the fourteenth century into Nubia, the King of Tholgola becoming a "Aloslem in 1240. In Abyssinia conversions were first made in the coast in the tenth century. and toward the end of the twelfth a Mohammedan dynasty was founded. In the century the Adan nu•dan Kingdom of Adal. between Abyssinia mid the southern end of the ft(81 Sea. came into ex islenee; in the seventeenth, one-third of its entire population was :?10slein. while in the middle of the nineteenth one-half of the central province of Abysxinia had likewise been converted.
Ann• ibn al-Asi conquered Northern Africa as far as Barra. Before the end of the eon tun-t- rapid progress Lind been made among the Berbers. who made their last resistance at the Spring of Kahinn in 7113. Musa ibn Nusair and Omar II.. the Conqueror. made innumerable con verts. In 789 Western Africa (Mauretania) be came separnted from Egypt as a kingdom under Idris, founder of the ldriside dynasty; in addi.
Lion to converting many Berbers, he is said to have forced Christians and Jews to apostatize. The Berbers, however, under the ldrisides as under the Aghlabites (a dynasty founded in SO] by Ibrahim ibn^ Aghlab, hereditary governor of Ifrikiyyalo were in constant revolt. In the beginning of the tenth) eentnry Abu Abd Allah appeared among them as the apostle of the Ismailia!' sect, and sncceeded in winning over the whole of the powerful Kitamah tribe to the port of the Imamate of Llaid Allah ; and the dynasty of the Vatimites was thus successfully established in Kairwan. Early in the eleventh century the faith spread rapidly among the Berbers of the Sahara also, among whom it had been introduced in the ninth century. The re vival was due principally to a chieftain of the Lamtuna tribe, Abd Allah NI Yassin, who founded a monastery and won many disciples from various tribes, to which he sent them back as missionaries. In 1042 he led his followers, known as the llurabbitin (Almoravides). against the neighboring tribes, and by force and persua sion succeeded in establishing a vast empire. Before the end of the century it extended from Senegambia to Algiers; Mohammedan Spain was brought under the sway of the Almoravides. In the beginning of the seventh century another dynasty was founded among the Berbers, when Alm Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Tuinart ap peared in the Slauretanian mountains and preached especially against the laxity of morals and the excessive veneration paid to saints. His followers became known as the Muicalillidin (Al mohades, or Unitarians). The conquests and conversions of the Almohades were likewise enormous; by 1160 they had an empire extending from Barca to the Atlantie, and embracing Mo hammedan Spain. After these events but few of the Berbers remained heathens.