Alex Elkins

Marc Eagle
World History 1
11/16/16
Writing Assignment #2
Islam is the religious faith followed by Muslims, and was founded by the prophet

Muhammad in the early 7th century. The early messages Muhammad spoke were short and

clear, emphasizing the importance of the all-powerful god Allah. Even after Muhammads death

in 632 the Islamic religion still thrived off of the foundational Islamic text, the Quran. The

spread of Islam was more than just the spread of a new religion, with this spread the Muslims

gained strong military power and strong military leadership eventually leading the spread of dar

al-Islam (the word of Islam) into Syria, Egypt, Iraq, and the former Byzantine empire. The Islamic

culture eventually spread to central Asia, north Africa, and areas surrounding the western part

of the Mediterranean.1

The three documents I chose to use for this assignment were: Quranic Comments on the

Torah and the Gospel, Avicenna: The Life of Ibn Sina, and Abu Uthman al-Jahiz: on the Zanj. The

reason I chose all of these documents is because they vary between the very beginning of the

spread of Islam to towards the end of the spread of Islam.

1
Elizabeth Pollard, Clifford Rosenberg, and Robert Tignor, eds., Worlds Together, Worlds Apart,

Concise Ed., Vol. 1 (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2015), 305.
 The first document Quranic Comments on the Torah and the gospel was written during

the early seventh century. Since this document was written during the beginning of the Islamic

religion, it has a huge impact on the spread of Islam. In this passage from the Quran,

Muhammad is trying to describe to the Christians, Jews, and many other people that the Islamic

Religion has taken place of all other religions. Although it wasnt much longer after Muhammad

had passed away that Islam spread beyond the Arabian Peninsula, his efforts to reveal the

Quran to the early monotheistic religions had the biggest impact of all for the spread of Islam. I

believe one of the most significant accomplishments Muhammad had with the spread of Islam

was the 200-mile journey to the town of Medina who at the time had religious tensions and its

elders hoped that bringing Muhammad in would bring peace and unity to their city, which it

did.2 This essentially started the Muslim era, and Medina was named the birthplace of Islam.

The second document I chose was Avicenna, The Life of Ibn Sina, written in the early

eleventh century. Avicenna is from Bukhara which is nowhere near the center of Islam

(Baghdad.) A teacher of the Quran and a teacher of literature were provided to him and by the

2
Pollard, Rosenberg, and Tignor, WTWA, 305.

3. Quranic Comments on the Torah and the Gospel, in Worlds Together, Worlds Apart: A

Companion Reader, ed. Kenneth Pomeranz, James Given, and Laura Mitchell (New York: W.W.

Norton & Company, 2011, 190.

age of 10 he had already finished the Quran.3 It is obvious that Avicennas life revolved around

education and that he was an absolute genius. He learned how to use Indian calculation from a

vegetable seller, he learned philosophy from al-Natili who stayed with him in his own home and

devoted himself to teaching him, he taught himself the art of medicine. All of this by the time

he was 16 years old, then after he learned the art of medicine he devoted himself to learning

and reading where he wrote between 100 and 200 works on various subjects.4 The life of

Avicenna is important to the spread of Islam because it showed how Islam was bringing the

regions together with education, language and numbers. Without Islam spreading to Bukhara,

the Islamic culture would be without one of its most influential philosophers, and possibly one

of the greatest scholars of all time.

Next, I decided to use the passage Abu Uthman al-Jahiz, on the Zanj. This document was

written in Baghdad in 860ce by the grandson of a Zanj slave. Al-Jahiz is a scholar who is said to

have written over 200 books in his lifetime and is known for his works on history, botany,

zoology, politics, Islamic philosophy, and Arabic literature.5 This document is important to the

spread of Islam because it shows how all kinds of different people can be scholars: race, social

status, and gender does not matter. Muhammad had a vision of spreading Islam as far as he

could, and would teach the Quran to just about anyone who was willing to listen. After

Muhammad passed away, his revelations spread out to all kinds of different people living in

4
Quranic Comments on the Torah and The Gospel WTWA Reader, 190.
5
Ab thman al-Jhiz, On the Zanj, WTWA Reader, 207.
Central Asia, Northern/Eastern Africa, and west of the Mediterranean. None of this would have

happened if it wasnt for Muhammad teaching the Quran so well.

Lastly, continuing on from the passage above, I wanted to bring up the importance of

the long-standing trade relationships that intensified with the arrival of East African slaves in

Southern Iraq.6 This relationship involved the Persian Gulf and the East African coast and

allowed many prophets to travel along and help spread the word of Islam to the outsiders of

the Arabian Peninsula.

In Conclusion, all of the information provided in these documents had a huge impact on

the rise and spread of the Islamic religion. The reasons these passages had such a huge impact

on the spread of Islam is because they explain the efforts Muhammad gave at the start of his

revelations that lead the spread on the right path, they explain the importance of education

and how Islam brought regions together with numerous languages and numbers, and lastly, no

matter what your race, class, or gender, you can be a scholar.

6
Al-Jhiz, On the Zanj, 206.