Introduction
Within a single century after Muhammad's death in 632 AD, Islamic armies had conquered territory spanning from Spain to India—an area larger than the Roman Empire at its peak. This expansion was not peaceful, not gradual, and not primarily driven by conversion through preaching. It was achieved through military conquest, characterized by rapid cavalry raids, sieges of Christian cities, forced conversion under threat of death or slavery, and the systematic subjugation of non-Muslim populations.
This article examines the early Islamic conquests (632-732 AD), documenting the violent expansion that established Islam as a dominant political and religious force. Using Islamic historical sources, we'll explore how the religion spread "by the sword" contrary to modern apologetic claims.
Historical Context: The Rashidun Caliphs (632-661 AD)
Following Muhammad's death, the first four "Rightly Guided Caliphs" (Rashidun) launched aggressive military campaigns that transformed Islam from an Arabian religious movement into a vast empire.
Abu Bakr (632-634 AD): Crushing Dissent
Muhammad's immediate successor, Abu Bakr, faced widespread apostasy across Arabia—entire tribes abandoned Islam after Muhammad's death. Abu Bakr's response was swift and brutal: the Ridda Wars (Wars of Apostasy) forcibly reconverted or exterminated Arabian tribes who rejected Islam.
According to early Islamic historian Al-Tabari, Abu Bakr declared: "By Allah, I will fight whoever separates prayer from zakat, for zakat is the right of wealth. By Allah, if they withhold even a she-camel which they used to pay to the Messenger of Allah, I will fight them for it."
The message was clear: leaving Islam meant death. This established the precedent for Islam's expansion—conversion at sword-point, not through persuasion.
Umar ibn al-Khattab (634-644 AD): The Great Conquests Begin
Under Caliph Umar, Islamic armies launched their most devastating campaigns:
- Syria (634-638 AD): Byzantine Christian territories fell after the Battle of Yarmouk (636 AD), where 40,000 Byzantine soldiers were slaughtered
- Jerusalem (638 AD): After a siege, Patriarch Sophronius surrendered Jerusalem to Umar, ending nearly 1,000 years of Christian control
- Persia (633-654 AD): The Sassanid Persian Empire, a Zoroastrian civilization thousands of years old, was destroyed in a series of battles including Qadisiyyah (636 AD) and Nihawand (642 AD)
- Egypt (639-642 AD): Byzantine Egypt fell to Muslim general Amr ibn al-As, ending Coptic Christian dominance
These were not defensive wars. Islamic sources openly describe them as offensive jihad—warfare to expand Islamic territory and compel submission to Allah.
Uthman ibn Affan (644-656 AD): Consolidating Power
The third caliph continued expansion into North Africa, Armenia, and deeper into Persia. Uthman standardized the Quran, burning alternate versions—centralizing Islamic authority through both military and theological control.
Ali ibn Abi Talib (656-661 AD): Civil War
Ali's caliphate was marked by the First Fitna (Islamic Civil War), demonstrating that Islamic violence wasn't merely external but internal—Muslims killing Muslims for political and religious supremacy.
The Umayyad Dynasty (661-750 AD): Empire Expansion
The Umayyad caliphs continued the pattern of violent expansion established under the Rashidun:
North Africa (670-709 AD)
Islamic armies conquered Byzantine North Africa, destroying Christian Berber kingdoms. The indigenous Christian and pagan populations faced three choices codified in Islamic law: convert to Islam, pay the jizya (humiliating tax), or die.
Historian Hugh Kennedy documents how Berber resistance was crushed through systematic warfare, enslavement, and forced conversion.
Spain (711-732 AD)
In 711 AD, Berber general Tariq ibn Ziyad crossed into Spain, conquering the Visigothic Christian kingdom in just seven years. Islamic sources celebrate this as a great victory of Islam over Christianity.
The Muslim advance into Europe was only stopped at the Battle of Tours (732 AD) by Charles Martel's Frankish army. Had Tours been lost, all of Europe might have fallen to Islamic conquest.
Expansion into Central Asia and India (700-750 AD)
Muslim armies pushed east, conquering Transoxiana (Central Asia) and beginning incursions into India. These campaigns were characterized by brutal warfare, temple destruction, and mass enslavement of non-Muslims.
What Islamic Sources Say
Early Islamic historians, writing closer to the events than later apologists, openly described these conquests as aggressive warfare:
Primary Source Evidence
- Al-Tabari (839-923 AD): His multi-volume "History of the Prophets and Kings" details the military campaigns, including massacres, enslavement, and forced conversions
- Al-Baladhuri (d. 892 AD): "Kitab Futuh al-Buldan" (Book of the Conquests of Lands) explicitly describes Islamic expansion as military conquest, not peaceful preaching
- Ibn Ishaq (d. 767 AD): The earliest biography of Muhammad describes the prophet's own military raids and his command to "fight the polytheists"
Quranic Justification
The Quran itself provides theological justification for offensive jihad:
- Quran 9:29: "Fight those who do not believe in Allah or in the Last Day and who do not consider unlawful what Allah and His Messenger have made unlawful and who do not adopt the religion of truth from those who were given the Scripture - [fight] until they give the jizyah willingly while they are humbled."
- Quran 8:39: "And fight them until there is no fitnah and [until] the religion, all of it, is for Allah."
- Quran 9:5: "And when the sacred months have passed, then kill the polytheists wherever you find them and capture them and besiege them and sit in wait for them at every place of ambush."
These verses were understood by early Muslims as commands to wage war until Islam dominated. Modern attempts to contextualize them away cannot erase 1,400 years of Islamic jurisprudence that interpreted them as mandating offensive jihad.
The Methods of Conquest
1. Cavalry Raids and Swift Warfare
Islamic armies excelled at rapid cavalry attacks, overwhelming sedentary Byzantine and Persian forces. Mobility, combined with religious zeal promising paradise for martyrdom, made Muslim warriors formidable.
2. Slavery and Plunder
Islamic law permitted enslavement of conquered populations. Women and children were taken as slaves, men were given the choice of conversion, slavery, or death. The promise of war booty motivated soldiers—the Quran explicitly permits Muslims to keep enslaved women as sex slaves (Quran 4:24, 23:6).
3. Dhimmi Status: Legal Apartheid
Non-Muslims who submitted were designated "dhimmis"—second-class subjects required to:
- Pay the jizya (humiliating tax)
- Accept legal inferiority (testimony worth less in court, inheritance restrictions)
- Wear distinctive clothing identifying them as non-Muslims
- Refrain from building new churches or temples
- Accept public humiliation (struck during tax collection, according to some interpretations of Quran 9:29)
This system, codified in the Pact of Umar, created legal apartheid designed to incentivize conversion to Islam.
Problems and Contradictions
The Myth of "No Compulsion in Religion"
Modern Muslims frequently cite Quran 2:256—"There is no compulsion in religion"—to argue Islam spread peacefully. Yet this contradicts:
- The Ridda Wars, where apostates were killed for leaving Islam
- The jizya system, which financially coerced conversion
- The death penalty for apostasy, affirmed in Sahih Hadith
- The historical record of conquest, documented by Islamic sources themselves
Islamic scholars reconcile this through abrogation—later verses (like 9:29) supersede earlier ones (like 2:256). The "no compulsion" verse applied when Muslims were weak; the jihad verses applied after Islam gained power.
Implications
- Islam's political nature: Unlike Christianity, which separated spiritual and political authority, Islam from its inception was a political-military-religious system. Muhammad was prophet, general, and political leader—a model his successors followed
- Violence as doctrine, not deviation: The early conquests weren't aberrations from "true Islam" but faithful applications of Quranic commands and prophetic example
- Forced conversion was systematic: The combination of military conquest, dhimmi humiliation, apostasy laws, and jizya taxation created a comprehensive system compelling conversion to Islam
Muslim Responses
When confronted with this history, Muslim apologists typically offer several responses:
- "Those were defensive wars": Yet Islamic sources explicitly describe them as offensive conquests. Invading Spain, Persia, and India cannot be framed as "defensive"
- "Christians and others did it too": While true that medieval warfare was brutal, this doesn't address Islam's theological justification for conquest. Christianity's conquests contradicted Jesus's teachings; Islam's conquests fulfilled Muhammad's commands
- "Most converted voluntarily": When the choice is convert, pay humiliating tax, or die, "voluntary" becomes meaningless
- "Islam brought civilization": Many conquered territories (Egypt, Persia, Syria) were already highly civilized. Islamic rule often destroyed existing achievements—Persia's Zoroastrian civilization, for instance, was annihilated
Christian Perspective
The contrast between Christianity's and Islam's origins is stark. Jesus commanded, "Love your enemies" (Matthew 5:44) and told Peter, "Put your sword away" (John 18:11). Christianity spread through martyrdom—Christians died for their faith, they didn't kill for it.
When Christianity later engaged in violence (Crusades, Inquisition), these actions contradicted Jesus's teachings. When Islam engaged in conquest, it fulfilled Muhammad's example and the Quran's commands.
The Crusades: A Response, Not Initiation
The Crusades (1095-1291 AD) are often portrayed as Christian aggression. In reality, they were a delayed defensive response to 400+ years of Islamic conquest. When Pope Urban II called the First Crusade in 1095, he was responding to Byzantine Emperor Alexios I's plea for help against Muslim invasions.
As historian Thomas Madden writes: "The Crusades were a response to more than four centuries of Islamic aggression into Christian territories."
Questions to Consider
- If Islam spread through peaceful preaching, why do Islamic sources themselves describe military conquest as the primary method?
- How can Muslims claim "no compulsion in religion" when Islamic law mandates death for apostasy and implemented systematic legal discrimination against non-Muslims?
- What does it say about Islam that its greatest expansion occurred through warfare, not persuasion?
- If Islamic conquests were "defensive," how does one defend against Spain, Persia, India, and North Africa—territories that never threatened Arabia?
- Why do Muslims celebrate the early conquests as Islamic victories if they're uncomfortable acknowledging their violent nature?
Conclusion
The early Islamic conquests reveal Islam's fundamental character: a political-military-religious system that expanded through warfare, conquest, and coercion. Within one century, Islamic armies had subjugated vast Christian and Zoroastrian civilizations, implementing legal systems that compelled conversion through violence, taxation, and humiliation.
This is not anti-Islamic polemic but historical fact, documented in Islam's own sources. Al-Tabari, Al-Baladhuri, and other early Muslim historians openly celebrated these conquests. Only modern apologists, uncomfortable with this history, attempt to reframe conquest as "defense" and coercion as "voluntary conversion."
Understanding this history is crucial for assessing Islam's claims. A religion established and expanded primarily through military conquest cannot credibly claim to be a "religion of peace." The early caliphs understood Islam correctly—as a mandate to bring the world under Islamic rule through jihad. Their success created the Islamic world we see today, shaped fundamentally by the sword.
For those who value religious freedom, historical honesty demands acknowledging that Islam's rapid expansion was achieved not through the compelling power of its message but through the compelling power of its armies.
Related articles: The Crusades as Defensive Response, Jihad in Islamic Law, Muhammad as Military Leader, Dhimmi Status in Islamic History