Islam mainly spread through military conquest when Muslims conquered new territories throughout the world and established their rules and order there. Furthermore, trade, missionaries, migration, intermarriage, and pilgrimage also contributed to the rise and spread of Islam over the world.
Islam is a dominant religion that covers millions of people from various world countries. However, it used to be a religion of the Arabian Peninsula before the 7th century AD. It was in 632 when Muhammad died, which resulted in the first caliphates. Their leaders wanted to expand their culture and control to new territories, and they initiated numerous wars.
Thus, the death of Muhammad was one of the main reasons for the spread of Islam in the future. Many want to find an answer to the following question: how did Islam spread to Africa? The Umayyad caliphs contributed significantly to the spread of this religion. It was so because they managed to conquer essential territories, including Spain, North Africa, and India. Further ruling dynasties tried to secure their control over these areas. Thus, the sword was the leading force that moved the religion to other lands.
When considering what factors contributed to the rapid spread of Islam, one should also draw attention to peaceful means. The conquests were necessary to impose the religion to some peoples at the initial stages. However, once Islam was established throughout the world, the Muslims utilized non-violent measures to preserve the status of Islam over those areas and contribute to its further and moderate growth. These measures included trade, intermarriage, migration, and others that allowed the religion to become stronger in various countries.
How did Islam spread through trade to different parts of the world? Historical evidence proves that merchants played an essential role in the distribution of the given religion. Muslim traders traveled across the globe to both sell their goods and present their culture and beliefs to representatives of various peoples. The merchants covered such territories as Indonesia, China, Southeast Asia, and Eastern Europe.
As has been mentioned, intermarriage was another way to distribute the given religion. Marriages between Muslims and non-Muslims were traditional in different epochs. On the one hand, these unions were usually created to achieve an appropriate goal. For example, representatives of different nations could marry each other to establish peace between the two peoples. On the other hand, the intermarriages were explicitly essential for Muslims because they wanted to make their religion spread over the world.
How did Islam spread throughout the world with the help of migration? It is impossible to overestimate the meaning of both forced and voluntary migration for the development of this religion in various world countries. It did not matter whether Muslims moved to another country to save their lives or to find better living conditions; they brought their traditions and culture to the new lands. As a result, the immigrants created islands of Islam in various countries. In addition to that, they could even attract the local population to follow this religion.
The information above explains the reasons for the rise of the given religion, but the following question then arises: how did Islam spread so quickly and massively? One can explain this situation with the fact that numerous factors contributed to the distribution of the religion, and their combination results in this significant outcome.