How ISLAM spread in Africa:

Replying to AkheAbdullah. Yes,and it is amazing how people say he was from Dongola, the capital of the Northern state in Sudan (which currently has 16 states) when the Arabs (as I read somewhere) knew the difference between Abyssinia and Nubia (where this state is located). Nevertheless, please blame them not.

Salams,Salaim2192.Welcome to the forum.Is'nt Bilal (RA)from Ethiopia?Ive read reports that its the second most important countries in Islam.Ramadan Mubarak.

Here's a blurb from a fantastic and informative site (as usual!) from the BBC - in fact, you almost surely find more high quality work on West African Islamic expansion in your local ibraries!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/specials/1624_story_of_africa/page62.shtml



Islam


"The Mohammedan Negro has felt nothing of the withering power of caste. There is nothing in his colour or race to debar him from the highest privileges, social or political, to which any other Muslim can attain." - Edward W. Blyden, Liberian writer and thinker.

According to Arab oral tradition, Islam first came to Africa with Muslim refugees fleeing persecution in the Arab peninsula. This was followed by a military invasion, some seven years after the death of the prophet Mohammed in 639, under the command of the Muslim Arab General, Amr ibn al-Asi. It quickly spread West from Alexandria in North Africa (the Maghreb), reducing the Christians to pockets in Egypt, Nubia and Ethiopia.

Islam came to root along the East African coast some time in the 8th century, as part of a continuing dialogue between the people on the East coast and traders from the Persian Gulf and Oman. Like early Christianity, Islam was monotheistic, that is, Muslims worship only one God.

Islam was a modernising influence, imposing a consistent order among different societies, strengthening powers of government and breaking down ethnic loyalties.

Unlike Christianity, Islam tolerated traditional values, allowing a man to have more than one wife. For many, this made conversion to Islam easier and less upsetting than conversion to Christianity.

In the early centuries of its existence, Islam in Africa had a dynamic and turbulent history, with reforming movements and dynasties clashing and succeeding each other. Gaining power depended on securing trade routes into gold-producing areas in Sub-Saharan Africa. Islamic rulers expanded north as well as south. In the last quarter of the 11th century, Islam dominated the Mediterranean world.

In the 14th century the Black Death came from Europe and seriously undermined the social and economic life of North Africa, or the Maghreb, as it is known. However, Islam remained the dominant religion.

From the 16th to the 19th century, much of the Maghreb was under Ottoman rule. By the 1880s, Islam had taken root in one third of the continent.

http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/CIVAFRCA/ISLAM.HTM