There was a time when Syria, Iraq, and Egypt were predominantly Christian nations. Little known fact: the first Christian monastery was founded near Memphis in Egypt in 305 A.D., not in Europe as is so often believed.
By the year 632 A.D., the empirical structures that protected Christian communites all around the mid-east were beginning to crumble due to political strife and infighting among various denominations on doctrinal issues. The addage that Christ Himself gave to His followers that "they will know you by your love for one another" had been lost in the muck and mire of the very traditionalism that Jesus had been so vocal against. The time was ripe for something big to happen, and it did.
Muhammed was born about 570 A.D. He was the son of a poor merchant and his family lived in the city of Mecca. He was orphaned the too-young age of six and was raised on the streets. It is even likely that at some point in his young life, he was in the tutorage of a Christian Monk by the name of Sergius Bahira. He began his public preaching in about 616 with a message of an end to idolatry and charity to the poor. The religious leaders of the day (who were mixed between Christians and various polytheisms) attempted to blockade him in his house and starve him to death for his efforts. When unsuccessful, an assassination was attempted and failed. The persecution caused Muhammed to flee his hometown for Medina.
By now, he had acquired more than a few followers. It was with this ragtag bunch that Muhammed began his military campaigns against his persecutors. The force was organized into raiding parties and practiced small-scale guerrilla warfare against the city of Mecca.
As his forces increased with new converts to the faith, they grew more bold, eventually taking Mecca in the year 629. He made it the religious center of Islam and gave the all the Arabs four months to convert willingly or else. At his death in 632 A.D., Muhammed's new religion controlled all of Arabia, which consisted of the modern-day countries of Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Yeman, and Oman.
Islam was kept going after Muhammed's death by his appointed successor, Abu Bakr, who continued the militancy of the now-powerful philosophy by embarking on campaigns against the Persians and the Romans. As they successfully won victories in city after city, the Muslims implemented the most briliant re-education strategy the world has ever seen.
The Jizya was a tax that the conquering Muslims imposed on Christians and Jews who refused to be converted. In return for protection and the tolerance of their repective religions, the conquered peoples paid the tax, which varied in amount, and also had to follow certain rules. Jews and Christians could "enter no intrigue, build no new churches, could not publicly sound church bells, show the cross in public, own a horse, attempt to convert a Muslim, marry an Islamic woman, never speak ill of the Koran or baptise their children in Christianity or Judaism." They also had to help any Moslems who had lost their way and repair roads and bridges. Why was this so revolutionary? Let the stats speak for themselves.
Under Omar, the second Caliph who ruled from 634 to 644, the jizya tax was bringing in 120 million dirhams per year. By 685, the amount had dwindled to 40 million. Within 50 years, two-thirds of the population converted to Islam. Many of the remainder apostasized by the early eight century. The entire middle-east had ceased to be Christian and the revenues from the first-ever "religion-tax" built the Dome of the Rock constructed on the very site of Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem.
Christianity was built on the blood of the martyrs. It's King, Jesus Christ, set the example of self-denial to be carried on by His followers. A Roman Governor once remarked that "for every Christian we kill, ten more spring up". The power of the faith was in its humility, its willingness to die. As it turned out, this strategy could not be beaten by raw carnage.
Islam took a different route eradicating the Christian faith than the insane Caesars that preceeded it. They gave the conquered an easier choice. You can still practice your faith, pay the tax, follow the rules and we'll leave you alone. No ultimatum of "RECANT OR DIE" was given. This would have played directly into the strength of Christian Ideology.
Certianly the Muslims had their fair share of atrocities and massacres. War is never pretty. But the bottom line is this. Islam was forged in battle, but it was made plausible and powerful through skillful manipulation of the conquered.
BTJ
