Islam in North Africa
Introduction
Today, Islam is one of the most practiced religions in the entire world, second
only to Christianity. This is a surprising fact considering that Islam has not been around
nearly as long as most other religions. When Islam first came about and gained
popularity, it was single most dramatic cultural change in history. Throughout the span of
about one hundred years, Islam spread all throughout the Mediterranean and the Eastern
world. The following is dedicated to Islam’s spread to North Africa during the seventh
and eighth centuries.
The Spread of Islam
During the life of Muhammad, Islam had already started to spread into nearby
Africa. As Muhammad gained followers, he was persecuted by the native Meccans, more
and more for his beliefs. In 615 CE, the oppression became so great that he told eighty of
his followers to go to Abyssinia (now Ethiopia) where Polytheism was shunned (U
Calgary). The Meccans wanted the Muslims back, but the Ethiopian king, Negus,
protected them from their enemy, because they believed in the one true God.
The First Caliph
The spread of Islam was
not really substantial, however,
until 632 CE When Abu Bakr
became the first caliphate of
Islam. Bakr encouraged the Jihad
(holy war) to spread belief in
Islam. In 637 CE, under the
reign of the second Caliph,
Umar, the conquest of Northern
Africa truly began, Africa was in
complete disarray. Its native
Berbers, who spoke Latin, were
being ruled by far off Constantinople. Because of the problems the Africans had been
having with the Pope, Exarch Gregory proclaimed himself emperor, rebelling against
Constantinople. He and the Pope, Saint Martin I, had a great dispute, primarily over
Monothelitism. Gregory promoted the belief, while the Pope declared it heresy.
Monothelitism was the belief that Jesus had divine will, but no human will; it denied
Jesus’ full human existence. (Spiritual Cornerstones)The Berbers were disorganized and
without military power, and it did not take long for the Muslims to conquer north eastern
Africa. "In Egypt, the native Copts were instructed by their bishop in Alexandria to offer
no resistance to the Arab Muslims..." (Doi).
When Amir, the head of
the Islamic army, had control of
Egypt, he built a city, and named
it al-Fustat (Old Cairo). Amir
built a small mosque there in 641,
the first to be used in Egypt (Doi).
In 643 the Muslims took Tripoli,
working their way along the coast
of Africa.
Muslim Rule
The Muslims imposed the Jizya
tax which applied to all non-
Muslims. The Muslims were
greatly outnumbered by non-
Muslims, and not wanting to
trigger a revolt the Muslims did
not try to convert everyone.
Some of the Berbers converted
to avoid the tax. It helped the
Muslims greatly however that
not everyone converted,
because the Jizya gave the
Muslims the needed monetary
support (U Calgary). They built
more mosques and Madrasahs
(Islamic Schools) with these
funds, and also for other
matters of the state. The rule of
the third Caliph (Uthman) there
was little further conquest of
northern Africa. In 647 there
were numerous raids of the
Byzantines, but no new land
was acquired by the Muslims.
In 670 Uqabah founded a permanent camp at Kairawan. Ten years after that he
made a march from that camp conquering Tangier and Morraco, and all of North Africa.
Legend says that when he reached the Atlantic it is said that he took his horse into the
waves and said "Great God, if my advance were not stopped by this sea, I would still go
on to the unknown kingdoms of the West , preaching the Unity of Thy Holy Name
(Doi)." After Uqabah’s march Muslim influence quickly swept through the area. The
Byzantines fled Carthage in 698 CE, and after a failed revolt led by Deborah, which
ended by her telling her son to convert to Islam on her death bed, the entire region was
primarily Muslim (Doi).
What Islam Brought
Islam brought many new
things with it. The first was religious
order. Much of Africa was already in
favor of monotheism because of
Christianity and because of Heraclius,
an influential man who tried to
promote various forms of
monotheism, including
Monothelitism, that were proclaimed
heresy by the Pope. Once North
Africa was conquered by the Muslims, the new religion, Islam, settled in smoothly and
rapidly. Islam also brought two more very important things: a common language, and
literacy. Many Africans, including the Kushites and the Nubians, had a history of writing
systems, but none of them had spread throughout Northern Africa. At the time, Arabic
was the African language of text. But once Islam spread, this gradually began to change.
Africans started using Arabic to write their own languages. Even today, Arabic script is
quite common among African languages (Hooker).
The use of a written language was accompanied by a higher level of education
throughout Northern Africa. All of North Africa was united under one common language,
making it much easier to raise the level of education. Many schools and institutions were
built, among them what was considered at the time the best university in the world,
located in Timbuktu.
Conclusion
As one can see, the
conversion of North Africa to the
Islam religion was quite a dramatic
change of culture in the seventh and
eighth centuries. The natives
accepted the religion well, and
multitude after multitude of people converted. In fact, more than ninety percent of the
population of North Africa was Muslim by the end of the seventeenth century; and the
majority of the last ten percent of the people followed Sunni Islam, a different sect of
Islam (Law Emory.edu). The spread of Islam to North Africa was a successful and
effective campaign. Islam today would not be what it is if it were not for the conversion
of North Africa into Islam in the seventh and eighth century.
Bibliography
By Daniel Leventhal and Ed Mestre
Last edited 9/29/00 at 12:44PM