Spread Of Islam In Africa Essay

Islam started to spread in Africa through a number of factors, including external and internal forces. After analyzing the spread of Islam in Africa, there were three main themes that stood out during the expansion of Islam: spread of Islam through trade, through conversions conditions, and the desire of economic growth. These three themes provide great insight on how Islam started to spread throughout Africa. Through trade, culture and the religion of Islam were able to spread to many different areas because of the exposure to Muslim people. Trade correlated to the Islamic conversion since people started to adopt the Islam religion they were encountering through trade. As more people started to convert and Islamic states stated to develop the economy of the states started to advance. Analyzing these three themes will provide information on the expansion of Islam throughout Africa and how Islam influences the development of Africa.
By studying the religion of Islam in Africa, I noticed that the transaction of trade resulted in an exchange of religion. Gilbert and Reynolds stated that "trade brought more than salt …show more content…
In his article he discussed that the tension between the traditional religion and Islam, lead to converts. Those who were against the traditional religion started to adapt to Islam. The force of the jihad movement and its expansion into other territories also lead to expansion of Islam. Hiskette did a great job in analyzing how people convert to Islam under the jihad movement. His information ties into my theme of converting conditions because his work supports the argument that people converted to Islam because of the conditions they were