Spreading of Islam without any violence in Central, East and West Africa as a case study

Maniraj Sukdaven,Ensieh Bagheri

doi:10.4102/hts.v74i3.5136

Abstract

This article studies the violence in the spreading of Islam by conquest and the factors that influenced the development of Islam in Central, East, West and Southeastern Africa. Although the spreading of Islam in these territories had not been done by Islamic conquests, as perpetrated in North Africa and other regions of the Islamic world, the majority of the population in the countries such as Sudan, Chad, Mali, Sierra Leone and Madagascar are Muslims. The results of this article show that the emigrations into these regions had an important role in introducing Islam to the native inhabitants. These emigrations had occurred either freely, through trading by Muslim traders and religious scholars, or forcefully by escaping the political and religious violence perpetrated by Eastern rulers in different areas in Central Africa. In this emigration process, the effect of Islamic scholars, missionaries and Islamic traders together with communication intermediaries among the natives is striking and as the natives became familiar with Islam and Islamic culture, Islam gradually developed after generations of integration between Muslims and native tribes.

Highlights

Islam, as a final divine religion, appeared in the Arabian Peninsula through Mohammad (Peace be upon him) in the second half of the 7th century AD
Islamic conquest had been done as part of Islamic Jihad for the development of Islam in the 7th and 8th centuries, but it would not be true that Islam grew through violence everywhere
Studying the spreading of Islam in Eastern, Central and Western Africa has shown that Islam was introduced by immigrants, who were traders and religious scholars, and mostly Sufis, among the diverse tribes such as Berber, Tuariq, Zang, Hausa and Bulala

Summary

Introduction

As a final divine religion, appeared in the Arabian Peninsula through Mohammad (Peace be upon him) in the second half of the 7th century AD. The Iranian emigrations from Shiraz to Kilwa on the coast of Somalia in the 11th century by the leadership of Hasan Ibn Ali Ibn Soltan Shirazi and the emigration of Nobhani’s families from Oman were the main emigrations to which some of the researchers refer to according to their sources (Khuli 2011:30, 71; Mohanna 1954:29; Sari al Din 1997:77–78; Ibrahim 2000:38; Yunes 1962:66) These emigrations influenced the spreading of Islam in the Horn of Africa and fostered relationships between Muslims and Somalia’s indigenous people and led to the mixing of generations with native inhabitants in Somalia, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Zanzibar and Mozambique resulting in new race groups being created such as Darud and Isak (Hiskett 1994:138). With the emigration of Arab and Muslim travellers and the integration with indigenous people, African-Arabic races were created

Muslim traders

Conclusion