Spread+of+Islam+from+Arabia+to+North+Africa

media type="custom" key="7391673" Islam spread to North Africa after the Prophet Muhammad's death when the caliphs took over and started to spread the religion and the message spread quickly because the idea of equality was appealing which the region offered. Islam spread to North Africa by the mid-seventh century A.D which is after the Prophet Muhammad moved his followers from Mecca to Medina. The first to convert were the Sudanese merchants then came a few rulers. Egypt was one of the first African country to be influenced by Islam. Egypt was a "gateway" for Islam to spread to other parts of Africa. [] [] [] The image above shows the spread of Africa during the different time periods. Acccording to this map you can see that the spread of Islam to North Africa started in the seventh century. The spread of Islam to North Africa was before the spread to to any other part. North Africa was the gateway for Islam to spread to other parts of Africa.
 * How did Islam spread?**

Mecca was a major trading spot as well as a holy city where merchants and people could come to buy goods and occasionally even share ideas. Muslim merchants traveled and along with them were their ideas of Islam which could of transfered, therefore in addition to trading goods they were also exchanging knowledge and beliefs. As well as people travelled to Egpyt, to the Mediterrean civilizations in Fez, in Tripoli in order to access the gold and heavy minerals they could recieve from the opened area into the northern african civilizations. Cities and centers of religion and trade arose in North Africa. Buildings were being built as well as cities with governments. The population grew larger and trade became more important. The Islamic belief was monotheistic and only believed in one God therefore statues of any other gods were shunned upon. Any god beside Allah was against the Islamic belief. In North Africa architecture focused on vusual arts, which included mosques built of mud in Djenne' and Mopti in Mali. Egypt, north African civilization, had architecture such as Sphinx and Pyramids. [] This mosques shows that they were built of mud but yet its fancy which shows that religion was held at a high standard. It mixed ideas of the Muslim religion with the African traditions, while they enjoyed the belief of equality they incorporated the belief of one higher god. Since the leaders adapted the idea of Islam, people tend to adapt it also. For example non- Muslim had to pay extra taxes so more people would convert to Muslim.
 * Growth and trade in the Islamic world**
 * Urbanization and Islam**
 * Architecture**
 * Syncretism**
 * Reactions**

The words Islam and spread as well as North Africa are the largest due to the fact that the wordle is talking about the spread of Islam to North Africa. The words merchant and people are slightly not as large but still pretty big because the spread of Islam to North Africa was spreaded with the help of people and merchants, which shows their importances. One word that is small and show be larger is the word gateway because North Africa was a gateway of Islam to spread to the rest of Africa.