freediver wrote on Oct 15
th, 2017 at 2:56pm:
In only 130 years, the Muslims captured the largest land empire that had ever existed.
http://www.ozpolitic.com/images/Map_of_expansion_of_Caliphate.pnghttp://www.ozpolitic.com/wiki/index.php?title=Islamic_Incest_Ratchet#Rates_of_in...Muslims often insist this was entirely done in self defense and people "welcoming the Muslims with open arms".
Not only was it the largest land empire that had ever existed, the lands captured had, since the dawn of agricultural civilisation about 10000 years ago, always been the wealthiest on earth. A few centuries later, Chinese civilisation overtook the west as the wealthiest place on earth for the first time in history. Now, with the exception of Spain (where the Muslims were driven out) these lands are among the poorest, most brutal and most oppressive on earth. Islam is such a powerful force of degradation that it reversed what had for 10 millennia been an unassailable civilisational lead. The reversal was so dramatic that people no longer even associate Muslim lands with western civilisation. Islam is a gaping black hole in the history of human development.
You're missing a key factor in this expansion - control of the Silk Road. For a good part of history, Arabs and Persians protected traders along this route, thus mediating European and Asian trade.
It was taxation that allowed them to expand. Muslims found out that converting traders was not the way to do it. Rather, let them believe what they want and tax them in return for refuge. This ended up working far better than forced conversions.
You'll note this advice in Chapter 9 of the Koran, verses 6 & 7, I believe. You know this chapter well, FD.
Until the European Age of Exploration, Chinese trade with Europe was facilitated by Muslims, as every schoolboy knows. This allowed them to prosper and expand.