1 USA2 UK3 MALAYSIA & INDONESIA4 FRANCE5 AUSTRALIA6 RUSSIA7 CHINA8 INDIA9 AFRICA10 GULF REGIONMore …

Advent of ISLAM IN 10 BIG COUNTRIES

1. ISLAM IN USA

• Estevanico of Azamor may have been the first Muslim to enter the historical record in North America.

• Estevanico came to the Americas as a slave of the 16th-century Spanish explorer Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca.

• After joining the ill-fated Narváez expedition in 1527, Cabeza de Vaca and Estevanico were captured and enslaved by Indians, escaping to make an arduous journey along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico.

• Muslims Discovered America Before Columbus• Columbus discovered US with Al-Idrisi’s MAP• Spain Muslims around 4th hijri discovered US earlier than Columbus.

• http://www.grandestrategy.com/2008/01/islam-in-usa.html• http://mathaba.net/news/?x=66517?disqus• http://www.fountainmagazine.com/Issue/detail/Islam-and-Muslims-in-America-before-Columbus

overview map from al-Idrisi's 1154 world atlas.

2. ISLAM IN UK The first recorded Englishman to become a Muslim was John Nelson, who converted to Islam at some point in the 16th Century.

An early example would be the decision of Offa, the eighth-century King of Mercia (one of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms existing at that time), to have a coin minted with an Islamic inscription - largely a copy of coins issued by the contemporary Muslim ruler, Caliph Al-Mansur. (Gold imitation dinar of Offa, British Museum)

• http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/islam/history/uk_1.shtml• http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/

highlight_objects/cm/g/gold_imitation_dinar_of_offa.aspx• http://www.webislam.com/articles/75676-

the_advent_of_islam_in_britain.html

3. ISLAM IN MALAYSIA

• Individual Arab traders and including Sahabas preached in Malay Archipelago, Indo-Chin and China in early seventh century. The Islamic peoples Chams of Cambodia trace their origin to Jahsh (Geys), the father of Zainab and thus one of the fathers-in-law of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Islam was introduced in Sumatra coast by Arabs in 674 CE.

• Islam was also brought to Malaysia by Indian Muslim traders in the 12th century AD. It is commonly held that Islam first arrived in Malay peninsular since Sultan Mudzafar Shah I (12th century) of Kedah (Hindu name Phra Ong Mahawangsa), the first ruler to be known to convert to Islam.

• The religion was adopted peacefully by the coastal trading ports people of Malaysia and Indonesia, absorbing rather than conquering existing beliefs. By the 15th and 16th centuries it was the majority faith of the Malay people.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_in_Malaysia#cite_note-12

ISLAM IN INDONESIA

• The first Indonesians to adopt Islam are thought to have done so as early as the eleventh century, although Muslims had visited Indonesia early in the Muslim era.

• The spread of Islam was driven by increasing trade links outside of the archipelago; in general, traders and the royalty of major kingdoms were the first to adopt the new religion.

• Dominant kingdoms included Mataram in Central Java, and the sultanates of Ternate and Tidore in the Maluku Islands to the east.

• By the end of the thirteenth century, Islam had been established in North Sumatra; by the fourteenth in northeast Malaya, Brunei, the southern Philippines and among some courtiers of East Java; and the fifteenth in Malacca and other areas of the Malay Peninsula.

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spread_of_Islam_in_Indonesia• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_missionary_activity

4. ISLAM IN FRANCE

• After the conquest of Spain Muslim forces also pushed into southern France but were turned back at the Battle of Tours in 732.

• In the 9th century Muslim forces conquered several bases in southern France like Fraxinet "International Journal of Middle East Studies", pages 59-79, Vol. 12, No. 1. Middle East Studies Association of North America, 1980. )

• During the winter of 1543-1544, after the siege of Nice, Toulon was used as an Ottoman naval base under admiral Barbarossa.

• To facilitate the Turkish crews, the Christian population had been evacuated and the Toulon Cathedral was converted into a mosque.

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_in_France

5. ISLAM IN AUSTRALIA

• Islam touched  Australian soil long before British settlement in 1788, when Muslim fishermen from Makassar (today, a part of Indonesia) reached the shores of North-Western Australia. Some of them died en route to Australia and had to be buried according to the Islamic burial regulations, facing Mecca, in Australia.

• The first Masjid was built in Marree, South Australia in 1861.

• According to the latest figures, Australia is home to more than 475,000 Muslims.

http://muslim-academy.com/islam-in-australia/

6. ISLAM IN RUSSIA

• The first Muslims within current Russian territory were the Dagestani people (region of Derbent) after the Arab conquests in the 8th century. ( Shireen Tahmasseb Hunter, Jeffrey L. Thomas, Alexander Melikishvili, "Islam in Russia", M.E. Sharpe, Apr 1, 2004, ISBN 0-7656-1282-8 )

• The first Muslim state in Russia was Volga Bulgaria (922).

• The Tatars inherited the religion from that state. Later most of the European and Caucasian Turkic peoples also became followers of Islam.

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_in_Europe• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_in_Russia

7 .ISLAM IN CHINA

• Islam began in China during the Caliphate of Uthman ibn Affan, the third Caliph of Islam.

• The Caliph sent a deputation to China in 29 AH (650 CE, eighteen years after the death of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).

• The delegation was headed by Sa'ad ibn Waqqas a maternal uncle of the Prophet. Sa'ad Ibn Waaqas invited the Chinese Emperor (Yung-Wei) to embrace Islam.

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Islam_in_China#cite_note-1• http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/islam/history/china_1.shtml

8. Islam in India

The First Indian to accept Islam• Cheraman Perumal, (Tajuddin. r.a)  king of india-Kodungallur,  in

district of Thrissur,Kerala (AD 622-628. Hijra 1-7) was the first Indian to accept Islam. Many historians have recorded this fact in their writings. Kerala is a state of India. 

• Cheraman perumal is recorded to have seen the moon split. The incident is documented Hamidulla writes in "Muhammad Rasoolullah  in a manuscript kept at the India Office Library, London, reference number: Arabic, 2807, 152-173

• More important is the fact that it is the world's second oldest Juma mosque, where the Juma (Friday) prayers have been held for the last 1377 years, since the days of Prophet Mohammed (570-634 A.D.). The first Juma mosque in the world is the Prophet's Mosque in Madinah, which is also his memorial tomb.

http://www.mohdiqbal.webs.com/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malik_Deenar• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malik_Bin_Deenar

• In Malabar, the Mappilas may have been the first community to convert to Islam because they were more closely connected with the Arabs than others.

• In the 8th century, the province of Sindh (in present day Pakistan) was conquered by an Arab army led by Muhammad bin Qasim. Sindh became the easternmost province of the Umayyad Caliphate.

• Muhammad bin Qasim Al-Thaqafi ( قاسم بن c. 31 December 695–18 July) (محمد715) was an Umayyad general who, at the age of 29, began the conquest of the Sindh and Punjab regions along the Indus River (now a part of Pakistan) for the Umayyad Caliphate. He was born & raised in the city of Taif (in modern day Saudi Arabia). Qasim's conquest of Sindh and Punjab laid the foundations of Islamic rule in the Indian subcontinent.

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_bin_Qasim• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_India

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cheraman_jumamasjid.JPG; http://www.lemauricien.com/article/islam-india-cheramun-juma-masjid-kerala

India's first masjid in Kerala

9 ISLAM IN AFRICAThe presence of Islam in Africa can be traced to the seventh century.

• In 670 an Arab Muslim army under Uqba ibn Nafi, who had commanded an earlier incursion in 666, entered the region of Ifriqiya (a newly-coined Arabic word for the prior Roman Province of Africa). Under the Caliph 'Abd al-Malik (685-705), ruling from Damascus, the Umayyad conquest of North Africa.

• Horn of Africa• The victory of the Muslims over the Quraysh in the 7th century had a significant impact on local

merchants and sailors, as their trading partners in Arabia had then all adopted Islam and the major trading routes in the Mediterranean and the Red Sea came under the sway of the Muslim Caliphs.

• East Africa• Arabs founded permanent colonies on the offshore islands, especially on Zanzibar, in the 9th and

10th century. From there Arab trade routes into the interior of Africa helped the slow acceptance of Islam.

• Western Africa• The spread of Islam in Africa began in the 7th to 9th century, brought to North Africa initially under the

Umayyad Dynasty.

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spread_of_Islam• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_early_Islamic_Tunisia

9 ISLAM IN GULF REGION

• The seventh century saw the introduction of Islam in the Arabian Peninsula. The Islamic prophet Muhammad established a new unified polity in the Arabian peninsula which under the subsequent Rashidun and Umayyad Caliphates saw a century of rapid expansion of Arab power well beyond the Arabian peninsula in the form of a vast Muslim Arab Empire with an area of influence that stretched from the northwest Indian subcontinent, across Central Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, southern Italy, and the Iberian Peninsula, to the Pyrenees.

• The provincial Ottoman Army for Arabia (Arabistan Ordusu) was headquartered in Syria, which included Lebanon, Palestine, and the Transjordan region. It was put in charge of Syria, Cilicia, Iraq, and the remainder of the Arabian Peninsula

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabian_Peninsula

ISLAM IN EUROPE• Islam came to Europe in various ways, including through conquest. New research has

uncovered a Böszörmény Muslim community in 12th century Hungary with roots in Muslim merchants in commerce with Asia over the Silk Road. Significant communities of Muslim Lipka Tatars lived throughout the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, worshiping in small wooden Mosques and playing a key role in the history of Poland and Lithuania.

• In 824 CE, Byzantine Crete fell to Arabs, who established an emirate on the island, which lasted until 960, when Nikephoros Phokas reconquered Crete for the Byzantines.

• The Mongols began their conquest of Rus', Volga Bulgaria, and the Cuman-Kipchak Confederation (present day Russia and Ukraine) in the 13th century. After the Mongol empire split, the eastern European section became known as the Golden Horde. Despite the fact that they were not Muslim at the time, the western Mongols adopted Islam as their religion in the early 14th century under Berke Khan, and later Uzbeg Khan who established it as the official religion of the state.

• The Ottoman Empire began its expansion into Europe by taking the European portions of the Byzantine Empire in the 14th-15th centuries up until the 1453 capture of Constantinople, establishing Islam as the state religion in the region. The Ottoman Empire continued to stretch northwards, taking Hungary in the 16th century, and reaching as far north as the Podolia in the mid-17th century (Peace of Buczacz), by which time most of the Balkans was under Ottoman control.

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_in_Europe

LATEST RESEARCH ABOUT ISLAM

1. "Islam is the fastest-growing religion in America, a guide and pillar of stability for many of our people..." Hillary Rodman Clinton, Los Angeles Times, May 31, 1996, p.32. Islam is the fastest-growing religion in the United States..." New York Times, Feb 21, 1989, p.1 and 3. Johan Blank, US News, 20 July, 18.3. Islam is the fastest-growing religion in the United States..." Elsa C. Arnett, Knight-Ridder News Service

According to the Guinness Book of World Records, Islam is the world’s fastest-growing religion by number of conversions each year. According to the BBC, a comprehensive American study concluded in 2009 the number stood at 1 in 4 with 60% of Muslims spread all over the Asian continent.

http://www.grandestrategy.com/2008/01/islam-in-usa.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claims_to_be_the_fastest-growing_religion

Prepared by Da’ee FaheemEmail: fahim_dawah@yahoo.com