Early Muslims Travels for Religious Reasons

Compared to christian faith, the swiftness and entirety of Islam’s development through the Middle East and beyond was nothing short of breathtaking (Mashita et al. 22). Although the attractive nature of Muhammad’s message, his individual personality, martial mastermind as well as his capability to entice Arab supporters in comprehensive devoutness to himself were the introductory powers that established Islam, and amalgamated Arabian communities under its banner, there were numerous other aspects at played in its phenomenonal achievement (Mashita et al. 27).

By the time Muslim militaries bursted through the Arab frontline, with their pre-Islamic principles influencing them to a distinctive kind of spirit and personality confidence, they journeyed swiftly and plundered enormous parts in short periods of time (Mashita et al.  37). The individuals largely acknowledged the Islamic belief without being enforced to transform, not like the Christian or Jewish evangelists. Powerful empires such as Egypt, Persia and the Ottomans, constructed their fundamentals on Islamic philosophies, therefore robust leaders were capable of leading dominant militaries in the name of spreading the belief (Mashita et al. 45).

Additionally,trade and tourism paths running through the core of Islamic region permitted Islamic believers to move across diverse zones resulting to their robust development and success, hence supporting the Islamic social and fighting machineries. Trade also permitted Islamic inspiration and philosophies to drift between Asia in the east and Africa in the south and west (Mashita et al. 72).

Moreover, travel was agreeably reinvigorated by the Prophet Muhammad who amid other things saw it as an important approach to pursue knowledge (Donzel et al. 34). The revolution of the ancient Arabian Islamic nation into an enormous territory from the seventh century encouraged long-distance relocation and settlement far outside the Peninsula (Sayeed 103). Resulting managerial and marketable development obligated communication, augmented the distance of the travellers’ expedition and remunerated the adventure dealer (Donzel et al. 43).

Also, travel by individuals affiliated with Islamicbeleifs extended over the entire region of the Islamic sphere, reaching into the inactive civilizations of China, Indonesia as well as the Sub-Saharan Africa (Donzel et al.51). Males voyaged in the sphere comprehensively at times being escorted by their companions, other lineages or slaves. Besides, there were females who journeyed on their own (Donzel et al. 55).

Islamic believers also journeyed for commerce, household motives as well as to visit sacred places. They were continuously a marginal group among the travelers, and not all travel was deliberate. Nevertheless, because Arabs traditionally had a practice of exchange and trade, the Muslims sustained that custom (Donzel et al. 67). It was due to their dominance in direction finding, shipbuilding, astrophysics and methodical gauging procedures that Arab and Muslim business and trade industrialized and extended to so many individuals all over the sphere (Donzel et al. 73). The Arabs were at the junctions of the prehistoric trade paths from the Mediterranean, the Arabian Gulf, East Africa and the Indian subcontinent all the way to China.

In general, Islam ascended in a civilization where travel was a daily occurrence (Donzel et al. 134). Movements of Arabian communities, involvement in long-distance trade between the Indian ocean and the Mediterranean, steady fairs in western Arabia and the yearly pagan pilgrimage to Mecca all summoned or even demanded that males and females in the Arabian headland trip away from home to make sure that they attended to the circumstances (Donzel et al. 154). Therefore, the paper can conclude based on the stipulated factors that the ancient Muslims did not travel exclusively for religious aspects.

Works cited

Donzel, E. J. van, Andrea B Schmidt, and Claudia Ott. Gog And Magog In Early Eastern Christian And Islamic Sources. Leiden: Brill, 2010. Print.

Mashita, Hiroyuki. The Muslim World 1100-1700. London: Routledge, 2007. Print.

Sayeed, Asma. Women And The Transmission Of Religious Knowledge In Islam. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013. Print.