WHI-Chap14-Obj2

Explain and analyze the forces that drove Muslim expansion. After Muhammad's death, his advisors elected Abu Bakr to serve as caliph to lead the umma. He became the head of the Islamic state as well as the military commander, religious leader, and chief judge. In order to expand Islam's political and cultural influence, the umma, under the leadership of the caliph, went on military conquests against clans and tribal groups that had renounced their belief in Islam after the prophet Muhammad's death. Between 633 and 637 C.E., the Muslim forces seized Byzantine Syria and Palestine and went on in 651 C.E. to completely topple the Sasanid dynasty and capture Persia.

Muslim forces managed to unite all their conquered lands into a single, powerful state that was unified by their allegiance to Islam. At its height in the mid-8th century, the Islamic Empire stretched from Central Asia and India to Northern Africa and the Iberian Penninsula.

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