The spread of Islam
I was teaching my 11-year-old daughter about the 8th century in Church history yesterday, and I was explaining the expansion of Islam in the East. I went on to talk about the fear in Europe that Islam would overwhelm the West like it did the East. This fear was present for almost 800 years (and is a major, yet under-appreciated, factor in the calling of the Crusades). This map does a great job of showing the spread of the major religions around the world – see how quickly Islam grew:
In my class with my daughter, I ended up going on a tangent about the fact that Islam might be able to succeed today through demographics where they failed by force during the middle ages. It should be common sense (but unfortunately isn’t) that those cultures which have a lot of kids will eventually overtake those who do not. Europe, are you listening?
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I’m surprised Buddhism spread so quickly – and during the time Christianity spread quickly through Europe and Africa, too. Must have something to do with their similarities (but let’s not forger their differences, either).
Why doesn’t the map show Christianity in India (traditionally brought there by St. Thomas the Apostle)? On the coast there is a large Christian presence, and they practice a very ancient form of the Mass.
INTERESTING ARTICLE, BUT AS A ROMAN CATHOLIC OF 67yrs.,MY SIMPLE BELIEF IS NO MATTER OUR RELIGION OR OUR “PERCEPTION” OF JESUS IN THE BLESSED TRINITY,AT THE END OF OUR LIFE ON EARTH ALL PEOPLE ARE GOING TO MEET ONE TRUE GOD “OUR FATHER IN HEAVEN”
TO OUR OWN IMAGE AND LIKENESS,AND ACCOUNT FOR OUR LIVES OF GRACES AND FALLS IN THE HOPE THAT WE CAN ATTAIN ETERNAL LIFE IF WE ARE TRULLY SORRY FOR OUR SINS.
GOD BLESS ALL , JOHNNY
On this theme, I strongly recommend that anyone involved with the teaching of children (or adults, for that matter) read Rodney Stark’s brilliant and readable book, God’s Battalions, which does a fantastic job of retelling the story of the Crusades from the perspective of Western Christendom.
Wow, seeing it on a timeline map like this really points out the connection to missionary activity! Very graphic illustration of “faith comes by hearing”! Thanks!
Are you the creator of this map? If not, could you give us the source? I would like to make use of this in some of the classes I teach &/or link to it from my web-site, etc. Please provide pertinent copyright info, URL location, etc. Thank you!
Feel free to ignor my last post, I found the info I was looking for. Thanks again.
For anyone else interested in the source, I got the map from here:
http://www.mapsofwar.com/ind/history-of-religion.html