The Islam Project: Maps

By 750 C.E., Islam had spread from Madinah to all of Arabia, then Mesopotamia, Egypt, most of the coastal regions of North Africa, and into Iberia. The major ruling groups of the Middle East at the time, the Christian Byzantines and the Persian Sasanids, had exhausted themselves after years of warfare, weakening their empires and enabling the Muslims to fill a power vacuum. The ease with which Islam spread eastward and westward in the 200 years after the death of Muhammad is further explained by theological divisions and intra-religious persecution within the Christian world. Many Christians in these lands, particularly those from persecuted sects, welcomed the arrival of the Muslims, and converted freely to Islam over the years.