The Indian Historical Period Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The Indian Historical Period - Essay Example Varghese, (2008) argues that the Arabic language became a medium of literary communication throughout the areas which the Arabs conquered and in a relatively short time, Arabic displaced other tongues as the everyday speech of the population over most of North Africa and the Near East. Thought and learning flourished; trade and industry prospered; a brilliant and graceful civilization arose beside which Western Europe seemed barbarous and even Byzantium paled. According to McNeill (1986), the immediate stimulus to the Arab expansion was the appearance of a new religion; Mohammed was a native of the city of Mecca and as a young man, he made his living as a camel driver and petty trader and on his travels he picked up a smattering of Jewish and Christian religious ideas. He acknowledged the prophets of the Old Testament and Jesus of Nazareth as worthy predecessors of his own prophetic mission and as such prophets that he recognized had received divine plans for men but with time misunderstanding and corruption crept in. As one of the renowned leaders, Mohammed simply claimed to correct and restore the revelation of God and just after his death; his teachings were set forth, cast in poetic form, written down and became the Koran – a sacred book of the Moslem re ligion. ... After his death, the expansion continued at a rapid rate and a series of prophetic successors united the Arab tribesmen for great raids into Syria and Mesopotamia. It was within an amazingly short time that they stripped the Byzantine empire of its eastern provinces and completely conquered the Persian empire; during the following generations, (Sowell, 2004). In the east, the Arab expansion continued at a similarly rapid rate extending into India and the oases of central Asia.