with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.’’ The
Prophet Muhammad himself elaborates these choices in a
well known Hadith.[27]
From the earliest days of Islam, Muslims have acted on
these commands. First Muhammad unified the Arabian
peninsula under his rule and directed that all religions be
forbidden there except Islam. (This is why even today Saudi
Arabia forbids all religions except Islam to be practiced on
its soil.)
Then the Muslims turned to the larger non-Muslim world.
Muslim Arabia was surrounded by predominantly Christian
lands, particularly the Byzantine imperial holdings of Syria,
Palestine, and Egypt. Four of Christendom’s five principal
cities — Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and
Jerusalem — lay within striking distance of Arabia. The
Byzantine Empire’s great rival, Persia, also had a significant
Christian population.
Muhammad himself made the first Islamic overtures to
these neighbors. He sent letters to the leaders of Persia,
Byzantium, and Abyssinia, exhorting them to ‘‘embrace
Islam and you will be safe.’’ None did, and Muhammad’s
warning proved accurate: none of them were safe.[28] In
635 (just three years after the Prophet’s death), Damascus,
the city where Paul had seen the great vision that turned him
from a persecutor of Christianity to its energetic apostle, fell
to the invading Muslims. The next year, Antioch, where the
disciples of Jesus were first called ‘‘Christians’’ (Acts 11:26)
also fell. It was Jerusalem’s turn two years later, in 638.