Question

What areas did Islam spread?

Answer 1

Islam began in the Arabian Peninsula in the early 7th century and then spread widely by conquest, trade, migration and missionary activity. Major areas and rough timing:

- Arabian Peninsula (origin, 7th century)
- Middle East and Levant (Syria, Palestine, Iraq — 7th century, Rashidun/Umayyad conquests)
- Egypt and North Africa (7th–8th centuries)
- Iberian Peninsula (Muslim Spain/Al-Andalus — early 8th century to 15th century)
- Persia (Iran) and Central Asia (7th–8th centuries onward)
- Anatolia (modern Turkey) and the Balkans (14th–16th centuries via the Ottoman Empire)
- South Asia (parts of the Indian subcontinent — beginning with Sindh in the 8th century; major expansion under later Sultanates and the Mughals, 12th–17th centuries)
- Southeast Asia (Indonesia, Malaysia, southern Thailand, the Philippines in part — spread mainly by trade and Sufi missionaries, 12th–16th centuries onward)
- Sub-Saharan Africa (West Africa through trans‑Saharan trade, from roughly the 9th century; East African coast/Swahili coast by maritime trade)
- Parts of the Caucasus and other pockets in Europe, Central Asia and Africa over subsequent centuries

Today Islam is a major religion across North Africa, the Middle East, Central and South Asia, large parts of Southeast Asia, and significant communities in sub‑Saharan Africa, Europe and the Americas.

If you’d like, I can give a timeline, maps, or more detail about how Islam spread in a particular region.