How were arabs able to create such a huge empire and the second

>>3324286
The Quran is notably similar to the Torah, so that helped convert the jewish arabs. That and the heavy taxes they inflicted on non-muslims. And war.
I'm not using this to bash on islam but historically and even today, they are definitely not a religion of peace, otherwise it wouldnt exist.

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>>3324286
Arabs used the desert like the british use the sea. They can freely travel the desert, using towns like Damascus or Kufa that border the desert like port cities, using camel trains to conduct trade across the desert.

Like how the British maintained an empire of the seas, the Arabs maintained an empire of the desert. The used towns on the border of the desert as their main garrisons and strongholds to exert influence over the region.

When they attack, they attack from the desert, which is difficult to defend against because most people don't expect an attack from the desert. Also they had very powerful cavalry.

In terms of their administration, the Ummayads were a family of expert merchants. They already had a long history as merchants in mecca for hundreds of years, trading substances such as myrrh and jewels with the romans.

The Arabs ruled by pretty much preserving the same beauracracy they had, they had very good relations with the local christians.

Mu'awiya's wife was a christian and his administration was basically full of Christians of Damascus.

Its true the Arabs were mostly desert nomad tribes, but the ruling families of the Caliphates were merchant families and craftsmen. The Arab empires relied heavily on trade.

In fact the reason Muhammad created the Hajj pilgrimage was that so Mecca, a city that benefited heavily from trade with Romans, would always remain a wealthy trading city as every muslim would have to make pilgrimage to it, and it would always make money off them and remain wealthy in trade.

>>3324286
They weren't nomads in the desert. Arabia has a desert in the middle, but that's not where the population resides.

>>3324326
How were they able to win all those wars? from the battles i've seen they were mostly outnumbered

>>3324286
A combination of weak African kingdoms, good mobility and strong armed forces. The only miracle here is that they managed to keep it together.

>>3324339
Powerful cavalry I would assume, the same way the Huns wrecked Europe

>>3324286
By not creating either, and instead focusing on one of the more successful migrations of the era. Arab tribal elites of Northern Arabia forged tribal alliances which held strong after they spread out and settled in desert frontiers east and west.

The empire and religion came after when one faction of their confederacy gained enough power to assume Byzantine style imperial honors while the mixed, multi-cultural descendants of the original settlers and their household servants, slaves, and aristocratic allies drew on Arab tales of a legendary prophet to create a new identity for themselves distinct from the lower class Christians, Jews, and Zoroastrians.

After uniting the tribes the Muslim-Arabs spread north as far as the Syrian desert where they were at liberty to threaten the fertile crescent. Raids and greater flexibility meant they could force Roman and Sassanid armies to fight on unfavorable terrain.

The Levant and Syria were subdued quickly due to geographical barriers between them and the Romans, in Syria there were arab populations who rapidly contributed to their forces thereby allowing them to conduct more ambitious campaigns.

Dark age cold period possibly raised populations and allowed easier movement through the deserts.

>>3324286
>second
Try the first habibi

>>3324343
Rome, Persia and Spain, those weak african kingdoms

Timing and unity.
Arabia still had a pretty big population, unifying under a single religion would have made the Arabs formidable even if Byzantium and Persia weren't wrecked from fighting each other.
Also, cavalry.

>>3324339
>>3324343
Powerful infantry, Arabs relied almost exclusively on well equipped infantry.

>>3324286
Light cavalry as others have mentioned. When the battles were won, wealthy Arab families and clans would plop down into an area and marry into the nobility in order to keep power.

>>3324326
This guy is completely wrong. The taxes imposed were less than what their previous rulers had been expecting. Islam also primarily spread through trade, social pressure, and missionaries. There were also a handful of cases of 'convert or die' being implemented but especially in the early years Arab elitism made them not want any converts. In the early years Arab would take over government positions and collect taxes and adnisister places.

All you plebs are wrong and know shit about it.

Before all the invasions started, and before the whole region converted to islam, muslims were around 300, they kept winning battles in the deserts until they grew in number. Mohammed then started uniting the tribes from Medina and so on. Now in their following battles, they were heavily outnumbered but still managed to win because of Mohammed's genius.

You guys underestimate Jihad, it's the first warfare system, and probably the last, to encourage death in battle. Arab warriors might go home depressed because they didn't manage to die in battle for Allah, and are anxious about the next battle. The leaders ensured the well being of the warriors' families so they had nothing to fear.

TLDR; most fearless warriors in history because of their faith

>>3324286
Great thread
Too bad it won't be long before before /pol/ comes screaming about MUHH WHITE PERSIANS FOUGHT FOR THEM

>>3325887
Literally all of those were torn apart from years of war and civil war, in Spain's case. The first steady state they ran into, the Franks, turned them back.

>>3327934
Persians aren't white but we literally were the driving force behind the Islamic golden age, ay-rabs didn't do shit besides revive our texts

>>3328010
>Driving force
That's a bit of a stretch the best philosophers/scientists to come out of the so called "golden age" were Andalusian Arabs which were in fact of Iberian or Berber heritage.

>>3328039
WE

>>3328050
WUZNT

>>3328077
FERSIANS

>>3326251
Sorry to tell you this pal but Islam's spread through trade and politics came after the Rashidun caliphate conquered the Persian and half the Byzantine empires

>>3325886
you can't claim islam is the largest religion int he world on one hand, and then claim that all shi'ites and non-wahabists are kuffar on the other hand

>>3328010
>our texts

nothing of any use to humanity or civilisation has ever been written in the persian language.

All the texts the Arabs used were Aramaic and Greek. Aramaic was the language of syria and mesopotamia, and in fact persians were the ones who took all their science from the babylonians, assyrians, and aramaeans when they invaded and occupied that region.

Persians never did anything aside from tribal barbarian military conquests, and never contributed anything scientifically or culturally to humanity. All that came from aramaean assyrian semites, and their successors the arab semites.

>>3324286
By takeing advantage of the roman power vacume

>>3327917
>it's the first warfare system, and probably the last, to encourage death in battle.
Germanics did it before them.

Also, that is an odd way of spelling "had to invent a reason for people to fight on instead of stopping halfway through and looting"

>>3328088
Don't shatter his fragile world view by mentioning Timur who is the reason that Pakistan exists.