# What does Robert Hoyland's In God's Path say about how Islam spread? *Book review: Robert Hoyland's In God's Path* - URL: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/jtyem-eee78/s/16/ - Date: 2020-09-22 · Kind: lesson · Transcript tier: machine · Recording: Monday Nights with Mufti #183 | Q&A Unscripted & Unrestricted! 😉 | Mufti Abu Layth (1:24:50–1:36:57) - Status: general teaching - Watch from the start of the segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTYEM-eEe78&t=5090s - Recording page: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/jtyem-eee78/ **Topics:** Book Lounge and book reviews; Orthodoxy and how Islam spread; Umayyads and Abbasids **Summary (not a quotation; machine-made, unchecked):** Mufti Abu Layth recommends Hoyland's In God's Path as fair and well researched, and agrees that Islam's ability to integrate other peoples explains its rapid spread. **Checked position (checked by two independent reviews, not by the channel):** Mufti Abu Layth says he accepts Hoyland's point that Islam's capacity to integrate is a key aspect explaining its spread. **Evidence, his words at 1:36:17:** “and this is what explains the proliferation of islam i feel that too is uh a key aspect i i do accept that point as well” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTYEM-eEe78&t=5777s) ## Longer summary Mufti Abu Layth reviews Robert Hoyland's In God's Path, which he finished on audiobook, finding the author reasonably neutral, well researched and fair for an outsider. Mufti highlights Hoyland's account of how the empire absorbed the cultures it found, and of Mu'awiya's administration and campaigns, including Mu'awiya's attempt at a peace treaty with an island before retaliating after his envoy was rebuffed and people killed. He relays Hoyland's explanation of how Islam spread so fast: it was easy to embrace and familiar to Jews and Christians, and converts, freed captives and their children learned Arabic, took Arabic names and could become authorities, so that the mawali became a dignitary class and many great scholars of the tabi'un were of non-Arab descent. Mufti says Hoyland sets aside the 'zeal' explanation and credits Islam's capacity to integrate, a point Mufti also accepts as a key aspect. ## Sources and names cited - In God's Path (Robert Hoyland) - Robert Hoyland - Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan - mawali (clients, freed slaves and their descendants) - tabi'un ## Transcript (machine tier, 1:24:50–1:36:57) [1:24:50] i finished this book uh by uh we've got hoiland now robert hoyland this was uh i was actually going through it on audible nice that that i i prefer actually listening to a lot of books now it i just finished it this week gone and i have to say it was a very fascinating book my i thought i'd just share a few words on it i found the author's perspective to be reasonably neutral i did not find him to be uh you know sometimes people fear that [1:25:30] oh some people will just hate on islam or they'll be just negative towards islam i i didn't feel that generally speaking throughout the book naturally the person isn't a muslim so huilin does assess it from an outsider's perspective he will give that he speaks about how islam kind of spreads proliferates the efficacy of the empire how the empire [1:26:05] to to really prosper it absorbs the cultures and the heritage in which it finds itself he speaks about all of that he speaks about the companions he's it's very fascinating and i i did find him to be on many occasions uh quite fair in his observations it's interesting when he speaks about muawiyah and how malawia incorporated a lot of the administrative structures he found to generate wealth for the muslim empire i found that very fascinating how he speaks about some of the [1:26:45] um some of the military campaigns of ma'awiyah against the christians and i found that very fascinating that he speaks on what he mentions this particular example where muawiyah and he's i found him to be quite fair where he does speak that there was quite a bit of bloodshed um done by the muslims but he mentions that to be in all fairness actually wanted that he highlights the records show that muawiyah wanted a peaceful treaty and he did not want the that particular island to be [1:27:24] it was off one of the the kind of greek islands to be uh conquered by force and maui actually sent a he sent an envoy and he asked for there to be a peace treaty and that they would uh they can keep their things and keep their kind of whatever it is and have a basically like a vassalage but how those people um underestimated the envoy and then eventually how they even kill so many of those people and torture them and and then he says that muawiyah then retaliates [1:28:01] and makes an example out of them but he does show that how muawiyah initially wanted to demonstrate how muslims are actually very compassionate and merciful and i found that very interesting that he highlighted that and he says that he actually made quite a few attempts to say look let's do this very peacefully you can keep all of this you can do this we can have that and how they completely underestimated and undermined and just thought nothing of the muslim forces and the muslim presence in the middle east until then eventually maui landed [1:28:39] and when he did he he did make an example of them but it's that's one thing but other things he cites as well how the how islam spreads beyond into uh you know those territories that are beyond modern-day iran and into more central asia and how that influences islam i i overall found it to be very interesting i found it to be i found him to have been well researched informative i learned many things um interesting archaeological aspects he [1:29:19] cites things about coinage and other um other things of rituals and customs and i'm not saying always he has to be on point he would have his take at the end of the day it's interesting when he towards the end of his book he explains this um this enigmatic phenomenon of how islam proliferates throughout the middle east through conquest so suddenly and he explains that and it's really fascinating first of all he goes through how were [1:29:57] were the ruling arabs trying to prevent uh non-arabs from becoming significant within society and he explains that although that may have been the case with some people that islam was so because islam was so easy to embrace and it was kind of welcoming for all and it was familiar to many especially the middle east because they were already familiar with christianity and judaism so islam was kind of like a [1:30:37] a cousin so it's not too close but not too far away it's something you can see similarities so when these non-muslims when these non-arabs or whether they were captives or free people embraced islam it became very difficult to stop them from becoming intrinsic parts of the muslim society because he mentions even with the slaves and the women for example bringing them in that when soulmate because the arabs were not [1:31:16] actually that large in number so when they bring in all these other people that that have been sometimes brought back they've because he explains how some muslim rulers would relocate people to kind of prevent this insurgency and when you do things like that an intermarriage this was something and even with slave captives like women having children with them it was it was unstoppable that islam that that these people would not become important people within islam [1:31:55] you couldn't stop it because it was too easy to embrace you didn't need to go to a clergy you didn't need to do something and and most of the captives and the this if you want to call them subjects they learned arabic and when they learned arabic and took arabic names it became difficult distinguishing between who is now the original people and who are these migrants it became difficult um or theologically migrants you know theological migrants so yeah and and i thought that was very [1:32:34] fascinating the way he explains that and how um these people that became muslim the other thing is you see with captives he explains how they found that within islam them owning islam themselves they had free reign to do so like nobody could actually were nobody could actually tell them that no what do you mean like let's say in hinduism there is the caste system it's only for the brahmins it's only for a certain clergy [1:33:12] these slaves that became freed slaves they once they embraced islam they could not only learn about it but by learning about islam they could become an authority on islam all of a sudden you've got a second-class citizen let's say who is now an authority that everybody goes to and this thereby reinventing for themselves a new class system whereby the mawali these these kind of offspring of slaves become [1:33:50] this upper class this kind of dignitary class people hence all the in the tabernae most of these great scholars were all were all non-arab offspring and they were offspring often of captives you know said you're going to get people ibrahim and you're going to get uh bowls you're going to get all these kind of uh great [1:34:20] all these great great scholars that emerge at that time are all in essence they're all offsprings of non-arabs and that two of often people who were just captives i found that very interesting and also his point on this phenomenon of how islam spread so quickly he says that he doesn't take the the argument uh that islam because many historians and i feel that is true that islam with it brought a zeal and that zeal was unmatchable and it just [1:34:58] really enthused the people to march forward and to do things and hence islam just like like wildfire spread because other conquests throughout human history have never been as successful in such a short span that have then sustained you see sometimes you got really fast rapid expansions but they as rapidly as they expanded withdrew or they took so long like the roman empire or they did or you got you got the mongols but then they withdrew as an example but the way [1:35:38] or even colonialism but the way islam expanded and was embraced this is has been an enigma and a puzzle for historians he explains that he doesn't take the hoiland he says he doesn't take the zeal aspect but he feels that islam had what it had the x factor was its integrative aspect that islam had a capacity to integrate whatever it wherever it went to and this capacity is what other religions didn't have [1:36:17] and this is what explains the proliferation of islam i feel that too is uh a key aspect i i do accept that point as well checking some of the the comments people please be mindful in your comments do not um easy you do in it you do and it much love for the super chat and do not spam in the comments please right so let me just see somebody said did you miss a right i don't think i missed a ## Cite Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment jTYEM-eEe78/s/16. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/jtyem-eee78/s/16/ Not a fatwa: these answers 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