6.1 History and Expansion of Islam in Africa

Considering the emergence and long development of Islam, now in its ‎fifteenth century, it is often forgotten that Islam crossed over to ‎Ethiopia in the very first decade of its existence, during the life of ‎Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon Him), before the Hijra to Medina ‎in AD 622 and indeed before the Message (al-risala) was complete (it ‎was completed on the death of the Prophet of Allah). That first Hijra ‎to Ethiopia was of great significance to the new faith and to the ‎beleaguered community of the early Meccan Muslims. Both were ‎warmly received and protected according to Muslim traditions. Such ‎was to be, in a majority of cases, the character of future relations ‎between Islam and Muslims and the rest of Africa when these had ‎occasion to be there.

Horn of Africa
Some of the early Muslims migrated to Ethiopia were granted protection and are said to have ‎then settled in several parts of the Horn region to promote the ‎religion. The victory of the Muslims over Quraysh in the 7th century ‎had a significant impact on local merchants and sailors, as their ‎trading partners in Arabia had then all adopted Islam, and the major ‎trading routes in the Mediterranean and the Red Sea came under the ‎sway of the Muslim Caliphs. Through commerce, Islam spread ‎amongst the Somali population in the coastal cities. Instability in the ‎Arabian Peninsula saw further migrations of early Muslim families to ‎the Somali seaboard. These clans came to serve as catalysts, ‎forwarding the faith to large parts of the Horn region.

‎ The Horn of Africa is a peninsula in East Africa that juts hundreds of ‎kilometers into the Arabian Sea and lies along the southern side of the ‎Gulf of Aden. It is the easternmost projection of the African continent. ‎Referred to in ancient and medieval times as Bilad al Barbar ("Land of ‎the Berbers") the Horn of Africa denotes the region containing the ‎countries of Eritrea, Djibouti, Ethiopia and Somalia.‎

6.1 History and Expansion of Islam in Africa

The spread of Islam into HOA
On the east coast of Africa, where Arab mariners had for many ‎years journeyed to trade, mainly in slaves, Arabs founded permanent ‎colonies on the offshore islands, especially on Zanzibar, in the 9th and ‎‎10th century. From there Arab trade routes into the interior of Africa ‎helped the slow acceptance of Islam.‎
‎In the 20th century, Islam grew in Africa both by birth and by ‎conversion. The number of Muslims in Africa grew from 34.5 million ‎in 1900 to 315 million in 2000, going from roughly 20% to 40% of ‎the total population of Africa.