Islam in Africa

Africa was the first continent, outside of Asia that Islam spread into in the early 7th century. Almost one-third of the world's Muslim population resides in the continent. Muslims crossed current Djibouti, Somalia and Eritrea to seek refuge in present-day Ethiopia during the Hijarat. Most Muslims in Africa are Sunni; the complexity of Islam in Africa is revealed in the various schools of thought, traditions, and voices in many African countries. African Islam is not static and is constantly being reshaped by prevalent social, economic, and political conditions. Generally Islam in Africa often adapted to African cultural contexts and belief systems forming Africa's own orthodoxies.

It was estimated in 2002 that Muslims constitute 48% of the population of Africa. Islam has a large presence in North Africa, the Horn of Africa, the Swahili Coast, and much of West Africa, with minority but significant immigrant populations in South Africa. However, Islam has encountered criticism and resistance in several nations of Sub-Saharan Africa.

On the advice of Muhammad, in Rajab 8BH, or May 614AD, twenty three Muslims migrated to Abyssinia where they were protected by its king, Al-Najashi, who may have accepted Islam later. They were followed by 101 Muslims later in the same year. Most of those Muslims returned to Medina in 7H/628CE but some settled in the neighboring Zeila which was at that time part of Bilad al-Barbar. Those that settled there later built Masjid al-Qiblatayn. In 20H/641CE during the reign of Caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab, Muslim troops took over current Egypt and conquered current Libya the following year. Muslims then expanded to current Tunisia in 27H/647AD during the reign of the third Muslim Caliph, Uthman Ibn Affan. The conquest of North Africa continued under the Umayyad dynasty,while having someweathly people having a lot money taking Algeria by 61H/680AD, and Morocco the following year. From the latter Muslim troops crossed the Strait of Gibraltar to Europe in 92H/711AD. Islam gained momentum during the 10th century in West Africa with the start of the Almoravids movement on the Senegal River and as rulers and kings embraced Islam. Islam then spread slowly in much of the continent through trade and preaching. By the 9th century Muslim Sultanates started being established in the Horn of Africa, and by the 12th century the Kilwa Sultanate had spread as far south as Mozambique. Islam only crossed deeper into Malawi and Congo in the second half of the 19th century under the Zanzibar Sultanate. Then the British brought their labor force from India, including some Muslim-Indian nationals, to their African colonies towards the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries.

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