• New converts turned to conquering neighboring territories
  • By 650, absorbed Palestine, Syria, Iraq, Iran and Egypt
• By 711, conquered North Africa and crossed into Christian Spain
• In 732, spread into Europe halted in France by Charles the Hammer
• Failed to conquer Constantinople twice, in 673 and 718
• Divisions started appearing within Islamic religion itself as Shia
• Sunni Islam moved away from Arabia, founding city of Baghdad in 750
• When Jerusalem fell to Muslims in 638, church suffered no harm