What role did war play in the spread of Buddhism, Islam, and Christianity?
What will be an ideal response?
1. Islam
a. in Muhammad's day the community he led was almost constantly at war
b. the term Jihad was used to proclaim successful wars of aggression against Arabian states and the Byzantine and Sasanid empires
c. enemies could either submit to Islam or pay a tax for the privilege of persisting in their own religion
d. early centuries of Islamic expansion
1. victorious Muslim armies did normally aim to wipe out religions they classed as idolatrous
2. elimination of traditional priesthoods and the destruction of former places of worship opened up spaces
3. Islam, the religion of the conquerors, could take root
4. God seemed to endorse Islam by allowing the astonishing conquests of the seventh and eighth centuries
5. traditional religion became a badge of resistance, it withered when resistance failed
2. Christianity
a. violent and arbitrary beginnings of Christian communities joined Christian civilizations and built springboards for further missions elsewhere
1. Frankish king Charlemagne gave the pagan Saxons in eastern Germany a choice of baptism or death
2. Alfred the Great of England imposed baptism on defeated pagans as a condition of peace
3. Olaf, king of Norway in the early eleventh century, massacred, mutilated, or blinded pagans who refused Christianity
3. Buddhism
a. early spread of Buddhism on similar strategies by royal strongmen is less well known
1. Asoka was not alone in priding himself on conquests allegedly achieved "by dharma"—the teachings of Buddha
2. Kaniska, King of Peshawar in what is today Pakistan, enforced Buddhism on his own subjects
3. King Vattagamani, whose efforts we know from inscriptions in Sri Lanka, also imposed Buddhism early in the first century B.C.E.
4. King Anuruddha introduced Buddhism to Burma, he showed his piety by waging war on the neighboring Mon kingdom to gain possession of holy scriptures
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