Answer to Question #199058 in History for Michael Rakson

Question

1.Describe the process that which Egypt was Arabized 2. discuss the coming of banu sulaim and banu halal as the most far reaching event in the history of islam in north africa

Answer 1

Arabization of Egypt

The arabization of Egypt began in the 10^th century by conquest of the Roman Empire by the Arabs who were mainly Muslims, under the leadership of general Amr ibn al-Alas. There was a large scale conversion of people from Christianity which was the dominant religion in Egypt before to the Islamic religion. This conversion was accompanied by imposition of heavy tax on those who refused to convert to the Muslim religion. The whole process was accompanied by simultaneous arabization that led to even replacement of the Greek and Roman languages by the Arabic language which was later recognized as the Egyptian vernacular and national language.

The coming of Banu Sulaym and Banu Halal

 Both the Banu Sulaym and Banu Hilal were Arabic communities that lived in Hejaz, during the per-Islamic error. During the Muslim conquest, the two Arabic communities too long to join the Islamic religion and always engaged the Muslims in a number of battles. They finally converted to Muslim religion and moved from Peninsula into Northern part of Egypt where they stayed for a while. In the middle of the 11^th century, famine struck Egypt very hard, forcing both the Banu Sulaym and Banu Hilal to move westwards and finally settled in Libya until presently.