아프리카ㆍ중동

In the seventh century, the Arabs began to politically organize their tribesin the Arabian Peninsula and to bring about their monotheistic Islamic religionin that region. Their accomplishing unity and acquiring religious power led the ArabMuslims to open their eyes beyond the Arabian Peninsula. The first territory that the Arab Muslim military conquested beyond theArabian Peninsula was Egypt. Egypt had had close political, economical,religious relationship with the Arabs for a long time due to the geographicalcontiguity. Furthermore, Egypt was one country that the Arab Muslims coveted for allthe wealth and prosperity that it possessed. Therefore, the Arab Muslim military began their campaign against Egypt,which had been ruled by the Byzantine Empire. The Arab culture and Islamic civilization have a distinctive character. Namely, it gradually blended with the indigenous culture in the conqueredterritory and the amalgamation of the cultures resulted in a new indigenous culture with a passage of time. As such, some historians have called this phenomenon an ‘Islamic Miracle’. However, we do know that the Islamic Miracle is not the swift militarycampaign but the permanent Arabization and Islamization in the conqueredterritory. In this paper, I will research the spreading of the Arab-Islam civilization andits acceptance and the resulting characteristics in Egypt where the Arab Muslimmilitary went beyond the Arabian Peninsula for the first time in the seventhcentury. To accomplish the goals of this research, I will discuss the situations inEgypt before the Arab Muslim military arrived in year 640 and also examinethe Arab Muslims’ conquest of Egypt and their rule over that country.