ABSTRACT
This chapter examines some of Max Weber’s statements concerning Islam, mainly by reviewing several aspects of Islamization. It argues that rather than a regression from what had first been a missionary religion, as implied by Weber’s writings, there was a progression from Arab particularism to Islamic universalism. Much of what Weber wrote about Islam is unacceptable to contemporary scholarship on Islam, but some of his observations offer insights into the dynamics of Islam. The rise of the ‘Abbasids therefore marked the triumph of Islamic universalism over Arab particularism. Weber seems to have been haunted by the martial character of Islam, and by the image of the Arab warriors as carrying the religion of Islam by the sword. Conversion among the local population of the lands that came under Muslim rule was a long process, and the number of Muslims equaled that of non-Muslims only about the middle of the tenth century, that is, a full three centuries after the conquest.
