ABSTRACT
Determining when, where and why Christian populations converted to Islam and how diverse they were, particularly during the medieval period, is extremely complex and often contested. Conversion to Islam involved a complex and dynamic relationship between Islamisation, Arabicisation, Arabisation, immigration and emigration, intermarriage, birth rates, conquest and reconquest, enslavement, coercion, taxation, depopulation and repopulation, as well as missionary activity. Early Islamic taxes appear to have been inconsistently administered, they were nevertheless cumbersome for certain sectors of the non-Muslim population. The early Islamic conquests had completely replaced Byzantine and Sassanian political and administrative rule in the Middle East. Living as dhimmis, Christians 'negotiated the ambiguities of living under Islam'. Through conversion to Islam, men enjoyed a wider array of social benefits than women and increased social mobility. Moreover, 'Women were not competing for success in the public arena and therefore did not have the same incentives as men to conform to the religion of the rulers'.
