ABSTRACT
Islam is first of all both a universal religion and a religion of conquest, whose sudden rise in the seventh century of era was followed by slower, but still constant expansion. This chapter explains why it is appropriate first of all to show Islam's relation to the two great world religions which it sought to replace and with which its development brought it alongside and even into confrontation. This procedure corresponds to the attitude of the orientalists who could never study truly Islamic phenomena without making assertions about their origins. The position of Muslim believers is indeed very simple when they identify their faith with the original monotheism of the Biblical prophet Abraham, who is depicted by the Koran as the founder of the sanctuary at Mecca, the Ka'ba, and at the same time as the destroyer of idols and the father of Ishmael in whom the Arabs see their common ancestor.
