Welcome to the History Unplugged Podcast.

The unscripted show that celebrates unsung heroes, Mythbust's historical lies, and rediscoveres

the forgotten stories that changed our world.

I'm your host, Scott Rank.

Hi everyone, welcome to today's episode.

This episode is based on a listener question.

I get questions from listeners all the time about history, and I get this because I openly

invite them.

And if you want to submit a question to me about history, their instructions at the end

of this episode, sometimes they're way out of my knowledge base.

Somebody asked me one time about the daily schedule of a samurai, and I really had to dig

into that one to know what to say, because my knowledge of East Asia is almost not existent.

And I'm sure many of you listening know more about that than I do.

But sometimes a question falls right in my wheelhouse.

This is such a question, and I'm going to read it here right now, so I'm going to get

into a considerable depth in this episode.

Here's a question that comes from the listener who uses the moniker, Moon Doggie, and hey,

if you don't want to use your real name and want to make something up, then you be you.

Here is the question.

In general, I am not clear about the early development of the Islam empires, or Islamic empires.

How did an initially small religious movement envelop such enormous areas of the world?

Particularly the martial military developments and campaigns.

...