The rise of Islam ushered in an entirely new era for the people of the Arabian Peninsula as early as the 7th century CE. Islam extended itself across the Middle East and then began its conquest of North Africa, reaching into Spain and Eastern Europe.  The 1200s saw Islam's spread into India as well as Southeast Asia.  The success and expansion of Islam throughout these times was founded on the power of the empire's military, the effectiveness of a common language, and the egalitarian practices of leaders regarding conquered peoples. Islamic armies possessed the ability to efficiently and quickly advance the territories of their empires by employing advanced ideas and tactics as well as their superior use of a militant cavalries made up of both horses and camels.  The leaders of these armies and empires treated conquered peoples with remarkable tolerance, once these people agreed to their authority, of course. In combination with this territorial expansion, intellectual expansion exploded. This time period is known as the Golden age of Islam and was focused on three main principles of language, trade, and education.
             In order to read the Quran, a devout Muslim would need to learn Arabic, the original language of the holy book. This religious requirement affected more than just the daily religious practices of Muslims, it aided in uniting the multifarious indigenous cultures within the empire of Islam. The spread of knowledge, technologies, and ideas was made possible by the use of this common language, effectively uniting the culture. Literacy is an important aspect of this transformation. Unifying faiths and languages alone, for all that, did not solely inspire the expansion of literacy and academics cultivated by the Golden Age of Islam, however. Because of expanded trade, the city of Samarkand, on the eastern border of the empire, brought in Chinese technology for making paper. All of a sudden, the time-intensive transforma...