Third wave in 550-750________________________________________________________________________

 Consolidation in rural areas of the Western Roman Empire. The Nederlands, Switzerland and the Rhin basin evangelized by
 Britannic monks (St. Boniface, St. Columban); England (court).

 The Germanic tribes ruling over the Catholic Romans renounced the Arian heresy and became Catholic - Orthodox:
 Burgundians in 516, Sueves from 560, Visigoths in 587, and the Lombards progressively from 600-619.

 In England, 10,000 Angles were converted at the pagan Christmas festival in Kent under their King Ethelbert (597). Britain
 was not fully Catholic until 716, although in 786 the first papal legates to arrive commented on the survival of Pagan
 practices; a letter from Alcuin to Etherhard, Archbishop of York, pointed out that some of the people were carrying magic
 amulets and "taking to the hills, where they worship not with prayer but with drunkenness".

 The no complete, or false christianization of England had its social marks, St. Boniface in a letter to Archbishop Cuthbert of
 Canterbury (in 747) exposed that: "It is said also that the vice of drunkenness is far too common in your [English] parishes
 and that some bishops not only do not prohibit it but themselves drink to the point of intoxication, and by offering large
 drinks to others force them into drunkenness [...] This is an evil peculiar to the heathen and to our race, for neither the Franks
 nor the Gauls, nor the Lombards, nor the Romans, nor the Greeks practice it." He also pointed out in his letter of admonition to
 King Aethelbald of Mercia (746-7) that "If the English race, as people in the provinces say and as the French, Italians and even
 the heathens insultingly proclaim, are despising lawful marriage and living in open adultery like the people of Sodom, then we
 must expect that from such intercourse with harlots, a people degenerate, degraded and mad with lust will be begotten. In the
 end the whole race, turning to base and ignoble ways, will cease to be strong in war, steadfast in faith, honored by men or
 pleasing in the sight of God. So has it befallen other peoples of Spain, Provence and Burgundy [the Languedocian region].
 They turned away from God and yielded to lust until Almighty God allowed the penalties of such crimes to destroy them,
 first by letting them lose the knowledge of God and then by loosing the attacks of the Saracens upon them. It should be
 noted that in this crime another and much greater crime is involved, because when these harlots, whether nuns or not, bring
 forth their children conceived in sin they generally kill them [infanticide] [...]." Thus, Boniface expressed to Cuthbert how in
 many towns of Lombardy and France,  "there is not a courtesan or a harlot but is of English stock. It is a scandal and a
 disgrace to your whole Church." We could see now clearly how real Christianity produces social reformation... and nowadays
 we are losing both. The syncretism and the witchcraft continued by a large period, the king of Wessex Alfred the Great
 (871 - 899 ?) fulminated against women who taught the worship of trees, stones, and wells, who brew love potions
 and interpret dreams. Also, voudou-like dolls were present in their arts (Jane Crawford in "Evidences for Witchcraft in
 Anglo-Saxon England." Medium Ævum. 32:2, 1963). Some time later, a certain priest wrote "The Sermon of the Wolf to the
 English" (Sermo Lupi ad Anglos) in 1014, where he describes how in every district the "sanctuaries are too widely violated",
 the presence of "heathen vices", "degenerate apostates" and "witches and sorceresses"; he also describes the vices
 and devilry of the English people: corrupt, avaricious, incestuous, "with various fornications", fraudulent, infanticide,
 robber, adulterous, and where the "infants are enslaved", and "the father has sold his son for a price, and the son his mother,
 and one brother has sold the other into the power of foreigners", and "widows are widely forced to marry". Even worse,
 "we are not at all ashamed of it" and "injustice is too widely common among men and lawlessness is too widely dear to
 them." Now we know why continental Europeans referred England as the "Perfidious Avalon". This long prevalence of the
 pagan practices in England can be best understood if we assume that the English were under Pagan governments that
 subdued the region since 866 until the battle of Hastings of 1066: Vikings and Danish ruling Danelaw. Otherwise, Saint
 Boniface would have said the contrary.

 The christianization of Scotland is attributed to St. Kentigern (d. 603, also known as St. Mungo), and St. Columba (d. 597).
 By the early 8th century Christianity appears to have become dominant. In Wales, it started in the half of the VI century
 with St. David.

 The new lands that were outside the early Roman Empire were under the zeal of pioneer missionaries, and the complete
 christianization of these new lands took a time as long as 150-200 years. A time were Christianity coexisted with paganism
 and syncretism. Per example:

 St. Columban and adepts preached the Gospel in the Germanic Switzerland, Tirol and South Germany since 600. In "The Life
 of St. Columban", writen by the monk Jonas, we can read that he had his base in Bregenz / Brigantia (on the Swiss - Austrian
 frontier), where previously its Swabian inhabitants worshipped Wodan / Mercury, but "Many were converted then, by the
 preaching of the holy man, and turning to the learning and faith of Christ, were baptized by him. Others, who were already
 baptized but still lived in the heathenish unbelief [syncretism], like a good shepherd, he again led by his words to the faith
 and into the bosom of the Church".

 Around the year 525, near to the city of Cologne, subsisted a temple with images of gods, which received the cult from the
 local countrymen. Saint Gall burned the temple and tried to convert the population.

 A century after, and near the same river, the Rhin, St Amand (584-679) was consacrated as bishop of Worms in 626; he realised
 that pagan temples were still used in his diocese, so he got from the Frankish king Dagobert I (626-639) an ordinance to have
 all children baptised.

 St. Eligius (588 - 660) carried out the evangelization of the Flemish lands. He was the bishop of Noyon, but he traveled to
 preach the Gospel in the cities of Kortrijk, Antwerp, Ghent, etc., "because the inhabitants were still caught in the errors of
 the gentiles. Given over to vain superstition, they were wild peasants who could in no way comprehend the word of salvation."
 So that the local people "in Flanders and Antwerp, Frisians and Suevi and other barbarians coming from the seacoasts or
 distant lands not yet broken by the plow, received him with hostile spirits and averse minds. Yet a little later after he gradually
 began to insinuate the word of God among them by the grace of Christ, the greater part made truce and the barbarian people
 left their idols and converted, becoming subject to the true God and Christ. Thus like a light shining from heaven or the rays
 of the sun breaking through, he illuminated every barbarian land." (excerpts from Vita S. Eligius, ed. Levison, translated
 by Jo Ann McNamara and available at the Medieval Sourcebook). The conversion of the region is reafirmed in the same book:
 "He joined the struggle at Antwerp where he converted many erroneous Suevi; with apostolic authority. Protected by the
 shield of Christ, he destroyed many fanes. Wherever he found any sort of idolatry, he destroyed it at the foundation."

 St. Clemens starts the evangelization in Friesland - Nederlands near 690. In fact, the Frisian people remained pagan until
 Sergius, Pontiff of the Roman See [687-701] sent this Clemens, or Willibrord, as bishop and teacher to them. But some
 years after, St. Boniface wrote in a letter to the Pope (753), that the Frisian mission wasn't yet finished seeing that "a great
 part of them being still pagans", and thus, many thousands of men, women, and children were baptized by him.

 The Bajuvari (Bavarians), that have spread themselves over the whole of Upper Austria, were christianized by the Bishop of
 Worms, St. Rupert, who also baptized their Bavarian duke Theodo at Regensburg (Ratisbon), becoming so the Apostle of the
 Austrian Bajuvarii. He traveled and preached nearly as far as Lauriacum, settled in Salzburg, and there erected a see and
 founded the monastery of St. Peter (c. 700). Some decades after, St. Boniface found rather advanced the christianization
 of the region (Bavaria), but not enough because he meliorated the process. Before, according to the letter of Pope Gregory II
 commending him to the German Christians (722), he relates how "Knowing that some of the peoples in the parts of Germany
 that lie on the eastern bank of the Rhine have been led astray by the wiles of the devil and now serve idols under the guise of
 the Christian religion [Syncretism], and that others have not yet been cleansed by the waters of holy Baptism. [...]"; and
 again this same Pope notices in his letter to Charles Martel (in the same year also) that Boniface "is being sent to preach
 the faith to the peoples of Germany who dwell on the eastern bank of the Rhine, some of whom are still steeped in the efforts
 of paganism, while many more are plunged in the darkness of ignorance [syncretism or heresies]."
 In the biography of the saint "The Life of St. Boniface", Willibald relates how the saint preached through the pagan regions
 of Thuringia and Hessen  [in the core of Germany], converting many Germans to Catholicism, but also how "others, not yet
 strong in the spirit, refused to accept the pure teachings of the Church in their entirety. Moreover, some continued secretly,
 others openly, to offer sacrifices to trees and springs, to inspect the entrails of victims [syncretism]; some practiced divination,
 legerdemain, and incantations; some turned their attention to auguries, auspices, and other sacrificial rites; while others, of a
 more reasonable character, forsook all the profane practices of the Gentiles [i.e., pagans] and committed none of these crimes."
 Also in other more christianized zones in time, the syncretism had its followers, per example, in a visit of St. Boniface to the
 Bavarians, he "restored the sacraments of the faith to their primitive purity, and banned those men who destroyed churches
 and perverted the people. Some of these had arrogated to themselves the dignity of bishops, others the office of priests, while
 others, by these and by a thousand other lying pretexts had led the greater part of the populace into error [heresy]."
 
 

 

  ANIMISM AMONG THE MUSLIMS

  The Animistic worship which although so long and so often has been concealed from western, i.e., infidel observation,
  is found in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Sudan, all Arabia, Persia, Malaysia, and India. These ceremonies are
  considered Pagan and repulsive to orthodox Islam, but yet today continue under its shadow; so per example, in Istambul the
  directorate of muftis ordered to instal the next message in special tombs and trees: "It is forbidden by Islam to light candles,
  tie ribbons, stick stones for vows, toss coins, or sacrifice victims. This is a sin."; being the law usually not taken into account.

  The preeminent practice of an Animist origin is such of the maraboutism: the cult of the marabouts (a type of local
  saints-ancestors, "sidis", "sheiks"), performed in small shrines, and it includes ritual slaughters, the offering of incenses,
  ecstatic dances to reach trance, and the "reading" of the insides of the mentioned sacrificed animals. These "saints" have
  the power to heal diseases, but also they could also punish if neglected though diseases or misfortunes... It is thought that
  sidis acted as the local shamans, but what is sure, is that maraboutism is the deification of a man.

  Amazingly, anthropologist Wim van Binsbergen surveyed folk Islam in Tunisia in the sixties, and exactly in the villages of
  Khumiriya and Sidi Mhammad. In his on-line articles related to this matter, he describes maraboutism. Marabout's cult is
  performed in pious visits (zyãra) to shrines or with the twice-annual saintly festival near the shrine of its patron saint (zarda)
  - has the word "zarda" the same etymological origin than the Egyptians "zar" ?-, where ecstatic cults centered on affliction
  [fuqra, with fire and knives], congregation of religious brotherhoods, offerings of small amounts of incense, candles, etc.,
  and also the sacrifices of  domestic animals (chickens, goats, sheep, cows, or bulls) are executed. The saints are invoked there
  to send rain, to assist in the reproduction of domestic animals, to cure madness and reproductive troubles in humans, to
  enhance the general economic and physical well-being of the family, to control and ward off jnun/djinn (spirits of the wilds),
  to enhance the baraka of the house, the threshing floor, the spring and the men’s assembly, to protect people who depart on
  a long journey, to help people in their careers, to render supernatural sanctions to oaths, to inflict misfortune on humans at
  the request of their human rivals, etc. Otherwise, the same villagers attribute (via various techniques of divination) the
  intervention of marabouts when some cases of material misfortune, illness and even death have been inflicted due to the
  rage of the saints in revenging humans’ lack of respect, breach of promises, failure to dedicate meals and make pious visits,
  or neglect of duties vis-à-vis one saint while honoring the expectations of another saint.
  In fact, Van Binsbergen surveyed 35 adult women, and found that all of them were involved in maraboutism; its final remarks
  on this folk Islam were as himself says "In the rural communities; however, a popular, less formal and less strict version of
  Islam dominates; emphasizing saint worship [...] These popular aspects are by no means absent in the cities; but whereas in
  the cities they exist only in the shadow of, and are incessantly challenged by, the urban formal version which makes a claim
  of constituting orthodoxy, in the rural areas the popular version makes up the local religion par excellence." In conclusion,
  "Popular religion lives on at least to the extent to which the non-capitalist local subsistence economy lives on." But it is sure
  that the prevalence of maraboutism in cities was some decades ago a fact, per example, in the second holy city of Tunisia,
  Nefta, there are 100 zawis (marabout's tomb-shrines) and 20 mosques...

  A more deep trace of the survival of the Animism is the worship of trees. Special veneration to holy trees is offered in Syria,
  Palestine, Malaysia and all North Africa. But where in the desert or in Malaysia the holy tree is adored in all its pagan aspects
  [spiritism]; in the city usually the veneration is transferred to a convenient saint [maraboutism]. Per example, sacred trees are
  very common in Morocco, and the pilgrims tie up there a strip of cloth on the branches of the tree vowing to untie it on the
  fulfillment of some desire when they offer a sacrifice; the details of worship practically are the same everywhere. Also the
  worship of trees has in common with maraboutism the awe of dread consequences to those who injure the tree, where in
  maraboutism is when someone annoys the saint.

  Another sophisticated aspect of these heterodox practices is the same Arab astrology, that comprises invocations to the
  planets to be consulted: Venus, Mercury, Jupiter, etc.

  The zar ceremonies, practiced all along the Nile, have a resemblance very close with the better known voodoo: in a zar
  session, used usually to placate evil spirits, the parishioners drum, dance in white clothes, and offer ritual sacrifices; along
  with that, charms are recited to reach ecstatic trances. The sheik drives the ceremony, burning incenses (especially
  frankincense), spatting rose water over the performers, and giving to drink or sparkling the blood of the slaughtered animal
  (a hen, a cock); it is supposed that the leader is possessed, having so the way to come to terms with his/her "Jinn" or spirit,
  being therefore able to help others. The most interesting fact are the names of the same "jinn", or evil spirits: as Azuzar
  (associated with the ancient Osiris), or as Ausitu (known in the West as Isis). Ausitu (or Aysitu in Somalia) is still celebrated
  and given offerings by pregnant women so that she will provide them with a safe birth.

  These practices are, rather, akin to the old Arab 'taking refuge with the jinn' (AL-QURAN: sura LXXII, 6), denounced, it is true,
  by Mohammed as a minor polytheism, but compatible with acceptance and worship of Allah; and perhaps from that, the Islam
  has had its success: when Christianity denounced these practices as simply "demoniac", many nominal Christians from
  Egypt or Tunisia provably preferred to change their nominal religion at the arrival of the Arab conquerors.

  So, it is possible to think that in the ancient Roman Empire, firstly it was practiced the basic Animism - Polytheism of the
  Neolithic period, after it was melded with Hellenic-Roman divinities, after along with Christianity, and finally with Islam in the
  South. The unique difference is that where in Europe such syncretism lasted until around the VIII Century, in the south and
  the East it has survived just until nowadays, veiled under the Islam... although actually these Animist practices are
  disappearing where modernization has arrived.

  Such survival of Animism among nominal Christians before the Arab-Muslim conquest can be glimpsed throughout some
  ancient accounts that lead us to think on Maraboutism. Per example: we know that under the Vandal domination in 525, people
  called "perpetual flamines [high pagan priests]" were buried in Christian basilicas. Also we know about the case of
  Chrysaorius, that in order to find the secret place of a treasure, contacted with a group of sorcerers of Beirut that practiced
  necromancy in the tombs situated inside of a Christian funerary church, being the same guardian of the basilica a member of
  such group...
 
 

  Thirth set-back in 650-750: the Islamization ___________________________________________________

  By Arabs; in Syria, Egypt, Libya, Tunis, Algeria, Morocco, Portugal and South Spain (quick conversions by taxes).

  With the historic evidences, we know that the islamization was generally quick. Really, it is not a surprise how the invaders
  coming from the Arabic Peninsula could Islamize and Arabize in less than one century the majority of the populations under
  their power without use of priests or missionaries:

     TAXES: The muslims usually had respected the Jewish or Christian minorities, fact verified else in the beginning: once
     conquered the Christians, they had two options, the first one was to continue as Christians but paying for it an special tax
     (Jizyah); or the second one, it is to become Muslim and to save this tax... Imagine the case where an Islamic government
     could take the power in your country and could impose you in this dilemma: to continue as Christian (or Atheist or
     Agnostic), but paying 3.5 times more taxes, or to become Muslim and to save it ...? The most sure was that the conquered
     people, the mostly humble peoples, were "converted" to the new religion in order to escape of more fiscal pressures, but
     continuing as "chriptochristians"... but the new generations were educated in the Islamism in order to no convert them in
     citizens of second category and without conscience's problems. As result of this "artificial selection", the Christians in the
     Muslim countries, with the time, were transformed in a rich urban elite dedicated to the liberal professions.
     MATRIMONY: The Koranic law orders that a Muslim male can marry a Christian female, but the Christians haven't the right
     to marry Muslim females. Otherwise, the children of the first case ever must be instructed in the Islamic religion. Logically,
     with this system, the rise of the Muslim population will be thanks to the decrease of the Christian population, with the time.
     CUSTOMS: In order to difference Christians and Muslims, and to profit it to humiliate Christians, the Arabs disposed rules
     as that Christians must clothe different, or that they can't ride with mounts, and every time rear of the Muslims.
     INTERESTS: The unique way to achieve substantial upward mobility in the Muslim societies at large was conversion to
     Islam: the military, administrative and political jobs were granted only for those professing Islam.
 

  Richard W. Bulliet, in his book "Conversion to Islam in the Medieval Period: An Essay in Quantitative History", has traced
  "~ diagonal"-shaped curves of conversion from Christianity based on statistical analysis of names of Islamic jurisprudents,
  the period covered between the Islamic conquest and the almost complete islamization of Iran, Al-Andalus, Iraq, Syria and
  Egypt took place, according to him, in some 250-300 years. It should be advised, that magistrates lived in environments and
  social strata not very common in the Middle Ages.

  The religious statistics showed here come principally by calculating the total amount of jizyah recollected divided per the
  number of members in a Christian family (with an average of 5 in such epoch). Other source are the statistics made by the
  Ottoman Empire about the religion of its citizens. The ciphers of populations and religious groups are approximates.
 

  EGYPT -

  Before the islamic invasion (644), they were Copts (heretic Christianity Monophysite, or that Christ never was human, only
  divine) and contraries to the Byzantine power, Catholic-Orthodox in such epoch.

 

Year        Total population                                                              Christians        Muslims    ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯         0           4500000                                                                                 Polytheism      300          3200000 (social and economic crisis of the Empire)       15%      600          2700000                                                                         99%                  0%      661          2700000                                                                         73%                26%      680          2700000                                                                         40%                59%      790          2700000                                                                         33%                66%      810          2700000                                                                         22%                77%     1121         2000000 (Low Nile's level = famine and poor harvest)     1315         4000000     1248         2660000 (Plague)     1882                                                                                                8%                 90%     1995       59200000                                                                          8%                 90%     ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯

  NORTH AFRICA ( CABILIA TUNIS ) -

  In 285, Diocletian withdrew the Mauritanian "limes" until the oued Loukkos, reducing thus the Mauritania Tingitana to the
  territory of Tanger: in Northern Africa the Romans - Byzantines only had an effective control over Northern Morocco
  ( El-Riff ), Numidia, Tunisia, coastal Libya, and Egypt; with Christian presence. The Romanized, and Christianized
  zones in the Maghreb were: Eastern Argelia or Cabylia (c. 425.000 inhab.) and Tunisia (c. 400.000 inhab.).The population
  when was urban surely was Romanized and Catholic in the big cities, joint an important Punic minority, being majority in
  the towns and the Roman population minoritary: It is possible to doubt of a complete romanization of North Africa; the fact
  that Punic was spook by the elites in secondary towns when St. Augustine lived, means an status quo of the situation after
  the Vandal conquest (anti-Roman and anti-Catholic), followed equally after the Byzantine conquest (Greek-speaking): indeed,
  scholars see how the Latin presence in Africa ebbs everywhere in Africa excepting NE Tunisia during the Byzantine period.
  Moreover, scarce Roman toponymy has been left (RIPA>El-Rif - range, CAPSA>Gafsa - city). That hasn't a correspondence
  with the case of Hispania, where the ancient romance (Mossarab) has left many traces along the Arab ones (Ficaire, Porto
  Petro, Capileira, Pitres, Ferreirola, Caprala, Fornaire, Almoster...) and such language is well known to us. ... As one can see,
  the Semitic psychology, customs and language (Arab), were not so alien for many at the arrival of the Islam, when the Arabs
  got the control of the zone in 647. Scattered all over the Maghreb, the nomad Berber populations were surely Animist or
  Syncretistic (Christianity with an Animism-Fetishism); these, yet today, are syncretic because nowadays they aren't deeply
  Islamized and practice ritual sacrifices for the djinns or spirits, amulets, etc. About the Christian Punic sector, their religiosity
  would have been somewhat similar at the situation of the Visigothic Hispania (widespread syncretized Donatist Christianity
  before the Arab conquest); this can be adduced because until the last century it was practiced all over of the region the cult
  to the Marabouts (a type of local saints-ancestors) in small shrines, performing ritual slaughters, offering incenses, dancing
  to induce trances, and "reading" the insides of sacrificed animals. These "saints" could heal diseases, but they could too
  punish if neglected though diseases or misfortunes... that can remember us certainly to the persistence of an Animist culture
  amidst of a region officially Muslim until the advent of the pro-secularization governments of the XX Century (nothing to
  comment what is the situation among the Black Muslims South of the Sahara nowadays...); and if Animism had (has?)
  survived until recently in these Muslim countries, Christianity should have been melded too when it was the predominant
  religion, otherwise it wouldn't be possible to explain the presence of these non-Muslim cults along with the religion of
  Muhammad.

     According to the historians Ibn Khaldun and Ibn Abdel (XIV c.) the islamization was very fast... They relate that after
  100 years conquered, the "infidels" passed to the Islam. There aren't motives to don't trust them: as in the Al-Andalus,
  as in Egypt, the conversions were quick too; some facts can lead us to such conclusion, as per example that late in the VIII
  Century, the Berbers of Tunisia took the Jarigite heresy (Muslim sect) as flag, not the Christianity, or as the relate of Ibn
  Khaldoun about that in the year 788, Idriss I eliminated all REST of Judaism, Christianity and Magism in the Fez's region.
  Indeed, the last official church presence in Marocco is in an episcopal account by the Pope Leo of  883, where no
  bishop appears for Africa (the last reference to a Moroccan bishop was for one in Tangier in the early 9th Century).
  For the rest of the area, the Christianity in the Maghrib was similarly erased: many Latin Catholics fleed towards Sicily,
  Sardinia or Italy after the conquest; and those that were Punic Donastists quickly became Muslim, so that by 1053, pope
  Leo IX comments that in all Africa only there are five bishops. Some years after, Gregory VII in his communication with
  the bishop of Cathage Cyriacus, mentions that he is the last bishop of Africa.
 

  AL-ANDALUS (SPAIN PORTUGAL) -

  Romanized and Catholic in the moment of the arab conquest in 711. The islamization was fast here: in the middle of the
  IX century, the "qora" (region) of Cordoba was divided between a 72% of Muslim alqueries or villages and a 27% as Christian
  (the alqueries couldn't have a religious mix). About the urban Christians, they had, equal as the Jews, a district (ghetto); with
  this fact we can calculate the fraction of Christian population measuring the portion of "ghetto" respect the total area of the
  city: In the Pirenaic city of Huesca, reconquered in the last of the XI century, the Christian district occupied 1/8 in the Islamic
  epoch (=12% of Christian / Mozarabian inhabitants).

  To get a picture of the rate of conversion to the Islam, we must look onto the Mozarabs (from the Arab "mustarab", arabized),
  those Hispano-Romans who had not converted to Islam but who had remained in al-Andalus. The degree of arabization of
  these Mozarabs, could be taken to assert the rate of Islamization: if a society was mainly Muslim --speaking mainly or only
  Arab then--, it would have affected the speech and customs of the remaining Christians (Mozarabs), in the way that as less
  Romance speakers we could find less possibilities to find Christians: a passage from the Indiculus luminosus of Paulus
  Albarus, is often quoted since it states that the Christian youths of ninth-century Cordoba couldn't speak their own tongue
  (Latin) by lack of use. Another good clue would be the account of Eulogius about the plans of the Andalusian king Muham-
  mad I in 853 to stop certain Christian protests, toying with the idea of "killing all Christian men and dispersing their women
  by selling them into slavery, except those who spurned their religion and converted to his cult." [From the Memoriale
  Sanctorum]. Likely, according to Eulogius, Muhammad's predecessor had at one point considered the same course of action;
  and these ethnic cleanings were not necessarily exaggerations on Eulogius' part: Al-Hakam I, per example, dealt with a revolt
  of 818 by razing a rebellious quarter and deporting its inhabitants. Then, we can deal with the fact that isn't "rational" to
  cleanse ethnically a country if the nation to cleanse is majority, on the contrary, that nation "must" be very minoritary in
  order to expel it and to avoid depopulation, permanent rebellion and economical failure. Around the X Century, the Mozarabs
  were forming substantial minorities in Cordoba, Toledo, and other large cities, as well as in many areas of the countryside.
  And by the time Toledo was conquered in 1085, the indigenous Christian population was composed wholly of monolingual
  Arabic-speakers. (!)
  The Mozarab society is said to have been very receptive to heterodox religious trends (p.e.: the Adoptionism in the VIII
  Century), and to have had the same liberal morality and customs as their Muslim neighbors.  Finally, they were expelled from
  the Al-Andalus due to new waves of Berber invaders: the Almoravids firstly (1090-1145), the Almohads after (1157-1212).

  Other fact is, what religious panorama found the Arabs in Hispania in 711 ? Much can be said from the informations given
  in "Paganism and Pagan Survivals in Spain up to the Fall of the Visigothic Kingdom", by Stephen McKenna.
  With the restoration in Spain of the religious unity of 589, it brought the influence of Christianity closer to the peasants
  among whom paganism had cast the deepest roots by means of establishing new parish churches and monasteries in the
  rural districts. The victory against the paganism was apparently so clear that in the next councils and legislations, it weren't
  promulgated specific canons against it, being only augury and magic rites the unique pagan practices condemned.
  (p.e., the Forum Iudicum). But this situation revealed to be false, or at least as not really certain, partly, because the marked
  deterioration of the ecclesiastical organization that we can witness after the mid VII Century was indirectly involved on a
  revival of paganism. [May be the paganism never disappeared but it survived under strict concealment]:  It is significant that
  Egica in his address opening the sixteenth council of Toledo (693), which took action against the evil of idolatry in the form
  of idol worshippers (veneratores idolorum), megalith venerators (veneratores lapidum), worshippers of holy springs
  (excolentessacra fontium), and augurs and sorcerers (auguratores seu quoque praecantatores), lamented the fact that
  many churches were without the services of priests and were in a dilapidated condition at that time; and this fact
  puzzles me, because of the religiosity of the Iberians was said to be high... and it leads me to think that the churches and its
  priests weren't seen for those Hispanics as necessary for their religion, seeking religious guidance surely on the hands of
  sorcerers or shamans. Valerius (c. 630-695) describes in his autobiography the sad condition of the monastic life in Galicia,
  where people from the lowest classes of society were admitted to the cloister and some were even forced to become monks
  in order that the monasteries might not remain empty. Instead of practicing virtue these monks associated with people who
  had committed robbery, murder, and who practiced magic and other unspeakable crimes. In the autobiography, Valerius tells
  us how he chanced upon a nocturnal meeting in the forest and gives a vivid picture of the unbecoming songs and dances in
  which a priest, forgetful of his sacred calling, played the principal part. Valerius also describes a meeting he had with some
  peasants who were practicing idolatrous worship on the top of a mountain (provably worshipping Jupiter Candamius). At the
  sight of these abominable practices Valerius was filled with anger, and he at once summoned a number of faithful Christians
  and proceeded to rout these worshipers and destroy their sanctuaries. Whether the people who practiced these pagan
  sacrifices were actually Christians or not is difficult to determine, but the fact that Valerius summoned "faithful Christians"
  would seem to imply that these peasants, like those in the time of Martin of Braga, weren't indeed "faithful" Christians to him
  [= Syncretism]. The seventeenth council of Toledo (694) censured the conduct of certain priests who celebrated a Requiem
  Mass for a living person with the intention of procuring the death of this individual. The reader can think trustfully that the
  spiritual condition of the parishioners would have been really far from good with this lack of priests and above all the lack of
  good priests: The opening words of the 11th council declared that the long period of years during which the light of the
  councils had been withdrawn, had led to an increase of vice and ignorance "the mother of all errors." In a letter of the Bishop
  Quiricus of Barcelona we read: "The necessity of the times so wears down the spirit that there is no joy in life because of the
  evils that threaten." And the bishops at the 16th council of Toledo lamented the fact that "the sin of perjury has become
  deeply rooted."
  So, it isn't rare that suddenly in the closing years of the Visigothic kingdom some forms of paganism as the worship of the
  fountains, trees or stones, became serious enough to deserve special legislation at the national councils of Toledo in 681 and
  in 693: The spiritual state among the Hispanics was worsening so much, that the Visigothic king Erwig (680-693) proceeded to
  call a meeting of the Spanish hierarchy at Toledo. The ruler urged the assembled bishops to take immediate action against the
  abuses that had arisen in the kingdom in order that "by your zealous government the earth may be purged of the contagion of
  the wickedness." And one of the principal evils that engaged the attention of the bishops was that of idolatry. The eleventh
  canon of this council begins with the words of Exodus against the worship of idols: "Thou shalt not make to thyself a graven
  thing, etc.," and quoted the stern penalty of Deuteronomy against idolaters: "Thou shalt bring forth the man or woman who
  have committed that most wicked thing [idolatry] and they shall be stoned." The council warned all who practiced
  superstitious worship that they were offering sacrifices to the devil, and it ordered that all the places desecrated by pagan
  worship should be destroyed. Thus, the same policy which the 3rd council of Toledo in 589 had recommended was still being
  followed by the twelfth council in 681: the bishop and the secular judge were charged with the destruction of the sacred
  fountains, stones, and trees, and the prosecution of idolaters. The regulation of this council indicates that the places defiled
  by pagan practices were not yet destroyed and that many people were still practicing idolatry, being the idolaters going to
  exceed, or exceeding the numbers of the orthodox Catholics: it is evident because of that council treated the idolatry as a real
  menace to be feared. Twelve years after, in the 16th council, the question of pagan practices was again discussed. In the tome
  which Egica (688-702) addressed to the assembled prelates he declared that the many misfortunes from which the land
  suffered were a punishment from God for the sins of the people [as a whole...]; one of these evils was the prevalence of
  pagan practices.
  Moreover, it is possible to track the trace of the early Animism that survived among the nominal Christians in the Visigothic
  period and afterwards among the Muslim converted Hispanics: once conquered the Al-Andalus, the Santa Inquisición
  investigated the dissidents, as was the inquisitorial process against Don Cosme Abenamin, a Valencian Morisco [mayor,
  44, nominally Christian but witness referred him as a Muslim that used to perform Muslim practices as Ramadan, teaching
  the Koran, reciting of suras, etc.; 1567] "An Argelian Moor of 25 referred how Cosme 'brought to his home a Moor woman
  who was a witch, known by the Moriscos as "nadara", to find a treasure and pearls that the former mayor earthed in an
  unknown place" [...] "In Chiva there is an alfaqui [Muslim priest] named Xixonet who teaches the Coran and Mahommetican
  practices to the young Moriscos. It happens also in Bolbayt and other places where there are alfequis, the Christian names of
  them the witness ignores, all of advanced age, least the Buleylet, who is of 30 to 35 years old, and practices witchcraft
  invoking demons and heals the sick persons as a doctor". Other interesting inquisitorial process is that against Don Sancho
  de Cardona, Admiral of Aragon and Christian nobleman, but accused of heresy and to send letters requesting at the Turkish
  Sultan to invade Spain with his support and the support of his Moriscos; in Adzaneta "he saw a ruined building, which was in
  the Moorish times a mosque where in certain days of each year many Moors came there to perform eves and ceremonies" [...]
  "time ago, when the Moors weren't Christened the Moriscos of Valencia came together to practice such ceremonies in such
  mosque falsely alleging that there was a sepulcher of a saint Moor." [Maraboutism]. Thereafter, Sancho ordered to fix the
  mosque, and so: "many Moriscos came there from such village and from the Vall de Guadalest, from Granada, Aragon and
  Catalonia and from other parts of this kingdom men and women to perform their Moorish ceremonies and many times it came
  together more than 600 persons, many of them arriving there barefoot as in a procession" [...] "in certain times of each year to
  practice ceremonies with alfequis dressed in their way" [...].

  Having seen it: that before of the Muslim conquest, the Hispanics were syncretical and with low moral standards, I'm
  somewhat expectant if the History will not be repeated as it usually happens, since a similar situation exists nowadays in
  Spain: the morality is regarded with disdain, and unbelievers and syncretics exceed the orthodox Christians.
 
 

  PALESTINE (ISRAEL STATE) -

  Before to treat this region, it is worth to relate that in this area, where some of the first cities and first agricultural societies
  appeared around the VIII milennia b.C., in the III milennia b.C. Semitic tribes occupied the territory, so that their inhabitants
  came to be the Canaaneans (related to the Phoenicians). Around 1250 b.C Hebraic tribes invaded this land, and according
  to the Bible it was ordered the almost absolute extermination of its previous inhabitants; of course such action was
  not accomplished and Hebraics and Canaanites lived together, but being Hebraics the rulers (this was the epoch of Josuah,
  David and Solomon, but also the epoch of the Filistean invasion). By the outlook that gives us the Bible, it seems that
  Hebraics and Canaanites mainly mixed together, and even in religious matters, so it seems that the population was nominaly
  Jewish but pagan in heart. After, the north part was occuped by the Assyrians and the Hebraic elite was deportated
  (known as The Lost Tribes, VIII Century) and substituted by Assyrian colons, only the Canaanite peasants remained there,
  and then with such blending of populations appeared the Samaritan people of Jewish religion (but migled otherwise with
  politheism). In the south, the Jewish (an Hebraic tribe) keept their territory. In the I and II centuries, the Jews revolted
  against the Roman Empire, and by that were expelled from Palestine, so in this way they stared their last Exodus. In the
  other side, the Samaritans remained there and finally were absorved by the invading Arabs, forsaking their previous
  religions by Islam: they came to be the modern Palestines.

  It seems that the Samaritans neveer acquired Christianity (at least in massively) according the data provided by Procopius
  of Caesarea: under the repressive laws against Heathenism and Judaism of Justinian, "who lived in my own Caesarea and
  in the other cities, deciding it silly to suffer harsh treatment over a ridiculous trifle of dogma, took the name of Christians in
  exchange for the one they had borne before, by which precaution they were able to avoid the perils of the new law. The most
  reputable and better class of these citizens, once they had adopted this religion, decided to remain faithful to it; the majority,
  however, as if in spite for having not voluntarily, but by the compulsion of law, abandoned the belief of their fathers
  [Judaism], soon slipped away into the Manichean sect and what is known as polytheism." After, Procopius gives us some
  examples of such nominal Christianity: as that of the Samaritan Arsenius, that as not to lose his official rank and power,
  became a nominal Christian; or that of Faustin who accepted a nominal Christianity and in this way succeed in Byzantine
  rangs but keeping secretly its previous religion; afterwards he was accused to persecute Christians.

  This was the ethnic and religious situation of Palestine before the Muslim conquest of the VII Century.
 

  SYRIA -

  Majority Jacobite (Monophisites, as the Copts). The Catholic-Orthodoxes were named Melkites (="followers of the king",
  Byzantines...). It seems that the Islamization was slow here: the Arab scribe of the IX century Al-Djahiz was surprised about
  the fact that the monogamy of the Christians filled MORE the region than the Muslims with their polygamy. It doesn't until the
  country is occupied by the Mamelucs that the great remnant of Christian groups "pass" to the Islam.

 

Year       Total population                                  Christians          Muslims   ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯      633          4000000                                               99%                  0%   (the 80% as       730          4000000                                               93%                  6% - descendants      900          4000000                                               49%                50%   of Arabs)     1199         2700000 (Crusades & Mamelucs)          15% ?             84% ?     1343         1200000 (Mongols)                               10%                89%     1350         1000000                                               10%                89%     1580         1419000                                                 8%                91%     1995       14500000                                                 9%                90%    ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯

  MESOPOTAMIA (IRAQ) -

  Quick islamization of a Manichean and Nestorian population (heresy where Jesuchrist is viewed as a man possessed by
  God, and not as humanity and divinity together). Under Sassanid rulers. In the epoch of the conquest, they conformed
  9.100.000 inhabitants; the islamization was so quick that the governors were forced to extend the capitulation tax to the
  converted in order to protect their financial sources. By the total amount of taxes recompiled by the Mongols, after their
  invasion of 1258, we know that in the region dwelt 5.000.000 inhab. In the Ottoman census of the XIV century appears
  a 2.5% as christian (!). Nowadays there are 21.300.000 inhabitants, where a 3% are Christians.
 
 

 Fourth wave 800-950__________________________________________________________________________

 Saxony (conquered); Austria (colons); Czech, Slovakia, Serbia, Bulgaria (court).

 The Saxons are conquered by Carlemagne in 800, and he forced them to become Christians or to die.

 The Czech - Moravian region is christianized since 850 with the help of its sovereigns (Ratislaw), and by Cirillus & Methodius.

 At the end of the 9th century the Serbs adopted Christianity. To argument this, science has taken the appearance of the first
 Christian names within the Serbs. It is known that Vlastimir's grandsons were named Stefan (Mutimir's son) and Petar
 (Gojnik's son). Presumably, they were born between 870-874. Little is known about the early phase of the Christianization of
 Serbs. Most probably the first missionaries were Methodius' disciples and priests of the archbishopric in Split, who spoke in
 Latin. Apparently the upper layers of Serbian society first embraced Christianity, while the majority of the population
 retained its old Slavic pagan religion. See the anterior ( MAP 5 ).

 

 Fifth wave 950-1050____________________________________________________________________________

 Poland (court), Hungary (court), Denmark (court), Sweden (court), Norway (court), Russia-Ukraine (court): region of
 St. Petersburg/Kiev, Austria (colonization).

 The Germanic expansion towards the southeast (Austria mainly, occupied by heathen Slavs), started with Charlemagne
 after conquering the region at the Avars, but the arrival of the Magyars prevented to develop the colonization of the area
 as it was lost. But the emperor Otho was able to recapture the region, and colonization started with Germans coming from
 Bayern and from the Frankonia, a colonization managed by the church. By 996 the name "Austrian" appears first, and six
 years after a castle is build in the ancient place of Vindobona (Vien).

 St. Ansgar preached the Christianity in the future Denmark and Sweden since c. 850 with the support of its kings (Horich I,
 Hergeir), but the Gospel hadn't much success in the peasantry until the end of the X Century: in the translation of Bishop
 Rimbert's "Life of Anskar" (801-865) it is told how the author of the Chronicon Corbeiensis for the year 936, referring to
 the Christians in Sweden, states that the Christian religion which Anskar, Rimbert, Gautbert, and Nithard had preached
 [in Denmark and Sweden] was well nigh extinct and that the worship of idols prevailed. Adam of Bremen, referring to a period
 half a century or more after the death of Anskar writes, "Let it suffice us to know that up to this time all the kings of the Danes
 had been pagans, and amid so great changes of kingdoms or inroads of barbarians some small part of the Christianity that had
 been planted by Anskar had remained, the whole had not failed."

 In Norway, Hungary, Russia - Ukraine and Poland, the Christianity comes in the hands of their sovereigns, that converts their
 kingdoms  and their citizens to Christians not without coercion sometimes. (King St. Stephanus, Vladimir I, Duke Mieczyslav).