There&#x27;s of course an alternative explanation for the libertarianism experienced at the start of the islamic conquests.<p>The first few centuries the explanation was simply : there were no muslims the vast majority of the region talked about. The islamic golden age was Christians, mostly under a fractured and declining Christian government (a theocracy in some respects even), Persians and Hindus. VERY few muslims. Therefore there is a case to be made that islam simply spread during a golden age of Christian civilization, during a golden age of the Eastern Roman Empire mostly.<p>In the later centuries, when the situation was already deteriorating dramatically and even then that was still true. Vast, vast majorities of non-muslims, with a small muslim elite running the government, but all economic activity in Christian&#x2F;Hindu (and some cases Jewish) hands. When the regions hit a little over 10% muslim population the situation became untenable and everything collapsed, never to improve until the oil.<p>Even today, when you count workers, Saudi Arabia does not have a muslim-majority economy (note that they have unemployment of &gt;70% when you discount immigrants). In fact, it may not even have a muslim-majority population, depending on what numbers you believe.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;List_of_countries_by_immigrant_population" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;List_of_countries_by_immigrant...</a>