Conquest to Conversion

North Africa (west of Egypt) is a compelling locale to explore how and when Muslim minority became the majority. Previous scholarly approaches medieval religious change rely almost exclusively on much later written sources, as result, little understood about landscape in which believers operated in. This article examines critically material evidence for mosque construction church abandonment proposes certain tipping points process by Islam become dominant religion. While reveals more state elite investment than who may have used them, other forms evidence, including funerary dietary practices inscribed culture, occasionally give us an intimate glimpse into simple believers. The shows that chronology differs between those regions under Byzantine rule (eastern Algeria, Tunisia, coastal Libya), ruled Berber chiefdoms late antiquity. Much latter converted 8th century, whereas 9th century marks mass conversion town dwellers from core first period crisis Christianity. early was important factor collapse caliphate emergence successor states main idiom through establish legitimize their right rule.