But as good as they were at making war, it's still tempting to chalk up the Arab success to, you know, the will of God. And certainly a lot of the people they conquered felt that way. Empires in this part of the world didn't just pit people against each other, they also pitted their gods against each other. So while the Islamic empire didn't require its subjects to convert to Islam, their stunning successes certainly convinced a lot of people that this monotheism thing was legit. Once again, John Green proving super hip to the slang of today's youngins. Also you paid lower taxes if you converted and just as taxes on cigarettes lead to people not wanting to smoke, taxes on worshipping your idols lead to people not wanting to worship them anymore. So in a period of time that was, historically speaking, both remarkably recent and remarkably short, a small group of people from an area of the world with no natural resources managed to create one of the great empires of the world and also one of its great religions.