Beginning in the seventh century, the expansion of
Islam brought with it an outpouring of peoples from
the Arabian Peninsula. While the composition of
these Islamic armies became more diverse as the
religion spread through the Near East and across
North Africa to Western Europe, there were clearly
elements of both the urban Arabian population, of
which the Prophet was a member, and the rural
Bedouins, whose migrations from their original
homeland continued sporadically for several
centuries. This slowed during the period of Turkish
hegemony, but it left a scattering of enclaves
identifying themselves as ethnic Arabs throughout
the Islamic world.