The Rise of Muslim World  Evaluate the conditions that led

The Background of Islam to the rise and spread of Islam in

Arabia Before Islam Arabia and establishment of
Early Life of the Prophet Islamic welfare state in Madinah
Muhammad
 Examine through timeline the
The Prophet at Madinah course and main events of
The Conquest of Makkah
caliphate
The Caliphate
The Umayyads  Assess the main events that
The Abbasids occurred over the course of
The Umayyads in Spain earliest Muslim dynasties
The Fatimids
ARAB BEFORE ISLAM
• Jahiliyyah is an Islamic concept referring to the period of time and
state of affairs in Arabia before the advent of Islam in 610 CE. It is
often translated as the "Age of Ignorance".
• The term jahiliyyah is derived from the verbal root jahala "to be
ignorant or stupid, to act stupidly".
PEOPLE OF ARAB
Sedentary Arabs
• Sedentary Arabs who inhabited cities or rural areas (towns, villages or oases). In
pre-Islamic Arabia, most sedentary Arabs were of Arabian origin.
Bedouin tribes
• Consisted many of major clans and the tribes were nomadic. The lineage followed
through males, since the tribes were named after the male ancestors.
Sollubaa
• The Solluba were a Ḥutaymi tribal group in the northern part of the Arabian
Peninsula who were clearly distinguishable from the Arabs. The Solubba
maintained a distinctive lifestyle as isolated nomads. The origin of the Solluba is
obscure. They have been identified with the Selappayu in Akkadian records, and a
clue to their origin is their use of desert kites and game traps, first attested to in
around 7,000 BCE, which makes them the pre-Semitic inhabitants of Arabia.
RELIGION IN PRE-ISLAMIC ERA
• Included polytheism, Christianity, Judaism.
• Arabian polytheism, the dominant form of religion in pre-Islamic
Arabia, was based on veneration of deities and spirits. Worship was
directed to various gods and goddesses, including Hubal and the
goddesses al-Lāt, Al-‘Uzzá and Manāt, at local shrines and temples
such as the Kaaba in Mecca.
• Many of the physical descriptions of the pre-Islamic gods are traced
to idols, especially near the Kaaba, which is said to have contained up
to 360 of them.
ISLAM: 7TH CENTURY
• In the 7th century Arabia becomes the cradle of the world's third
great monotheistic religion. All three have begun within a small area
of southwest Asia. First Judaism, somewhere in the region stretching
up from the Red Sea to Palestine; then Christianity at the northern
end of this area; and finally Islam to the south, in Mecca, close to the
Red Sea.
• It is on Mount Hira, according to tradition, that the archangel Gabriel
appears to Muhammad. He describes later how he seemed to be
grasped by the throat by a luminous being, who commanded him to
repeat the words of God. On other occasions Muhammad often has
similar experiences (though there are barren times, and periods of
self doubt, when he is sustained only by his wife Khadija's unswerving
faith in him).

From about 613 Muhammad preaches in Mecca the message which

he has received.
• Muhammad's message is essentially the existence of one God, all-powerful but
also merciful, and he freely acknowledges that other prophets - in particular
Abraham, Moses and Jesus - have preached the same truth in the past.

But monotheism is not a popular creed with those whose livelihood depends
on idols. Muhammad, once he begins to win converts to the new creed, makes
enemies among the traders of Mecca
• The people of Yathrib, a prosperous oasis, welcome Muhammad and his
followers. As a result, the move from Mecca in 622 comes to seem the
beginning of Islam.
• Yathrib is renamed Madinat al Nabi, the 'city of the prophet', and thus
becomes known as Medina. Here Muhammad steadily acquires a
stronger following. He is now essentially a religious, political and even
military leader rather than a merchant.
• He continues to preach and recite the words which God reveals to
him.
• The final and definitive text of the Qur'an is established under the
third caliph, Othman, in about 650.
THE MUSLIMS AND MAKKAH
• Relations with Mecca deteriorate to the point of pitched battles
between the two sides, with Muhammad leading his troops in the
field. But in the end it is his diplomacy which wins the day.

He persuades the Meccans to allow his followers back into the city, in
629, to make a pilgrimage to the Ka'ba and the Black Stone.
MEDINA AS A POLITICAL CENTRE
• An important element in Mecca's peaceful acceptance of the change
has been Muhammad's promise that pilgrimage to the Ka'ba will
remain a central feature of the new religion.

So Mecca becomes, as it has remained ever since, the holy city of

Islam. But Medina is by now where Muhammad and his most trusted
followers live. And for the next few decades Medina will be the
political centre of the developing Muslim state.
MUHAMMAD PBUH AND THE
CALIPHATE
• There is no clear successor to Muhammad among his followers. The
likely candidates include Abu Bakr (the father of Muhammad's wife 
A'isha) and Ali (a cousin of Muhammad and the husband of
Muhammad's daughter Fatima). Abu Bakr is elected, and takes the
title 'khalifat rasul-Allah'.

The Arabic phrase means 'successor of the Messenger of God'. It will

introduce a new word, caliph, to the other languages of the world
HAZRAT ABU BAKAR (R.A)
• Abu Bakr, the first caliph, lives no more than two years after the death
of Muhammad( SAW). Even so, within this brief time Muslim armies
have begun their astonishing expansion, subduing the whole of Arabia
and striking as far north as Palestine.

Abu Bakr (R.A) is succeeded in 634 by Omar(R.A)who in 638 captures 

Jerusalem.
• Six years later Omar is stabbed in the mosque at Medina.
OTHMAN (R.A) THE 3RD CALIPH
• Othman, chosen as the third caliph, is a son-in-law of Muhammad. By
the end of his reign, in 656, Arabs have conquered as far afield as
north Africa, Turkey and Afghanistan.

Othman, like his predecessor, is assassinated - but this time by

rebellious Muslims. They choose ALI R.A another son-in-law of
Muhammad, as the fourth caliph. For the first time within the Muslim
community the selected caliph is the choice of just one faction. Ali's
caliphate eventually provokes the only major sectarian split in the
history of Islam, between Sunni and Shi'a.
• Raised to the position of caliph by rebels, Ali spends most of his reign
in conflict with other Muslims. He wins the first battle, near Basra in
656, against an army fighting in support of Muhammad's
widow, A'isha R.A. She is herself in the fray, riding a camel, with the
result that the event is remembered as the 'battle of the camel'.

But it is Ali's last success. The governor of Syria, Mu'awiya, wages a

prolonged campaign against him to avenge the murder of the
caliph Othman, his kinsman.
THE UMMAYYAD CALIPHATE
• Mu'awiya, the leader of the struggle against Ali and his supporters,
establishes himself after Ali's R.A death in 661 as the undisputed caliph.
His power base has been Syria. Damascus now becomes the capital of
the first Muslim dynasty and the centre of the new Arab empire.
• Mu'awiya is a member of one of the most prominent families of Mecca,
the Umayya. Against considerable opposition he establishes a new
principle - that the role of caliph shall be hereditary rather than
elected. For the next century and more it is passed on within his family.
The Umayyad dynasty will rule from Damascus until 750 and then will
establish another kingdom at Cordoba, in Spain.
THE SPLIT IN ISLAM
• After the death of Ali, opponents of the new Umayyad dynasty promote
the claims of Ali's two sons, Hasan and Husayn (grandsons of
Muhammad). Their party becomes known as Shi'at Ali (the 'party of Ali').
The political cause crumbles after the death of the brothers (Hasan dies
in about 669 and Husayn, subsequently the most holy of Shi'ite martyrs,
is killed in the battle of Karbala in 680). But their faction has from now on
a lasting religious disagreement with the Islam of the caliphs.

The main group under the caliphate becomes known as Sunni (those
following Sunna, the orthodox rule) and the new schismatic sect acquires
the name of Shi'as or Shi'ites, from the original name of their party.
THE ABBASIDS CALIPHATE
• Persia is the region in which resistance comes to a head against the caliphate
of the Umayyad in Damascus. The uprising is partly a simple struggle between
Arab factions, each of impeccable pedigree in relation to the pioneers of
Islam. A revolt in Persia in 747 is headed by descendants of al-Abbas, an uncle
of the prophet Muhammad. Their new caliphate, established in 750, will be
known as Abbasid.
• The involvement of Persia is also significant. The Umayyad caliphate in
Damascus derives from the early days of Islam when all Muslims are Arabs.
But many Muslims in the east are now Persian, and Persian sophistication is
beginning to divert Muslim culture from its simple Arab origins.
 
• Abbasid forces reach and capture Damascus in 750. Abul Abbas is
proclaimed the first caliph of a new line. Male members of the
Umayyad family are hunted down and killed ;though one survives to
establish a new Umayyad dynasty in Spain.
• The center of gravity of the Muslim world now moves east, from Syria
to Mesopotamia. In 762 a new capital city, Baghdad, is founded on
the Tigris.
• At no time is this more evident than in the reign of the best-known of
the Abbasid caliphs, Harun al-Rashid.
• The luxury and delight of Harun al-Rashid's Baghdad, in the late 8th
century, has been impressed on the western mind by one of the most
famous works of Arabic literature - the Thousand and One Nights. Some
of the stories are of a later date, but there are details in them which
certainly relate to this period when for the first time a Muslim court has
the leisure and prosperity to indulge in traditional oriental splendor.
• The caliphate is now at its widest extent, with reasonable calm on most
borders.
ISLAM AND OTHER RELIGION
• Muslims are instructed in the Qur'an to be tolerant of the two older
and closely related religions, Judaism and Christianity, which share
with Islam the essential characteristics of monotheism and a sacred
book; they are all linked in the phrase 'people of the book'. Jews and
Christians have therefore, through most of history, fared better under
Islam than has been the fate of Jews or Muslims in Christian countries.

Zoroastrianism does not feature in the Qur'an. But it also has one god
and a sacred book. The Muslim conquerors of Persia therefore show a
degree of tolerance to the state religion of the previous dynasty.
ARAB CIVILISATION
• By the end of the 8th century a distinctive Arab civilization is emerging
in widely separated regions. It is evident from the 8th century
in Baghdad in the east and in Cordoba in the west. By the 10th century,
between the two, there is a similar center in the new city of Cairo.
• The shared characteristics of these great cities are Islam, the Arabic
language and a tolerance which allows Christians and Jews to play a full
part in the community. The results include an expansion of trade
(making these places the most prosperous of their time, apart
from T'ang China), and a level of scholarship and intellectual energy
superior to contemporary Christian cities.
• Faṭimid Dynasty, political and religious dynasty that dominated
an empire in North Africa and subsequently in the Middle
East from AD 909 to 1171 and tried unsuccessfully to oust
the ʿAbbasid caliphs as leaders of the Islamic world. It took its name
from Faṭimah, the daughter of the Prophet Muḥammad, from whom
the Faṭimids claimed descent.
• The Faṭimids, however, were the heads of a rival religious movement
—the Ismaili sect of the Shia branch—and dedicated to the overthrow
of the existing religious and political order in all Islam.
ISLAM AND EAST AFRICA
• Africa is the first region into which Islam is carried by merchants rather than
armies. It spreads down the well-established trade routes of the east coast,
in which the coastal towns of the Red Sea (the very heart of Islam) play a
major part.

There is archaeological evidence from the 8th century of a tiny wooden

mosque, with space enough for about ten worshippers, as far south as
modern Kenya - on Shanga, one of the islands offshore from Lamu. Shanga's
international links at the time are further demonstrated by surviving
fragments of Persian pottery and Chinese stoneware.
 
• By the 11th century, when Islam makes its greatest advances in Africa,
several settlements down the east coast have stone mosques.

At Kilwa, on the coast of modern Tanzania, a full-scale Muslim dynasty is

established at this period. Coins from about 1070 give the name of the local
ruler as 'the majestic Sultan Ali bin al-Hasan'. Three centuries later the
Muslim traveller Ibn Batuta finds Kilwa an extremely prosperous sultanate,
busy with trade in gold and slaves. In the 20th century Muslims remain either
a majority or a significant minority in most regions of the east African coast.
But the early penetration of Islam is even more effective down the caravan
routes of west Africa.
ISLAM AND WEST AFRICA
• From the 8th century Islam spreads gradually south in the oases of
the Sahara trade routes. By the 10th century many of the merchants
at the southern end of the trade routes are Muslims. In the 11th
century the rulers begin to be converted.

The first Muslim ruler in the region is the king of Gao, from about the
year 1000. The ruling classes of other communities follow suit. The
king of Ghana, the most powerful realm, is one of the last to accept
Islam - probably in the 1070s.
MUSLIMS FROM GHAZNI
• The long-standing threat to India from Muslim invaders is renewed
when an aggressive Turkish dynasty wins power in Ghazni, southwest
of Kabul. On several occasions Subuktigin, the first of these Ghazni
rulers, makes raids on the region around Peshawar. Under his
son, Mahmud, expeditions into India become a regular policy. During
a 33-year reign, the number of his campaigns in the subcontinent is
somewhere between twelve and seventeen.
• Since most of Mahmud's expeditions have been in the nature of raids,
he and his heirs never extend their control beyond the Punjab - the
territory closest to Afghanistan. But this foothold beyond the Khyber
Pass gives easy access to the rich north Indian plain. In leaving the
door ajar, Mahmud creates an opening for countless Muslim
adventurers from central Asia.

This northwest region of the subcontinent will never again be Hindu.

For the next five centuries, Muslim marauders push eastwards through
the Punjab to find their fortunes in India. Some of them (in particular
the Moghuls) settle down as the most spectactular of India's rulers.
• By the mid-16th century the broad sweep of the Muslim world, from the
Atlantic coast of north Africa all the way to India, has settled down as three
powerful neighbouring empires.

In the west, occupying roughly the extent of the Byzantine territory before
the Arab conquests of the 7th century, is the Ottoman empire with its capital
in Istanbul. In the centre is the Safavid dynasty of Persia, passionately
committed to the doctrines of The Shi'as in opposition to the Sunni
orthodoxy of the Ottoman Turks. In the east is the Moghul empire, covering
the greater part of India. It differs from the others in that its Muslim ruling
class is a minority in an infidel population.
• There is frequent border warfare between Persia and its neighbours
on either side, but for a century and more the three regions are
relatively stable and prosperous.

Then, during the 18th century, Persia is shaken by internal conflicts,

bringing three new dynasties within fifty years. At the same time
there are external threats, from European powers, to the Ottoman
and Moghul empires. The Turkish sultans acquire a powerful and
hostile neighbour in the form of the expanding Russian empire.