Islamic Background (going Way Back)
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Islam
History of Islam
Beliefs and practices
Oneness of God
Profession of Faith
Prayer Ð* Fasting
Pilgrimage Ð* Charity
Major figures
Muhammad
Abu Bakr Ð* Ali
Household of Muhammad
Companions of Muhammad
Prophets of Islam
Texts & Laws
Quran Ð* Hadith
Jurisprudence Ð* Theology
Biographies of Muhammad
Sharia
Branches of Islam
Sunni Ð* Shia Ð* Ibadi
Societal aspects
Academics Ð* Theology
Philosophy Ð* Science
Art Ð* Architecture Ð* Cities
Calendar Ð* Holidays
Women Ð* Ð in the Quran
Leaders Ð* Politics
Islamism Ð* Liberalism Ð* Sufism
See also
Vocabulary of Islam
Muslim history involves the history of the Muslim people.
Background
Like most major world religions, Islams historical development has affected political, economic, and military trends both inside and outside its primary geographic zones of reach (see Islamic world). As with Christendom, the concept of an Islamic world may be useful in looking at different periods of human history; similarly useful is an understanding of the identification with a quasi-political community of believers, or ummah, on the part of Islams practitioners down the centuries.
Islam appeared in Arabia in the 7th century . Within a century of Muhammads first recitations of the Quran, an Islamic state stretched from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to Central Asia in the east. This empire did not remain unified for long; the new polity soon broke into a civil war known to Islamic historians as the Fitna, and later affected by a Second Fitna. After this, there would be rival dynasties claiming the caliphate, or leadership of the Muslim world, and many Islamic states and empires offered only token obedience to a caliph unable to unify the Islamic world.
Despite this fragmentation of Islam as a political community, the empires of the Abbasid caliphs, the Mughals, and the Seljuk Turk, Safavid Persia and Ottomans were among the largest and most powerful in the world. Arabs made many Islamic centers of culture and science and produced notable scientists, astronomers, mathematicians, doctors and philosophers during the Golden Age of Islam. Technology flourished; there was much investment in economic infrastructure, such as irrigation systems and canals; stress on the importance of reading the Quran produced a comparatively high level of literacy in the general populace.
Later, in the 18th and 19th centuries C.E., Islamic regions fell under the sway of European imperial powers. Following World War I, the remnants of the Ottoman empire were parcelled out as European protectorates. After many centuries, no major, widely-accepted claim to the caliphate (which had been at least claimed by the Ottomans) remained.
Although affected by various ideologies, such as communism, during much of the twentieth century, Islamic identity and Islams salience on political questions have arguably increased during the late twentieth century and early twenty-first century. Rapid growth, western interests in Islamic regions, international conflicts and globalization have influenced Islams importance in shaping the world of the twenty-first century.
Note on early Islamic historiography
There are several Muslim versions of early Islamic history, as written by the Sunni, Shia, and Ibadi sects. 19th century Western scholars tended to privilege the Sunni versions; the Sunni are the largest sect, and their books and scholars were easily available. Over the last hundred years, Western scholars have become much more willing to question the orthodox view and to advance new theories and new narratives. Still today, many parts of Islamic history are not as well known internationally as other components of history, such as that of the west.
Muhammad
By his death in 632, Muhammad had managed to unite the entire Arabian peninsula.Main article: Muhammad
Arabia before Muhammad was scantily populated by various Arabic-speaking people. Some were Bedouin, pastoral nomads organized in tribes. Some were agriculturalists, living either in oases in the north, or in the more fertile and thickly settled areas to the south (now Yemen and Oman). At that time the majority of Arabs followed polytheistic religions, although a few tribes followed Judaism, Christianity (including Nestorians) or Zoroastrianism. The city of Mecca was a religious center for some of the northern Arabian polytheists, as it contained the sacred well of Zamzam and a small temple, the Kaaba.
Muhammad was born on the outskirts of Mecca in the Year of the Elephant. Most Muslims equate this with the Gregorian year 570 but a few prefer 571. He was orphaned at an early age and was raised by his uncle Abu Talib. He became a trader, married a wealthy widow, and could have looked forward to a life of ease and prosperity.
However, when he was some forty years old, he experienced what he apparently believed to be a divine revelation while he was meditating in a cave outside Mecca. This would have been in 610 C.E. After an initial period of doubt and