This article is about the history of Islam as a culture and polity. For a history of the Islamic faith, see Islamic schools and branches.
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The history of Islam concerns the political, social,economic and cultural developments of the Islamic civilization. Despite concerns about the reliability of early sources, most historians[1] believe that Islam originated in Mecca and Medina at the start of the 7th century. Muslims however believe that it did not start with Muhammad, but that it was the original faith of others whom they regard as Prophets, such as Jesus, David, Moses, Abraham, Noah and Adam.[2][3][4]

In 610 CE, Muhammad began receiving what Muslims consider to be divine revelations.[5] Muhammad’s message won over a handful of followers and was met with increasing opposition from notables of Mecca.[6] In 618, after he lost protection with the death of his influential uncle Abu Talib, Muhammad migrated to the city of Yathrib (now known as Medina). With Muhammad’s death in 632, disagreement broke out over who would succeed him as leader of the Muslim community which was eventually resurrected leading to the First Fitna. The dispute would intensify greatly after the Battle of Karbala, in which Muhammad’s grandson Hussein ibn Ali was killed by the ruling Umayyad Caliph Yazid I, and the outcry for revenge divided the early Islamic community.

By the 8th century, the Islamic empire extended from Iberia in the west to the Indus river in the east. Polities such as those ruled by the Umayyads (in the Middle East and later in Iberia), Abbasids, Fatimids, and Mamluks were among the most influential powers in the world. The Islamic civilization gave rise to many centers of culture and science and produced notable astronomers, mathematicians, doctors and philosophers during the Golden Age of Islam.

In the early 13th century, the Delhi Sultanate took over northern parts of Indian subcontinent. In the 13th and 14th centuries, destructive Mongol invasions from the East, along with the loss of population in the Black Death, greatly weakened the traditional centers of the Islamic world, stretching from Persia to Egypt, but in the Early Modern period, the Ottomans, the Safavids, and the Mughals were able to create new world powers again. During the 19th and early 20th centuries, most parts of the Muslim world fell under the influence or direct control of European “Great Powers.” Their efforts to win independence and build modern nation states over the course of the last two centuries continue to reverberate to the present day.



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The following timeline can serve as a rough visual guide to the most important polities in the Islamic world prior to the First World War. It covers major historical centers of power and culture, including Arabia, Mesopotamia (modern Iraq), Persia (modern Iran), Levant (modern Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Israel/Palestine), Egypt, Maghreb (north-west Africa), al-Andalus (Iberia), Transoxania (Central Asia), Hindustan (including modern Pakistan), and Anatolia (modern Turkey). It is necessarily an approximation, since rule over some regions was sometimes divided among different centers of power, and authority in larger polities was often distributed among several dynasties. For example, during the later stages of the Abbasid Caliphate, even the capital city of Baghdad was effectively ruled by other dynasties such as the Buyyids and the Seljuks, while the Ottomans commonly delegated executive authority over outlying provinces to local potentates, such as the Deys of Algiers, the Beys of Tunis, and the Mamluks of Iraq.



Dates are approximate, consult particular articles for details.
Early sources[edit]
Main article: Historiography of early Islam
The study of the earliest periods in Islamic history is made difficult by a lack of sources.[7] For example, the most important historiographical source for the origins of Islam is the work of al-Tabari.[8] While al-Tabari was an excellent historian by the standards of his time and place, use of his work as a source is problematic for two reasons. For one, his style of historical writing permitted liberal use of mythical, legendary, stereotyped, distorted, and polemical presentations of its subject matter. Second, al-Tabari’s descriptions of the beginning of Islam post-date the events by a large amount of time, al-Tabari having died in 923 CE.[9][10]

Differing views about how to deal with the available sources has led to the development of four different approaches to the history of early Islam. All four methods have some level of support today.[11][12] The descriptive method uses the outlines of Islamic traditions, while being adjusted for the stories of miracles and faith-centred claims within those sources.[13]Edward Gibbon and Gustav Weil represent some of the first historians following the descriptive method. On the source critical method, a comparison of all the sources is sought in order to identify which informants to the sources are weak and thereby distinguish spurious material.[14] The work of William Montgomery Watt and that of Wilferd Madelung are two source critical examples. On the tradition critical method, the sources are believed to be based on oral traditions with unclear origins and transmission history, and so are treated very cautiously.[15] Ignaz Goldziher was the pioneer of the tradition critical method, and Uri Rubin gives a contemporary example. The skeptical method doubts nearly all of the material in the traditional sources, regarding any possible historical core as too difficult to decipher from distorted and fabricated material.[16] An early example of the skeptical method was the work of John Wansbrough.

Nowadays, the popularity of the different methods employed varies on the scope of the works under consideration. For overview treatments of the history of early Islam, the descriptive approach is more popular. For scholars who look at the beginnings of Islam in depth, the source critical and tradition critical methods are more often followed.[11]



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After the 8th century CE, the quality of sources improves.[17] Those sources which treated earlier times with a large temporal and cultural gap now begin to give accounts which are more contemporaneous, the quality of genre of available historical accounts improves, and new documentary sources—such as official documents, correspondence and poetry—appear.[17] For the time prior to the beginning of Islam—in the 6th century CE—sources are superior as well, if still of mixed quality. In particular, the sources covering the Sasanianrealm of influence in the 6th century CE are poor, while the sources for Byzantine areas at the time are of a respectable quality, and complemented by Syriac Christian sources for Syria and Iraq.[18]

Islamic origins[edit]
Main articles: Pre-Islamic Arabia, Religion in pre-Islamic Arabia, Muhammad, and Quran
See also: Early social changes under Islam

Arabia united under Muhammad

Islam arose within the context of Late Antiquity.[17] The second half of the sixth century CE saw political disorder in Arabia, and communication routes were no longer secure.[19] Religious divisions played an important role in the crisis.[20] Judaism became the dominant religion of the Himyarite Kingdom in Yemen after about 380 CE, while Christianity took root in the Persian Gulf.[20] While much of Arabia remained polytheistic, in line with broader trends of the age there was yearning for a more spiritual form of religion.[20] Many were reluctant to convert to a foreign faith, but those faiths provided intellectual and spiritual reference points, and Jewish and Christian loanwords from Aramaic began to replace the old pagan vocabulary of Arabic throughout the peninsula.[20] On the eve of the Islamic era, the Quraysh was the chief tribe of Mecca and a dominant force in western Arabia.[21] To counter the effects of anarchy, they upheld the institution of “sacred months” when all violence was forbidden and travel was safe.[22] The polytheistic Kaaba shrine in Mecca and the surrounding area was a popular pilgrimage destination, which had significant economic consequences for the city.[22][23]

According to tradition, the Islamic prophet Muhammad was born in Mecca around the year 570.[24] His family belonged to the Quraysh. When he was about forty years old he began receiving what Muslims regard as divine revelations delivered through the angel Gabriel, which would later form the Quran. These inspirations enjoined him to proclaim a strict monotheistic faith, to warn his compatriots of the impending Judgement Day, and to castigate social injustices of his city.[5] Muhammad’s message won over a handful of followers and was met with increasing opposition from notables of Mecca.[6] In 618, after he lost protection with the death of his influential uncle Abu Talib, Muhammad took flight to the city of Yathrib (subsequently called Medina) where he was joined by his followers.[25] Later generations would count this event, known as the hijra, as the start of the Islamic era.[26]

In Yathrib, where he was accepted as an arbitrator among the different communities of the city under the terms of the Constitution of Medina, Muhammad began to lay the foundations of the new Islamic society, with the help of new Quranic verses which provided guidance on matters of law and religious observance.[26] The surahs of this period emphasized his place among the long line of Biblical prophets, but also differentiated the message of the Quran from Christianity and Judaism.[26] Armed conflict with Meccans and Jewish tribes of the Yathrib area soon broke out.[27] After a series of military confrontations and political maneuvers, Muhammad was able to secure control of Mecca and allegiance of the Quraysh in 629.[26] In the time remaining until his death in 632, tribal chiefs across the peninsula entered into various agreements with him, some under terms of alliance, others acknowledging his prophethood and agreeing to follow Islamic practices, including paying the alms levy to his government, which consisted of a number of deputies, an army of believers, and a public treasury.[26] A few months before his death, Muhammad delivered a sermon regarding his succession. The final verse of the Qur’an (Chapter 5, Verse 3) was revealed after Muhammad finished his sermon. After the sermon, Muhammad ordered the Muslims to pledge allegiance to Ali; Abu Bakr, Umar, and Uthman were among those pledged allegiance to Ali at this event.[28][29][30][31][32]



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Rashidun Caliphate[edit]
Main article: Rashidun Caliphate

The Rashidun caliphate

After Muhammad died, a series of four Caliphs governed the Islamic state: Abu Bakr (632–634), Umar ibn al-Khattab (Umar І, 634–644), Uthman ibn Affan, (644–656), and Ali ibn Abi Talib (656–661). These leaders are known as the “Rashidun” or “rightly guided” Caliphs in Sunni Islam. They oversaw the initial phase of the Muslim conquests, advancing through Persia, Levant, Egypt, and North Africa.



After Muhammad’s death, Abu Bakr, one of his closest associates, was chosen as the first caliph (Arabic: خَليفة‎ khalīfah, lit. successor). Although the office of caliph retained an aura of religious authority, it laid no claim to prophecy.[33] A number of tribal leaders refused to extend agreements made with Muhammad to Abu Bakr, ceasing payments of the alms levy and in some cases claiming to be prophets in their own right.[33] Abu Bakr asserted his authority in a successful military campaign known as the Ridda wars, whose momentum was carried into the lands of the Byzantine and Sasanian empires.[34] By the end of the reign of the second caliph, Umar I, Arab armies, whose battle-hardened ranks were now swelled by the defeated rebels[35] and former imperial auxiliary troops,[36] conquered the Byzantine provinces of Syria and Egypt, while the Sassanids lost their western territories, with the rest to follow soon afterwards.[33]

Umar improved administration of the fledgling empire, ordering improvement of irrigation networks and playing a role in foundation of cities like Basra. To be close to the poor, he lived in a simple mud hut without doors and walked the streets every evening. After consulting with the poor, Umar established the Bayt al-mal,[37][38][39] a welfare institution for the Muslim and non-Muslim poor, needy, elderly, orphans, widows, and the disabled. The Bayt al-mal ran for hundreds of years under the Rashidun Caliphate in the 7th century and continued through the Umayyad period and well into the Abbasid era. Umar also introduced child benefit for the children and pensions for the elderly.[40][41][42][43] When he felt that a governor or a commander was becoming attracted to wealth or did not meet the required administrative standards, he had him removed from his position.[44] The expansion was partially halted between 638–639 during the years of great famine and plague in Arabia and Levant, respectively, but by the end of Umar’s reign, Syria, Egypt, Mesopotamia, and much of Persia were incorporated into the Islamic State.