Islamic Background (going Way Back)

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

Qur'an Ð'* Hadith

Jurisprudence Ð'* Theology

Biographies of Muhammad

Sharia

Branches of Islam

Sunni Ð'* Shi'a Ð'* Ibadi

Societal aspects

Academics Ð'* Theology

Philosophy Ð'* Science

Art Ð'* Architecture Ð'* Cities

Calendar Ð'* Holidays

Women Ð'* Ð'... in the Qu'ran

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, Islam's 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 Islam's practitioners down the centuries.

Islam appeared in Arabia in the 7th century . Within a century of Muhammad's first recitations of the Qur'an, 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 Qur'an 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 Islam's 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 Islam's 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, Shi'a, 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 Ka'aba.

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