History of Islam

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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Page from the Sanaa manuscript, whose "subtexts" revealed using ultraviolet light are very different from contemporary standard editions of the Quran. The German palaeographer Gerd R. Puin affirms that these variants indicate an evolving text.[1]
Non-Islamic testimonies about Muhammad's life describe him as the leader of the Saracens,[2] believed to be descendants of Ishmael, that lived in the Roman-era provinces of Arabia Petraea (West) and Arabia Deserta (North). According to some sources, Muhammad is not a name but a title.[3]

The history of Islam concerns the political, social, economic, military, and cultural developments of the Islamic civilization. Most historians[4] believe that Islam originated with Muhammad's mission in Mecca and Medina at the start of the 7th century CE,[5][6] although Muslims regard this time as a return to the original faith passed down by the Abrahamic prophets, such as Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Solomon, and Jesus, with the submission (Islām) to the will of God.[7][8][9]

According to the traditional account,[5][6][10] the Islamic prophet Muhammad began receiving what Muslims consider to be divine revelations in 610 CE, calling for submission to the one God, preparation for the imminent Last Judgement, and charity for the poor and needy.[8][Note 1] As Muhammad's message began to attract followers (the ṣaḥāba) he also met with increasing hostility and persecution from Meccan elites.[8][Note 2] In 622 CE Muhammad migrated to the city of Yathrib (now known as Medina), where he began to unify the tribes of Arabia under Islam,[12] returning to Mecca to take control in 630[13][14] and order the destruction of all pagan idols.[15][16] By the time Muhammad died c. 11 AH (632 CE), almost all the tribes of the Arabian Peninsula had converted to Islam,[17] but disagreement broke out over who would succeed him as leader of the Muslim community during the Rashidun Caliphate.[5][18][19][20]

The early Muslim conquests were responsible for the spread of Islam.[5][6][10][18] By the 8th century CE, the Umayyad Caliphate extended from Iberian Al-Andalus in the west to the Indus River in the east. Polities such as those ruled by the Umayyad and Abbasid caliphates (in the Middle East and later in Spain and Southern Italy), the Fatimids, Seljuks, Ayyubids, and Mamluks were among the most influential powers in the world. Highly Persianized empires built by the Samanids, Ghaznavids, and Ghurids significantly contributed to technological and administrative developments. The Islamic Golden Age gave rise to many centers of culture and science and produced notable polymaths, astronomers, mathematicians, physicians, and philosophers during the Middle Ages.[6]

By the early 13th century, the Delhi Sultanate conquered the northern Indian subcontinent, while Turkic dynasties like the Sultanate of Rum and Artuqids conquered much of Anatolia from the Byzantine Empire throughout the 11th and 12th centuries. In the 13th and 14th centuries, destructive Mongol invasions, along with the loss of population due to the Black Death, greatly weakened the traditional centers of the Muslim world, stretching from Persia to Egypt, but saw the emergence of the Timurid Renaissance and major economic powers such as the Mali Empire in West Africa and the Bengal Sultanate in South Asia.[21][22] Following the deportation and enslavement of the Muslim Moors from the Emirate of Sicily and elsewhere in southern Italy,[23] the Islamic Iberia was gradually conquered by Christian forces during the Reconquista. Nonetheless, in the early modern period, the gunpowder empires—the Ottomans, Timurids, Mughals, and Safavids—emerged as world powers.

During the 19th and early 20th centuries, most of the Muslim world fell under the influence or direct control of the European Great Powers.[6] Some of 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, as well as fuel conflict-zones in regions such as Palestine, Kashmir, Xinjiang, Chechnya, Central Africa, Bosnia, and Myanmar. The oil boom stabilized the Arab States of the Gulf Cooperation Council (comprising Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates), making them the world's largest oil producers and exporters, which focus on capitalism, free trade, and tourism.[24][25]

  1. ^ Lester, Toby (1 January 1999). "What Is the Koran?". The Atlantic. Washington, D.C. ISSN 2151-9463. OCLC 936540106. Archived from the original on 25 August 2012. Retrieved 16 May 2022.
  2. ^ "Chapter 1. "A Prophet Has Appeared, Coming with the Saracens": Muhammad’s Leadership during the Conquest of Palestine According to Seventh- and Eighth-Century Sources". The Death of a Prophet: The End of Muhammad's Life and the Beginnings of Islam, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012, pp. 18-72. https://doi.org/10.9783/9780812205138.18
  3. ^ Volker Popp, Die frühe Islamgeschichte nach inschriftlichen und numismatischen Zeugnissen, in: Karl-Heinz Ohlig (ed.), Die dunklen Anfänge. Neue Forschungen zur Entstehung und frühen Geschichte des Islam, Berlin 2005, pp. 16–123 (here p. 63 ff.)
  4. ^ Watt, W. Montgomery (2003). Islam and the Integration of Society. Psychology Press. p. 5. ISBN 978-0-415-17587-6.
  5. ^ a b c d van Ess, Josef (2017). "Setting the Seal on Prophecy". Theology and Society in the Second and Third Centuries of the Hijra, Volume 1: A History of Religious Thought in Early Islam. Handbook of Oriental Studies. Section 1: The Near and Middle East. Vol. 116/1. Translated by O'Kane, John. Leiden: Brill. pp. 3–7. doi:10.1163/9789004323384_002. ISBN 978-90-04-32338-4. ISSN 0169-9423.
  6. ^ a b c d e Zimney, Michelle (2009). "Introduction – What Is Islam?". In Campo, Juan E. (ed.). Encyclopedia of Islam. Encyclopedia of World Religions. New York: Facts on File. pp. xxi–xxxii. ISBN 978-0-8160-5454-1.
  7. ^ Esposito, John L. (2016) [1988]. Islam: The Straight Path (5th ed.). Oxford University Press. pp. 9–12. ISBN 978-0-19-063215-1. S2CID 153364691.
  8. ^ a b c Donner, Fred M. (2000) [1999]. "Muhammad and the Caliphate: Political History of the Islamic Empire Up to the Mongol Conquest". In Esposito, John L. (ed.). The Oxford History of Islam. Oxford University Press. pp. 5–10. ISBN 0-19-510799-3.
  9. ^ Peters, F. E. (2003). Islam: A Guide for Jews and Christians. Princeton University Press. p. 9. ISBN 978-0-691-11553-5.
  10. ^ a b Lewis, Bernard (1995). "Part III: The Dawn and Noon of Islam – Origins". The Middle East: A Brief History of the Last 2,000 Years. New York: Scribner. pp. 51–58. ISBN 978-0-684-83280-7.
  11. ^ a b Buhl, F.; Ehlert, Trude; Noth, A.; Schimmel, Annemarie; Welch, A. T. (2012) [1993]. "Muḥammad". In Bearman, P. J.; Bianquis, Th.; Bosworth, C. E.; van Donzel, E. J.; Heinrichs, W. P. (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Islam (2nd ed.). Leiden: Brill. pp. 360–376. doi:10.1163/1573-3912_islam_COM_0780. ISBN 978-90-04-16121-4.
  12. ^ Campo (2009), "Muhammad", Encyclopedia of Islam, p. 494
  13. ^ Ramadan, Tariq (2007). In the Footsteps of the Prophet: Lessons from the Life of Muhammad. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 178. ISBN 978-0-19-530880-8.
  14. ^ Husayn Haykal, Muhammad (2008). The Life of Muhammad. Selangor: Islamic Book Trust. pp. 438–441. ISBN 978-983-9154-17-7.
  15. ^ Hitti, Philip Khuri (1946). History of the Arabs. London: Macmillan. p. 118.
  16. ^ Ramadan, Tariq (2007). In the Footsteps of the Prophet: Lessons from the Life of Muhammad. Oxford University Press. p. 177. ISBN 978-0-19-530880-8.
  17. ^ Richard Foltz, "Internationalization of Islam", Encarta Historical Essays.
  18. ^ a b Polk, William R. (2018). "The Caliphate and the Conquests". Crusade and Jihad: The Thousand-Year War Between the Muslim World and the Global North. The Henry L. Stimson Lectures Series. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. pp. 21–30. doi:10.2307/j.ctv1bvnfdq.7. ISBN 978-0-300-22290-6. JSTOR j.ctv1bvnfdq.7.
  19. ^ Izutsu, Toshihiko (2006) [1965]. "The Infidel (Kāfir): The Khārijites and the origin of the problem". The Concept of Belief in Islamic Theology: A Semantic Analysis of Imān and Islām. Tokyo: Institute of Cultural and Linguistic Studies at Keio University. pp. 1–20. ISBN 983-9154-70-2.
  20. ^ Lewis, Bernard (1995). "Cross-Sections – The State". The Middle East: A Brief History of the Last 2,000 Years. New York: Scribner. p. 139. ISBN 978-0-684-83280-7.
  21. ^ Nanda, J. N (2005). Bengal: the unique state. Concept Publishing Company. p. 10. 2005. ISBN 978-81-8069-149-2. Bengal [...] was rich in the production and export of grain, salt, fruit, liquors and wines, precious metals and ornaments besides the output of its handlooms in silk and cotton. Europe referred to Bengal as the richest country to trade with.
  22. ^ Imperato, Pascal James; Imperato, Gavin H. (25 April 2008). Historical Dictionary of Mali. Scarecrow. p. 201. ISBN 978-0-8108-6402-3.
  23. ^ Julie Taylor, Muslims in Medieval Italy: The Colony at Lucera, (Rowman & Littlefield, 2003), 18.
  24. ^ Sampler & Eigner (2008). Sand to Silicon: Going Global. United Arab Emirates: Motivate. p. 15. ISBN 978-1-86063-254-9.
  25. ^ "International – U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)". eia.gov.


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