A Short History of Islam

1History as a lesson

The Quran tells a great deal of history, of peoples, prophets and kings, but never for its own sake: "In their stories there is truly a lesson for people of understanding" 12:111. And it reminds us that power and fortune move on: "These days We alternate among people" 3:140. That is how we want to read this chapter too: not as a heroic saga, but as the story of people who achieved great things and made grave mistakes.

A note on the dates: we give years in the Common Era and, where it is customary, also in years after the Hijra (AH). The Islamic year is a lunar year, about eleven days shorter than the solar year, which is why Ramadan and the festivals move each year. We only give years that are well established, and write "around" where the sources differ.

2Revelation in Makkah (610–622)

• around 570 – birth of Muhammad ﷺ in Makkah
• 610 – first revelation in the cave of Hira: "Read in the name of your Lord who created" 96:1
• around 613 – the public call begins
• 615 – a group of Muslims emigrates to Abyssinia and finds protection with its Christian king, the Negus
• around 619 – the "Year of Sorrow": death of Khadijah and Abu Talib
• 621 and 622 – the pledges of Aqabah with Muslims from Yathrib, later Madinah

For thirteen years the Prophet ﷺ called people in Makkah to faith in the One God, to justice and to mercy. The response of the powerful was mockery, boycott and persecution; the weak and the enslaved, such as Bilal and Sumayyah, suffered most. The Night Journey to Jerusalem 17:1 also falls in this period. The chapter The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ tells more about these years.

3Madinah: a community is born (622–632)

• 622 (1 AH) – Hijra to Madinah; building of the Prophet's Mosque; brotherhood between Emigrants and Helpers
• 624 (2 AH) – Battle of Badr; the direction of prayer changes from Jerusalem to the Kaaba 2:144; fasting in Ramadan is prescribed
• 625 (3 AH) – Battle of Uhud
• 627 (5 AH) – Battle of the Trench
• 628 (6 AH) – Treaty of Hudaybiyyah, which the Quran calls "a clear victory" 48:1
• 630 (8 AH) – return to Makkah with a general amnesty; the Kaaba is cleansed of idols
• 632 (10–11 AH) – Farewell Pilgrimage and death of the Prophet ﷺ in Madinah

In Madinah a persecuted group became a community with a mosque, a market and shared rules, which through agreements also included the Jewish tribes of the city. After the return to Makkah, delegations came from all over Arabia. On the day of Arafat during the Farewell Pilgrimage the verse was revealed: "Today I have perfected your religion for you" 5:3; al-Bukhari, Muslim.

4The rightly guided caliphs (632–661)

• 632–634 – Abu Bakr; the Quran is gathered into one volume for the first time
• 634–644 – Umar; Syria, Iraq, Egypt and Jerusalem come under Muslim rule; 636 Battle of Yarmuk; introduction of the calendar dated from the Hijra; founding of Kufa, Basra and Fustat
• 644–656 – Uthman; the standard mushaf is sent to the great cities
• 656–661 – Ali; capital Kufa; grave internal conflicts
• 661 (41 AH) – al-Hasan makes peace with Mu'awiyah, the "Year of Unity"

In less than thirty years the community of Madinah grew into a realm stretching from North Africa to Persia. At the same time questions arose that still accompany Muslims today: who should lead the community? The answers of Sunni and Shia Muslims are explained in the chapter Sunnis and Shia; the people of this time are introduced in the chapter The Companions and the Family of the Prophet ﷺ.

5The Umayyads (661–750)

• 661 – Mu'awiyah founds Umayyad rule; Damascus becomes the capital
• 680 (61 AH) – al-Husayn, the grandson of the Prophet ﷺ, is killed at Karbala
• 691/692 (72 AH) – completion of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem under Abd al-Malik
• around 700 – Arabic becomes the language of administration; new coins carry only inscriptions
• 711 – Tariq ibn Ziyad crosses to Spain; the Rock of Gibraltar still bears his name (Jabal Tariq)
• 711–712 – Muslim forces reach the Indus region
• 717–720 – Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz, famous for his justice
• 750 – the Umayyads are overthrown by the Abbasids

Under the Umayyads the realm reached from the Atlantic to Central Asia. The Umayyad Mosque in Damascus was built, and in Madinah scholars taught to whom everyone still refers today. Many Sunni scholars call Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz the "fifth rightly guided caliph" because of his justice and humility. Karbala, however, remained a wound in the memory of all Muslims.

6The Abbasids and the House of Wisdom (750–1258)

• 750 – the Abbasids take over the caliphate
• 762 – al-Mansur founds Baghdad as a round city on the Tigris
• 786–809 – Harun ar-Rashid
• 813–833 – al-Ma'mun; the House of Wisdom in Baghdad flourishes
• 859 – Fatimah al-Fihriyyah founds al-Qarawiyyin in Fez
• 945 – the Shia Buyids take power in Baghdad
• 1055 – the Seljuks enter Baghdad
• 1067 – opening of the Nizamiyyah, a famous college in Baghdad
• 1099 – Crusaders capture Jerusalem

The Abbasid age is the age of the great imams and collections. Abu Hanifah (d. 150 AH/767), Malik (d. 179 AH/795), ash-Shafi'i (d. 204 AH/820) and Ahmad ibn Hanbal (d. 241 AH/855) worked in these centuries, as did Imam Ja'far as-Sadiq in Madinah (d. 148 AH/765). Al-Bukhari and Muslim compiled their hadith collections, and al-Kulayni his work al-Kafi. More in the chapter The Schools of Law in Islam.

In the House of Wisdom scholars translated works from Greek, Persian and Indian into Arabic and developed them further. Paper spread through the Muslim world and made books affordable; Baghdad became a city of booksellers and libraries. Politically the realm gradually broke up into regional dynasties, while the caliph in Baghdad remained above all a symbol of unity.

7Scholars who changed the world

The science of these centuries was made in many cities, from Bukhara to Córdoba. Some names are still known worldwide:

• al-Khwarizmi (9th century) wrote a foundational work on algebra in Baghdad; the word "algebra" comes from the title of his book, and the word "algorithm" from his name. Through his writings Europe came to know the Hindu-Arabic numerals.
• ar-Razi (d. around 925), a physician in Baghdad and Rayy, was among the first to distinguish smallpox from measles.
• Ibn al-Haytham (d. around 1040) studied light and vision in Cairo and in his "Book of Optics" relied consistently on observation and experiment.
• al-Biruni (973 – after 1050) determined the earth's radius with remarkable accuracy and wrote a great work on India, its languages and religions.
• Ibn Sina (980–1037), known in the West as Avicenna, wrote the "Canon of Medicine", which was taught for centuries at European universities as well.
• az-Zahrawi (d. around 1013) of Córdoba described surgical instruments and procedures.
• al-Ghazali (1058–1111) brought together law, theology and spirituality in his "Revival of the Religious Sciences".
• al-Idrisi drew a famous map of the world for the King of Sicily in 1154.
• Nasir ad-Din at-Tusi (1201–1274) directed the observatory of Maragha.
• Ibn Khaldun (1332–1406) wrote the Muqaddimah, one of the first great theories of history and society.
• Ibn Battuta (1304 – around 1369) set out on pilgrimage in 1325 and travelled for almost three decades, from Morocco to China.

Through translations in Toledo and Sicily much of this knowledge reached Europe. It grew out of a faith that sees reflection on creation as a path to Allah 3:190–191.

8Al-Andalus (711–1492)

• 711 – beginning of Muslim rule on the Iberian Peninsula
• 756 – Abd ar-Rahman I, an Umayyad prince who had fled, founds the emirate of Córdoba
• around 785 – construction of the Mezquita of Córdoba begins
• 929 – Abd ar-Rahman III proclaims the caliphate of Córdoba
• 1031 – the caliphate breaks up into small kingdoms
• 1085 – Toledo falls to Castile and becomes a centre of translation
• 13th–15th centuries – the Nasrid emirate of Granada; building of the Alhambra
• 1492 – Granada, the last Muslim kingdom in Spain, surrenders

For almost eight centuries al-Andalus was a bridge between East and West. Muslims, Jews and Christians lived here, not always without tension, but often in fruitful exchange. Córdoba had libraries, baths and lit streets. From al-Andalus came the philosopher and judge Ibn Rushd, the scholar Ibn Hazm, the Quran commentator al-Qurtubi and the Jewish scholar Maimonides, born in Córdoba in 1138. You can find more about Córdoba and the Alhambra in the chapters on the cities of Islam and Islamic art.

9Fatimids, Ayyubids and Salah ad-Din

• 909 – the Fatimids, an Isma'ili Shia dynasty, found a caliphate in North Africa
• 969 – founding of Cairo (al-Qahirah, "the Victorious")
• 970–972 – building of al-Azhar Mosque, later one of the most famous places of learning in the world
• 1171 – Salah ad-Din ends Fatimid rule in Egypt; the Ayyubid era begins
• 1187 – victory at Hattin and the return of Jerusalem to Muslim rule
• 1193 – death of Salah ad-Din in Damascus

Salah ad-Din al-Ayyubi, a Muslim of Kurdish origin, is one of the best-known figures in Islamic history. When he regained Jerusalem in 1187 he spared the city's inhabitants, unlike the Crusaders, who had carried out a massacre when they took the city in 1099. His chivalry became legendary even in Europe. Al-Azhar, founded under the Fatimids, became under later rulers the great centre of Sunni learning that it still is today.

10Mongols and Mamluks

• 1219–1221 – the Mongols devastate Khwarazm and cities such as Bukhara and Samarkand
• 1250 – the Mamluks take power in Egypt
• 1258 – the Mongols under Hulagu capture and destroy Baghdad; the caliph al-Musta'sim is killed
• 1260 – the Mamluks defeat the Mongols at Ayn Jalut in Palestine
• 1261 – the Abbasid caliphate is revived in Cairo as an honorary office
• 1295 – the Mongol ruler of Persia, Ghazan Khan, embraces Islam

The destruction of Baghdad was one of the greatest catastrophes in Islamic history. Later accounts tell that the Tigris ran black with the ink of the books thrown into it. Yet history took a surprising turn: only a few decades later the Mongol rulers of Persia themselves became Muslims and supported science and art. In Cairo the Mamluks built mosques, schools and hospitals whose domes and minarets still shape the city today.

11Ottomans, Safavids and Mughals

• around 1300 – beginnings of the Ottoman Empire in Anatolia
• 1453 – Mehmed II takes Constantinople, which becomes Istanbul
• 1501 – Shah Isma'il I founds the Safavid state; Twelver Shi'ism becomes the state religion of Iran
• 1517 – the Ottomans conquer the Mamluk realm and become guardians of Makkah and Madinah
• 1520–1566 – Süleyman the Magnificent, called Kanuni, "the Lawgiver", by the Ottomans
• 1526 – Babur wins at Panipat and founds the Mughal Empire in India
• 1556–1605 – the Mughal emperor Akbar
• 1598 – Isfahan becomes the Safavid capital
• 1632 – construction of the Taj Mahal begins

Three great empires shaped the early modern Muslim world. The Ottomans ruled from the Balkans to Arabia and North Africa; non-Muslim communities largely ran their own internal affairs. The architect Sinan gave Istanbul its skyline. The Safavids made Iran a land of Shia learning and Isfahan one of the most beautiful cities in the world. The Mughals in India joined Persian, Indian and Islamic culture and left buildings such as the Taj Mahal and the Badshahi Mosque in Lahore.

12Islam reaches Africa and Southeast Asia

In many regions Islam spread not through armies but through merchants, scholars, Sufis and families joined by marriage. The Quran says: "There is no compulsion in religion" 2:256.

• East Africa: the very first emigration, in 615, led to Abyssinia. Later, trading towns such as Kilwa, Mombasa, Zanzibar and Lamu grew up along the coast, where Arab, Persian and African culture merged into Swahili culture.
• West Africa: Islam came along the caravan routes of the Sahara to the kingdoms of the Sahel. In 1324 Mansa Musa, the ruler of Mali, travelled to Makkah via Cairo with a great retinue; his wealth became legendary. Timbuktu, with its mosques and manuscripts, became a city of scholars.
• Southeast Asia: merchants from Arabia, especially from Hadramawt, and from Gujarat and Persia brought Islam to the coasts of Sumatra and Malacca. The tombstone of Sultan Malik as-Salih of Samudra Pasai in northern Sumatra bears the date 1297. In the 15th century Malacca became a Muslim sultanate, and on Java the "Nine Saints" (Wali Songo) spread the faith. Today Indonesia is the country with the largest Muslim population in the world.
• China and India: Muslim merchants lived early on in the port cities of China; Admiral Zheng He, a Chinese Muslim, led great fleets as far as Arabia and East Africa between 1405 and 1433. In India Sufis such as Mu'in ad-Din Chishti in Ajmer won the hearts of many people.

13The modern era

• 18th and 19th centuries – European powers gain influence over large parts of the Muslim world; reform movements look for answers
• 1924 – the Turkish National Assembly abolishes the Ottoman caliphate
• 1932 – proclamation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
• 1945 – Indonesia declares independence
• 1947 – founding of Pakistan
• 1956 – independence of Morocco and Tunisia
• 1962 – independence of Algeria
• 1969 – founding of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, today the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation
• 2004/2005 – the Amman Message affirms the mutual recognition of the schools of law

The 19th and 20th centuries brought colonial rule, upheaval and new states for many Muslims. At the same time education, printing and later the internet grew enormously, and millions of Muslims now live in Europe, the Americas and Australia. Today almost a quarter of humanity follows Islam, and most Muslims live in Asia. Where this path may lead is described in the chapter The Meaning and the Future of Islam.

14The United Arab Emirates

The history of Islam on the coast of today's Emirates is almost as old as Islam itself. According to the biographies, the Prophet ﷺ sent a letter to the rulers of Oman, whose sphere then included parts of today's Emirates, and the people of the region accepted Islam during his lifetime. Under Abu Bakr, Dibba on the east coast was the scene of a battle in the conflicts that followed the Prophet's ﷺ death. On the island of Sir Bani Yas archaeologists found a Christian monastery that was still inhabited in early Islamic times: an early witness to living side by side.

For centuries people here lived from pearl diving, fishing, date palms and seaborne trade. According to tradition, the famous navigator Ahmad ibn Majid (15th century) came from Julfar, today's Ras Al Khaimah.

• 1820 and 1853 – maritime treaties with Britain; the coast becomes known as the "Trucial States"
• 1930s – the pearl trade collapses; hard years for the people of the coast
• 1958 – oil is found off the coast of Abu Dhabi; 1962 first export
• 1966 – Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan becomes Ruler of Abu Dhabi
• 1968 – Britain announces its withdrawal; Sheikh Zayed and Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum of Dubai agree on a union
• 2 December 1971 – six emirates found the United Arab Emirates; Sheikh Zayed becomes the first President
• 10 February 1972 – Ras Al Khaimah joins as the seventh emirate
• 2004 – death of Sheikh Zayed; Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed becomes President
• 2019 – Year of Tolerance; the Document on Human Fraternity is signed in Abu Dhabi
• 2021 – the Emirati probe Hope (al-Amal) enters orbit around Mars
• 2022 – Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed becomes President
• 2023 – opening of the Abrahamic Family House in Abu Dhabi

Sheikh Zayed, may Allah have mercy on him, is for many people the image of a just and generous ruler. He promoted education, built mosques, schools and hospitals, made the desert green and worked for tolerance between people of all religions. In this the Emirates stand in a long tradition: knowledge, trade and hospitality were strengths of Islamic civilisation in Baghdad, Córdoba and Cairo too. What living the faith here means today is told in the chapter Why the Emirates are a wonderful place to live Islam.

15What history teaches us

Looking back over fourteen centuries, a few patterns emerge:

• Knowledge carries civilisations. The greatest times of the Muslim world were times of learning, translation and open libraries.
• Unity strengthens, division weakens. "Hold fast, all together, to the rope of Allah, and do not be divided" 3:103.
• Justice is the foundation. Rulers such as Umar, Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz and Salah ad-Din are remembered to this day for their justice, not for their palaces.
• Change begins within. "Allah does not change the condition of a people until they change what is within themselves" 13:11.

The history of Islam is not finished. It is written anew every day, by you too, when you read, learn and pass on the Quran. Begin where it all began: with Surah al-Alaq, the first revealed verses.