Islamic History
Islam has been around for almost 1500 years.
At one time it was the greatest empire in the world, spreading from Spain in the west to India in the east. During its
golden age, scientific discoveries were being made by Muslim scientists in the fields of math, medicine, astronomy and
alchemy. Muslims were also translating the great works of Aristotle, Archimedes and Plato into Arabic.
It all started in
610 C.E. when Prophet Muhammad(pbuh) recieved a revelation from God through the Angel Gabriel. Muhammad began preaching
in his hometown of Makkah but his message was only attracting a few followers. Muhammad and his followers were constantly
harrassed and persecuted.
In 622 C.E. the Muslims
migrated to a friendly city called Madinah to seek refuge. In 624 C.E. the Muslims fought with the
Meccans at the Battle of Badr. Although their forces were outnumbered three times over, the Muslims still claimed
the victory. In 625, however, the Meccans defeated the Muslims at the battle of Uhud. Two years later the Muslims defeated
the Meccans at the battle of Trench, even though the Muslims were 3,000 against Meccan force of 10,000.
In 630 C.E., after
the Meccans broke their treaty by attacking one of Muhammad's allies, the Muslims marched to Makkah with a force of 10,000
men. Seeing that they were overwhelmed the Meccans surrendered and the Muslims took Makkah without spilling a drop of blood.
After Muhammad(pbuh) died
in 632 C.E. he was followed by four caliphs known as the four rightly guided caliphs. They were Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman,
and Ali. Under Abu Bakr's rule from 632-634, the Muslims conquered the whole Arabian Peninsula.
Under Umar from 634-644,
the Muslims defeated the Byzantines at the Battle of Yarmuk in Palestine in 636. In 637, the Muslims defeated the Persian
army at the Battle of Qadissiyah, which lead the Sassanid Persian Empire to fall. By 641, the Muslims had control of Syria,
Palestine, Iraq, and Egypt.
Under the rule of Uthman
from 644-656, the Muslims prospered and conquered new territory. The Muslims reached Tripoli in North Africa, and in the east
they took Armenia, the Caucasus and established Muslim rule as far as Afghanistan and India.
Uthman was assasinated in
656 and Ali was claimed caliph. That started the first civil war(fitnah) in Islam. In 661, Muawiyyah changed the capital of
the empire from Madinah to Damascus. His dynasty was the Ummayads and they ruled from 661-750.
During the Ummayad's, the
Islamic Empire reached it's largest geographic capacity. Within 120 years after the Prophet's(pbuh) death, Islam had spread
from Spain and North Africa in the west, to India and the border of China in the east.
In 750, the Abbasids took
control of the empire and in 762 created their capital at Baghdad. As this dynasty weakened, the Muslim world separated into different empires and dynasties.
They were only united by the force of Islam and the Arabic language.
In 1258, the Abbasid Dynasty
fell to the Mongol forces who conquered all of Asia, Mesopotamia and Syria. However, they were stopped by the Mamelukes
in Palestine in 1260.
The next major Islamic empire
was the Ottoman Empire, along with the Safavid and Mughal empires. In 1918, after World War I, the last of
the Muslim empires fell, and the Muslim lands were separated into numerous countries and dominated by the foreign powers
of Britain and France. Along with that, came the declaration of a Jewish homeland in Islam's 3rd holiest site. These events
have devastated and angered Muslims in the past and present.
Today the Muslim
world is separated into dozens of countries with different languages and cultures. There are over 1.6 billion Muslims around
the world, but they are still internally united by the force of Islam and always greet each other with a warm smile and Assalamu
Alaikum.
