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Muhammad is born in the Quraysh tribe in the city of Mecca
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In a cave at Mount Hira, Muhammad begins to have visions of the angel Gabriel and receives messages from Allah. Muhammad begins spreading the messages and challenging the old ideas. The rulers og Mecca became worried as Muhammad"s influence increased.
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After being threatened, Muhammad and this followers leave Mecca and go to Medina (the name means "the prophets city"). This is known as the hegira and it marks the beginning of the Islamic calender. Muhammad become both a spiritual and a political leader. Other Arab tribes began to accept Muhammad.
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After several years of fighting, the city of Mecca surrenders, welcomes Muhammad back, and accepts Islam as their religion. The tribal idols in the Kaaba are destroyed so that it can be rededicated to the worship of spiritual leaders.
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Muhmmad dies. The new leader, Abu Bakr, Become the first calip, a title the Muslims use for the highest leader of Islam. (In Arabic the word means successor .) Under his rule, the Muslims conquered many land outside of Arabia.
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Abu Bakr dies. He had made Arabia a united Muslim state. He is followed by Umar who encourages the armies to conquer more lands.
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The Pact of Umar is written. This treaty is like others made with the non-Muslims, often Jews and Christions, whose land was conquered. It protected them from Berbers.
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A combined Arab and Berber army invades Spain and quickly conquer it For the next 700 years, Muslims, call Moors,ruled parts od Spain.
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At the Battle of Eurape in what is now France, the Muslims are stopped from invading the rest of Tours, determining the Europe
would be Christian and not Muslim. -
The Abbasids came to power. They reorganized the government
to be able to rule such a large region. -
Baghdad, in present-day Iraq, becomes the capital of the Islamic empire. It was a center for water,routes and land.
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Muslim Turkish warriors called the ottomans conquer Constantinople, defeating the Byzantine Empire. Their leader, Mehmed 2, made Constantinople his capital and renamed it Istanbul, the name it is known as today. Rulers of the Persian Empire were called ottoman.
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The Safavid Empire begins when they conquered Persia. Their leader took the title of Shah, or king made Shiism Islam the official religion. Their capital was in Esfahan, in present day Iran. Most Muslims in Iran today are Sunnis Muslims.
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The Mughal Empire is established by its founder, Babur, in nothern India. A later emperor, Akbar, conquered many land strengthen the government.
He did not discriminate againt those who followed other religions. This helped expand the empire. Later emperor did not follow his policy and persecuted non-Muslims. Violent revolts occurred and weakened the Empire which soon fell apart.
