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Muhammad was meditating, near the hills of Mecca, when he heard the voice of the angel, Gabriel. Gabriel was said to be telling Muhammad , to become the messenger of God.
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Muhammad traveled from Mecca to Medina to teach the world of believing in one God. The Hijra changed Islam, it made Muslims in Medina follow the teachings of Muhammad.
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Muhammad died in 632 A.D. The Muslim community began to argue about who should be the successor of Muhammad. Muhammad did not say who his successor would be, so the Shia's and Sunni's believed in different reasons of who should be the successor.
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Abu- Bakr was Muhammad's father in law, so the community thought that he should be the first caliph. Some Arab tribal leaders didn't want to follow Abu-Bakr. Abu-Bakr still managed to reunite Muslims to Islam
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Shiites believed that Muhammad had left his son in law, Ali to be the successor. After Ali died the Meccan set up the Umayyad caliphate. This dynasty Sunni caliphs ruled as an empire until 750.
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The split between Sunni and Shia happened because of Muhammad's death. Each group had different beliefs of who should be the next caliph. Shia believed that only muhammad's descendants should be caliphs. Sunni believed that a leader could chose anyone from the muslim community.
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There was many causes to the fall of the Umayyad dynasty, arabs had to adapt to ruling large cities, relied on local officals. Conquest slowed and economics increased and resources were used to support the caliph's.
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Abu al-Abbas captured Damascus and had the members of the Umayyad family killed. Only one member of the Umayyad family survived & he fled to Spain. There he made a independent state for muslims.
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Urbans called for a crusade to free the holy land. Urban also hoped that crusades would set christian knights to fight aganist muslims, instead of fighting with eachother. The first crusade was the only one to almost reach its goals.
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The Abbasids moved the capital from Damascus to Baghda, a small market town on the banks of the Tigris river. This allowed the Persians to hold important offices in the Caliph's government. It also influenced persian traditions to the Caliph's.
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Abu al-Abbas founded the Abbasid dynsaty until 1258. Abbasids tried to create an empire based on equality of all muslims. The caliphs reached great wealth & power. Islam became a more diverse because discrimination ended.
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The caliph had set up the house of wisdom it was a library and a university in Baghdad. Many fields were developed like philosophy, art, and science.
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Abbasid's never ruled Spain and their control over the rest of the Muslim empire went down. Shiite ruler's came to power between 900 and 1400. Seljuk turks moved into the middle east from central asia. Seljuk Turks built a large empire across the Fertile Crescent.
