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Islam was not practiced very widely in this time period. Nobody wanted to believe in something they couldn't see and were reluctant to change their current beliefs. Muhammad's birth was the start of change.
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It was said that 40 years after his birth, while on a mountain retreat, he stumbled upon a cave. While visiting this cave he was said to have been visited by the angel Gabriel. It is at his time he comes upon the first revelations of the Quran. Later in the year he is once again visited by the angel. He is told to go forth and share the word of god.
His preachings were first met with hostility, and he and his followers were persecuted. -
After finding themselves faced with persecution in Mecca, Muhammad, and his followers migrated to the nearby town of Yathrib. (This migration would later be known as the Hijrah and mark the beginning of the Islamic calendar.) While in Yathrib Muhammad establishes an Islamic state based on the laws in the Quran. Later he would start to invite other tribes and nations to practice Islam.
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Muslim armies take control of an area in North Africa called the Fertile Cresent, as well as the Persian and Byzantine empires.
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As Islam begins to spread trough North Africa, Imam Ali is killed, bringing an end to the four “righteous caliphs”: Abur Bakr, Umar, Uthman, and Ali. This is also the beginning of the Umayyad rule.
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Muslims enter Spain through the western areas of North America, and India through the east, taking over the land as they go. Eventually, they take over almost the whole of the Iberian Peninsula.
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For a large amount of time, the Umayyads were in charge of the entire Muslim empire. The Abbasids took power and the Umayyads fled to Cordoba. The Abbasids moved the seat of power to Baghdad, and Baghdad became a major trade crossroads because of it.
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Between 813 and 833; Ma’mun marched on Baghdad, beheaded its ruler, and took power. His reign lasted for about twenty years. Early Muslim scholars could not agree on whether or not the Quran was created during this time.
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The late 900s
By Islam spreading into West Africa starts the domination of Islam as a world religion. Now many people can convert other Africans to Islam increasing the population of the Islam religion. -
This picture shows the Ottomans conquering Byzantine and Constantinople. By them conquering Constantinople the city was renamed Istanbul. This is important to Islamic history because if the Ottomans didn’t conquer Constantinople, the name of the city wouldn’t be changed.
