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Mecca was an important trade shop and religious center, with the Kaaba, a shrine with idols. The name Arab comes from a word meaning to pass, ans most at this time were polytheistic nomads. The Quraysh was a local tribe that had power, and encouraged idol worshiping.
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Angels told Mother, Amina to name him Muhammad. His father died before his birth, and his mother when he was six, so he was raised by Abu Talib.
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Ha was to guide caravans to Syria. Soon after, they married and had 7 children, but only one of their daughters, Fātima, survived, and married Alī.
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He sees that people don't share their wealth with the poor, and tribes are always at war with one another. He went to the mountains in solitude, and prayed and fasted. On his 17th day, he saw the angel Gabriel. Gabriel told Muhammad the word of Allah, and told him to share it with others. He told his wife and her cousin, but kept it only to them and himself for two more years.
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Muhammad begins to preach and share his vision with many others. He told them that Allah was the one true god, but Jews and Christians didn't need to convert because they already believed this. They wrote down his teachings in the Quran. He gained many followers, but the Quraysh were against him.
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People thought the followers, called Muslims, should leave the city, and many merchants refused to sell to him.
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Muhammad realizes that he and his supporters can not live in Mecca because of the Quraysh, so they flee. Muhammad sets up a city in Medina.
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At his death, there were about 100000 Muslims, and they didn't know who should lead next. Lots of converted tribes broke away fro Islam.
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Many Muslims agreed that Abu Bakr should be the next Caliph, and he contributed to Muslims by reuniting their community, and begn the process of writing down the Quaran.
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Abu Bakr forced tribes to rejoin Islam, the Islam Power grew, and other tribes started fighting against bigger empires.
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He declared jihad, or holy war on them because they needed more land, but shortly after, he died.
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He helped lay foundations for an Islamic state, and took over Jerusalem, Iraq, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, and Mesopotamia.
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The Caliph after Umar, he completed the Writing down of the Quran in 652, and ordered all other copies to be destroyed to ensure that all Muslims were reading the same text.
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Doubled the size of the Empire, by adding Central Asia, North Africa and Spain to their territories.
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The Arabs conquered the Persians, and took lots of their land. The Persians practices Zoroastrianism , which the Muslims did not agree with
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Overthrew the Umayyad Dynasty in 750, and continued to govern the Islamic Empire.
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