The Rise of Islam

Taught by: [Imperator]



Sections in order

1. Muhammad
2. Islamic Conquests
3. The Crusades
4. Mongol Invasion




Muhammad

Muhammad, born around 570 A.D. in Makkah (modern day Mecca) on the Arabian Peninsula, was an orphan by the time he turned five years old. He eventually became the leader of a camel caravan that benefited from large amounts of trade and married the wealthy, widowed owner of the caravan.

As time went on, Muhammad became increasingly disenchanted with the local Arabian religions that worshipped many gods and idols and rejected the greediness of the rich, upper class merchants. These disappointments led him to seek solace in the hills and caves outside of Makkah where he went to meditate and think at night. During one of these nights, the angel Gabriel came to Muhammad and ordered him to recite in the name of god. Muhammad wrote down all that was told to him despite being illiterate. This text would eventually become the Quran, the holy book of the Muslims.

Believing that God had given his final word to him, Muhammad preached to the people of Makkah and tried to convert them to Islam. He met much resistance from the wealthy merchants who feared that his attempts to eradicate corruption would hurt their profits. In 622 A.D., Muhammad and the few followers he had converted left Makkah amid death threats and persecution and traveled north to Yathrib (modern day Medina). This journey is known as the Hijrah. In Yathrib, he was welcomed and asked to mediate a peace agreement between warring tribes in the area. After the conflict was solved, the locals flocked to his message and Muhammad became both a spiritual and political leader. Hearing of his success in Yathrib, the Makkans led a force of 1000 men to the city to crush Muhammad. The Muslims had only 300 warriors and fewer weapons yet defeated their more powerful foes. For years the Mulims and Makkans warred but Muhammad steadily gained ground and more followers as news of his victories spread. In 630 A.D., he entered the city of Makkah and spared the lives of all the people, which was contrary to Arab tradition of massacring defeated populations. Muhammad allowed the Makkans the choice of converting to Islam or keeping their old religions albeit with a tax for having the privilege. Muhammad died on June 7, 632 A.D. and is still buried in the mosque in Medina.




Islamic Conquests

After the death of Muhammad, the Muslims named Abu Bakr, Muhammad’s father-in-law, caliph. Thereafter, Muslim armies expanded the Islamic religion and empire across the Middle East. In 636 A.D. the Arabs defeated the Byzantines allowing them to take control of Syria, and Egypt in 642 A.D. In the east, the Persian Empire succumbed to the Muslims in 650 A.D. After the death of Abu Bakr, succession issues persisted until 661 A.D. when Mu’awiyah became caliph and consolidated his control of the Islamic Empire by making the caliphate hereditary in his family. The rule of his descendants is known as the Umayyad Dynasty.

Despite the progress of the Umayyad leaders, strife between Arab Muslims and non-Arabs began to cause a split in Islam around 680 A.D. Some Muslims only accepted the descendants of Ali, a relative of Muhammad, as the true rulers of the empire and became the Shiite sect of Islam. The rest supported the Umayyad rulers and were called Sunnis. This division between Shiite and Sunni still exists today.

In the year 710, Muslim forces crossed from North Africa into Spain and conquered the entire Iberian Peninsula by 725 A.D. However, they were halted at the Battle of Tours in France in 732, marking the end of Islamic expansion into Europe. In 750 A.D., the Umayyad rulers were overthrown and a new dynasty called the Abbasid Dynasty began. The Islamic world experienced a flourish of culture and artistic talent during the 9th century under Abbasid rule. However, over the following 300 years, various parts of the empire split off and formed their own Islamic kingdoms, ending Muslim unity.


Red: Expansion under the Prophet Mohammad 622-632
Orange: Expansion under Abu Bakr 632-661
Yellow: Expansion during the Umayyad Caliphate 661-750




The Crusades

In the 11th century A.D., a Muslim people known as the Seljuk Turks began to push back the Byzantine Empire in Asia Minor and conquer Christian lands. After the Byzantines were crushed in a battle in 1071, the Emperor Alexius I called on Europe for help against the Muslim invaders. Pope Urban II answered the plea and organized the first crusade. The Crusaders numbered about 10,000 infantry and 3,000 cavalry. Most soldiers were French although men of many nationalities participated. The Crusaders headed east and in 1098, the city of Antioch was captured with Jerusalem falling in June the next year. On the conquered lands, four crusader kingdoms were founded and supplied through Italian ports making the coastal cities of Genoa, Pisa, and Venice extremely rich.

Around 1140 one of the kingdoms fell to Muslims leading to the organization of a second crusade. This expedition was a complete failure and Saladin recaptured Jerusalem in 1187. Following this event, a third crusade was prepared and led by Emperor Frederick Barbarossa of Germany, Richard I of England, and Philip II of France. The Christian forces quickly experienced problems when Frederick drowned in a river and Philip returned to France leaving Richard in command. He reached a settlement with Saladin that allowed Christian pilgrims into Jerusalem and the Crusaders returned to Europe.

In 1202 the fourth and final major crusade set out for the Holy Land. However, the crusaders were diverted to Constantinople, capital of the Byzantine Empire, during a fight over the throne. The Venetian crusaders sacked the city in 1204 to weaken their competition in trade across the Mediterranean. Thus ended the crusades. It would take until 1261 before Byzantine forces could recapture Constantinople from the Italians.




Mongol Invasion

In 1231, Mongol invaders led by Hülegü attacked the Islamic Empire and conquered Persia. Baghdad fell in 1258 and was burned to the ground, ending the Abbasid Dynasty. The Mongols then advanced all the way to Egypt where the Muslim Mamluks finally stopped their expansion. After the death of the Mongol leader, Genghis Khan, his sons divided up the empire into four Khanates with the lands conquered by Hülegü becoming the Il-Khan Empire. Eventually, the Mongol rulers of the Il-Khan Empire converted to Islam and adopted the local culture. The old Islamic Empire created by Muhammad had ended.




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