history began in Arabia with the Muhammad's first recitations of the Qur'an in the 7th century. Islam's historical development has affected political, economic, and military trends both inside and outside the Islamic world. As with Christendom, the concept of an Islamic world is useful in looking at different periods of human history; similarly useful is an understanding of the identification with a quasi-political community of believers, or ummah, on the part of Islam's practitioners down the centuries.
Contents [hide]
1 Background
2 Note on early Islamic historiography
3 Early Caliphate
3.1 Timeline
3.2 Al-Rashidun - "The Rightly-Guided Khalifahs"
3.2.1 The First Fitna
3.3 Umayyads
3.4 Abbasids - "Islamic Golden Age"
4 Regional powers
4.1 Spain & the Umayyads
5 The Crusaders
5.1 The Mamluks
6 Islam in Africa
6.1 Islam in Maghreb
6.2 Islam in East Africa
6.3 Islam in West Africa
7 Islam in Asia
7.1 Indian Subcontinent
7.2 China
7.3 Southeast Asia
8 Mongol Invasions
9 Three Muslim empires
9.1 Mughal Empire
9.2 Safavid Empire
9.3 Ottoman Empire
10 Wahhabism
11 The 20th century
11.1 Demise of the Ottoman Empire
11.2 Partition of India
11.3 Arab-Israeli conflict
11.4 Oil wealth
11.5 Two Iranian revolutions
12 The 21st century
12.1 Islam in Turkey
12.2 European Islam
13 Chronology
14 Dynasties of Muslim Rulers
15 See also
16 Notes
17 References and further reading
18 External links
[edit] Background
Within a century of the prophet Muhammad's final recitations of the Qur'an, an Islamic state stretched from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to Central Asia in the east. This new polity soon broke into a civil war known to Islamic historians as the First Fitna, and later affected by a Second Fitna. Through its history, there would be rival dynasties claiming the caliphate, or leadership of the Muslim world, and many Islamic states and empires offered only token obedience to a...