Eventually, the Umayyad Dynasty emerged as the rulers, with Abd al-Malik completing the Dome of the Rock, one of the earliest surviving Islamic monuments, in 691/2 C.E. The Sunnis, who do not hold that Ali should have directly succeeded Muhammad, compose the largest branch of Islam their adherents can be found across North Africa, the Middle East, as well as in Asia and Europe.ĭuring the seventh and early eighth centuries, the Arab armies conquered large swaths of territory in the Middle East, North Africa, the Iberian Peninsula, and Central Asia, despite on-going civil wars in Arabia and the Middle East. Today, the Shi’ite community is composed of several different branches, and there are large Shi’a populations in Iran, Iraq, and Bahrain. The death of Ali is a very important event his followers, who believed that he should have succeeded Muhammad directly, became known as the Shi’a, meaning the followers of Ali. The final caliph, Ali, was married to Fatima, Muhammad’s daughter and was murdered in 661. The Qur’an is believed to have been codified during Uthman’s reign. Muhammad was succeeded by the four “rightly-guided” Caliphs (khalifa or successor in Arabic): Abu Bakr (632-34 C.E.), Umar (634-44 C.E.), Uthman (644-56 C.E.), and Ali (656-661 C.E.). The century following Muhammad’s death was dominated by military conquest and expansion. Muslims believe that he was the final in a line of prophets, which included Moses, Abraham, and Jesus. The Kaaba then became the most important center for pilgrimage in Islam.
The Arabs claim descent from Ishmael, the son of Abraham and Hagar. The Kaaba is believed to have been built by Abraham (or Ibrahim as he is known in Arabic) and his son, Ishmael. One of Muhammad’s first actions was to purge the Kaaba of all of its idols (before this, the Kaaba was a major site of pilgrimage for the polytheistic religious traditions of the Arabian Peninsula and contained numerous idols of pagan gods). Eventually, Muhammad was victorious and reentered Mecca in 630.
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622, the year of the hijra (A.H.), marks the beginning of the Muslim calendar, which is still in use today.īetween 625-630 C.E., there were a series of battles fought between the Meccans and Muhammad and the new Muslim community. This event is known as the hijra, or emigration.
The site of his ascension is believed to be the stone around which the Dome of the Rock was built. Eventually in 622, Muhammad and his followers fled Mecca for the city of Yathrib, which is known as Medina today, where his community was welcomed. During one of his many visions, in 621 C.E., Muhammad was taken on the famous Night Journey by the Angel Gabriel, travelling from Mecca to the farthest mosque in Jerusalem, from where he ascended into heaven. Muhammad’s divine recitations form the Qur’an unlike the Bible or Hindu epics, it is organized into verses, known as ayat. After a period of introspection and self-doubt, Muhammad accepted his role as God’s prophet and began to preach word of the one God, or Allah in Arabic. Around 610 C.E., Muhammad had his first religious experience, where he was instructed to recite by the Angel Gabriel. He married a wealthy widow named Khadija. in Mecca, and his early life was unremarkable. The Qur’an, the holy book of Islam, provides very little detail about Muhammad’s life however, the hadiths, or sayings of the Prophet, which were largely compiled in the centuries following Muhammad’s death, provide a larger narrative for the events in his life. Muhammad was born in 570 C.E. The Kaaba (in Mecca) is the focus of pilgrimage for Muslims. Mecca was a well-established trading city.
570-632 C.E.), a merchant from the city of Mecca, now in modern-day Saudi Arabia. Collectively, scholars refer to these three religions as the Abrahamic faiths, since Abraham and his family played vital roles in the formation of these religions.
They share many of the same holy sites, such as Jerusalem, and prophets, such as Abraham. Islam, Judaism and Christianity are three of the world’s great monotheistic faiths. Lewis)Īssistant Professor, Graduate Center of Liberal StudiesĬity University of New York Origins and the life of Muhammad the Prophet
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