An outline, era by era

Rise of Islam (Muhammad, 7th century)

Medieval / Post-Classical Era · ~500 – ~1500 CE

Islam arose in the early seventh century CE in the Hijaz, the western region of the Arabian Peninsula, around the trading town of Mecca and the oasis town of Medina. Its Prophet, Muhammad, was born in Mecca around 570 CE. Muslims believe that from about 610 he received revelations from God, later gathered in the Quran. He preached belief in one God, and he led a growing community of followers until his death in 632.

Within a few decades of his death, the community he founded had grown from a small movement in Arabia into the ruling power of a vast area stretching from Egypt to Iran. Islam became one of the world's major religions and shaped law, language, trade, learning and politics across Asia, Africa and Europe. Much of what we know about Muhammad's life comes from sources written down generations later, so historians debate many details.

Things happened, and the rest is history

  1. Arabia between the empires

    Event

    What happened

    In the sixth century CE the Byzantine and Sasanian empires dominate the lands around Arabia, and each relies on Arab allies, such as the Ghassanids and the Lakhmids, to guard its desert frontier. In 570 or so the Himyarite kingdom in Yemen falls to Ethiopian and then Sasanian control. From 602 to 628 the two empires fight a long and exhausting war.

    The rest is history

    Many historians think this exhaustion left the Near East open to the armies that came out of Arabia a few years later. The Byzantines and Sasanians had also lost their Arab buffer states, which weakened their frontier defences. The larger causes of the early conquests are still debated, and religion, politics and opportunity all appear in the explanations. The Sasanian state was gone by 651, when its last king, Yazdegerd III, was killed.

    Sources

    1. BookHoward-Johnston, James. The Last Great War of Antiquity. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021.
    2. BookKennedy, Hugh. The Great Arab Conquests: How the Spread of Islam Changed the World We Live In. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2007.

  2. Mecca and the Quraysh trading town

    Event

    What happened

    By the sixth century Mecca is a trading settlement in the Hijaz, controlled by the tribe of Quraysh. It holds the Kaaba, a shrine that draws pilgrims, and it lies on caravan routes that link Yemen with Syria. Muhammad is born into the Quraysh, in the clan of Hashim, around 570.

    The rest is history

    Mecca's mix of commerce and sacred sites formed the world in which Muhammad first preached. Its leading families depended on trade and pilgrimage, which helps explain why his message of one God met resistance among them. Scholars debate how large Meccan trade really was. Some, such as Patricia Crone, argued that it has been exaggerated. The earliest biography of Muhammad that survives, by Ibn Ishaq, was edited by Ibn Hisham in the ninth century.

    Sources

    1. BookCrone, Patricia. Meccan Trade and the Rise of Islam. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1987.
    2. BookIbn Ishaq. The Life of Muhammad. Translated by A. Guillaume. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1955.

  3. The first revelations and the preaching in Mecca

    Event

    What happened

    According to Islamic tradition, around 610 Muhammad, then about forty, begins to receive revelations, first on Mount Hira near Mecca. He starts to preach belief in one God, a final judgement and care for the poor. A small group of followers gathers, and some of the leading Quraysh oppose him.

    The rest is history

    The Quran, which Muslims hold to contain these revelations, was compiled into a written book within a few decades, and the standard text is traditionally linked to the caliph Uthman, who ruled from 644 to 656. Early manuscripts, such as the Birmingham fragments, have been radiocarbon dated to the seventh century. The detailed story of the first revelations comes from biographies written after 750, so historians treat the details with care. The opposition at Mecca eventually led Muhammad's followers to look for a new home.

    Sources

    1. BookDonner, Fred M. Muhammad and the Believers: At the Origins of Islam. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2010.
    2. BookRobinson, Chase F. Islamic Historiography. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.

  4. The Hijra to Medina

    Event

    What happened

    In 622 Muhammad and his followers leave Mecca for the oasis of Yathrib, later called Medina, where rival clans have invited him to act as an arbiter. A charter known as the Constitution of Medina is later recorded, setting out the relations of the Muslims, other Arab clans and the Jewish tribes. The move is known as the Hijra.

    The rest is history

    The Hijra became so important that in about 638 the caliph Umar chose its year as the start of the Islamic calendar, the year 1 AH. In Medina, Muhammad became both a religious and political leader of a growing community. The authenticity and date of the Medina charter, which survives in Ibn Ishaq's biography, are debated among scholars. The Medina years set the pattern for the later state.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryIbn Ishaq. Sirat Rasul Allah, edited by Ibn Hisham, 9th century CE. Includes the text of the Medina charter.
    2. BookWatt, W. Montgomery. Muhammad at Medina. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1956.

  5. Battles with Mecca and the return to the city

    Event

    What happened

    Between 624 and 630 the Muslims of Medina and the Quraysh of Mecca fight a series of conflicts, including the battles of Badr in 624, Uhud in 625 and the Trench in 627. A truce is made at Hudaybiyya in 628. In 630 Muhammad enters Mecca with a large force, largely without fighting, and the Kaaba is cleared of its idols.

    The rest is history

    Mecca's surrender gave the Muslims control of the main shrine of Arabia, which became the centre of Islamic pilgrimage. Many Arab tribes then sent delegations to Medina to make agreements with Muhammad. Accounts of the battles come mostly from Muslim writers of the eighth and ninth centuries, such as al-Waqidi and al-Tabari. Muhammad led the pilgrimage to Mecca in 632, shortly before his death.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryAl-Waqidi. Kitab al-Maghazi. Arabic account of Muhammad's campaigns, c. 800 CE.
    2. BookLings, Martin. Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1983.

  6. Muhammad's death and the Ridda wars

    Event

    What happened

    Muhammad dies in Medina in 632. His close companion Abu Bakr is chosen as the first caliph, or successor. Several Arab tribes then refuse to keep their agreements, and Abu Bakr fights the Ridda wars, which by about 633 bring most of Arabia back under Medina.

    The rest is history

    The question of who should lead the community after Muhammad later became the root of the split between Sunni and Shia Muslims. Most Sunnis accept the choice of Abu Bakr, while Shia Muslims hold that Muhammad's cousin and son-in-law Ali should have succeeded him. A united Arabia under Medina then provided the base for the conquest of Syria, Iraq and Egypt. These conquests belong to the story of the caliphates.

    Sources

    1. BookMadelung, Wilferd. The Succession to Muhammad: A Study of the Early Caliphate. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.
    2. BookAl-Tabari. The History of al-Tabari, Volume 10: The Conquest of Arabia. Translated by Fred M. Donner. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1993.

  7. The compilation of the Quran

    Event

    What happened

    After Muhammad's death in 632, the revelations, which had been memorised and written on various materials, are gathered into a single text. Tradition says this began under Abu Bakr and that the caliph Uthman, who ruled from 644 to 656, had a standard version copied and sent to the main cities. Early manuscripts from the seventh century survive.

    The rest is history

    Radiocarbon dating of the Birmingham Quran manuscript, announced in 2015, places its parchment between about 568 and 645, which is very early. The text was fixed in writing quickly, though variant readings continued to be taught and a system of dots and vowel marks developed in later centuries. Western scholars still debate the stages of compilation. The Quran became the central text for law, worship and Arabic language.

    Sources

    1. BookSmall, Keith E. Textual Criticism and Qur'an Manuscripts. Lanham: Lexington Books, 2011.
    2. BookDéroche, François. Qur'ans of the Umayyads: A First Overview. Leiden: Brill, 2014.

  8. The Arab victories at Yarmouk and al-Qadisiyya

    Event

    What happened

    In 636 an Arab army defeats a Byzantine force at the river Yarmouk in Syria. At about the same time, or soon after, another Arab army defeats the Sasanian army at al-Qadisiyya in Iraq. By 642 Egypt is taken and by 651 the Sasanian state has collapsed.

    The rest is history

    Within about twenty years of Muhammad's death, Arab armies held Syria, Egypt and Iraq and had broken the Sasanian empire. The exact dates and details come from later Arabic sources, and historians dispute the order of events and the size of the armies. The new territories were ruled by the caliphs, first from Medina, then from Damascus under the Umayyads. This conquest created the world of the caliphates, the subject of the next entry.

    Sources

    1. BookDonner, Fred M. The Early Islamic Conquests. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1981.
    2. BookKaegi, Walter E. Byzantium and the Early Islamic Conquests. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992.

  9. The Night Journey and the Ascension

    Myth

    The legend

    In one night, Muhammad is carried on the winged steed Buraq from the sacred mosque in Mecca to the farthest mosque, usually understood as Jerusalem. From there he ascends through the heavens, meets earlier prophets and receives the command of daily prayer.

    The rest is history

    The Night Journey is mentioned briefly in the Quran, in chapter 17, and the fuller story of the ascension comes from the hadith and the biographies, written down in the eighth and ninth centuries. Its details, such as the steed Buraq and the rank of the prophets in each heaven, grew in later tradition. The story gave Jerusalem a place in Islamic belief. The Dome of the Rock, finished in 691 or 692 under Abd al-Malik, stands on the site where tradition later placed the ascension.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryThe Quran, chapter 17 (al-Isra). Arabic scripture, 7th century CE.
    2. BookColby, Frederick S. Narrating Muhammad's Night Journey. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2008.

  10. The monk Bahira

    Folk tale

    The legend

    As a boy of about twelve, Muhammad travels with his uncle Abu Talib on a caravan to Syria. At Bosra, a Christian monk named Bahira sees a cloud shading the caravan and recognises the boy as a future prophet.

    The rest is history

    The story appears in Ibn Ishaq's biography and in later works. Some scholars see it as a way of presenting Muhammad's prophethood as foretold by Christian tradition. Christian writers, in turn, told versions in which Bahira taught Muhammad, which Muslim writers rejected. Trade between Mecca and Syria was real, though the details of this journey cannot be confirmed. The earliest Christian accounts of Muhammad, such as the Doctrina Jacobi of about 634, do not mention Bahira.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryIbn Ishaq. Sirat Rasul Allah, edited by Ibn Hisham, 9th century CE. Contains the Bahira episode.
    2. BookRoggema, Barbara. The Legend of Sergius Bahira. Leiden: Brill, 2009.

  11. Islam was spread only by the sword

    Popular belief

    The legend

    A common claim holds that the Arab armies forced everyone they conquered to convert to Islam at sword point, so that the religion grew by compulsion alone.

    The rest is history

    The early conquests were military, but forced mass conversion was not the policy. Christians, Jews and later Zoroastrians were generally allowed to keep their faiths in return for a tax, and the pact with the people of Jerusalem, traditionally dated to 638, is an example. Conversion was slow. Historians such as Richard Bulliet estimate from name patterns that a majority of the population in Iran and Iraq became Muslim only in the ninth and tenth centuries. Islam also spread by trade, intermarriage and the attractions of belonging to the ruling class.

    Sources

    1. BookBulliet, Richard W. Conversion to Islam in the Medieval Period. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1979.
    2. BookHoyland, Robert G. In God's Path: The Arab Conquests and the Creation of an Islamic Empire. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015.

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