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Discontented with life in Mecca, he retreated to a cave in the surrounding mountains for meditation and reflection. According to Islamic beliefs it was here, at age 40, in the month of Ramadan, where he received his first revelation from God. Three years after this event Muhammad started preaching these revelations publicly, proclaiming that "God is One", that complete "surrender" to Him (lit. islm) is the only way (dn) acceptable to God, and that he himself was a prophet and messenger of God, i
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In 632, a few months after returning to Medina from his Farewell pilgrimage, Muhammad fell ill and died. By the time of his death, most of the Arabian Peninsula had converted to Islam; and he united the tribes of Arabia into a single Muslim religious polity.
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The Ridda wars, also known as the Wars of Apostasy, were a set of military campaigns against the rebellion of several Arabic tribes against the Caliph Abu Bakr during 632 and 633 AD, after prophet Muhammad died. The revolts, in Islamic historiography later interpreted as religious, were in reality mainly political. However, these revolts also had a religious aspect: Medina had become the centre of a social and political system, of which religion was an integral part; consequently it
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Muslim armies take the Fertile Crescent (Egypt, Syria, Palestine, Mesopotamia), North African coast, parts of Persian and Byzantine Empires
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Islam holds that the Qur'an was revealed from God to Muhammad orally through the angel Jibrl (Gabriel) over a period of approximately twenty-three years, beginning in 610 CE, when he was forty, and concluding in 632 CE, the year of his death. Muslims further believe that the Qur'an was memorized, recited and written down by Muhammad's companions after every revelation dictated by Muhammad. Most of Muhammad's companionsâ"tens of thousandsâ"learned the Qur'an by heart, repeatedly recited in fr
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The Battle of Siffin (May-July 657 CE) occurred during the First Fitna, or First Muslim civil war, with the main engagement taking place from July 26 to July 28. It was fought between Ali ibn Abi Talib and Muawiyah I, on the banks of the Euphrates river, in what is now Ar-Raqqah, Syria. Following the controversial murder of Uthman ibn Affan, Ali had become Caliph but struggled to be accepted as such throughout the Muslim Empire. Muawiyah, the governor of Syria, was a kinsman of the murdered Ca
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Saint John of Damascus (c. 676 â" 4 December 749) was an a Syrian Christian monk and priest. Born and raised in Damascus, he died at his monastery, Mar Saba, near Jerusalem. A polymath whose fields of interest and contribution included law, theology, philosophy, and music, before being ordained, he served as a Chief Administrator to the Muslim caliph of Damascus, wrote works expounding the Christian faith, and composed hymns which are still in everyday use in Eastern Christian monasteries thro
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Shia Islam (Arabic: Sh‘ah, sometimes spelled Shi'a), is the second largest denomination of Islam, after Sunni Islam. The followers of Shia Islam are called Shi'as but the terms Shiites or Shi'ites are common Anglicisations. "Shia" is the short form of the historic phrase Sh‘atu ‘Al, meaning "the followers of Ali" or "the faction of Ali"[or simply "The Party". Similar to other schools of thought in Islam, Shia Islam is based on the teachings of the Islamic holy book, the Qur'an and the message
