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Muhammad was born in Mecca (570). His parents died when he was young so he was raised by his uncle, a rich merchant. -
Muhammad dedicated himself to preaching in Mecca a new monotheistic religion, Islam.
But his teachings did not have many followers and that is why Muhammad was persecuted in Mecca by the authorities. Finally, in 622 Muhammad fled to Medina. This event was very important in the calendar of Islam because it marked its beginning, this event is called Hijra. -
Many Arabian tribes converted to islam from 630 onwards and were united under the authority of Medina. -
Muhammad succeded in converting the people of Medina to Islam. With the help of the people of Medina, Muhammad and 10,000 men attacked Mecca
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When Muhammed died, his family chosed Abu Bakr as-Siddiq as the first caliph. A caliph is considerated a sucesor of the prophet, Muhammad and the head of Muslims and Islam. He was born the 27th of October (573) and died 23th of August of 634
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Muhammad died of a disease at the age of 63. By this time most Arabs were Muslims and the Arabian Peninsula had been politically unified.
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In the 7th century, the Muslims forced the Byzantine Empire and conquered syria, Egypt and part of the Persian Empire. -
The next three caliphs who ruled over Islam were: Umar Ibn Alj (634– 644), Uzmán Ibn Affan (644– 656) and Ali ibn Abu Talib (656 – 661)
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(644 - 656) The teachings of Muhammad were collected in the Koran, the holy book for Muslims. It contains the Islamic creed and defines religious obligations. It also dictates the codes of behaviour.
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The Umayyad dynasty from syria seized power and made Damascus the capital. They led a great expansion, conquering the Iberian Peninsula and other regions.
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The Muslims came to the Indus River. Constantinople was always the target of the Muslims and they tried to conquer it a couple of times. Caliph Otman tried to conquer it for the first time, without success. Mawiya was the caliph who tried to conquer her a second time, but was not successful either.
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The Visigoths were very weak and were in deep crisis. So in 711 an army of Berbers led by Arabs crossed the Straight of Gibraltar and invaded the Visigothic Kingdom, killing King Roderic in the Battle of Guadalete.
The Muslim armies conquered the southern Peninsula very quickly becuase Visisgoths had few resistance.
This was the beggining of Al-Andalus. -
They also conquered the Berber tribes in North Africa, and took over most of the Iberian Peninsula. -
The invading armies controlled most of the Peninsula. Visigothic nobles and clerics, along with a small part of the population, took refuge in the Cantabrian mountains. -
After the military conquest, Al-Andalus became a province or emirate that was dependent on the Umayyad Caliphate of Damascus. The capital was established in Cordoba and an emir was appointed to rule the emirate. The power of the emirs in territories north of the Sistema Central was scarce and limited to the maintenance of some military garrisons.
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They attacked the Frankish kingdom, where they were beaten in the battle of Poitiers, and forced to retreat south of the Pyrenees. -
The Abbasid dynasty defeated the Caliphate and took over all the Caliphate. They transported the capital to Baghdad, and some provinces like Al-Andalus, Moroco or Egypt became separate from the central power and became independent.
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In 750, the Abbasids of Baghdad managed to defeat the Ummayad Caliphate of Damascus.
The last member Umayyad family, Prince Abd Al-Rahman, fled to Al-Andalus in 756 and founded the Umayyad Emirate of Córdoba. He declare himself an independent emir and create and independent emirate. -
They expanded towards Nubia (southern Egypt), occupied Palermo, which became the capital of the new Muslim province. -
They invaded southern and central italy. The Muslim conquest of Sicily began in June 827 and lasted until 902, -
In the early 10th century, the emirate of Cordoba faced a lot of grave problems; internal rebellions, attacks by the Christians and threats to maritime trade from North Africa.
The emir Abd al-Rahman III wanted to impose his authority, and, in 929, he proclaimed himself caliph and established the Caliphate of Cordoba, a territory independent from the authority of Baghdad. -
For conflicts, the Caliphate of Cordoba began to broke up. The privileged people started to fought for the power of the Caliphate. -
By 1031, Al-Andalus was divided into more than 25 independent kingdoms called taifas. Military became more weak due to the separation of the Caliphate. To stop the Christian advance, new Muslim armies arrived from North Africa and settled in Al-Andalus. These invasions temporarily stopped the Christian advance, but not for much time.
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Almoravids arrived Peninsula to stop the Christian advances. They arrived to help Muslims. -
Almohads arrived to the Peninsula later than the Almoravids. They had the same funcion, stopped the Christian advances and helped Muslims -
The Christians managed to recover almost all the territory conquered by Muslims, all except the Nasrid Kingdom of Granada. This was a vast empire and one of the most important cultural and commercial kingdoms in Europe.
Because they had great wealth, they paid large taxes to the Christians to prevent them from conquering them. This allowed the Nasrid kingdom of Granada to be kept safe until 1492, when the Catholic Monarchs expelled them from the peninsula. -
All the Islamic Empire was taken by the Turks and It became the capital of the Ottoman Empire. In 1453 they conquered Constantinople Byzantine capital. This event marks the end of the Middle Ages.
