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Muhammad is born in the Quraysh tribe in the city of Mecca.
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In a cave at Mount Hira, Muhammad begins to have visions of the angel Gabriel and receives messages from God (Allah).
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After being threatened by the city leaders, Muhammad and his followers leave Mecca and go to Medina (the name means "the prophets city"). This journey is known as the hegira and it marks first year of the Islamic calendar. Muhammad became both a spiritual and a political leader. Other Arab tribes began to accept Islam.
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After several years of fighting, the city of Mecca surrenders, welcomes Muhammad back, and accepts Islam as their religion. The tribal idols in the Kaoba are destroyed so that it can be rededicated to the worship of Allah.
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Muhammad dies. The new leader, Abu Bakr, becomes the first caliph, a title that Muslims use for the highest leader of Islam. (In Arabic the word means successor.) Under his rule, the Muslims conquered many land outsideof Arabia.
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Abu Bakr dies. He had made Arabia a unified Muslim state. He is followed by Umar who encourages the armies to conquer more land.
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The pact of Umar is written. This treaty is like others made with the non-Muslims, often Jews and Christians, whose land was conquered. It protected them from attack.
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A combined Arab and Berber army invades Spain and quickly conquer it. For the next 700 years, Muslims, called Moors, ruled parts of Spain.
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At the Battle of Tours in what is now France, the Muslims are stopped from invading the rest of Europe, determining that Europe would be Christian and not Muslim.
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The Abassids came to power. They reorganized the government to make it easier to rule such a large region
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Baghdad, in present-day Iraq, becomes the capital of the Islamic empire. It was a center for trading, culture and learning.
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Muslim Turkish warriors called the Ottoman's conquer Contantinople, defeating the Byzantine Empire. Their leader, Mehemed II, made Constantinople his capital and renamed it Istabul, the name it is known as today. Rulers of the Ottoman Empire were called Sultan.
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The Safarid Empire begins when they conquered Persia. Their leader took the title of Shah,or king, and made shi'a Islam the official religion. Their capital was in Estahan, in present day Iran. Most Muslims in Iran today are Shi'a Muslims.
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The Mughal Empire is established by its founder, Babur, in northern India. A later emperor, Akbar, conquered many land and strengthen the government. He did not descriminate against those who followed other religions. Later emperors did not follow his policy. Violent revolts occured and weakened the Empire which soon fell apart.
