Between the seventh and thirteenth centuries, the peoples of West Asia created a civilisation of extraordinary vitality, bound together by the religion of Islam. Emerging from the Arabian peninsula, Islam spread within a century across the Fertile Crescent, Egypt, North Africa and into Spain, and eastwards into Persia and beyond. This chapter traces the rise of Islam, the early Islamic state, the great caliphates and the flowering of Islamic culture and science.
The world of the central Islamic lands was built on three foundations: the message of the Prophet Muhammad, the creation of a vast empire under the caliphs, and a vigorous commercial economy that connected three continents. Caravans, ports and cities such as Damascus, Baghdad, Cairo and Cordoba made the Islamic world a meeting point of peoples, goods and ideas. Arabic became the language of religion, administration and learning across this vast region.
This chapter also asks how the Islamic state was administered and how society was organised. It examines the rise of the Umayyad and Abbasid dynasties, the intellectual golden age under the Abbasids, and the factors that gradually weakened central authority until the Abbasid caliphate was destroyed by the Mongols in 1258. The study of these lands helps us understand the making of the medieval world that links Asia, Africa and Europe.
The Prophet Muhammad was born in Mecca around 570 CE into the tribe of the Quraysh. Mecca was a prosperous trading town, a shrine city whose sanctuary, the Kaaba, attracted pilgrims from across Arabia. At the age of about forty, Muhammad began to receive revelations that he believed came from God through the angel Gabriel. These revelations were later compiled into the Quran, the sacred scripture of Islam.
The central message of Islam was the unity of God (tawhid), the equality of believers, and the accountability of every person on the Day of Judgement. Muhammad preached against idolatry and the social injustice of Meccan society. In 622 CE, faced with opposition, he migrated to the town of Medina — an event called the Hijra — which became the starting point of the Islamic calendar. At Medina, Muhammad built a community (umma) of believers bound together by faith rather than kinship.
By the time of Muhammad's death in 632 CE, most of Arabia had accepted Islam. His successors, known as caliphs (khalifa, "deputy"), combined religious and political leadership. The first four caliphs, the "rightly guided" caliphs, were followed by the establishment of hereditary dynasties. Within a century of the Prophet's death, Muslim armies had conquered Syria, Egypt, Iraq and Persia, creating an empire that stretched from Spain in the west to the borders of India in the east.
After the death of Ali, the fourth caliph, the general Muawiya founded the Umayyad dynasty in 661 CE, with its capital at Damascus in Syria. The Umayyads created a more stable political structure: they made the caliphate hereditary, built up an efficient administration and a professional army, and issued a unified currency — the gold dinar and the silver dirham.
The Umayyad period saw the great expansion of the empire. Muslim armies carried the conquests into North Africa, Spain and across Central Asia. Arabic was established as the language of administration, and taxes were standardised. However, discontent grew: non-Arab converts to Islam (the mawali) felt they were treated as second-class citizens, and tribal rivalries among the Arabs weakened the dynasty.
The Umayyads were overthrown in 750 CE by the Abbasids, descendants of the Prophet's uncle Abbas, with support from the discontented groups in the eastern provinces. The new dynasty shifted the centre of the empire eastwards and founded a magnificent new capital on the Tigris: Baghdad.
The Abbasid caliphate (750-1258) moved the capital to Baghdad, built in 762 CE. Baghdad stood on the Tigris and became one of the largest and richest cities of the world. The Abbasids were supported by Persians as well as Arabs, and Persian officials and ideas became influential in administration and culture.
The Abbasid period was the golden age of Islamic civilisation. Under caliphs such as Harun al-Rashid and al-Mamun, Baghdad became a centre of learning. The House of Wisdom (Bayt al-Hikmah) was established as a library and translation centre, where scholars translated works of Greek philosophy, mathematics, medicine and astronomy into Arabic. Muslim scholars made original contributions in mathematics (algebra, the concept of zero), astronomy, optics, medicine and geography. Great thinkers such as the philosopher Ibn Sina (Avicenna) and the historian Ibn Khaldun worked in this intellectual environment.
Cities such as Baghdad, Cairo and Cordoba were vibrant urban centres with markets, mosques, libraries, hospitals and bathhouses. The vast trade networks of the Islamic world — by caravan across deserts and by ship across the Indian Ocean — carried goods, technologies and ideas between China, India, Africa and Europe. The Islamic world thus acted as a bridge between East and West.
Islamic society was built on the principle of the equality of believers, though in practice distinctions existed. Muslims had rights that were not always shared equally by non-Muslims. Non-Muslims — Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians — were tolerated as "People of the Book"; they paid a special tax (jizya) but were free to practise their religion. Slaves existed, but slaves who converted to Islam and were freed could rise high in society.
Gender relations were governed by Islamic law and local custom. Women's status varied; the Quran gave women certain rights of inheritance and property, but male guardianship and practices of veiling and seclusion limited their public role. The central Islamic lands were also a meeting place of many peoples — Arabs, Persians, Turks, Berbers and others — and this diversity enriched their culture.
Literature, poetry, architecture and the arts flourished. Persian became a language of poetry and administration alongside Arabic. Beautiful mosques, palaces and gardens were built across the Islamic world. The concept of ilmu (knowledge) and the encouragement of learning gave Islamic civilisation a distinctive intellectual character.
From the tenth century, the unity of the Abbasid caliphate began to dissolve. Provincial governors grew powerful, and the caliph's authority declined. Independent dynasties arose in different regions — the Fatimids in Egypt (with their capital at Cairo), the Umayyads in Spain (with their capital at Cordoba), and various Turkish and Persian rulers in the east. The caliph remained a religious figurehead, but real power passed to sultans and amirs.
New peoples also entered the Islamic world. Turkish nomads, such as the Seljuks, converted to Islam and became the dominant military power in the eastern lands, while European crusaders fought to capture the holy places of Palestine in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Despite these upheavals, Islamic culture continued to flourish, especially in Egypt and Spain.
The end came with the Mongol invasions. In 1258 the Mongols under Hulegu sacked Baghdad, destroyed the caliphate and ended the Abbasid line. The capture of Baghdad was a great catastrophe for the Islamic world — libraries were burnt and the city was devastated. Although Islam survived and later revived under new empires such as the Ottomans, Safavids and Mughals, the Mongol destruction of Baghdad marks the end of the centralised Islamic empire of the middle ages.
| Dynasty | Period | Capital | Key Feature |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rightly Guided Caliphs | 632-661 | Medina | First four caliphs after the Prophet |
| Umayyads | 661-750 | Damascus | Hereditary caliphate, great expansion |
| Abbasids | 750-1258 | Baghdad | Golden age of learning and science |
| Fatimids | Tenth-twelfth century | Cairo | Independent dynasty in Egypt |
| Umayyads of Spain | Eighth-fifteenth century | Cordoba | Islamic state in Spain |
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Hijra | Migration of Muhammad from Mecca to Medina in 622 CE |
| Umma | Community of believers bound by faith |
| Caliph | Deputy or successor of the Prophet, combining religious and political leadership |
| Jizya | Special tax paid by non-Muslims under Islamic rule |
| Bayt al-Hikmah | House of Wisdom, the translation and learning centre in Baghdad |
| Mawali | Non-Arab converts to Islam |
The central Islamic lands witnessed one of the most creative episodes in world history. From the revelations received by Muhammad in Mecca and the community built at Medina, Islam grew into a civilisation that united diverse peoples across three continents. Under the Umayyads and Abbasids, a vast empire was administered, trade flourished, and cities such as Baghdad, Cairo and Cordoba became centres of learning. The translation movement and the original scholarship of thinkers like Ibn Sina and Ibn Khaldun preserved and advanced human knowledge at a time when much of Europe was in decline. The Mongol sack of Baghdad in 1258 ended the Abbasid caliphate, yet the culture and religion of Islam proved enduring, shaping the medieval world of the Ottomans, Safavids and Mughals and connecting Asia, Africa and Europe.