The+Spread+of+Islam

 The Spread of Islam toc By Ryan

**__Muhammad’s Death__ **
Muhammad was a great leader. He was also the founder of Islam. Muhammad died in 632 C.E which made his followers go into a time where they had to select a new leader. Since Muhammad didn’t name a successor it was extremely difficult for his followers to select a new leader they didn’t know who would be able to live up to Muhammad’s standards. They eventually ended up picking a new ruler whose name was Abu-Bakr, who was a close friend of Muhammad. Muhammad is buried in Al-Masjid al-Nabawi which means the Mosque of the Prophet.

**__Abu-Bakr__ **
Abu-Bakr was the successor to Muhammad in other words means he took Muhammad’s place as leader of his followers. Abu-Bakr ruled from 632 C.E (Muhammad's death) to 634 C.E. His caliphate only lasted two years, but he accomplished a lot in that time. In that time period he not only suppressed apostasy (which is the abandonment of a religious or political belief) but unified Arabia. He also supported Islam very much throughout his entire lifetime. He converted over to Islam very easily and throughout his efforts to join Islam and unified it he picked up many followers on the way. This map show what Abu-Bakr conquered in his reign. The green area is what he conquered from 632 to 634 C.E.

**__Umar's Reign__**
Umar was the second rightly guided caliph and his reign lasted from 634 (death of Abu-Bakr) to 644 C.E. He was also the father-in-law of Muhammad. He was elected the next caliph the day that Abu-Bakr died which was August 22. Under Umar, the Muslim armies conquered Syria and lower Egypt which were part of the Byzantine Empire at the time. He also conquered Damascus in 635 and Jerusalem in 637 which he conquered from Syria and Egypt. After he had successfully done that he moved on to fighting the Sassanid forces in the east. He eventually succeeded in capturing the Sassanid capital which is Ctesiphon. After he had conquered the Sassanid capital he moved towards the west again to conquer Egypt. Babylon fell in 641 and then Alexandria fell in 642. Not many people resisted under Umar's rule. Umar was assassinated by a Persian Christian in 644 C.E. Here is a map of what Umar conquered. The green area outside of what Abu-Bakr conquered is what Umar conquered.

__**Uthman's Reign**__
Uthman's reign lasted from 644 (death of Umar) to 656 C.E. During his rule he spread the empire to Fars(which is modern day Iran), to parts of Khorasan( modern day Afganistan) and started the conquest of Armenia in 640 C.E. By the time Uthman came into power Islam had spread very far. What he conquered may have not seemed like alot but since Islam had spread so far it was harder to conquer anything else. But he did manage to conquer some land. Uthman died in 656 C.E. On the map below you can see how Islam spread by comparing the previous map to this map.

__**Ali's Reign**__
Ali was the last rightly guided caliph and he was urged by his fellow advisors to take the position and the next caliph. His rule lasted from 656(death of Uthman) to 661 C.E. In his reign he did not capture any land because he was faced with multiple rebellions from diffrent parts of the Islamic empire. He had been fighting a war with Mu'awiyah who was the govener of Syria at the time. They both hired people to assasinate each other. All of Ali's had been capture and killed but eventually one of Mu'awiyah succeeded when Ali was praying. The assasin had went up to him and stabbed Ali with a poisoned sword and that ended the rule of the rightly guided caliphs.

__** Mu'awiyah And The Rest **__
After Mu'awiyah took the sixth caliph position from Ali's son, he started the Umayyad empire which positions of ruler were passed down from king to son from king to son. The Umayyad empire eventually lead into the Abbasid empire which lead to the Fatimids which lead to the Shadow Caliphate which lead to the Ottomans and so on. The yellow on the map below shows the spread of the Umayyad empire. The map below shows the Spread of the Abbasid empire. The map below shows the Spread of the Fatimad empire There was no spread in the Shadow Caliphate. The map below shows the Spread of the Ottoman empire. The empire is in the yellow.