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(Saudi) Arabia
The Romans named three regions with the prefix "Arabia", encompassing a larger area than the
current term "Arabian Peninsula":



Arabia Petraea: for the area that is today southern modern Syria, Jordan, the Sinai
Peninsula and north-western Saudi Arabia. It was the only one that became a province,
with Petra as its capital.
Arabia Deserta ("Desert Arabia"): signified the desert interior of the Arabian peninsula.
As a name for the region, it remained popular into the 19th and 20th centuries, and was
used in Charles M. Doughty's Travels in Arabia Deserta (1888).
Arabia Felix ("Fortunate Arabia"): was used by geographers to describe what is now
modern-day Yemen, which enjoys more rainfall, is much greener than the rest of the
peninsula and has long enjoyed much more productive fields.
The Arab
inhabitan
ts used a
northsouth
division
of
Arabia:
Al ShamAl
Yaman,
or Arabia
DesertaArabia
Felix.
Arabia
Felix had
originally
been
used for
the whole
peninsula
, and at other times only for the southern region. Because its use became limited to the south,
the whole peninsula was simply called Arabia. Arabia Deserta was the entire desert region
extending north from Arabia Felix to Palmyra and the Euphrates, including all the area between
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Pelusium on the Nile and Babylon. This area was also called Arabia and not sharply distinguished
from the peninsula.
The Arabs and the Ottoman Empire considered the entire region where the Arabs lived 'the land
of the Arabs' – bilad al-Arab (Arabia or Arabistan), and its major divisions were the bilad alSham (Syria), bilad al-Yaman (the Land of the southern Peninsula), and Bilad al-Iraq (the Land of
the River Banks) The Ottomans used the term Arabistan in a broad sense for the subcontinent
itself starting from Cilicia, where the Euphrates river makes its descent into Syria, through
Palestine, and on through the remainder of the Sinai and Arabian peninsulas
The provinces of Arabia were: Al Tih, the Sinai peninsula, Hedjaz, Asir, Yemen, Hadramaut,
Mahra and Shilu, Oman, Hasa, Bahrian, Dahna, Nejd, Nufud, the Hammad, which included the
deserts of Syria, Mesopotamia and Babylonia.
The seventh century saw the introduction of Islam in the Arabian Peninsula. The Islamic prophet
Muhammad established a new unified polity in the Arabian peninsula which under the subsequent
Rashidun and Umayyad Caliphates saw a century of rapid expansion of Arab power well beyond
the Arabian peninsula in the form of a vast Muslim Arab Empire with an area of influence that
stretched from the north-west Indian subcontinent, across Central Asia, the Middle East, North
Africa, southern Italy, and the Iberian Peninsula, to the Pyrenees.
Muhammad began preaching Islam at Mecca before migrating to Medina, from where he united
the tribes of Arabia into a singular Arab Muslim religious polity. With Muhammad's death in 632
AD, disagreement broke out over who would succeed him as leader of the Muslim community.
Umar ibn al-Khattab, a prominent companion of Muhammad, nominated Abu Bakr, who was
Muhammad's intimate friend and collaborator. Others added their support and Abu Bakr was
made the first caliph. This choice was disputed by some of Muhammad's companions, who held
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that Ali ibn Abi Talib, his cousin and son-in-law, had been designated his successor. Abu Bakr's
immediate task was to avenge a recent defeat by Byzantine (or Eastern Roman Empire) forces,
although he first had to put down a rebellion by Arab tribes in an episode known as the Ridda
wars, or "Wars of Apostasy".
His death in 634 resulted in the succession of Umar as the caliph, followed by Uthman ibn alAffan and Ali ibn Abi Talib. These four are known as al-khulafā' ar-rāshidūn ("Rightly Guided
Caliphs"). Under them, the territory under Muslim rule expanded deeply into Persian and
Byzantine territories.
The provincial Ottoman Army
for Arabia (Arabistan Ordusu)
was headquartered in Syria,
which included Lebanon,
Palestine, and the Transjordan
region. It was put in charge of
Syria, Cilicia, Iraq, and the
remainder of the Arabian
Peninsula. It is important to
point out that the Ottomans
never had any control over
central Arabia also known as
The Najd region, Oman, or
Yemen.
The Damascus Protocol of
1914 provides an illustration of
the regional relationships.
Arabs living in one of the
existing districts of the Arabian peninsula, the Emirate of Hejaz, asked for a British guarantee of
independence on behalf of 'the whole Arab nation'. Their proposal included all Arab lands south
of a line roughly corresponding to the northern frontiers of present-day Syria and Iraq. They
envisioned a new Arab state, or confederation of states, adjoining the southern Arabian
Peninsula. It would have comprised Cilicia – İskenderun and Mersin, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon,
Jordan, and Palestine.
In the modern era, the term bilad al-Yaman came to refer specifically to the south-western parts
of the peninsula. Arab geographers started to refer to the whole peninsula as 'jazirat al-Arab', or
the peninsula of the Arabs.
In the beginning of the 20th century, the Ottomans embarked on an ambitious project: the
construction of a railway connecting Istanbul, the capital of the Ottoman Empire and the seat of
the Islamic Caliphate, and Hejaz with its holiest shrines of Islam which are the yearly pilgrimage
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destination of the Hajj. Another important goal was to improve the economic and political
integration of the distant Arabian provinces into the Ottoman state, and to facilitate the
transportation of military troops in case of need.
The Hejaz Railway was a narrow gauge railway (1050 mm) that ran from Damascus to Medina,
through the Hejaz region of Arabia. It was a part of the Ottoman railway network and was built
in order to extend the previously existing line between Istanbul and Damascus (which began from
the Haydarpaşa Terminal) all the way to the holy city of Mecca (eventually being able to reach
only Medina due to the interruption of the construction works caused by the outbreak of World
War I).
The railway was started in 1900 at the behest of the Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II and was
built largely by the Turks, with German advice and support. A public subscription was opened
throughout the Islamic world to fund the construction. The railway was to be a waqf, an
inalienable religious endowment or charitable trust.
The major developments of the early 20th century were the Arab Revolt during World War I and
the subsequent collapse and partitioning of the Ottoman Empire. The Arab Revolt (1916–1918)
was initiated by the Sherif Hussein ibn Ali with the aim of securing independence from the ruling
Ottoman Empire and creating a single unified Arab state spanning from Aleppo in Syria to Aden
in Yemen. During World War I, the Sharif Hussein entered into an alliance with the United
Kingdom and France against the Ottomans in June 1916.
These events were followed by the
unification of Saudi Arabia ( also known as
the third Saudi State) under King
Abdulaziz Ibn Saud. In 1902 Ibn Saud had
captured Riyadh. Continuing his
conquests, Abdul Aziz subdued Al-Hasa,
the rest of Nejd, and the Hejaz between
1913 and 1926, defeating the Sherif
Hussein ibn Ali, and founded the modern
state of Saudi Arabia. Ibn Saud was not the
first Saudi ruler to control much of Arabia.
The house of Saud had been ruling parts of
Arabia since the 17th century AD. Two
Saudi states were formed and controlled
much of Arabia before Ibn Saud was even
born. Ibn Saud however, established the
third Saudi state.
The second major development has been
the discovery of vast reserves of oil in the
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1930s. Its production brought great wealth to all countries of the region, with the exception of
Yemen. The oil boom in Kuwait converted Kuwait City from a small city to a financial hub.
Arab–Israeli conflict
The adoption of the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine led to armed conflict between the
Arab and Jewish communities of Palestine. Arabs having rejected the Partition Plan eventually
lost the war and 78% of the Mandatory Palestine land except for what called West bank, and
Gaza . That led to a series of conflicts between the newly established State of Israel and many of
the Arab States of the peninsula, starting with the 1948 Arab–Israeli War.
Civil war in Yemen
The North Yemen Civil War was fought in North Yemen between royalists of the Mutawakkilite
Kingdom of Yemen and factions of the Yemen Arab Republic from 1962 to 1970. The war began
with a coup d'etat carried out by the republican leader, Abdullah as-Sallal, which dethroned the
newly crowned Imam Al-Badr and declared Yemen a republic under his presidency. The Imam
escaped to the Saudi Arabian border and rallied popular support.
The royalist side received support from Saudi Arabia, while the republicans were supported by
Egypt and the Soviet Union. Both foreign irregular and conventional forces were also involved.
The Egyptian President, Gamal Abdel Nasser, supported the republicans with as many as 70,000
troops. Despite several military moves and peace conferences, the war sank into a stalemate.
Egypt's commitment to the war is considered to have been detrimental to its performance in the
Six-Day War of June 1967, after which Nasser found it increasingly difficult to maintain his
army's involvement and began to pull his forces out of Yemen.
By 1970, King Faisal of Saudi Arabia recognized the republic and a truce was signed. Egyptian
military historians refer to the war in Yemen as their Vietnam.
Kuwait and the Persian Gulf War
The British proposed a treaty with the Ottoman Empire in 1913 to establish Kuwait as an
autonomous kaza. It was a district of the vilayet of Basra. The treaty was never ratified due to
the outbreak of World War I. In 1990 Iraq made claims upon Kuwaiti territory, and insisted that
the borders had never been properly delimited by the British in 1951.[25
The invasion of Kuwait by Iraq forces, led to the 1990–91 Persian Gulf War. Egypt, Syria and
Saudi Arabia joined a multinational coalition that opposed Iraq. Displays of support for Iraq by
Jordan and the Palestinians resulted in strained relations between many of the Arab states. After
the war, a so-called "Damascus Declaration" formalized an alliance for future joint Arab
defensive actions between Egypt, Syria, and the GCC states.
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The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (Arabic: ‫)المملكة العربية السعودية‬,
… commonly known as Saudi Arabia, occasionally spelled Saʿ udi Arabia, is the largest Arab
country of the Middle East. It is bordered by Jordan and Iraq on the north and north-east,
Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates on the east, Oman on the south-east, and Yemen
on the south. The Persian Gulf lies to the north-east and the Red Sea to its west. It has an
estimated population of 28 million, and its size is approximately 2,149,690 square kilometres
(830,000 sq mi). The kingdom is sometimes called "The Land of the Two Holy Mosques" in
reference to Mecca and Medina, the two holiest places in Islam. The two mosques are Masjid alHaram (in Mecca) and Masjid Al-Nabawi (in Medina). The current kingdom was founded by
Abdul-Aziz bin Saud, whose efforts began in 1902 when he captured the Al-Saud’s ancestral
home of Riyadh, and culminated in 1932 with the proclamation and recognition of the Kingdom of
Saudi Arabia, though its national origins go back as far as 1744 with the establishment of the
First Saudi State. Saudi Arabia's government takes the form of an Islamic absolute monarchy.
Human rights groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have repeatedly
expressed concern about the state of human rights in Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia has the world's largest oil reserves and is the world's largest oil exporter. Oil
accounts for more than 90% of exports and nearly 75% of government revenues, facilitating the
creation of a welfare state, which the government has found difficult to fund during periods of low
oil prices.
History
Although the region in which the country stands today has an ancient history, the emergence of
the Saudi dynasty began in central Arabia in 1744. That year, Muhammad ibn Saud, the ruler of
the town of Ad-Dir'iyyah near Riyadh, joined forces with a well-known Islamic scholar and Imam,
Muhammad ibn Abd-al-Wahhab, to create a new political and religious entity. Both persons
found they had common interests, mainly to see all the Arabs of the peninsula brought back to
"true" Islam. This alliance formed in the 18th century remains the basis of Saudi Arabian
dynastic rule today, and over the next 150 years, the fortunes of the Saud family rose and fell
several times as Saudi rulers contended with Egypt, the Ottoman Empire, and other Arabian
families for control of the peninsula (see First Saudi State and Second Saudi State).The third and
current Saudi state was founded in the early 20th century by King Abdul Aziz Al Saud (known
internationally as Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud).
First Saudi State (1744–1818)
The first Saudi State was established in 1744 when Muhammad ibn Abd-al-Wahhab settled in
Diriyah and Prince Muhammed Ibn Saud agreed to support and espouse his cause in the hope of
cleansing Islamic practices of heresy. The House of Saud and its allies rose to become the
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dominant state in Arabia controlling most of the present-day territory of Saudi Arabia, including
the Islamic holy cities of Mecca and Medina. Concerned at the growing power of the Saudis, the
Ottoman Sultan instructed Mohammed Ali Pasha to reconquer the area again. Ali sent his sons
Tusun Pasha and Ibrahim Pasha who were successful in routing the Saudi forces in 1818,
eventually weakening the hold of Al Saud. Alshuraim was one of the largest families that
supported king Abdulaziz and his family.
Second Saudi State (1824–1891)
After a rebuilding period following the ending of the First Saudi State, the House of Saud
returned to power in the Second Saudi State in 1824. The state lasted until 1891 when it
succumbed to the Al Rashid of Ha'il.
1891 to present day
Rashidi Arabia endured from 1891 to 1902, when Ibn Saud reconquered Riyadh, the first of a
series of conquests leading to the creation of the modern nation state of Saudi Arabia in 1932.
The Third Saudi state was founded by the late King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia. In 1902 Ibn Saud
captured Riyadh, the Al-Saud dynasty's ancestral capital, from the rival Al-Rashid family.
Continuing his conquests, Abdul Aziz subdued Al-Hasa, the rest of Nejd, and the Hejaz between
1913 and 1926. Boundaries with Jordan, Iraq, and Kuwait were established by a series of treaties
negotiated in the 1920s, with two "neutral zones" created, one with Iraq and the other with
Kuwait. On January 8, 1926 Hussain Ibn Ali became the King of Sharqiya. On January 27, 1927
he took the title King of Nejd (his previous Nejdi title was Sultan). By the Treaty of Jeddah,
signed on May 20, 1927, the United Kingdom recognized the independence of Abdul Aziz's
realm (then known as the Kingdom of Hejaz and Nejd). In 1932, these regions were unified as the
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The discovery of oil on March 3, 1938 transformed the country. The
country's southern boundary with Yemen was partially defined by the 1934 Treaty of Taif, which
ended a brief border war between the two states.
Abdul Aziz's military and political successes were not mirrored economically until vast reserves
of oil were discovered in March 1938. Development programs, which were delayed due to the
onset of the Second World War in 1939, began in earnest in 1946 and by 1949 production was in
full swing. Oil has provided Saudi Arabia with economic prosperity and a great deal of political
leverage in the international community. Prior to his death in 1953, Abdul Aziz, aware of the
difficulties facing other regional absolute rulers reliant on extended family networks, attempted
to regulate the succession.
Saud succeeded to the throne on his father's death in 1953. However, by the early 1960s the
Kingdom was in jeopardy due to Saud's economic mismanagement and failure to deal effectively
with a regional challenge from Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser. As a consequence, Saud
was deposed in favour of Faisal in 1964. Intra-family rivalry, echoed by increasing complications
from the 1973 oil crisis, was one of the factors that led to the assassination of Faisal by his
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nephew, Prince Faisal bin Musa'id, in 1975. He was succeeded by King Khalid until 1982 and
then by King Fahd. When Fahd died in 2005, his half-brother, Abdullah, ascended to the throne.
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Muhammad (610–632) and Islam
Muhammad (c. 570 – June 8, 632) was a trader later becoming a religious, political, and military
leader. However, Muslims do not view Muhammad as the creator of Islam, but instead regard him
as the last messenger of God, through which the Qur'an was revealed. Muslims view Muhammad
as the restorer of the original, uncorrupted monotheistic faith of Adam, Abraham, Moses, Jesus,
and other prophets. In Muslim tradition, Muhammad is viewed as the last and the greatest in a
series of prophets—as the man closest to perfection, the possessor of all virtues. For the last 22
years of his life, in 610, beginning at age 40, Muhammad started receiving revelations from God.
The content of these revelations, known as the Qur'an, was memorized and recorded by his
companions.
During this time, Muhammad preached to the people of Mecca, imploring them to abandon
polytheism. Although some converted to Islam, Muhammad and his followers were persecuted by
the leading Meccan authorities. After 12 years of preaching, Muhammad and the Muslims
performed the Hijra ("emigration") to the city of Medina (formerly known as Yathrib) in 622.
There, with the Medinan converts (Ansar) and the Meccan migrants (Muhajirun), Muhammad
established his political and religious authority. Within years, two battles had been fought
against Meccan forces: the Battle of Badr in 624, which was a Muslim victory, and the Battle of
Uhud in 625, which ended inconclusively. Conflict with Medinan Jewish clans who opposed the
Muslims led to their exile, enslavement or death, and the Jewish enclave of Khaybar was
subdued. At the same time, Meccan trade routes were cut off as Muhammad brought surrounding
desert tribes under his control. By 629 Muhammad was victorious in the nearly bloodless
Conquest of Mecca, and by the time of his death in 632 (at the age of 62) he ruled over the
Arabian peninsula.
Rise of the caliphate and civil war (632–750)
Muhammad began preaching Islam at Mecca before migrating to Medina, from where he united
the tribes of Arabia into a singular Arab Muslim religious polity. With Muhammad's death in 632,
disagreement broke out over who would succeed him as leader of the Muslim community. Umar
ibn al-Khattab, a prominent companion of Muhammad, nominated Abu Bakr, who was
Muhammad's companion and close friend. Others added their support and Abu Bakr was made
the first caliph. Abu Bakr's immediate task was to avenge a recent defeat by Byzantine (or
Eastern Roman Empire) forces, although he first had to put down a rebellion by Arab tribes in an
episode known as the Ridda wars, or "Wars of Apostasy".
The Muslim Caliphate, 750 CE
His death in 634 resulted in the succession of Umar as the caliph, followed by Uthman ibn alAffan and Ali ibn Abi Talib. These four are known as al-khulafā' ar-rāshidūn ("Rightly Guided
Caliphs"). Under them, the territory under Muslim rule expanded deeply into Persian and
Byzantine territories. When Umar was assassinated in 644, the election of Uthman as successor
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was met with increasing opposition. In 656, Uthman was also killed, and Ali assumed the position
of caliph. After fighting off opposition in the first civil war (the "First Fitna"), Ali was
assassinated by Kharijites in 661. Following this, Mu'awiyah, who was governor of Levant, seized
power and began the Umayyad dynasty.
These disputes over religious and political leadership would give rise to schism in the Muslim
community. The majority accepted the legitimacy of the three rulers prior to Ali, and became
known as Sunnis. A minority disagreed, and believed that Ali was the only rightful successor;
they became known as the Shi'a. After Mu'awiyah's death in 680, conflict over succession broke
out again in a civil war known as the "Second Fitna". Afterward, the Umayyad dynasty prevailed
for seventy years, and was able to conquer the Maghrib and Al-Andalus (the Iberian Peninsula,
former Visigothic Hispania) and the Narbonnese Gaul) in the west as well as expand Muslim
territory into Sindh and the fringes of Central Asia. One of the best preserved architectural
examples of Islamic conquest, is the Great Mosque of Kairouan (in Tunisia) founded in 670 by
the Arab conqueror and Umayyad general Uqba ibn Nafi and considered as the ancestor and
model for all the mosques in the western Islamic world The muladies (Muslims of ethnic Iberian
origin) are believed to have comprised the majority of the population of Al-Andalus by the end of
the 10th century. While the Muslim-Arab elite engaged in conquest, some devout Muslims began
to question the piety of indulgence in a worldly life, emphasizing rather poverty, humility and
avoidance of sin based on renunciation of bodily desires. Devout Muslim ascetic exemplars such
as Hasan al-Basri would inspire a movement that would evolve into Sufism.
For the Umayyad aristocracy, Islam was viewed as a religion for Arabs only the economy of the
Umayyad empire was based on the assumption that a majority of non-Muslims (Dhimmis) would
pay taxes to the minority of Muslim Arabs. A non-Arab who wanted to convert to Islam was
supposed to first become a client of an Arab tribe. Even after conversion, these new Muslims
(mawali) did not achieve social and economic equality with the Arabs. The descendants of
Muhammad's uncle Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib rallied discontented mawali, poor Arabs, and some
Shi'a against the Umayyads and overthrew them with the help of their propagandist and general
Abu Muslim, inaugurating the Abbasid dynasty in 750.
Golden Age (750–1258)
Under the Abbasids, Islamic civilization flourished in the "Islamic Golden Age", with its capital
at the cosmopolitan city of Baghdad. The major hadith collections were compiled and the four
modern Sunni Madh'habs were established. Islamic law was advanced greatly by the efforts of the
early 9th century jurist al-Shafi'i; he codified a method to establish the reliability of hadith, a
topic which had been a locus of dispute among Islamic scholars. Philosophers Ibn Sina (Avicenna)
and Al-Farabi sought to incorporate Greek principles into Islamic theology, while others like the
11th century theologian Abu Hamid al-Ghazzali argued against them and ultimately prevailed.
Sufism became a full-fledged movement that had moved towards mysticism and away from its
ascetic roots, while Shi'ism split due to disagreements over the succession of Imams. The spread
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of the Islamic dominion induced hostility among medieval ecclesiastical Christian authors who
saw Islam as an adversary in the light of the large numbers of new Muslim converts. This
opposition resulted in polemical treatises which depicted Islam as the religion of the antichrist
and of Muslims as libidinous and subhuman.
Public hospitals established during this time (called Bimaristan hospitals), are considered "the
first hospitals" in the modern sense of the word and issued the first medical diplomas to license
doctors of medicine. The Guinness Book of World Records recognizes the University of Al
Karaouine as the oldest degree-granting university in the world with its founding in 859 CE. The
origins of the doctorate also dates back to the ijazat attadris wa 'l-ifttd ("license to teach and
issue legal opinions") in madrasahs which taught law. The first institutions for the care of
mentally ill people were also established in the Muslim world. During this time, standards of
experimental and quantification techniques were introduced to the scientific process to
distinguish between competing theories as well as the tradition of citation. Ibn Al-Haytham is
regarded as the father of the modern scientific method and often referred to as the "world’s first
true scientist." Legal institutions introduced in Islamic law include the trust and charitable trust
(Waqf).
Fragmentation and invasions
By the late 9th century, the Abbasid caliphate began to fracture as various regions gained
increasing levels of autonomy. Across North Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia, emirates
formed as provinces broke away. The monolithic Arab empire gave way to a more religiously
homogenized Muslim world where the Shia Fatimids contested even the religious authority of the
caliphate. In the 10th century the powerful Ghaznavids conquered the Afghan-Persian region
and a large part of the Indian subcontinent in the name of Islam. They were replaced by the
Ghurids in the 12th century. In 836, Caliph Al-Mu'tasim moved the capital of the Caliphate from
Baghdad to the new city of Samarra, which would remain the capital until 892 when it was
returned to Baghdad by al-Mu'tamid. By 1055 the Seljuq Turks had eliminated the Abbasids as a
military power, nevertheless they continued to respect the caliph's titular authority. During this
time, expansion of the Muslim world continued, by both conquest and peaceful proselytism even
as both Islam and Muslim trade networks were extending into sub-Saharan West Africa, Central
Asia, Volga Bulgaria and the Malay archipelago.
The Reconquista was launched against Muslim principalities in Iberia, and Muslim Italian
possessions were lost to the Normans. From the 11th century onwards alliances of European
Christian kingdoms mobilized to launch a series of wars known as the Crusades, aimed at
reversing Muslim military conquests within the eastern part of the former Roman Empire,
especially in the Holy Land. Initially successful in this aim, and establishing the Crusader states,
these acquisitions were later reversed by subsequent Muslim generals such as Saladin, who
recaptured Jerusalem in 1187.
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In the east the Mongol Empire put an end to the Abbassid dynasty at the Battle of Baghdad in
1258, as they overran the Muslim lands in a series of invasions. Meanwhile in Egypt, the slavesoldier Mamluks took control in an uprising in 1250 and in alliance with the Golden Horde halted
the Mongol armies at the Battle of Ain Jalut. Over the next century the Mongol Khanates
converted to Islam and this religious and cultural absorption ushered in a new age of MongolIslamic synthesis that shaped the further spread of Islam in central Asia, eastern Europe and the
Indian subcontinent. The Crimean Khanate was one of the strongest powers in Eastern Europe
until the end of the 17th century. The Black Death ravaged much of the Islamic world in the
mid-14th century, probably brought by merchants making use of free passage offered by the Pax
Mongolica.
New dynasties and colonialism (1030–1918)
In the 13th and 14th centuries the Ottoman Empire (named after Osman I) emerged from among
these "Ghazi emirates" and established itself after a string of conquests that included the
Balkans, parts of Greece, and western Anatolia. In 1453 under Mehmed II the Ottomans laid
siege to Constantinople, the capital of Byzantium, which succumbed shortly thereafter, having
been overwhelmed by a far greater number of Ottoman troops and to a lesser extent, cannonry.
The Ottomans launched a European campaign which reached as far as the gates of Vienna in
1529. Under Ottoman rule, many people in the Balkans became Muslim. Around the 18th
century, despite attempts at modernization, the Ottoman empire had begun to feel threatened
by European economic and military advantages.
The Taj Mahal was built by Muslim rulers of the Mughal Empire in Agra, India.
From the 14th to the 16th century much of the eastern Islamic world was experiencing another
golden age under the Timurid dynasty. In the early 16th century, the Safavid dynasty assumed
control in Persia and established Shi'a Islam as an official religion there, and despite periodic
setbacks, the Safavids remained in power for two centuries until being usurped by the Hotaki
dynasty in the early 18th century.
Beginning in the 13th century, Sufism underwent a transformation, largely as a result of the
efforts of al-Ghazzali to legitimize and reorganize the movement. He developed the model of the
Sufi order—a community of spiritual teachers and students. Also of importance to Sufism was the
creation of the Masnavi, a collection of mystical poetry by the 13th century Persian poet Rumi.
The Masnavi had a profound influence on the development of Sufi religious thought; to many
Sufis it is second in importance only to the Qur'an.
After the invasion of Persia and sack of Baghdad by the Mongols in the mid 13th century, Delhi
became the most important cultural centre of the Muslim east. Many Islamic dynasties ruled
parts of the Indian subcontinent starting with the Ghaznavids in the 10th century. The
prominent ones included the Delhi Sultanate (1206–1526) and the Mughal Empire (1526–1857).
These empires helped in the spread of Islam in South Asia, but by the early 18th century the
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Hindu Maratha Empire was becoming the pre-eminent power in northern India until they were
weakened by the Durrani Empire in the mid-18th century.
It was during the 18th century that the Wahhabi movement took hold in Saudi Arabia. Founded
by the preacher Ibn Abd al-Wahhab, Wahhabism is a fundamentalist ideology that condemns
practices like Sufism and the veneration of saints as un-Islamic In the 19th century, the Salafi,
Deobandi and Barelwi movements were initiated.
By the 19th century the British Empire had formally ended the last Mughal dynasty, and
overthrew the Muslim-ruled Kingdom of Mysore. In the 19th century, the rise of nationalism
resulted in Greece declaring and winning independence in 1829, with several Balkan states
following suit after the Ottomans suffered defeat in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878.
During this time, many Muslims migrated, as indentured servants, from mostly India and
Indonesia to the Caribbean, forming the largest Muslim populations by percentage in the
Americas. Additionally, the resulting urbanization and increase in trade in Africa brought
Muslims to settle in new areas and spread their faith. As a result, Islam in sub-Saharan Africa
likely doubled between 1869 and 1914. The Ottoman era came to a close at the end of World
War I and the Caliphate was abolished in 1924.
Modern times (1918–present)
By the early years of the 20th century, most of the Muslim world outside the Ottoman empire
had been absorbed into the empires of non-Islamic European powers. After World War I losses,
nearly all of the Ottoman empire was also parceled out as European protectorates or spheres of
influence. In the course of the 20th century, most of these European-ruled territories became
independent, and new issues such as oil wealth and relations with the State of Israel have
assumed prominence.
Islamic revival and Islamist movements
The 20th century saw the Islamic world increasingly exposed to outside cultural influences,
bringing potential changes to Muslim societies. In response, new Islamic "revivalist" movements
were initiated as a counter movement to non-Islamic ideas. Groups such as Jamaat-e-Islami in
Pakistan and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt advocate a totalistic and theocratic alternative to
secular political ideologies. Sometimes called Islamist, they see Western cultural values as a
threat, and promote Islam as a comprehensive solution to
In countries like Iran, revolutionary movement replaced secular regime with an Islamic state,
while transnational groups like Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda engage in terrorism to further their
goals. In contrast, Liberal Islam is a movement that attempts to reconcile religious tradition with
modern norms of secular governance and human rights. Its supporters say that there are multiple
ways to read Islam's sacred texts, and stress the need to leave room for "independent thought
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on religious matters".
Modern criticism of Islam includes accusations that Islam is intolerant of criticism and that
Islamic law is too hard on apostates from Islam. Critics like Ibn Warraq question the morality of
the Qu'ran, saying that its contents justify the mistreatment of women and encourage antisemitic
remarks by Muslim theologians Many authors have criticised Islam (as well as other religions) as
being sexist, intolerant, and warlike. Thinking that Islam is at odds with modern science, and
more particularly evolutionary biology, Richard Dawkins wishes to popularize "evolution in the
Islamic world." In his book titled God Is Not Great, which criticizes all religions, Christopher
Hitchens expresses his opinion by stating that Islam is "dogmatic," and "the fact remains that
Islam's core claim – to be unimprovable and final – is at once absurd." Such claims have been
challenged by many Muslim scholars and writers including Fazlur Rahman Malik, Syed Ameer Ali,
Ahmed Deedat and Yusuf Estes.
Others like Daniel Pipes and Martin Kramer focus more on criticizing the spread of Islamic
fundamentalism, a danger they feel has been ignored. Montgomery Watt and Norman Daniel
dismiss many of the criticisms as the product of old myths and polemics. The rise of
Islamophobia, according to Carl Ernst, had contributed to the negative views about Islam and
Muslims in the West. In contrast, Pascal Bruckner and Paul Berman have entered the "Islam in
Europe" debate. Berman identifies a "reactionary turn in the intellectual world" represented by
Western scholars who idealize Islam.
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