The Rise of Islam

Introduction

The Rise of Islam is a course about how a new religion and a new community developed in western Arabia in the seventh century CE, and how Muslim-ruled states soon became important across a large part of Africa, Asia, and Europe. You will study geography, beliefs, leadership, expansion, culture, and historical evidence.

This course is written for Grades 5–6. You do not need to be Muslim, or religious at all, to study this history. When the course describes a religious belief, it uses phrases such as Muslims believe or according to Islamic tradition. That helps us tell the difference between a faith claim and a statement historians can test using documents, objects, buildings, and other evidence.

As you learn, keep three big questions in mind:

Cause and effect: Why did Islam begin where and when it did?
Change over time: How did the early Muslim community change between about 610 and 750 CE?
Evidence: What can maps, manuscripts, buildings, and written sources tell us, and what can they not tell us?

The map above shows the Arabian Peninsula, the large region where Islam began. Find the western side of the peninsula. This area includes Mecca and Medina, two cities that became central to the early history of Islam.

The Khan Academy video above gives a broad introduction to Islam. While you watch, listen for the words monotheism, Qur'an, Mecca, and Five Pillars.

Arabia Before Islam

A Connected Peninsula

The Arabian Peninsula lies between the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf. It connects parts of Africa, the Mediterranean world, and Asia. In the sixth and early seventh centuries, people in Arabia lived in many kinds of communities. Some lived in towns and farming settlements, while others moved with herds through dry regions. Trade, travel, family ties, and pilgrimage linked different groups.

Arabia was also close to powerful states. To the northwest was the Byzantine Empire. To the northeast was the Sasanian Empire. Across the Red Sea was the kingdom of Aksum. Wars and trade among these regions affected Arabia.

Religious life was diverse. Many Arabian communities followed polytheistic traditions, meaning that they honored more than one god. There were also Jewish and Christian communities in parts of Arabia. This means that ideas about one God were already present in the wider region before Islam began.

Mecca and the Kaaba

Mecca was the home city of Muhammad, who was born around 570 CE. It was also a pilgrimage center. The Kaaba, a cube-shaped sanctuary in Mecca, was important before Islam and later became the most sacred site in Islam.

Today the Kaaba stands in the Great Mosque of Mecca. Muslims around the world face toward the Kaaba during ritual prayer. During the Hajj, pilgrims travel to Mecca and take part in a series of religious practices.

A photograph of a modern place cannot show us exactly what Mecca looked like fourteen centuries ago. It can, however, help you understand why a location can stay important while the buildings and city around it change.

Muhammad and the Beginnings of Islam

Muhammad's Early Life and First Revelations

Muhammad was born in Mecca around 570 CE. According to Islamic tradition, when he was about forty years old, he began receiving revelations from God through the angel Gabriel. The first revelations are traditionally dated to about 610 CE.

The Arabic word Islam is connected with submission or surrender to God. A follower of Islam is called a Muslim. Islam teaches belief in one God. Muslims understand Muhammad as the final prophet in a line that includes figures such as Abraham, Moses, and Jesus.

Muhammad's message called people to worship one God and stressed moral responsibility, care for people in need, prayer, and justice. Some Meccans accepted his teachings, but others opposed him and his followers.

This Khan Academy video introduces Muhammad's early life and the beginnings of Islam. As you watch, separate statements about Islamic tradition from statements about dates, places, and political events.

The Qur'an

The Qur'an is the holy book of Islam. Muslims believe it contains God's revelations to Muhammad in Arabic. The revelations were recited and remembered during Muhammad's lifetime and were collected in written form in the early Muslim community.

The image above shows folios from a seventh-century Qur'an manuscript held by the University of Birmingham. A manuscript is a text written by hand. Early manuscripts are valuable historical evidence because they help scholars study writing, materials, language, and the transmission of texts.

Look closely at the page. Even if you cannot read Arabic, you can ask historical questions: What material was used? How is the writing arranged? Are there decorations? What does the survival of a manuscript tell us about the care people gave to texts?

The Hijra to Medina

In 622 CE, Muhammad and his followers migrated from Mecca to Medina, then commonly known as Yathrib. This migration is called the Hijra. The Hijra is so important in Islamic history that 622 marks the beginning of the Islamic calendar.

The map shows the approximate route traditionally associated with the Hijra. Maps simplify the past. They can help us understand distance and location, but they cannot show every person's experience, fear, hope, decision, or difficulty.

In Medina, Muhammad led a growing community that was both religious and political. Agreements connected different groups in the city. Over the following years, conflict continued between Muhammad's community and opponents from Mecca. By 630, Mecca had come under Muhammad's control, and the Kaaba was rededicated to the worship of one God.

This is a modern view of the Prophet's Mosque in Medina. The present buildings are the result of many later enlargements and changes. The image therefore shows the continuing importance of Medina, not the exact appearance of the city in 622.

Muhammad died in 632 CE. His death created a major question for the Muslim community: who should lead next?

Beliefs and Practices

Islam is a world religion with many cultures, schools of thought, and communities. A short course cannot describe every Muslim belief or practice. Still, some central ideas help explain the early community.

Monotheism means belief in one God. Islam is monotheistic. Muslims call God Allah, the Arabic word for God.

The Qur'an is Islam's sacred scripture. Reports about Muhammad's words and actions are called hadith, and his example is often described as the sunna.

Many introductions to Islam explain five central practices known as the Five Pillars:

Profession of faith: declaring faith in one God and Muhammad as God's messenger
Prayer: performing regular ritual prayers
Almsgiving: giving to support people in need
Fasting: fasting during the month of Ramadan
Pilgrimage: making the Hajj to Mecca if able

The photograph shows pilgrims around the Kaaba during Hajj. A useful history question is: how can a shared practice connect people who come from many different languages, countries, and cultures?

Leadership After Muhammad

The Caliph and the Rashidun Period

After Muhammad's death in 632, the Muslim community needed political leadership. The title caliph means successor. The first four caliphs are known in Sunni tradition as the Rightly Guided Caliphs, or Rashidun. Their period lasted from 632 to 661 CE.

During these decades, Muslim-led armies expanded beyond Arabia into territories that had belonged to the Byzantine and Sasanian empires. Syria, Egypt, Iraq, and much of Iran came under Muslim rule.

It is too simple to explain this expansion with one cause. Historians consider several factors. The Byzantine and Sasanian empires had been weakened by long wars. Early Muslim armies were mobile and organized. Leaders formed new political and military systems. Local communities made different choices when older rulers lost power. Religious commitment mattered to many participants, but politics, strategy, economics, and local conditions mattered too.

Disagreements About Leadership

Early Muslims did not all agree about who should lead the community or how leadership should be chosen. Disagreements and later conflicts contributed to the development of major branches of Islam, especially Sunni and Shia traditions.

For a Grade 5–6 history course, the key point is not to decide which view is correct. The key point is that communities can disagree about authority, and those disagreements can shape history for a very long time.

Expansion Under the Caliphates

This map shows stages of territorial expansion from 622 to 750 CE: during Muhammad's leadership, during the Rashidun caliphate, and during the Umayyad Caliphate. Notice how quickly the area under Muslim political rule became much larger than Arabia.

The map also shows modern national borders for orientation. Those modern countries did not exist in the seventh and eighth centuries. Good map readers always ask whether a map mixes information from different time periods.

The Khan Academy video above discusses the spread of Islamic culture. Listen for more than one cause. Historical change usually happens because several forces interact.

The Umayyad Caliphate

In 661 CE, the Umayyad Caliphate began. Its rulers governed from Damascus in Syria. By around 740, Umayyad rule stretched from the Iberian Peninsula in the west across North Africa and the Middle East and far into Central and South Asia.

The Umayyad state ruled people with many languages, religions, and local traditions. Arabic became increasingly important in government. Islamic coins, inscriptions, mosques, and public buildings helped rulers create a shared political identity.

Territorial conquest and religious conversion are not the same thing. A region could come under a Muslim ruler while many people living there remained Christian, Jewish, Zoroastrian, or followers of other traditions. Conversion to Islam happened at different speeds in different places, often over many generations.

Conquest Was Not the Only Way Islam Spread

Military expansion was important in the rise of early Muslim states, but Islam also spread through trade, migration, family networks, scholarship, travel, and later missionary activity. In some places, Muslim merchants helped introduce Islam long before any Muslim army arrived.

This difference matters. A map of an empire shows where rulers claimed power. It does not automatically show the religion of every person living inside the borders.

Cities, Buildings, and Culture

The Dome of the Rock

The Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem was built under the Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik and completed around 691–692 CE. It is one of the earliest major surviving monuments of Islamic architecture. Its form, mosaics, inscriptions, and location show how early Muslim rulers used art and architecture to express religious and political ideas.

The Smarthistory video offers a closer look at the Dome of the Rock. While watching, ask: which parts of a building can be evidence about the people who made it?

The Great Mosque of Damascus

The Great Mosque of Damascus was built in the early eighth century under Umayyad rule. Its large courtyard, prayer hall, mosaics, and urban location made it an important religious and civic space.

Buildings often combine new ideas with older artistic traditions. Early Islamic art developed in regions that already had Byzantine, Sasanian, Roman, Christian, Jewish, and local artistic traditions. Artists and builders adapted techniques they knew while creating new forms for new patrons.

Arabic Writing and Islamic Art

Arabic became a major language of religion, government, scholarship, and art across much of the Islamic world. Calligraphy, or beautiful writing, became especially important. Qur'an manuscripts, coins, buildings, ceramics, textiles, and many other objects carried written words.

In this #MetKids video from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, a young learner explores why writing is important in Islamic art. Look for ways that text can be both readable language and visual design.

A Short Timeline

Around 570 CE: Muhammad is born in Mecca.

Around 610 CE: According to Islamic tradition, Muhammad begins receiving revelations.

622 CE: The Hijra from Mecca to Medina takes place; the Islamic calendar begins from this event.

630 CE: Mecca comes under Muhammad's control.

632 CE: Muhammad dies; the Rashidun period begins.

661 CE: The Umayyad Caliphate begins, with Damascus as its capital.

Around 691–692 CE: The Dome of the Rock is completed in Jerusalem.

750 CE: Umayyad rule in most of the caliphate ends and the Abbasid Caliphate takes power.

A timeline helps you put events in order, but it cannot explain causes by itself. To understand history, connect dates with people, places, choices, and evidence.

Key Ideas to Remember

Islam began in seventh-century Arabia. Its beginnings are closely connected with Muhammad, Mecca, Medina, and the Qur'an.

The Hijra was a turning point. It marked the move of the early Muslim community to Medina and became the starting point of the Islamic calendar.

The early caliphates expanded quickly. This growth had several causes, not just one.

Political rule and religious conversion were different processes. A territory could be ruled by a Muslim government while many inhabitants followed other religions.

Culture changed through contact. Arabic language, manuscripts, architecture, trade, and art developed across regions with older and diverse traditions.

Historical sources have limits. A map, building, manuscript, or later written account can answer some questions but never all questions about the past.

Interactive Tasks

Quiz: Test Your Knowledge

What was the Hijra? (The migration from Mecca to Medina) (!The building of the Dome of the Rock) (!The start of the Umayyad dynasty) (!The conquest of the Iberian Peninsula)

Which city was Muhammad's birthplace? (Mecca) (!Damascus) (!Baghdad) (!Jerusalem)

What is the Qur'an? (The holy book of Islam) (!A map of the Arabian Peninsula) (!A title for an early ruler) (!A type of trade caravan)

What title was used for the political leaders who succeeded Muhammad? (Caliph) (!Consul) (!Pharaoh) (!Shogun)

Which caliphate ruled directly after Muhammad's death? (Rashidun Caliphate) (!Ottoman Empire) (!Mughal Empire) (!Roman Empire)

What city served as the capital of the Umayyad Caliphate? (Damascus) (!Mecca) (!Athens) (!Rome)

Which statement best explains the rapid expansion of early Muslim rule? (Several military political and regional factors worked together) (!Only one single cause explains all expansion) (!Every conquered person converted immediately) (!Trade stopped everywhere after the conquests)

Which practice is connected with pilgrimage to Mecca? (Hajj) (!Hijra) (!Caliphate) (!Calligraphy)

Why are early Qur'an manuscripts useful to historians? (They provide evidence about early writing and texts) (!They show the exact route of every early army) (!They list every person living in Arabia) (!They prove what every community believed)

What should a careful reader remember about an empire map? (Political borders do not show every person's religion) (!Every border stayed unchanged for centuries) (!Modern countries already existed in the same form) (!Maps explain every cause without other evidence)

Memory Game

Hijra	Migration from Mecca to Medina in 622
Caliph	Political successor leading the early Muslim community
Quran	Holy book of Islam
Mecca	City of the Kaaba and birthplace of Muhammad
Medina	City where the early Muslim community grew after the migration
Umayyad	Dynasty that ruled from Damascus

Drag and Drop

Match the correct terms.	Topic
Mecca	City where Muhammad began preaching
Medina	City connected with the Hijra
Rashidun	First caliphate after Muhammad's death
Umayyad	Dynasty whose capital was Damascus
Quran	Sacred scripture of Islam

...

Crossword Puzzle

Mecca	In which city was Muhammad born?
Medina	To which city did Muhammad and his followers migrate in 622?
Hijra	What is the name of the migration from Mecca to Medina?
Caliph	What title was used for an early Muslim political successor?
Quran	What is the holy book of Islam called?
Damascus	Which city became the Umayyad capital?

LearningApps

Cloze Text

Islam began in the

in the seventh century CE. Muhammad was born in

around 570 CE. According to Islamic tradition, he began receiving revelations around

. The migration to Medina is called the

. This migration took place in

. After Muhammad's death, early political successors were called

. The first caliphate is known as the

. The dynasty that later ruled from Damascus was the

. A famous early Islamic monument in Jerusalem is the

. Historians remember that political conquest and religious

are not the same process.

Open-Ended Tasks

Easy

Timeline Builder: Make an illustrated timeline from about 610 to 750 CE with six major events, and write one short sentence explaining why each event matters.
Map Detective: On a blank map, label Arabia, Mecca, Medina, Damascus, Jerusalem, the Red Sea, and the Mediterranean Sea, then draw arrows that show the Hijra and the broad direction of later expansion.
Vocabulary Cards: Create six cards for Hijra, Qur'an, caliph, Rashidun, Umayyad, and Hajj; put the term on one side and your own clear definition plus a small symbol or place image on the other.
Artifact Caption: Choose three media images from this course and write a two-sentence museum label for each that says what it is and what historians can learn from it.

Standard

Mini Museum: Build a paper or digital mini exhibition called The Rise of Islam with three objects or buildings, a map, and a short explanation of how each item connects to the early Islamic world.
Cause-and-Effect Web: Make a web showing at least four factors that helped early Muslim states expand, and add arrows explaining how two of the factors may have influenced each other.
Interview and Listening: With permission, interview a Muslim community member, teacher, or knowledgeable adult about why Mecca, Medina, the Qur'an, or Hajj matters today; explain that one person's answer does not represent every Muslim.
Short Explainer Video: Produce a two-to-three-minute video explaining why 622 CE is a turning point, using a map, at least two historical facts, and one statement about the limits of your evidence.

Advanced

Source Comparison: Compare how two reliable sources from this course explain the beginnings or spread of Islam; identify one point they share, one difference in emphasis, and one question you still have.
Map Critique: Study the expansion map and write a paragraph explaining what it shows well, what it hides, and why the modern borders on the map must not be mistaken for seventh-century borders.
City Comparison: Compare the roles of Mecca and Medina between 610 and 632 CE using a two-column chart, then write a conclusion about how place shaped the early Muslim community.
Evidence-Based Argument: Write a short answer to the question Why was the Hijra a turning point in the rise of Islam? Use at least three pieces of evidence and explain how each piece supports your claim.

Learning Assessment

Multi-Cause Explanation: Explain why the expansion of early Muslim rule should not be reduced to one cause, and connect at least three political, military, social, or regional factors.
Turning Points: Choose two events between 610 and 750 CE, place them in correct sequence, and explain how the first helped shape what happened later.
Evidence from an Object: Use the Qur'an manuscript or one building in the course to make one historical claim, then explain one thing that the object cannot prove by itself.
Reading Empire Maps: Explain why a map of Muslim political rule cannot be used as a map of the religion of every person in the same territory.
Belief and History: Rewrite one statement about a religious belief using careful historical language such as Muslims believe or according to Islamic tradition, and explain why that wording matters.
Transfer Challenge: Compare the spread of Islam with another historical example of an idea, religion, language, or political system spreading through more than one kind of network.

Evidence of Learning

Knowledge: You can locate Arabia, Mecca, Medina, Damascus, and Jerusalem and explain the importance of the years around 610, 622, 632, 661, and 750 CE.

Understanding: You can explain the Hijra, the purpose of the title caliph, the difference between the Rashidun and Umayyad periods, and the difference between political expansion and conversion.

Source skills: You can read a historical map, examine a manuscript or building, ask what evidence supports a claim, and identify what a source cannot tell you.

Communication: You can use respectful, precise language when describing Islam and Muslim beliefs, and you can distinguish faith statements from historical claims.

Products: Your timeline, annotated map, museum labels, cause-and-effect web, video, source comparison, or historical argument can serve as evidence of your learning.

Transfer: You can apply ideas about networks, leadership, cultural exchange, map limits, and multiple causes to other topics in world history.

OERs on the Topic

The English Wikipedia article below offers a broad overview of the history of Islam. Use it as a starting point, and compare important claims with other reliable sources.

Linked Learning Areas

The rise of Islam connects religion, geography, government, art, language, trade, and historical reasoning. Use the links below to continue learning.

The Rise of Islam

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