Islam: A New Religion and a New Empire

In the early seventh century, a religion that called on all to believe in one God began in Arabia (today Saudi Arabia). Islam (“submission to God”) took shape under Muhammad (c. 570–632). While many of the people living in Arabia were polytheists, Muhammad recognized the one God of the Jews and Christians. He saw himself as God’s final prophet and thus became known as the Prophet. Invited by the people of Medina, in western Arabia, to come and act as a mediator in their disputes, Muhammad exercised the powers of both a religious and a secular leader. This dual role became the model for his successors, known as caliphs. Through a combination of persuasion and force, Muhammad and his co-religionists, the Muslims (“those who submit to Islam”), converted most of the Arabian peninsula. By the time Muhammad died in 632, Muslims had begun to conquer Byzantine and Persian territories. In the next generation, they expanded both east- and westward. Yet within the territories they conquered, daily life went on much as before.