Islam is both a religion and a civilization, a historical reality that spans
over fourteen centuries of human history and geographical presence in
vast areas stretching over all the continents. It is a spiritual reality that
has played a significant role in the development of certain aspects of
civilizations, especially Western civilization, and transformed the inner
and outer life of numerous human beings across the Globe. Today nearly
two billion people from different racial, ethnic and cultural backgrounds
are practicing Muslims. Not only Islam has a major presence in today’s
world, but its influence is also evident in the West, Asia and Africa. That
is why knowledge of Islam is so important for those concerned with
the state of contemporary humanity and those interested in Western
intellectual and cultural history, as well as those attracted to the reality of
religion and its spirituality.

One cannot understand Islam without gaining a sense of the significance
of the concept of Ummah, or the totality of the people who are Muslims
and constitute the Islamic world. The Islamic Ummah is one, bound
by the solidarity to the Qur’anic message of the Divine Oneness and
Sovereignty, the messenger-ship of the Prophet Muhammad (peace and
blessings of Allah be upon him1 ), and the acceptance of the Divine Law
(Shari’ah). Muslims are united by the powerful bond of brotherhood,
a bond that is felt strongly to this day despite all the turmoil that has
pitted some Muslim societies. Although Muslims are no longer politically
united, they are nevertheless a single religious community. There is hardly
any ethnic or racial group of the world that does not have some members
belonging to the Islamic Ummah. From the beginning, Islam as a religion
that addressed the whole humanity, strongly opposed all forms of racism,
divisions and tribalism. Its Ummah comprise all ethnic and racial groups
of the world spreading in all the continents of the world: Asia, Africa,
Europe, North and South America, and Australia.

The history of Islam is inseparable from the history of Islamic society,
institutions, and civilization in which it has manifested. The period from
the migration of the Prophet from Makkah to Madinah, which marks
the establishment of the first Islamic society in Madinah, to his death
and the ruling of the four rightly-guided caliphs (622 CE to 661 CE)
constitute a unique period in Islamic history. It is an idealistic period to
which Muslims have looked for guidance throughout their later history.

The ruler who immediately followed the four rightly-guided caliphs,
established a vast empire with Damascus as its center, but at the cost
of converting caliphate of the rightly-guided to a hereditary dynasty.
Umayyads, the first Muslim dynasty, were able to rule from Central
Asia to Spain and France, establishing a system of communication,
administration, and legal and military institutions, much of which
survived over the centuries. Many reforms were introduced to their areas
of domain related to improvement in public administration, commerce, 
agriculture and postal services. Umayyad dynasty was at peak when they
made monumental decisions of making Arabic the lingua franca of the
Muslim world and introduced a single currency by minting their own
gold and silver coins. The Umayyad Mosque in Damascus and the Dome
of the Rock in Jerusalem are among important architectural achievements
of the Umayyads.

In 750 CE the Umayyads were overthrown by the Abbasids who moved
the center of Islam to a new city of Baghdad. The Abbasids rule marks
the period in which the Islamic civilization reached its peak. Abbasid
rulers were great patrons of the arts, sciences and philosophy. It was this
time that both Islamic science and philosophy flourished. The Abbasids
created an intellectual culture that rivaled the classical Greece and
Rome. As time went on, the centralized authority of Baghdad devolved
to new independent centers of power and learning across the Muslim
world, where institutions of learning and research sprang up to rival each
other. Knowledge seekers from all over the known world benefitted from
centers like Baghdad, Damascus, Bukhara, Cairo, Fez, Cordoba, Shiraz,
etc. Polymath figures such as al-Kindy, al-Farabi, Ibn Sina, Ibn Rushd,
Ibn al-Haytham, al-Biruni, al-Khawarizmi, and many others shone like
stars with new ideas. Most of the activities of philosophy, astronomy,
medicine, mathematics, and science in general were going on in the
Muslim world and were conducted in Arabic – the international language
of scholarship at that time. It was the period when the codification of
Islamic law (Shari’ah) that started with Umayyads was finalized and
traditional schools of law as they exist today (Sunni, Shia and Ibadhi)
were established. It was also the period when the definitive and canonical
collections of Hadith by Bukhari, Muslim and others were established.
Ninth and tenth century Muslim Baghdad and Cordoba were wonders
of the world - the most civilized cities and magnets to intellectual and
cultural minds. When rulers of France, England or Italy needed a 
consultant, surgeon, architect, or even a musician and dressmaker, they
would contact Baghdad or Cordoba. Muslim cities were built with
stoned houses and palaces, there were lighted paved streets, running
water, universities and libraries, hospitals and pharmacies, art galleries,
and public baths. Medieval Muslims were already consuming advanced
products of personal hygiene such as soaps, cosmetics and perfumes. The
Abbasid period really represents the Muslims’ “Golden Age” in terms of
science and innovation, high standard of living and modern society.

Gradually, however, the power of Abbasid dynasty began to wane
and was put to an end in 1517 CE by the Ottomans who took over
the caliphate. The Ottoman Empire reached its peak under Sultan
Suleiman, The Magnificent, who ruled from the former Byzantium
city of Constantinople (today’s Istanbul). By the time of his death, the
whole of Syria, Egypt, North Africa, Arabian Peninsula and many parts
of Eastern Europe were under his rule. The Ottoman Sultans ruled a 
massive empire with superb bureaucratic efficiency unrivalled by any
other state of its time. The Sultans didn’t force the different elements of
their empire into one culture; they were quite tolerant and pluralistic.
The Ottomans provided a framework where different groups could live
together peacefully, but each following its own beliefs, culture, laws and
loyalty to its members and leaders. Ottoman rulers were able to establish
an enduring and successful empire that lasted six centuries. Seventeenth
through twentieth century saw European colonial expansion when nonMuslim merchants and missionaries, soldiers and colonial administrators
came to dominate much of the Muslim lands. The Portuguese, Spanish,
Dutch, British, and French all developed colonial empires, and the Chinese
and Russians also expanded their territories into Muslim-majority region.
Such foreign domination was not only humiliating for many Muslims,
but also threatened the very foundation of Islamic society as European
rulers replaced traditional Muslim educational, legal and governmental
institutions with Western ones. Europeans undermined the religious
ethos of Muslim territories by privileging Christian-influence, secular
and materialistic cultural values. At the onset of the twentieth century,
only a frail Ottoman rule exercised power until when it was defeated
and abolished after the First World War. After the collapse of Ottoman
Empire, the present-day Turkish Republic was founded based on a
Western-style secular model. The remaining of Ottomans confederates
gained their independence.

Majority of Muslims continue to live in the world in their own tradition
despite all attacks on their traditional point of view in modern times.
To understand Islam today, it is first important to realize that history
of different religions do not all follow the same trajectory. Christianity
had the Reformation movement in the sixteenth century that resulted
in Protestantism. Judaism had also experienced both Reform and
Conservative schools. Islam, however, has not undergone, nor it is likely 
to undergo in any appreciable degree, the same kind of transformation
either juridically or theologically. Its religious life and thought remain
for the most part within the framework of orthodoxy and tradition. The
modernism and so-called fundamentalism that are evident in certain
sectors of Islamic society and in certain lands have caused traditional
Islamic life to wither, but have been unable to create any theological or
juridical worldview that could challenge the traditional one laid down
during the Prophet’s time and the time of the four rightly-guided caliphs.
The vast majority of Muslims still practice the traditional rites described
earlier, and the rhythm of their lives is punctuated by events related
to Islam as traditionally understood. Moreover, the traditional Islamic
sciences of the Qur’an, Hadith, Shari’ah, and the like continue as they
have done over the centuries despite the devastations brought on the
traditional Islamic education and legal systems