History Of Muslims in ten minutes

 History of Muslims in ten minutes 

 By sahil sharifdin English 

    [  SET, NET, M.ed] 

Introduction 

 گنوا دی ہم نے جو اسلاف سے میراث پائی تھی

 ثُریّا سے زمیں پر آسماں نے ہم کو دے مارا 

"One doesn't become a Muslim by taking birth in a Muslim family. He becomes a Muslim by practicing Islam. He becomes a Muslim by reading Quran, Hadith, fiq, Muslim history and Muslim Literature." 

We must teach our kids right things before they learn wrong things on their own. We Muslims are still here whereas the Roman empire , the colonialists, the mongols, the crusades, the British and French empires, the soviets, the Nazis, etc came and vanished. The sun of the current aggressive world powers will set soon also. We were here and we will be here, InshaAllah. As a Muslim, we must contribute greatly to the international peace, progress, unity, justice and fraternity. We must act as the messengers of new knowledge, discoveries, inventions and pure humanity. We must prepare ourselves to help the weak and the oppressed living anywhere on the planet. We must know our glorious past and work for our bright future. We must bring a change at our local level before shouting for a change at global level. 

History is generally not an exciting Subject for most of us. However, we need to know how the world has been before us and how it is going ahead. For the same purpose, I have summarized the whole Muslim history in this article in less than two thousand words so that all small or big Muslim readers would get a glimpse of their glorious past. I  have divided the whole Muslim history into the following six periods . I hope you will read them one by one and share with your kith and kin also:

First Period of Muslim history 

(570-632)

The history of Muslims began with the birth of the holy prophet Mohammad (pbuh). He was born in 570 C. E. established Madina as the capital of Muslims in 620's and passed away in 632 CE.  It can be called the first period of Muslim history. 

Second period of Muslim history 

(632-661) 

This period is called caliphate Rashidun as the four great companions of the holy prophet (pbuh) ruled in this period. The capital was mostly Madina. 

Abu Bakar (632-634)

Umar (634-644)

Uthman (644-656)

Ali (656-661) 

Islam reached Syria, Palestine, Jordan, iraq, Iran, Egypt etc during this period.  

Third period of Muslim History 

(661-750) 

This period is called Umayyed period. The capital of Muslims was mostly Damascus in this period. 

The following 14 caliphs ruled during this period : 

1. Maawiya (661-680)

2. Yazid- I (680-683)

3. Maawiya - II (683-684)

4. Marwan (684-685)

5. Abd Malik ( 685-705)

6. Al-walid ( 705-715)

7. Sulayman (715-717)

8. Umar ibn Al-aziz (717-720)

9. Yazid-II ( 720-724)

10. Hisham ( 724-743)

11. Al-walid (743- 744)

12. Yazid - III ( 744)

13. Ibrahim (744)

14. MARWAN-II ( 744-750)  

It was a golden period for Muslims. Islam reached Morocco, Spain, India, parts of Turkey etc during this period.  Muslim currency was first time issued in this very period. The dome of the rock was built. The five great military generals of this period were : 

1. Tariq bin ziyad who conquered Spain. 

2. Uqba bin Nafi who conquered North Africa. 

3. Mohammad bin Qasim who conquered India in 712 CE. 

4. Qutba ibn Muslim who conquered central Asia. 

5. Hajaj bin yousuf who conquered Iraq. 

Fourth period of Muslim History 

(750-1258)

The Fouth period of Muslim history is known as Abbasid Period . Abu Abbas As- saffah defeated and  killed the last ruler of Umayyad period, Marwan - II and made himself the first caliph of Abbasid period. There were 39 caliphs who ruled Muslims in this period. The famous ones are Harun AR-Rashid, his two sons and Al - Mutadid. Its last ruler Al-Mustasim was wrapped in a carpet and trampled to death with horses on 20th Feb, 1258 by the mongol ruler, Halagu khan. The world's first paper mill was established in Bhagdad by Muslims in this period. It didn't rule the entire Muslim population present in the world at that time. The other ruling regimes were :-

Seljuk Turks (1037-1194)

Fatimid caliphate (909-1171)

Samarinds 

New Umayyeds in spain

etc 

A small faction of Abbasids continued ruling in Cairo till ottoman Turks took over  in 1543 CE. 

Fifth period of Muslim History 

(1288-1922) 

This period is famously known as ottoman empire. Ottoman empire / Turkish empire ruled over  three continents for about 600 years. The total caliphs who ruled during this period were 36. This empire stopped crusades, weakened mongols and uprooted Christian empire completely from Asia.  This empire was founded  by the grandson of Sulaiman shah and son of Ertugrul Gazi named othman in 1288/1291. Sulaiman shah had saved his tribe from Mongols and migrated from khurasan to Asia Minor. When Seljuks were destroyed by Mongols, othman declared himself the Amir of Asia minor and went on conquering new lands. Ottoman empire sided with Germany in WWI and lost. The empire was divided into about 40 Muslim countries by the league of Nations. Modern Turkey was founded by a military general, Mustafa kemal on 29th Oct, 1923.  

Sixth period, Present Muslim world  

There are about 70 Muslim countries at present in the world and 1.8 billion Muslims. Some Muslim countries are democratic, some have kingship and about twenty countries are occupied by aggressive non-Muslims countries. Muslims missed the industrial revolution which helped Europe to be able to  govern the whole world. I personally don't want Muslims to miss THE INTERNET REVOLUTION that started in late 20th century . There is Islamophobia in the world caused by western media which needs to be dealt with. The Muslims need to know their glorious past. They need to awake from slumber, get united and rule again the world. 

Some notable Muslim dynasties and empires 

1. Fatimid caliphate (909-1171) : It ruled in North Africa and its center was in Egypt. It was abolished by Saladin and united with Abbasid caliphate in 1171 CE . 

2. Seljuk empire (1037-1194): It was founded by Tughril Beg. Its capital was Nishapur. It was in parts of khorasan, Iran and Iraq. It started crusades and was destroyed by mongols and crusades. 

3. Ilkhanate empire (1256-1353): It was in Iran, Turkey, Azerbaijan etc. Its rulers were mongols who became Muslims in 1295. 

4. The Timurid empire : (1370-1507): It was in Iran, Turkey, Afghanistan, Syria India etc. It was founded by a Muslim mongol, Timur. 

5. Safavid Dynasty (1501-1736): It ruled in Iran, Bahrain etc. It was destroyed by Nader shah. 

6. Mughal Empire (1526-1857): It was founded by Babur, a Muslim mongol. It gave TAJ MAHAL and Urdu language to the world. It was dissolved by Britishers in 1857 after jailing its last ruler, Bahadur Shah Zafar. 

Some worst tragedies 

1. Crusades (1095-1291) : There were total nine crusades. Masjid Aqsa was taken in 1099 but won back in 1187 by Saladin. 

2. Mongol/Tartar invasions (1206-1353). Mongols killed lacs of Muslims and destroyed dozens of Muslim cities. However, they became Muslims in 1295. 

3. Colonialism : European colonialism weaken Muslims by killing, looting and keeping them busy with wars.  

4. War on Islam : America and its allies invade Muslim sovereign countries directly or indirectly to control natural resources like oil etc. They have killed millions of Muslims since 1945 in Palestine, Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Libya, kashmir, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen etc on one or the other lame excuse. They have maligned Islam and labelled Muslims as terrorists. We need to fight with knowledge, the tongue, the heart and the electronic media to get back our good image. We have to re-write our history for our  coming generations who must not suffer from inferiority complex as we do today on this planet, rather, they must be proud of their Muslim identity. Let me conclude this small article now with an African Proverb and a couple by Allama Iqbal , 

" Until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter".  

نکل کے صحرا سے جس نے روما کی سلطنت کو اُلٹ دیا تھا

 سُنا ہے یہ قُدسیوں سے مَیں نے، وہ شیر پھر ہوشیار ہو گا

Note: If you want to gain indepth information about Muslim history then read the above topics in Muslim History books or on History website. 

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Sahil sharifdin English lives at  pampore in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. He teaches English language and English literature. He has qualified SET and NET in English literature. He is a voracious reader of literature, philosophy, history and religions. He believes that international peace, progress and brotherhood are possible only when people will understand one another's culture, history, religion and political viewpoint better. He is a Blogger and his blog ID is #Sahilsharifdinenglish.blogspot.com. He runs a channel on youtube titled "sahil Sharifdin English" through which he helps needy students and curious learners .