Dynasties and Empires

For more than thirteen centuries, Muslim polities ranged from the compact community of Medina to empires spanning three continents. Their forms varied enormously — elective caliphate, hereditary sultanate, military oligarchy, and mercantile kingdom — and so did their relationships with the scholars, armies, and populations they governed.

This collection gathers every dynasty and state covered in the encyclopaedia, arranged broadly in historical sequence: the Rashidun caliphate and the Umayyad and Abbasid empires that followed; the Fatimid, Ayyubid, and Mamluk states of Egypt and Syria; the Seljuk, Ghaznavid, and Samanid powers of the east; the Andalusi Umayyads of Córdoba; the Ottoman, Safavid, Timurid, and Mughal empires of the early modern period; the Delhi Sultanate and the Kingdom of Mysore in South Asia; and the Mali and Songhai empires of West Africa.