Browse by Era

What Muslims believe and how they worship: the oneness of God, the angels, divine decree, the Day of Judgment and the realities of the unseen; the Quran, the hadith and the Sunnah; and the Five Pillars with the observances built on them — prayer, fasting and Ramadan, zakat, the Hajj and the Umrah, the two Eids, Ashura and the Hijri calendar. These subjects have no single era. They were established in the Prophet's lifetime and have been held and practised in every century since, which is why they are gathered here rather than filed under a period.

The prophets recognised in the Quran who came before the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), from Adam to Jesus (peace be upon them): Noah, Abraham and his sons, Joseph in Egypt, Moses and Aaron, David and Solomon, Jonah, Job, and John the Baptist, together with Maryam the mother of Jesus and Asiya the wife of Pharaoh. Islamic belief holds that these prophets taught the same message of submission to one God that the Prophet Muhammad was sent to complete. Their stories are known chiefly from the Quran, which gives their lives as instruction rather than as dated chronicle, so the dates given for them are approximate and in several cases the sources fix no era at all.

The life of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him): his household and his Companions, and the places, buildings and events of Mecca and Medina in his time.

The era of the four Rightly Guided Caliphs who led the early Muslim community.

The caliphate of the Umayyad dynasty, ruled from Damascus, whose conquests extended from the Iberian Peninsula and North Africa to Central Asia and Sindh.

The caliphate of the Abbasid dynasty, from the overthrow of the Umayyads in 750 to the Mongol capture of Baghdad in 1258: its caliphs, its capital Baghdad, founded in 762, and the scholars, institutions and controversies of the period.

Scholarship in the sciences, medicine, mathematics, philosophy and letters across the Islamic world from the 8th to the 13th century, and the institutions and cities in which it was carried out.

The Muslim-ruled territories of the Iberian Peninsula from 711 to the fall of Granada in 1492: the Umayyad emirate and caliphate of Córdoba, the kingdom of Granada, and their cities, buildings and scholars.

Dynasties, events, scholars and travellers of the Islamic world from the 9th to the 16th century, from Central Asia to the Maghrib: among them the Samanid, Fatimid, Ghaznavid, Seljuk, Ayyubid and Mamluk states, the Crusades and the Mongol invasions.

The spread of Islam across Africa from the 7th century, and the Islamic states and centres of learning of West Africa and the Horn of Africa: among them the Mali and Songhai empires, Timbuktu, the Hausa city-state of Zazzau and the Sokoto Caliphate.

Islam in the Indian subcontinent from the 12th century to the present, apart from the Mughal emperors, who have an era of their own: the Delhi Sultanate and the Sufi masters of its time, the regional rulers of the 16th to 18th centuries, and the religious scholars, institutions and movements of the 19th and 20th centuries.

The Ottoman dynasty and state, which ruled for over six centuries and at its height spanned parts of Europe, Asia and Africa, from its founders in Anatolia to the abolition of the sultanate in 1922 and of the caliphate in 1924.

The dynasty founded by Timur, which ruled from Central Asia between 1370 and 1507, with Samarkand as its first capital.

The Safavid dynasty, which ruled Persia from 1501 to 1736 and established Twelver Shi'ism as its state religion.

The Mughal dynasty founded by Babur, which ruled most of the Indian subcontinent from 1526 to 1857.

Muslim history from about 1800 to the present: reform movements, resistance to colonial rule and the independence movements, especially in the Indian subcontinent, and modern states, institutions and communities worldwide.

Articles that follow one subject across the whole of Islamic history rather than belonging to a single period: the complete timeline, the surveys of art, architecture, calligraphy, music and poetry, the development of education, the evolution of Islamic finance, and the thirteen centuries of Islam in Europe. Each begins in the seventh century and runs to the present, so no one era can hold it.