An Introduction to Islamic History

This course will address and discuss the developmental stages within Islam in the first six centuries of its existence—from the first Islamic state to the advent of the Mongol invasion that destroyed the Abbasid Caliphate in 1258. We will examine how religion looked before the advent of Islam and how Mecca—the hometown of the Prophet—was a center of regional pagan-like religions in a polytheistic society. We also will look at the formation of the first Islamic state—in the city of Medina—and review the numerous trials and tribulations of the first four caliphs who ruled over the Islamic state after Muhammad’s death. Finally, we will discuss the establishment of dynastic rule through the rise of the Umayyad dynasty in Damascus, which often is referred to as the Golden Age of Islam under the rule of the Abbasid dynasty.

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