"Islam" means "submission," and is the third major Abrahamic religion to develop in the Middle East. Historical records from this time period are sparse, but according to the traditional foundation story of Islam, a man named Muhammad was chosen by Allah (God) to be his prophet. The angel Gabriel dictated the Quran to him, which Muslims (followers of Islam) consider the eternal expression of God's will to mankind. The Quran teaches radical monotheism and the Five Pillars of Islam: faith (shahada), prayer (salat), almsgiving (zakat), fasting (sawm), and pilgrimage (hajj).
Muhammad attempted to preach the message of the Quran in the Arabian city of Mecca, but was forced out of the city by the local pagans. He fled to Medina, where his message was more successful. Raising an army, he returned to Mecca and conquered the city.
After Muhammad's death in 632, his followers, under rulers called "caliphs," attacked the weakened Persian and Roman Empires, completely destroying the Persians and conquering approximately two-thirds of Roman territory. The Caliphate soon covered the former Persian Empire all the way to India, as well as the former Roman provinces of Mesopotamia, Syria, Egypt, north Africa, and Spain.
In "the entropy of victory," a split soon emerged among Muslims about who was the rightful successor of Muhammad. The first four caliphs were known as the Rashidun Caliphate (from rashid, "rightly-guided.") The fourth caliph, Ali, was the son-in-law of Muhammad, and of the same family tribe. One group, called the Shia, believed Ali was therefore the rightful caliph; another, called the Sunni, believed Muhammad appointed no successor, and the rightful caliph was Muawiyah, who belonged to the same tribe as the previous caliph, Uthman.
A civil war resulted, with Muawiyah victorious, and the founding of the Umayyad Caliphate, which ruled until 750 AD. The divide between Sunni and Shia, however, continues to this day.
The Umayyads were replaced by the Abbasid Caliphate, which made their capital in Baghdad (built near the ruins of Ctesiphon.) For about two hundred years, there was also a major Shia caliphate in north Africa called the Fatimid Caliphate, but it was conquered by the Abbasids in the twelfth century. The Abbasid Caliphate retained nominal control of the Sunni world until it was replaced by the Ottoman Caliphate in the sixteenth century.
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