Islamic Empire , also called the Arab Empire, existed from the A.D. 600’s to the 1200’s. Arab Muslim leaders called caliphs ruled the empire. Muslims practice the religion of Islam. The Umayyads and the Abbāsids were the most powerful ruling families of the empire.
In the early 600’s, Muslims from the Arabian Peninsula began a series of major conquests. By the mid-600’s, they had toppled the powerful Sasanian Persian dynasty (family of rulers) and had taken over large parts of the Byzantine Empire. Later, during the Umayyad caliphate (661-750) and the Abbāsid caliphate (750-1258), Arab armies conquered Spain, North Africa, Sicily, and southern Italy and reached the borders of China.
The Umayyads retained the administrative systems of the lands they conquered, though most of the people who held power were Arabs. Abd al-Malik ibn Marwān, who ruled as caliph from 685 to 705, changed the administrative language of the empire to Arabic and issued a common coinage. The Umayyads did not force their subjects to convert to Islam, and most people continued practicing their own religions.
The Abbāsids overthrew the Umayyads in 750. The Abbāsids ruled an empire that was ethnically and culturally diverse, and the Islamic arts and sciences flourished. The Abbāsids began to lose power in the mid-800’s. Independent dynasties arose in Iran, North Africa, and Spain. From the 1000’s to the 1500’s, non-Arab invaders conquered parts of the eastern Arab lands. The Mongols executed the last Abbāsid caliph in 1258.
The Arab conquests brought major changes to the cultural and political landscape. The elimination of boundaries between the conquered empires stimulated trade and cultural exchange. Agricultural developments led to an increase in population and the growth of cities. The upper classes established a universal education system. Most nonreligious Greek, Indian, and Persian books were translated into Arabic and expanded, and the introduction of paper from China helped to spread knowledge. The works of Muslim scholars of the later Islamic Empire provided Europeans with access to important ancient texts that contributed to the Renaissance in Europe.
See also Abbasid caliphate ; Arabs ; Avicenna ; Byzantine Empire ; Caliph ; Muslims ; and Umayyad caliphate .
