Islamic history timeline
Walk through 1,400 years
Scroll down the timeline from the prophets to the present day. Every era comes with books for it on our shelves, for children and grown-ups.
Before 570 CE
The prophets before
From Adam to Isa, peace be upon them all, Allah sent prophets to every people with the same message: worship Allah alone. Their stories fill the Quran: Nuh and the ark, Ibrahim and the Kaaba, Yusuf in Egypt, Musa and Pharaoh, Yunus in the whale.
570–632
The life of the Prophet ﷺ
Born in Makkah in the Year of the Elephant, Muhammad ﷺ received the first revelation in the cave of Hira at forty. After thirteen years of patience in Makkah came the Hijrah to Madinah in 622, the start of the Islamic calendar. Within a decade, Islam had spread across Arabia.
632–661
The Rightly Guided Caliphs
Abu Bakr held the ummah together, Umar built a just state that stretched from Egypt to Persia, Uthman gave us the standard copy of the Quran, and Ali, the Prophet’s cousin, led through the hardest years. Commanders like Khalid ibn al-Walid carried Islam far beyond Arabia.
661–750
The Umayyads of Damascus
Ruling from Damascus, the Umayyads built the Dome of the Rock and the Great Mosque of Damascus, and their armies reached Spain in the west and the Indus in the east. The pious caliph Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz showed what justice could achieve in just over two years.
750–1258
Baghdad and the House of Wisdom
The Abbasids founded Baghdad, and scholars gathered there from across the world. The great imams of fiqh and hadith lived in this age, alongside scientists like al-Khwarizmi, Ibn Sina and Ibn al-Haytham, whose work in algebra, medicine and optics later shaped Europe.
711–1492
Al-Andalus
For nearly eight centuries Muslims ruled much of Spain. Cordoba had lit streets and vast libraries, and Muslims, Christians and Jews shared in a flowering of learning, poetry and architecture. Granada’s Alhambra still stands as a reminder.
1095–1291
The Crusades and Salahuddin
European armies took Jerusalem in 1099. Leaders like Nur al-Din united the Muslims, and in 1187 Salahuddin al-Ayyubi retook the city, famous for the mercy he showed its people.
1300s
Kings, travellers and thinkers
Mansa Musa of Mali made his legendary Hajj in 1324. Ibn Battuta left Tangier for Makkah and kept travelling for thirty years, even serving as a judge in the Maldives. In North Africa, Ibn Khaldun wrote the Muqaddimah, founding the study of history and society.
1299–1922
The Ottoman Empire
From a small state in Anatolia, the Ottomans grew into a great empire. In 1453 Sultan Mehmed II conquered Constantinople, which became Istanbul. For six centuries they guarded the holy cities and ruled from the Balkans to Arabia.
1526–1857
The Mughals of India
The Mughal emperors ruled most of the Indian subcontinent, building the Taj Mahal, the Badshahi Mosque and a refined culture of art and poetry, until the last emperor was exiled by the British in 1857.
1800s – today
The modern Muslim world
Reform, colonialism and independence reshaped Muslim lands, while Muslim communities grew across Europe and the Americas. From the Grand Mosque of Paris sheltering families in the Second World War to Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali, the story of the ummah continues.
