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If you are having trouble reading the information in this format, you may use this time line to prepare for the questions.

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By the time of Muhammad's death, most of central and southwestern Arabia was under the control of Muslims. Now, his followers had to choose a new leader to preserve the community. After much debate, Abu Bakr, Muhammad's friend and father-in-law, was selected.

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Abu Bakr became the first caliph (KAY-lif), or Muslim ruler. He and the three leaders who followed him came to be known to a large group of Muslims as the “rightly guided” caliphs. These caliphs were said to have followed the Qur'an and the example of Muhammad. The Muslim government led by the caliphs was called the caliphate. When some tribes tried to break away, Abu Bakr used military force to reunite the community. He also completed the unification of Arabia. Then Muslims began to carry the teachings of Islam beyond the Arabian Peninsula.

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Gold dinar of Umar II, minted in Damascus.

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After Abu Bakr died in 634, Caliph Umar (ooh-MAR) continued to expand the Muslim empire by conquest, which allowed Muslims to gain new lands and resources. By 643, the Muslim empire included lands in Iraq, Persia, the eastern Mediterranean, and North Africa. Umar established governments and tax systems in all these provinces. Among the taxes was one levied on Jews and Christians and other non-Muslims. Umar often let Jews and Christians practice their beliefs as they liked within their own homes and places of worship, but more often forced other religions to convert. In Egypt, treaties allowed for freedom of worship in exchange for the payment of tribute. Later, Muslims completed similar treaties with the Nubians, a people who lived to the south of Egypt.

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Upon Umar's death in 644, Uthman, who was a member of the Umayyad (ooh-MY-ed) clan, became the third caliph. He attempted to unite Muslims by overseeing the creation of an official edition of the Qur'an. But he also awarded high posts to relatives, and people in the provinces complained that he ruled unfairly. Discontent spread, and rebels killed Uthman in 656.

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Ali ibn Abi Talib (AH-lee i-ben ah-bee TAH-lib), Muhammad's cousin, and his daughter Fatima's husband, agreed to become the fourth caliph. Some important Muslims challenged his rule, which led to civil war. Ali sent forces against them, fought two major battles, and won one. But when he ended the other through negotiation, he lost supporters. In 661, one of these former supporters murdered Ali.

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Make sure to review these questions before the end!

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Soon after Ali's death, Mu'awiyah (mooh-AH-wee-YAH), the leader of the Umayyads, claimed the caliphate. Most Muslims, called the Sunnis (SOOH-neez), came to accept him. But a minority of Muslims, known as the Shi'ite (SHEE-eyt), or “party” of Ali, refused to do so because they believed that only people directly descended from Muhammad through his daughter Fatima and son-in-law Ali should be caliph. The schism between the Sunnis and Shi'ite lasts to this day. Mu'awiyah put down a revolt by Ali's supporters and held on to the caliphate. He also founded the Umayyad dynasty. In 661, the Umayyads moved their capital to Damascus, Syria, from where the caliphs ruled the huge Muslim empire for close to 100 years.

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The Muslim empire continued to expand. The Umayyad caliphs sent armies into central Asia and northwestern India. In 711, Muslim armies began their conquests of present-day Spain. However, at the Battle of Tours in 732, forces under the Frankish king Charles Martel turned the Muslims back in France. This battle marked the farthest extent of Muslim advances into Europe, outside of Spain. Muslims held on to land in Spain, where Islamic states lasted for almost 800 years. Muslims in Spain built some of the greatest cities of medieval Europe. Their capital city, Cordoba, became an intellectual center where Muslim, Jewish, and Christian scholars collectively lived and interacted. Through their work, Muslim culture made important advances in arts, science, technology, and literature.

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During the 10th century, the Seljuk Turks established a new Muslim dynasty. The Turks were a Central Asian people who had been migrating into Muslim lands for centuries. The Seljuks were named for a Turkish chieftain who converted to Islam in the mid-10th century.

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1055 CE - Threats to the Byzantine Empire

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1055 CE - Threats to the Byzantine Empire

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The Seljuks were named for a Turkish chieftain who converted to Islam in the mid-10th century. In 1055, his descendants took control of the Abbasid dynasty's capital of Baghdad in what was then Persia, meaning that a Seljuk sultan now ruled the old Abbasid Empire. The Seljuks were eager to expand their territory. Moving westward, they took Syria and Palestine from the Fatimid dynasty. They also overran much of Anatolia (also called Asia Minor), which was part of the Byzantine Empire.

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In 1071, the Seljuks defeated a large Byzantine army at Manzikert in present-day Turkey. The Seljuk advance alarmed Christians in Europe, who feared for the safety and property of Christians living to the east, as well as the control they held over western lands. The Seljuks' power seemed to threaten the Byzantine Empire itself. Christians also worried about the Holy Land, especially the city of Jerusalem, where the Seljuks sometimes treated Christians and their holy sites with intolerance. Jerusalem was, and still is, a sacred city to Jews, Christians, and Muslims. It was the spiritual capital of the Jews, where their great Temple had once stood, and had been their political capital in ancient times. For Christians, it was the city where Jesus was crucified and arose from the dead. For Muslims, it was where Muhammad ascended to heaven during his Night Journey.

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After the Seljuks took control of Palestine, political turmoil made travel unsafe. Tales began reaching Europe of highway robbers attacking and even killing Christian pilgrims. Christians feared they would no longer be able to visit Jerusalem and other sacred sites in the Holy Land. More and more, Christians began to carry weapons and travel in groups when they made the journey to Jerusalem. Together, with concern over the Seljuk threat to Christian lands in Europe, this fear helped pave the way for the Crusades.

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The Crusades began as a response to the threat posed by the Seljuks. Many emperors appealed to Pope Urban II for help. By 1095, the Seljuks had advanced to within 100 miles of the Byzantine capital, Constantinople. In response, the pope invited nobles and Church leaders to attend a council in Clermont, France where he called for a crusade to drive out the Muslims and reclaim Jerusalem. He promised a forgiveness of sins to all who joined the fight. French-speaking nobles quickly organized armies to fight in the Holy Land. In addition to trained knights, thousands of townspeople, craftsmen, and peasants joined in the Crusade. Many viewed crusading as an act of love and devotion to God. Others believed that by joining the Crusades, their sins would be forgotten. Noble families often spent their own money to embark on the Crusades, without hope of regaining their losses.

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Complete this activity before moving on!

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Several European nobles led the First Crusade. Around 100,000 Crusaders fought their way through Anatolia and headed south toward Palestine. In June of 1098, the Crusaders laid siege to the city of Antioch, in Syria, which was protected by a ring of walls. Soon the Crusaders found a way over the walls, and Antioch fell to the Christians.

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In 1099, the Crusaders surrounded Jerusalem and scaled the city walls. After a month of fighting, the city surrendered. The victorious Crusaders killed most of the people who had fought against them. With Jerusalem taken, most of the Crusaders returned home. Some, however, stayed behind. They established four Crusader kingdoms in Palestine, Syria, and modern-day Lebanon and Turkey.

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The Crusaders owed their early victories, in part, to a lack of unity among Muslim groups. When the Crusades began, the Seljuk Empire was already crumbling into a number of smaller states. Muslims had trouble joining together to fight the invaders. When Muslims started to band together, they were able to fight back more effectively. In 1144, they captured Edessa, the capital of the northernmost crusader kingdom. Christians responded by mounting the Second Crusade.

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That Crusade ended in failure. An army from Germany was badly defeated in Anatolia. A second army, led by the king of France, arrived in Jerusalem in 1148. About 50,000 Crusaders marched on the city of Damascus, which was on the way to Edessa. Muslims from Edessa came to the city's aid and beat back the Crusaders. Soon after this defeat, the French army went home, ending the Second Crusade.

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Over the next few decades, Muslims in the Middle East increasingly came under common leadership. By the 1180s, the great sultan Salah al-Din (SAL-eh ahl-DEEN), called Saladin by Europeans, had formed the largest Muslim empire since the Seljuks. Salah al-Din united Egypt, Syria, and other lands to the east. He led a renewed fight against the Crusaders in the Holy Land and quickly recovered most of Palestine. In 1187, his armies captured Jerusalem.

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The loss of Jerusalem shocked Europeans and sparked the Third Crusade. King Richard I of England, known as “the Lionheart,” was one of the European leaders who led the fight against Salah al-Din.

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In 1191, Richard's army forced the surrender of the Palestinian town of Acre (AH-kreh). Afterward, arrangements were made between the two sides to exchange prisoners. Salah al-Din tried to stall the completion of the exchange, and Richard, who grew impatient, ordered the deaths of all 2,700 of his Muslim prisoners.

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Richard then fought his way toward Jerusalem, but his army was not strong enough to take the city. Salah al-Din's forces had also grown weaker. In September 1192, the two leaders signed a peace treaty. The Crusaders kept a chain of cities along the coast of Palestine, and Muslims agreed to let Christian pilgrims enter Jerusalem.

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The Crusades continued for centuries. Some Crusades were popular movements of poor people, rather than organized military campaigns. In 1212, for example, thousands of young peasants from France and Germany marched in a Children's Crusade. Few, if any, ever reached the Holy Land. Some made it to European port cities, only to be sold into slavery by merchants. Some returned home. Many disappeared without a trace. None of the later Crusades succeeded in recapturing Jerusalem. Muslims, meanwhile, were gaining back the land they had lost and took Acre, the last Crusader city, in 1291. This victory ended some 200 years of Christian kingdoms in the Holy Land.

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Make sure to complete the EdPuzzle Assignment over the Crusades.

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