Muslim world - Wikipedia Page 1 of 16 Muslim world From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The terms Muslim world and Islamic world commonly refer to the Islamic community (Ummah), consisting of all those who adhere to the religion of Islam,[1] or to societies where Islam is practiced.[2][3] In a modern geopolitical sense, these terms refer to countries where Islam is widespread, although there are no agreed criteria for inclusion.[4][3] The history of the Muslim world spans about 1400 years and includes a variety of socio-political developments, as well as advances in the arts, science, philosophy, and technology, particularly during the Islamic Golden Age. All Muslims look for guidance to the Quran and believe in the prophetic mission of Muhammad, but disagreements on other matters have led to appearance of different religious schools and branches within Islam. In the modern era, most of the Muslim world came under influence or colonial domination of European powers. The nation states that emerged in the post-colonial era have adopted a variety of political and economic models, and they have been affected by secular and as well as religious trends. The Muslim population of the world map by percentage of each country, according to the Pew Forum (assessed on 29 June 2014). As of 2015, over 1.7 billion or about 23% of the world population are Muslims[5] including the 4% who live as minorities. By the percentage of the total population in a region considering themselves Muslim, 91% in the Middle East-North Africa (MENA),[6] 89% in Central Asia,[7] 40% in Southeast Asia,[8] 31% in South Asia,[9][10] 30% in Sub-Saharan Africa,[11] 25% in Asia–Oceania,[12] around 6% in Europe,[13] and 1% in the Americas. [14][15][16][17] Contents ◾ 1 History ◾ 1.1 Classical culture ◾ 1.1.1 Ceramics ◾ 1.1.2 Literature ◾ 1.1.3 Philosophy ◾ 1.1.4 Sciences ◾ 1.1.5 Technology ◾ 1.2 Gunpowder Empires ◾ 1.3 Great Divergence ◾ 1.3.1 Colonialism ◾ 1.4 Countries gaining independence ◾ 2 Contemporary developments ◾ 2.1 Muslim cultures today ◾ 2.2 Globalization ◾ 3 Geography ◾ 3.1 Countries with the largest Muslim populations (2010) ◾ 4 Demographics ◾ 4.1 Religion ◾ 4.1.1 Islamic schools and branches ◾ 4.1.2 Geographical distribution ◾ 4.2 Refugees ◾ 5 Education ◾ 5.1 Literacy ◾ 5.2 Scholarship ◾ 6 Economy ◾ 6.1 Regional economies ◾ 6.1.1 Western Muslim economies ◾ 6.1.2 African Muslim economies ◾ 6.1.3 Near East and Southwest Muslim economies ◾ 7 Culture ◾ 7.1 Arts ◾ 7.1.1 Architecture ◾ 7.1.2 Aniconism ◾ 7.1.3 Arabesque ◾ 7.1.4 Girih ◾ 7.1.5 Islamic calligraphy ◾ 7.2 Calendar ◾ 7.2.1 Islamic lunar calendar ◾ 7.2.2 Solar Hijri calendar ◾ 8 Organizations ◾ 9 Government ◾ 9.1 Democracy and compulsion indexes ◾ 9.2 Religion and state ◾ 9.2.1 Islamic states ◾ 9.2.2 State religion ◾ 9.2.3 Unclear / No Declaration ◾ 9.2.4 Secular states ◾ 9.3 Law and ethics ◾ 9.4 Politics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslim_world 6/13/2017 Muslim world - Wikipedia Page 2 of 16 ◾ 9.4.1 Religious nationalism ◾ 10 List of conflicts in Muslim world ◾ 11 Gallery ◾ 12 See also ◾ 13 Notes ◾ 14 References ◾ 15 External links History Muslim history involves the history of the Islamic faith as a religion and as a social institution. The history of Islam began in Arabia when the Islamic prophet Muhammad received the first revelation of the Quran in the 7th century in the cave of Hira in the month of Ramadan. He was commanded by Allah to convey this message to the people and be patient with those who became very hostile to it, especially the leaders of Quraysh who did not like the call of tawhid and abolishing idolatry. After 13 years of spreading this message despite increased persecution by the Quraysh, the Prophet Muhammad and his followers migrated to Medina to establish a new state under the Prophet's leadership and away from persecution. This migration, called the Hijra, marks the first year of the Islamic calendar. Islam then spread to the entire Arabian Peninsula over the course of the Prophet's life. The Tabula Rogeriana, drawn by Al-Idrisi in 1154, After the Prophet Muhammad passed away, his successors (the Caliphs) continued to lead the Muslim community based one of the most advanced ancient world maps. Al- on his teachings and guidelines of the Quran. The majority of Muslims consider the first fours successors to be 'rightly Idrisi also wrote about the diverse Muslim guided' or Rashidun. Islam under the Rashidun Caliphate grew rapidly. Geographic expansion of Muslim power extended communities found in various lands. well beyond the Arabian Peninsula in the form of a vast Muslim Empire with an area of influence that stretched from northwest India, across Central Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, southern Italy, and the Iberian Peninsula, to the Pyrenees. A century after the death of last Islamic prophet Muhammad, the Islamic empire extended from Spain in the west to Indus in the east. The subsequent empires such as those of the Abbasids, Fatimids, Almoravids, Seljukids, Ajuran, Adal and Warsangali in Somalia, Mughals, Safavids in Persia and Ottomans in Anatolia were among the influential and distinguished powers in the world. Classical culture Mir Sayyid Ali, a Portrait of a painter A Persian miniature of Mongol ruler, Ghazan, Layla and Majnun scholar writing a during the reign of Shah Abu'l Ma‘ali, a studying the Quran. studying together, from commentary on the Ottoman Sultan scholar. a Persian miniature Quran, during the reign Mehmet II. painting. of the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan. The Islamic Golden Age coincided with the Middle Ages in the Muslim world, starting with the rise of Islam and establishment of the first Islamic state in 622. The end of the age is variously given as 1258 with the Mongolian Sack of Baghdad, or 1492 with the completion of the Christian Reconquista of the Emirate of Granada in Al-Andalus, Iberian Peninsula. During the reign of the Abbasid caliph Harun ar-Rashid (786 to 809), the legendary House of Wisdom was inaugurated in Baghdad where scholars from various parts of the world sought to translate and gather all the known world's knowledge into Arabic. The Abbasids were influenced by the Quranic injunctions and hadiths, such as "the ink of a scholar is more holy than the blood of a martyr," that stressed the value of knowledge. The major Islamic capital cities of Baghdad, Cairo, and Córdoba became the main intellectual centers for science, philosophy, medicine, and education.[18] During this period, the Muslim world was a collection of cultures; they drew together and advanced the knowledge gained from the ancient Greek, Roman, Persian, Chinese, Indian, Egyptian, and Phoenician civilizations.[19] Ceramics Between the 8th and 18th centuries, the use of ceramic glaze was prevalent in Islamic art, usually assuming the form of elaborate pottery.[20] Tin-opacified glazing was one of the earliest new technologies developed by the Islamic potters. The first Islamic opaque glazes can be found as blue-painted ware in Basra, dating to around the 8th century. Another contribution was the development of fritware, originating from 9th century Iraq.[21] Other centers for innovative ceramic pottery in the Old world included Fustat (from 975 to 1075), Damascus (from 1100 to around 1600) and Tabriz (from 1470 to 1550).[22] Literature A Seljuq, shatranj (chess) set, glazed fritware, 12th century. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslim_world 6/13/2017 Muslim world - Wikipedia Page 3 of 16 The story of Princess Ali Baba by Maxfield The Magic carpet. Parizade and the Magic Parrish. Tree.[23] The best known work of fiction from the Islamic world is One Thousand and One Nights (In Persian: hezār-o-yek šab > Arabic: ʔalf-layl-at-wa-l’-layla= One thousand Night and (one) Night) or *Arabian Nights, a name invented by early Western translators, which is a compilation of folk tales from Sanskrit, Persian, and later Arabian fables. The original concept is derived from a pre-Islamic Persian prototype Hezār Afsān (Thousand Fables) that relied on particular Indian elements.[24] It reached its final form by the 14th century; the number and type of tales have varied from one manuscript to another.[25] All Arabian fantasy tales tend to be called Arabian Nights stories when translated into English, regardless of whether they appear in The Book of One Thousand and One Nights or not.[25] This work has been very influential in the West since it was translated in the 18th century, first by Antoine Galland.[26] Imitations were written, especially in France.[27] Various characters from this epic have themselves become cultural icons in Western culture, such as Aladdin, Sinbad the Sailor and Ali Baba. A famous example of Arabic poetry and Persian poetry on romance (love) is Layla and Majnun, dating back to the Umayyad era in the 7th century. It is a tragic story of undying love much like the later Romeo and Juliet, which was itself said to have been inspired by a Latin version of Layla and Majnun to an extent.[28] Ferdowsi's Shahnameh, the national epic of Iran, is a mythical and heroic retelling of Persian history. Amir Arsalan was also a popular mythical Persian story, which has influenced some modern works of fantasy fiction, such as The Heroic Legend of Arslan. Ibn Tufail (Abubacer) and Ibn al-Nafis were pioneers of the philosophical novel. Ibn Tufail wrote the first Arabic novel Hayy ibn Yaqdhan (Philosophus Autodidactus) as a response to Al-Ghazali's The Incoherence of the Philosophers, and then Ibn al-Nafis also wrote a novel Theologus Autodidactus as a response to Ibn Tufail's Philosophus Autodidactus.