Sufi dancers Not long after the foundation of Islam and the life of Mohammed, about 650 AD, there were people who became known as Sufis (SOO-fees). Sufis can be Sunni or Shiite. These people wanted a more [...]
In the lifetime of the Prophet Mohammed, and for some years afterwards, Islam was a united faith. But by the 650s AD, Islam split into two main sects. They fought bitterly with each other. These two [...]
What is the Quran? A page from a Quran of the Umayyad period (600s AD), now in Birmingham, England What is the Quran? The Quran is the holy book of [...]
Tomb of Ali, the first Imam and the fourth caliph, in Iraq (it was rebuilt about 1500 AD by the Safavids) Where did Islam come from? Medieval Islam was closely related [...]
Mohammed praying at the Ka'aba (in an Ottoman book from 1388 AD) - the Ka'aba and the hajj What is the Ka'aba? The Ka'aba, or Cube, was a big black [...]
Mohammed with his daughter Fatima (she's in the front) Mohammed's views on women Mohammed loved and admired the women in his life. He tried to give women more rights than [...]
Shiite shrine at Karbala (from the 1800s AD): the tomb of Ali's son Hussein: Mawali history What are mawali? Mawali is the Arabic name for people all over the Islamic Empire who [...]
Boys in Mauretania learning Quran verses in a maktab from wooden tablets Schools in the Islamic Empire In the Islamic empire and in Africa, as in West Asia before Islam, most kids never went to [...]
Shirij Madrassa, Fez, Morocco, about 1350 AD Who went to a madrassa? If you had done well at your maktab (elementary school), your parents might decide to send you on to a [...]
A plate from the Fatimid period (1000s AD), Egypt Some Islamic rulers bought or captured young Turkish, Mongol, Kurdish and Christian boys. The rulers took these boys away from their families to be special slaves. [...]
