AD 622-1258 Early Islamic

At the beginning of the 7th century AD, western Asia was dominated by two empires – the Byzantine in the west and the Sasanian in the east. In 622 the Prophet Muhammad emigrated from Mecca to Medina, in Arabia, and established the first Muslim community there. Following his death in 632, his successors continued to strengthen and extend the Muslim state. By 751, Islamic lands extended across a vast area from Spain to Central Asia.

In 661 the first great Islamic dynasty, the Umayyads was established at Damascus in Syria. In 750 they were overthrown by the Abbasids, who moved the capital of the empire to Baghdad in Iraq. Despite the nominal rule of the Abbasid caliphs, semi-independent governors established dynasties in the provinces of western and central Asia. Anatolia and northern Syria remained part of Byzantium until 1071.

In 1095 the Pope called for European Christians to eject the Muslims from the Holy Land. The knights of the First Crusade took Jerusalem in 1099 and established Christian kingdoms in Syria. The Abbasids sought the support of Kurds from northern Mesopotamia such as Saladin, who evicted the Crusaders from Jerusalem in 1187.

From 1220, a series of raids by the Mongols destroyed cities and people on a huge scale. In 1258 the last Abbasid caliph in Baghdad was assassinated, bringing much of western Asia under Mongol rule.