Major turning points of the Islam Religion

The Sunni and Shi'a split was caused because of the struggle for leadership. The Sunni wanted an elected leader and the Shi'a want a descendant of Muhammad. Since Muhammad didn't have sons his close relative was his son-in-law Ali. The shia's wanted Ali to be the leader but the Sunni's wanted an elected leader, this lead to further split between the two. The Sunnis believed that the caliphate should go to whoever would be best equipped politically to maintain the Muslim empire, backing Muhammad's father-in-law Abu Bakr. At the end Abu Bakr was named the first Caliph. But 25 years later Ali took thee Caliphate from Abu Bakar. In 661 Ali was assasinated and the power shifted to the founder of the first Sunni dynasty.

At the Battle of Tours in 732 AD, Frankish leader Charles Martel a christian defeated a large number of Muslim warriors. This halted the Muslims from advancing into Western Europe. The Arab army retreated to the Pyrenees. In this Battle Charles earned his nickname " Martel" which means hammer. The Umaya is a Caliphate the went to conquer Spain with 16,000 soldiers who easily traveled through many obstacles along the way. This battle was very important because it stopped the spread of Islam in europe

The Abbasid Dynasty overthrew the Umayyad Dynasty, which was
based in Damascus. The Umayyad became increasingly unpopular. the reason is because they turned the caliphate into hereditary dynasty. The Abbasid's took advantage of this and started a rebellion against the Umayyad. After they took control the most important change the Abbasid's made is to move the capital city from Damascus to a new city—Baghdad. It was built not far from the old Persian capital of Ctesiphon, and its location reveals the desire of the dynasty to connect itself to Persian culture. Baghdad exceeded Constantinople by wealth and size. It was an excellent military camp and it was the center of trade.

After the Muslim prophet Muhammad died Abu Bakr was appointed as hi political and military successor. Abu Bakar lunched campaign conquer and colonization. Abu Bakr was short lived and he died in 644 but, but he was succeeded by Umar. Under Umar the Islamic empire grew at an increased rate. He attacked Syria, Persia, Egypt and his army looted along the way. Umar was assassinated ten year later by a Persian slave. Uthman became the fourth Muslim warmonger. He invaded territories at a faster pace than Umar. He crushed the Christian defenses in Palestine, Armenia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, and pushed as far west as Morocco. After all Jerusalem was the city the Islamic invaders wanted the most. This is because the prophet Muhammad had a night journey there. Khalid ibn al-Walid commanded his army towards Jerusalem. They conquered by cutting the supplies of Jerusalem and by starving people inside the city.

Baghdad was the capital city of the Abbasid caliphs from the eighth century. But in 1248 Genghis Khan’s grandson Mongke became great khan of the Mongols and he wanted to extend to the middle east. After 10 years a Mongol group overrun Mesopotamia and they started to advance towards Baghdad . At first the Mongols demanded the city to surrender but, it was clear that they couldn't resist the Mongol army. When surrendered the Mongols looted and slaughtered thousands of people