Islam emerged in the seventh century after the fall of Rome among the Arabs of Arabia forming second eastern civilization. Mohammad was the founder. Prophet Mohammad was born in 570 to an average clan of the Quraysh tribe (Noble, 2010).
In his middle years he began to experience visions which he believed where inspired by Allah. His visions were eventually written down giving birth to the Koran which the Muslims believe to be the holy word of Allah through his prophet. The Koran formed the rules that governs and guides all aspects of Islamic life and standards of morality. Mohamed started teaching his vision and his teaching formed the basis of Islam (Noble, 2010).
Mohamed began teaching in his home town Mecca but people did not believe in his doctrines and he was forced to move to Medina where he was warmly received. At Medina he was able to convert many Arabs to the new faith and through his political and military skills was able to establish an army from his converts.
Though Mohammad was able to conquer Medina, Mecca remained at the focus of his attention not only due to his attachment to the town but also due to its economic and political influence that Mohammed saw would be useful in his endeavors to convert all Arabs into Islam. Muhammad used the army he had established in Medina to conquer Mecca and eventually the whole Arab peninsula.
Even after the death of Mohammad in 632 the converts to Islamic faith continued to conquer territories (Noble, 2010). Most of the Islamic converts were Arabs and after their conquest of the Mediterranean region they formed the Arab Empire. Islam gave the Arab tribes unity, discipline and the organization needed to succeed in their war of conquest. The Arab empire occupied the former Roman and Persian Empires and the Arabs were able to benefit greatly from the structures built by these two former civilizations.
The Arab empire grew and their territory extended from Spain and Portugal in the west to China in the East, to the South the Empire spread to the North African regions of Egypt (Perry et al, 1991). Between the 7th and the 15th centuries the Islamic Arabs established a brilliant civilization with imperial systems and a firm government. The Islamic Arabs were tolerant to other cultures that existed among them such as the Greeks, Christians, Indians, Jews and pagan Arabs.
In the 8th and 9th century under the Abbasid Caliphs Muslim civilization entered its golden age. Islamic civilization creatively integrated Arabic, Byzantine, Persian and Indian traditions to form a unique culture. During this period the Arab played a major role in the political, economic, social, cultural and scientific affair in the vast empire which influenced the western civilization. The Muslims were able to forge a high civilization where Muslim science, philosophy and mathematics which were borrowed largely from the Greeks made brilliant contribution to civilization.
From India the Muslim adopted the Idea of “zero” and “Arabic numerals” which they passed on to the west. Muslims mathematicians were also the original founder of algebra and trigonometry mathematics (Perry et al, 1991). In the field of science and medicine the Muslim advanced on the Greek technologies to come up with new ideas that were also passed on to the west. Muslim thinkers were able to use Greek philosophy to explain Muslim doctrines. Ibn Sina was one of the great Muslim thinkers who produced a lot of philosophy works which were based on Aristotle and had large influence on medieval Christian thinkers (Perry et al, 1991).
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