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Muslim world

January 01, 1970

The terms Muslim world and Islamic world commonly refer to the Islamic community, which is also known as the Ummah. This consists of all those who adhere to the religious beliefs, politics, and laws of Islam[1] or to societies in which Islam is practiced.[2][3] In a modern geopolitical sense, these terms refer to countries in which Islam is widespread, although there are no agreed criteria for inclusion.[4][3] The term Muslim-majority countries is an alternative often used for the latter sense.[5]

World Muslim population by percentage (Pew Research Center, 2014)

The history of the Muslim world spans about 1,400 years and includes a variety of socio-political developments, as well as advances in the arts, science, medicine, philosophy, law, economics and technology during the Islamic Golden Age. Muslims look for guidance to the Quran and believe in the prophetic mission of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, but disagreements on other matters have led to the appearance of different religious schools of thought and sects within Islam.[6] The Islamic conquests, which culminated in the Arab empire being established across three continents (Asia, Africa, and Europe), enriched the Muslim world, achieving the economic preconditions for the emergence of this institution owing to the emphasis attached to Islamic teachings.[7] In the modern era, most of the Muslim world came under European colonial domination. 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 as well as religious trends.[8]

As of 2013, the combined GDP (nominal) of 60 Muslim majority countries was US$5.7 trillion.[9] As of 2016, they contributed 8% of the world's total.[10] In 2020, the Economy of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation which consists of 57 member states had a combined GDP(PPP) of US$ 24 trillion which is equal to about 18% of world's GDP or US$ 30 trillion with 5 OIC observer states which is equal to about 22% of the world's GDP.

As of 2020, 1.8 billion or more than 25% of the world population are Muslims.[11][12] By the percentage of the total population in a region considering themselves Muslim, 91% in the Middle East-North Africa (MENA),[13] 89% in Central Asia,[14] 40% in Southeast Asia,[15] 31% in South Asia,[16][17] 30% in Sub-Saharan Africa,[18] 25% in Asia, 1.4% in Oceania,[19][20] 6% in Europe,[21] and 1% in the Americas.[22][23][24][25]

Most Muslims are of one of two denominations: Sunni Islam (87–90%)[26] and Shia (10–13%).[27] However, other denominations exist in pockets, such as Ibadi (primarily in Oman). Muslims who do not belong to, do not self-identify with, or cannot be readily classified under one of the identifiable Islamic schools and branches are known as non-denominational Muslims.[28][29][30][31] About 13% of Muslims live in Indonesia, the largest Muslim-majority country;[32] 31% of Muslims live in South Asia,[33] the largest population of Muslims in the world;[34] 20% in the Middle East–North Africa,[35] where it is the dominant religion;[36] and 15% in Sub-Saharan Africa and West Africa (primarily in Nigeria).[37] Muslims are the overwhelming majority in Central Asia,[38] the majority in the Caucasus,[39][40] and widespread in Southeast Asia.[41] India has the largest Muslim population outside Muslim-majority countries.[42] Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iran, and Egypt are home to the world’s second, fourth, sixth and seventh largest Muslim populations respectively. Sizeable Muslim communities are also found in the Americas, Russia, India, China, and Europe.[43][44][45] Islam is the fastest-growing major religion in the world partially due to their high birth rate,[46][47][48][49][50] according to the same study, religious switching has no impact on Muslim population, since the number of people who embrace Islam and those who leave Islam are roughly equal.[51] China has the third largest Muslim population outside Muslim-majority countries, while Russia has the fifth largest Muslim population. Nigeria has the largest Muslim population in Africa, while Indonesia has the largest Muslim population in Asia.

Terminology

The term has been documented as early as 1912 to encompass the influence of perceived pan-Islamic propaganda. The Times described Pan-Islamism as a movement with power, importance, and cohesion born in Paris, where Turks, Arabs and Persians congregated. The correspondent's focus was on India: it would take too long to consider the progress made in various parts of the Muslim world. The article considered the position of the Amir, the effect of the Tripoli Campaign, Anglo-Russian action in Persia, and "Afghan Ambitions".[52]

In a modern geopolitical sense, the terms 'Muslim world' and 'Islamic world' refer to countries in which Islam is widespread, although there are no agreed criteria for inclusion.[53][3] Some scholars and commentators have criticised the term 'Muslim/Islamic world' and its derivative terms 'Muslim/Islamic country' as "simplistic" and "binary", since no state has a religiously homogeneous population (e.g. Egypt's citizens are c. 10% Christians), and in absolute numbers, there are sometimes fewer Muslims living in countries in which they make up the majority than in countries in which they form a minority.[54][55][56] Hence, the term 'Muslim-majority countries' is often preferred in literature.[5]

History

Main articles: History of Islam, Spread of Islam, and Timeline of Islamic history
 
The Tabula Rogeriana, drawn by Al-Idrisi of Sicily in 1154, one of the most advanced ancient world maps. Al-Idrisi also wrote about the diverse Muslim communities found in various lands. Note: the map is here shown upside-down from the original to match current North/Up, South/Down map design

The history of the Islamic faith as a religion and social institution begins with its inception around 610 CE, when the Islamic prophet Muhammad, a native of Mecca, is believed by Muslims to have received the first revelation of the Quran, and began to preach his message.[57] In 622 CE, facing opposition in Mecca, he and his followers migrated to Yathrib (now Medina), where he was invited to establish a new constitution for the city under his leadership.[57] This migration, called the Hijra, marks the first year of the Islamic calendar. By the time of his death, Muhammad had become the political and spiritual leader of Medina, Mecca, the surrounding region, and numerous other tribes in the Arabian Peninsula.[57]

After Muhammad died in 632, his successors (the Caliphs) continued to lead the Muslim community based on his teachings and guidelines of the Quran. The majority of Muslims consider the first four successors to be 'rightly guided' or Rashidun.[citation needed] The conquests of the Rashidun Caliphate helped to spread Islam beyond the Arabian Peninsula, stretching from northwest India, across Central Asia, the Near East, North Africa, southern Italy, and the Iberian Peninsula, to the Pyrenees. The Arab Muslims were unable to conquer the entire Christian Byzantine Empire in Asia Minor during the Arab–Byzantine wars, however. The succeeding Umayyad Caliphate attempted two failed sieges of Constantinople in 674–678 and 717–718. Meanwhile, the Muslim community tore itself apart into the rivalling Sunni and Shia sects since the killing of caliph Uthman in 656, resulting in a succession crisis that has never been resolved.[58] The following First, Second and Third Fitnas and finally the Abbasid Revolution (746–750) also definitively destroyed the political unity of the Muslims, who have been inhabiting multiple states ever since.[59] Ghaznavids' rule was succeeded by the Ghurid Empire of Muhammad of Ghor and Ghiyath al-Din Muhammad, whose reigns under the leadership of Muhammad Bakhtiyar Khalji extended until the Bengal, where Indian Islamic missionaries achieved their greatest success in terms of dawah and number of converts to Islam.[60][61][page needed] Qutb ud-Din Aibak conquered Delhi in 1206 and began the reign of the Delhi Sultanate,[62] a successive series of dynasties that synthesized Indian civilization with the wider commercial and cultural networks of Africa and Eurasia, greatly increased demographic and economic growth in India and deterred Mongol incursion into the prosperous Indo-Gangetic Plain and enthroned one of the few female Muslim rulers, Razia Sultana.[citation needed] Notable major empires dominated by Muslims, such as those of the Abbasids, Fatimids, Almoravids, Gao Empire, Seljukids, largest contiguous Songhai Empire (15th-16th centuries) of Sahel, West Africa, southern North Africa and western Central Africa which dominated the centers of Islamic knowledge of Timbuktu, Djenne, Oualata and Gao, Ajuran, Adal and Warsangali in Somalia, Mughals in the Indian subcontinent (India, Bangladesh, Pakistan e.t.c), Safavids in Persia and Ottomans in Anatolia, Massina Empire, Sokoto Caliphate of northern Nigeria, Toucouleur Empire, were among the influential and distinguished powers in the world.[citation needed] 19th-century colonialism and 20th-century decolonisation have resulted in several independent Muslim-majority states around the world, with vastly differing attitudes towards and political influences granted to, or restricted for, Islam from country to country.[citation needed] These have revolved around the question of Islam's compatibility with other ideological concepts such as secularism, nationalism (especially Arab nationalism and Pan-Arabism, as opposed to Pan-Islamism), socialism (see also Arab socialism and socialism in Iran), democracy (see Islamic democracy), republicanism (see also Islamic republic), liberalism and progressivism, feminism, capitalism and more.[citation needed]

Gunpowder empires

Main article: Gunpowder empires

Scholars often use the term Age of the Islamic Gunpowders to describe period the Safavid, Ottoman and Mughal states. Each of these three empires had considerable military exploits using the newly developed firearms, especially cannon and small arms, to create their empires.[63] They existed primarily between the fourteenth and the late seventeenth centuries.[64] During the 17th–18th centuries, when the Indian subcontinent was ruled by Mughal Empire's sixth ruler Muhammad Auranzgeb through sharia and Islamic economics,[65][66] India became the world's largest economy, valued 25% of world GDP.[67]

Great Divergence

Main article: Great Divergence

"Why do the Christian nations, which were so weak in the past compared with Muslim nations begin to dominate so many lands in modern times and even defeat the once victorious Ottoman armies?"..."Because they have laws and rules invented by reason."

Ibrahim Muteferrika, Rational basis for the Politics of Nations (1731)[69]

The Great Divergence was the reason why European colonial powers militarily defeated preexisting Oriental powers like the Mughal Empire, starting from the wealthy Bengal Subah, Tipu Sultan's Kingdom of Mysore, the Ottoman Empire and many smaller states in the pre-modern Greater Middle East, and initiated a period known as 'colonialism'.[69]

Colonialism

Main articles: Colonial empire and Colonialism
 
Map of colonial powers throughout the world in the year 1914 (note colonial powers in the pre-modern Muslim world).

Beginning with the 15th century, colonialism by European powers profoundly affected Muslim-majority societies in Africa, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Colonialism was often advanced by conflict with mercantile initiatives by colonial powers and caused tremendous social upheavals in Muslim-dominated societies.[70]

A number of Muslim-majority societies reacted to Western powers with zealotry and thus initiating the rise of Pan-Islamism; or affirmed more traditionalist and inclusive cultural ideals; and in rare cases adopted modernity that was ushered by the colonial powers.[71][70]

The only Muslim-majority regions not to be colonized by the Europeans were Saudi Arabia, Iran, Turkey, and Afghanistan.[citation needed] Turkey was one of the first colonial powers of the world with the Ottoman empire ruling several states for over 6 centuries.

Postcolonial era

Further information: Decolonization

In the 20th century, the end of the European colonial domination has led to creation of a number of nation states with significant Muslim populations. These states drew on Islamic traditions to varying degree and in various ways in organizing their legal, educational and economic systems.[70] The Times first documented the term "Muslim world" in 1912 when describing Pan-Islamism as a movement with power importance and cohesion born in Paris where Turks, Arabs and Persians congregated. The article considered The position of the Amir; the effect of the Tripoli Campaign; Anglo-Russian action in Persia; and "Afghan Ambitions".[52]

A significant change in the Muslim world was the defeat and dissolution of the Ottoman Empire (1908–1922), to which the Ottoman officer and Turkish revolutionary statesman Mustafa Kemal Atatürk had an instrumental role in ending and replacing it with the Republic of Turkey, a modern, secular democracy[72] (see Abolition of the Ottoman sultanate).[72] The secular values of Kemalist Turkey, which separated religion from the state with the abolition of the Caliphate in 1924,[72] have sometimes been seen as the result of Western influence.[citation needed]

In the 21st century, after the September 11 attacks (2001) coordinated by the Wahhabi Islamist[73] terrorist group[74] Al-Qaeda[74][75][76][77] against the United States, scholars considered the ramifications of seeking to understand Muslim experience through the framework of secular Enlightenment principles. Muhammad Atta, one of the 11 September hijackers, reportedly quoted from the Quran to allay his fears: "Fight them, and God will chastise them at your hands/And degrade them, and He will help you/Against them, and bring healing to the breasts of a people who believe", referring to the ummah, the community of Muslim believers, and invoking the imagery of the early warriors of Islam who lead the faithful from the darkness of jahiliyyah.[78]

By Sayyid Qutb's definition of Islam, the faith is "a complete divorce from jahiliyyah". He complained that American churches served as centers of community social life that were "very hard [to] distinguish from places of fun and amusement". For Qutb, Western society was the modern jahliliyyah. His understanding of the "Muslim world" and its "social order" was that, presented to the Western world as the result of practicing Islamic teachings, would impress "by the beauty and charm of true Islamic ideology". He argued that the values of the Enlightenment and its related precursor, the Scientific Revolution, "denies or suspends God's sovereignty on earth" and argued that strengthening "Islamic character" was needed "to abolish the negative influences of jahili life."[78]

Islam by country

Main article: Islam by country
Further information: Political aspects of Islam and Islam and secularism

As the Muslim world came into contact with secular ideals, societies responded in different ways. Some Muslim-majority countries are secular. Azerbaijan became the first secular republic in the Muslim world, between 1918 and 1920, before it was incorporated into the Soviet Union.[79][80][81][failed verification] Turkey has been governed as a secular state since the reforms of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.[82] By contrast, the 1979 Iranian Revolution replaced a monarchial semi-secular regime with an Islamic republic led by the Ayatollah, Ruhollah Khomeini.[citation needed][83]

Some countries have declared Islam as the official state religion. In those countries, the legal code is largely secular. Only personal status matters pertaining to inheritance and marriage are governed by Sharia law.[84] In some places, Muslims implement Islamic law, called sharia in Arabic. The Islamic law exists in a number of variations, called schools of jurisprudence. The Amman Message, which was endorsed in 2005 by prominent Islamic scholars around the world, recognized four Sunni schools (Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i, Hanbali), two Shia schools (Ja'fari, Zaidi), the Ibadi school, and the Zahiri school.[85]

Government and religion

Islamic states

Eight Islamic states have adopted Islam as the ideological foundation of state and constitution.

State religion

The following nineteen Muslim-majority states have endorsed Islam as their state religion, and though they may guarantee freedom of religion for citizens, do not declare a separation of state and religion:

Secular states

Twenty-two Secular states in the Muslim world have declared separation between civil/government affairs and religion.

Others

Muslim-minority states

According to the Pew Research Center in 2015 there were 50 Muslim-majority countries, which are shown in the Government and religion section above in the article.[138][139] Apart from these, large Muslim populations exist in some countries where Muslims are a minority, and their Muslim communities are larger than many Muslim-majority nations:[140]

Politics

Further information: Islamic revival and Liberalism and progressivism within Islam
 
Benazir Bhutto, the former prime minister of Pakistan became the first woman elected to lead a Muslim-majority country.[148]

During much of the 20th century, the Islamic identity and the dominance of Islam on political issues have arguably increased during the early 21st century. The fast-growing interests of the Western world in Islamic regions, international conflicts and globalization have changed the influence of Islam on the world in contemporary history.[149]

Islamism

These paragraphs are an excerpt from Islamism.[edit]

Islamism (also often called political Islam) is a religio-political ideology. The advocates of Islamism, also known as "al-Islamiyyun", are dedicated to realizing their ideological interpretation of Islam within the context of the state or society. The majority of them are affiliated with Islamic institutions or social mobilization movements, often designated as "al-harakat al-Islamiyyah."[150] Islamists emphasize the implementation of sharia,[151] pan-Islamic political unity,[151] the creation of Islamic states,[152] (eventually unified), and rejection of non-Muslim influences—particularly Western or universal economic, military, political, social, or cultural.

In its original formulation, Islamism described an ideology seeking to revive Islam to its past assertiveness and glory,[153] purifying it of foreign elements, reasserting its role into "social and political as well as personal life";[154] and in particular "reordering government and society in accordance with laws prescribed by Islam" (i.e. Sharia).[155][156] [157][158] According to at least one observer (author Robin Wright), Islamist movements have "arguably altered the Middle East more than any trend since the modern states gained independence", redefining "politics and even borders".[159]

Central and prominent figures in 20th-century Islamism include Sayyid Rashid Riḍā,[160] Hassan al-Banna (founder of the Muslim Brotherhood), Sayyid Qutb, Abul A'la Maududi,[161] Ruhollah Khomeini (founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran), Hassan Al-Turabi.[162] Syrian Sunni cleric Muhammad Rashid Riḍā, a fervent opponent of Westernization, Zionism and nationalism, advocated Sunni internationalism through revolutionary restoration of a pan-Islamic Caliphate to politically unite the Muslim World.[163][164] Riḍā was a strong exponent of Islamic vanguardism, the belief that Muslim community should be guided by clerical elites (ulema) who steered the efforts for religious education and Islamic revival.[165] Riḍā's Salafi-Arabist synthesis and Islamist ideals greatly influenced his disciples like Hasan al-Banna,[166][167] an Egyptian schoolteacher who founded the Muslim Brotherhood movement, and Hajji Amin al-Husayni, the anti-Zionist Grand Mufti of Jerusalem.[168]

Al-Banna and Maududi called for a "reformist" strategy to re-Islamizing society through grassroots social and political activism.[169][170] Other Islamists (Al-Turabi) are proponents of a "revolutionary" strategy of Islamizing society through exercise of state power,[169] or (Sayyid Qutb) for combining grassroots Islamization with armed revolution. The term has been applied to non-state reform movements, political parties, militias and revolutionary groups.[171]

At least one author (Graham E. Fuller) has argued for a broader notion of Islamism as a form of identity politics, involving "support for [Muslim] identity, authenticity, broader regionalism, revivalism, [and] revitalization of the community."[172] Islamists themselves prefer terms such as "Islamic movement",[173] or "Islamic activism" to "Islamism", objecting to the insinuation that Islamism is anything other than Islam renewed and revived.[174] In public and academic contexts,[175] the term "Islamism" has been criticized as having been given connotations of violence, extremism, and violations of human rights, by the Western mass media, leading to Islamophobia and stereotyping.[176]

Following the Arab Spring, many post-Islamist currents became heavily involved in democratic politics,[159][177] while others spawned "the most aggressive and ambitious Islamist militia" to date, such as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).[159]

Demographics

See also: Muslim population growth

More than 24.1% of the world's population is Muslim, with an estimated total of approximately 1.9 billion.[178][179][180][181][182] Muslims are the majority in 49 countries,[183][184] they speak hundreds of languages and come from diverse ethnic backgrounds. The city of Karachi has the largest Muslim population in the world.[185][186]

Geography

 
Indonesia is currently the most populous Muslim-majority country.
Main article: Islam by country

Because the terms 'Muslim world' and 'Islamic world' are disputed, since no country is homogeneously Muslim, and there is no way to determine at what point a Muslim minority in a country is to be considered 'significant' enough, there is no consensus on how to define the Muslim world geographically.[54][55][5] The only rule of thumb for inclusion which has some support, is that countries need to have a Muslim population of more than 50%.[54][5]

In 2010, 73% of the world's Muslim population lived in countries where Muslims are in the majority, while 27% of the world's Muslim population lived in countries where Muslims are in the minority. India's Muslim population is the world's largest Muslim-minority population in the world (11% of the world's Muslim population).[184] Jones (2005) defines a "large minority" as being between 30% and 50%, which described nine countries in 2000, namely Eritrea, Ethiopia, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, North Macedonia, and Tanzania.[5]

Religion

Islam

The two main denominations of Islam are the Sunni and Shia sects. They differ primarily upon of how the life of the ummah ("faithful") should be governed, and the role of the imam. Sunnis believe that the true political successor of Muhammad according to the Sunnah should be selected based on ٍShura (consultation), as was done at the Saqifah which selected Abu Bakr, Muhammad's father-in-law, to be Muhammad's political but not his religious successor. Shia, on the other hand, believe that Muhammad designated his son-in-law Ali ibn Abi Talib as his true political as well as religious successor.[187]

The overwhelming majority of Muslims in the world, between 87 and 90%, are Sunni.[188] Shias and other groups make up the rest, about 10–13% of overall Muslim population. The countries with the highest concentration of Shia populations are: Iran – 89%,[189] Azerbaijan – 65%,[190] Iraq – 60%,[191] Bahrain – 60%, Yemen – 35%,[192] Turkey – 10%,[193][194] Lebanon – 27%, Syria – 13%, Afghanistan – 10%, Pakistan – 10%,[195][196][197][198][199][200][201][202][203] and India – 10%.[204]

Non-denominational Muslims make up a majority of the Muslims in seven countries (and a plurality in three others): Albania (65%), Kyrgyzstan (64%), Kosovo (58%), Indonesia (56%), Mali (55%), Bosnia and Herzegovina (54%), Uzbekistan (54%), Azerbaijan (45%), Russia (45%), and Nigeria (42%).[205] They are found primarily in Central Asia.[205] Kazakhstan has the largest number of non-denominational Muslims, who constitute about 74% of the population.[205] Southeastern Europe also has a large number of non-denominational Muslims.[205]

The Kharijite Muslims, who are less known, have their own stronghold in the country of Oman holding about 75% of the population.[206]

Islamic schools and branches
Main article: Islamic schools and branches
 
Islamic schools of law across the Muslim world

The first centuries of Islam gave rise to three major sects: Sunnis, Shi'as and Kharijites. Each sect developed distinct jurisprudence schools (madhhab) reflecting different methodologies of jurisprudence (fiqh).

The major Sunni madhhabs are Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i, and Hanbali.[207]

The major Shi'a branches are Twelver (Imami), Ismaili (Sevener) and Zaidi (Fiver). Isma'ilism later split into Nizari Ismaili and Musta’li Ismaili, and then Mustaali was divided into Hafizi and Taiyabi Ismailis.[208] It also gave rise to the Qarmatian movement and the Druze faith, although Druzes do not identify as Muslims.[209][210] Twelver Shiism developed Ja'fari jurisprudence whose branches are Akhbarism and Usulism, and other movements such as Alawites, Shaykism[211] and Alevism.[212][213]

Similarly, Kharijites were initially divided into five major branches: Sufris, Azariqa, Najdat, Adjarites and Ibadis.

Among these numerous branches, only Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i, Hanbali, Imamiyyah-Ja'fari-Usuli, Nizārī Ismā'īlī, Alevi,[214] Zaydi, Ibadi, Zahiri, Alawite,[citation needed] Druze and Taiyabi communities have survived. In addition, new schools of thought and movements like Quranist Muslims and Ahmadi Muslims later emerged independently.

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    Children read Qur'an in Indonesia.
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    Muslim beggars stalk a car in Nigeria.
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    People pray together in the mosque in Russia.
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    People move close to the Muslim food corner in China.

Other religions

There are sizeable non-Muslim minorities in many Muslim-majority countries, includes, Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, Bahai's, Druzes, Yazidis, Mandaeans, Yarsanis and Zoroastrians.

 
Church and Mosque in Istanbul, Turkey.

The Muslim world is home to some of the world's most ancient Christian communities,[215] and some of the most important cities of the Christian world—including three of its five great patriarchates (Alexandria, Antioch, and Constantinople).[216] Scholars and intellectuals agree Christians have made significant contributions to Arab and Islamic civilization since the introduction of Islam,[217][218] and they have had a significant impact contributing the culture of the Middle East and North Africa and other areas.[219][220][221] Pew Research Center estimates indicate that in 2010, more than 64 million Christians lived in countries with Muslim majorities (excluding Nigeria). The Pew Forum study finds that Indonesia (21.1 million) has the largest Christian population in the Muslim world, followed by Egypt, Chad and Kazakhstan.[222] While according to Adly A. Youssef and Martyn Thomas, in 2004, there were around 30 million Christians who lived in countries with Muslim majorities, with the largest Christian population number lived in Indonesia, followed by Egypt.[223] Nigeria is divided almost evenly between Muslims and Christians, with more than 80 million Christians and Muslims.[224]

In 2018, the Jewish Agency estimated that around 27,000 Jews live in Arab and Muslim countries.[225][226] Jewish communities have existed across the Middle East and North Africa since the rise of Islam. Today, Jews residing in Muslim countries have been reduced to a small fraction of their former sizes,[227] with the largest communities of Jews in Muslim countries exist in the non-Arab countries of Iran (9,500) and Turkey (14,500);[228] both, however, are much smaller than they historically have been.[229] Among Arab countries, the largest Jewish community now exists in Morocco with about 2,000 Jews and in Tunisia with about 1,000.[230] The number of Druze worldwide is between 800,000 and one million, with the vast majority residing in the Levant (primarily in Syria and Lebanon).[231]

In 2010, the Pew Forum study finds that Bangladesh (13.5 million), Indonesia (4 million), Pakistan (3.3 million) and Malaysia (1.7 million) has a sizeable Hindu minorities. Malaysia (5 million) has the largest Buddhist population in the Muslim world.[184] Zoroastrians are the oldest remaining religious community in Iran.[232]

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    Egypt has one of the largest Christian population in the Muslim world[233]
  •  
    Bangladesh has the largest Hindu population in the Muslim world
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    Turkey has the largest Jewish population in the Muslim world[234]

Literacy and education

The literacy rate in the Muslim world varies. Azerbaijan is in second place in the Index of Literacy of World Countries. Some members such as Iran, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan have over 97% literacy rates, whereas literacy rates are the lowest in Mali, Afghanistan, Chad and other parts of Africa. Several Muslim-majority countries, such as Turkey, Iran and Egypt have a high rate of citable scientific publications.[235][236]

In 2015, the International Islamic News Agency reported that nearly 37% of the population of the Muslim world is unable to read or write, basing that figure on reports from the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.[237] In Egypt, the largest Muslim-majority Arab country, the youth female literacy rate exceeds that for males.[238] Lower literacy rates are more prevalent in South Asian countries such as in Afghanistan and Pakistan, but are rapidly increasing.[239] In the Eastern Middle East, Iran has a high level of youth literacy at 98%,[240] but Iraq's youth literacy rate has sharply declined from 85% to 57% during the American-led war and subsequent occupation.[241] Indonesia, the largest Muslim-majority country in the world, has a 99% youth literacy rate.[242]

A 2011 Pew Research Center showed that at the time about 36% of all Muslims had no formal schooling, with only 8% having graduate and post-graduate degrees.[243] The highest of years of schooling among Muslim-majority countries found in Uzbekistan (11.5), Kuwait (11.0) and Kazakhstan (10.7).[243] In addition, the average of years of schooling in countries in which Muslims are the majority is 6.0 years of schooling, which lag behind the global average (7.7 years of schooling).[243] In the youngest age (25–34) group surveyed, Young Muslims have the lowest average levels of education of any major religious group, with an average of 6.7 years of schooling, which lag behind the global average (8.6 years of schooling).[243] The study found that Muslims have a significant amount of gender inequality in educational attainment, since Muslim women have an average of 4.9 years of schooling, compared to an average of 6.4 years of schooling among Muslim men.[243]

Refugees

 
Muslim Rohingya refugees in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh.

According to the UNHCR, Muslim-majority countries hosted 18 million refugees by the end of 2010.[citation needed]

Since then Muslim-majority countries have absorbed refugees from recent conflicts, including the uprising in Syria.[244] In July 2013, the UN stated that the number of Syrian refugees had exceeded 1.8 million.[245] In Asia, an estimated 625,000 refugees from Rakhine, Myanmar, mostly Muslim, had crossed the border into Bangladesh since August 2017.[246]

Culture

Throughout history, Muslim cultures have been diverse ethnically, linguistically and regionally.[247] According to M. M. Knight, this diversity includes diversity in beliefs, interpretations and practices and communities and interests. Knight says perception of Muslim world among non-Muslims is usually supported through introductory literature about Islam, mostly present a version as per scriptural view which would include some prescriptive literature and abstracts of history as per authors own point of views, to which even many Muslims might agree, but that necessarily would not reflect Islam as lived on the ground, 'in the experience of real human bodies'.[248]

Classical culture

Main articles: History of Islam, Islamic Golden Age, Islamization, and Spread of Islam

The term "Islamic Golden Age" has been attributed to a period in history during which science, economic development and cultural works in most of the Muslim-dominated world flourished.[249][250] The age is traditionally understood to have begun during the reign of the Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid (786–809) with the inauguration of the House of Wisdom in Baghdad, where scholars from various parts of the world sought to translate and gather all the known world's knowledge into Arabic,[251][252] and to have ended with the collapse of the Abbasid caliphate due to Mongol invasions and the Siege of Baghdad in 1258.[253] 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.[254] 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, Vedic, etc.

Egyptian, and Phoenician civilizations.[255]

Ceramics

Further information: Alchemy in the medieval Islamic world
 
A Seljuq, shatranj (chess) set, glazed fritware, 12th century.

Between the 8th and 18th centuries, the use of ceramic glaze was prevalent in Islamic art, usually assuming the form of elaborate pottery.[256] 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.[257] 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).[258]

Literature

Main article: Islamic literature
Further information: Islamic poetry

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.[260] It reached its final form by the 14th century; the number and type of tales have varied from one manuscript to another.[261] 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.[261] This work has been very influential in the West since it was translated in the 18th century, first by Antoine Galland.[262] Imitations were written, especially in France.[263] Various characters from this epic have themselves become cultural icons in Western culture, such as Aladdin, Sinbad the Sailor and Ali Baba.[citation needed]

A famous[citation needed] 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. Ferdowsi's Shahnameh, the national epic of Greater Iran, is a mythical and heroic retelling of Persian history. Amir Arsalan was also a popular mythical Persian story.

Ibn Tufayl (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. Both of these narratives had protagonists (Hayy in Philosophus Autodidactus and Kamil in Theologus Autodidactus) who were autodidactic feral children living in seclusion on a desert island, both being the earliest examples of a desert island story. However, while Hayy lives alone with animals on the desert island for the rest of the story in Philosophus Autodidactus, the story of Kamil extends beyond the desert island setting in Theologus Autodidactus, developing into the earliest known coming of age plot and eventually becoming the first example of a science fiction novel.[264][265]

Theologus Autodidactus,[266][267] written by the Arabian polymath Ibn al-Nafis (1213–1288), is the first example of a science fiction novel.[268] It deals with various science fiction elements such as spontaneous generation, futurology, the end of the world and doomsday, resurrection, and the afterlife. Rather than giving supernatural or mythological explanations for these events, Ibn al-Nafis attempted to explain these plot elements using the scientific knowledge of biology, astronomy, cosmology and geology known in his time. Ibn al-Nafis' fiction explained Islamic religious teachings via science and Islamic philosophy.[269]

A Latin translation of Ibn Tufail's work, Philosophus Autodidactus, first appeared in 1671, prepared by Edward Pococke the Younger, followed by an English translation by Simon Ockley in 1708, as well as German and Dutch translations. These translations might have later inspired Daniel Defoe to write Robinson Crusoe, regarded as the first novel in English.[270][271][272][273] Philosophus Autodidactus, continuing the thoughts of philosophers such as Aristotle from earlier ages, inspired Robert Boyle to write his own philosophical novel set on an island, The Aspiring Naturalist.[274]

Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy,[275] derived features of and episodes about Bolgia[276] from Arabic works on Islamic eschatology:[277] the Hadith and the Kitab al-Miraj (translated into Latin in 1264 or shortly before[278] as Liber scalae Machometi[279]) concerning the ascension to Heaven of Muhammad,[280] and the spiritual writings of Ibn Arabi.[281] The Moors also had a noticeable influence on the works of George Peele and William Shakespeare. Some of their works featured Moorish characters, such as Peele's The Battle of Alcazar and Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, Titus Andronicus and Othello, which featured a Moorish Othello as its title character. These works are said to have been inspired by several Moorish delegations from Morocco to Elizabethan England at the beginning of the 17th century.[282]

Philosophy

Main article: Contemporary Islamic philosophy
Further information: Logic in Islamic philosophy and Kalam
 
Ibn Rushd (Averroes), Muslim polymath from Al-Andalus.

One of the common definitions for "Islamic philosophy" is "the style of philosophy produced within the framework of Islamic culture."[283] Islamic philosophy, in this definition is neither necessarily concerned with religious issues, nor is exclusively produced by Muslims.[283] The Persian scholar Ibn Sina (Avicenna) (980–1037) had more than 450 books attributed to him. His writings were concerned with various subjects, most notably philosophy and medicine. His medical textbook The Canon of Medicine was used as the standard text in European universities for centuries. He also wrote The Book of Healing, an influential scientific and philosophical encyclopedia.[citation needed]

One of the most influential Muslim philosophers in the West was Averroes (Ibn Rushd), founder of the Averroism school of philosophy, whose works and commentaries affected the rise of secular thought in Europe.[284] He also developed the concept of "existence precedes essence".[285]

Another figure from the Islamic Golden Age, Avicenna, also founded his own Avicennism school of philosophy, which was influential in both Islamic and Christian lands.[286] He was also a critic of Aristotelian logic and founder of Avicennian logic, developed the concepts of empiricism and tabula rasa, and distinguished between essence and existence.[citation needed]

Yet another influential philosopher who had an influence on modern philosophy was Ibn Tufail. His philosophical novel, Hayy ibn Yaqdhan, translated into Latin as Philosophus Autodidactus in 1671, developed the themes of empiricism, tabula rasa, nature versus nurture,[287] condition of possibility, materialism,[288] and Molyneux's problem.[289] European scholars and writers influenced by this novel include John Locke,[290] Gottfried Leibniz,[273] Melchisédech Thévenot, John Wallis, Christiaan Huygens,[291] George Keith, Robert Barclay, the Quakers,[292] and Samuel Hartlib.[274]

Islamic philosophers continued making advances in philosophy through to the 17th century, when Mulla Sadra founded his school of Transcendent theosophy and developed the concept of existentialism.[293]

Other influential Muslim philosophers include al-Jahiz, a pioneer in evolutionary thought; Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen), a pioneer of phenomenology and the philosophy of science and a critic of Aristotelian natural philosophy and Aristotle's concept of place (topos); Al-Biruni, a critic of Aristotelian natural philosophy; Ibn Tufail and Ibn al-Nafis, pioneers of the philosophical novel; Shahab al-Din Suhrawardi, founder of Illuminationist philosophy; Fakhr al-Din al-Razi, a critic of Aristotelian logic and a pioneer of inductive logic; and Ibn Khaldun, a pioneer in the philosophy of history.[294]

Sciences

Main article: Timeline of science and engineering in the Muslim world
See also: Physics in the medieval Islamic world, Psychology in the medieval Islamic world, Mathematics in the medieval Islamic world, Astronomy in the medieval Islamic world, and Alchemy and chemistry in the medieval Islamic world

Sciences

  •  
    An illustration from al-Biruni's astronomical works, explains the different phases of the moon.
  •  
    The Elephant Clock was one of the most famous inventions of Al-Jazari.

Muslim scientists placed far greater emphasis on experiment than the Greeks.[citation needed] This led to an early scientific method being developed in the Muslim world, where progress in methodology was made, beginning with the experiments of Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) on optics from circa 1000, in his Book of Optics. The most important development of the scientific method was the use of experiments to distinguish between competing scientific theories set within a generally empirical orientation, which began among Muslim scientists. Ibn al-Haytham is also regarded as the father of optics, especially for his empirical proof of the intromission theory of light. Jim Al-Khalili stated in 2009 that Ibn al-Haytham is 'often referred to as the "world's first true scientist".'[295] al-Khwarzimi's invented the log base systems that are being used today, he also contributed theorems in trigonometry as well as limits.[296] Recent studies show that it is very likely that the Medieval Muslim artists were aware of advanced decagonal quasicrystal geometry (discovered half a millennium later in the 1970s and 1980s in the West) and used it in intricate decorative tilework in the architecture.[297]

Muslim physicians contributed to the field of medicine, including the subjects of anatomy and physiology: such as in the 15th-century Persian work by Mansur ibn Muhammad ibn al-Faqih Ilyas entitled Tashrih al-badan (Anatomy of the body) which contained comprehensive diagrams of the body's structural, nervous and circulatory systems; or in the work of the Egyptian physician Ibn al-Nafis, who proposed the theory of pulmonary circulation. Avicenna's The Canon of Medicine remained an authoritative medical textbook in Europe until the 18th century. Abu al-Qasim al-Zahrawi (also known as Abulcasis) contributed to the discipline of medical surgery with his Kitab al-Tasrif ("Book of Concessions"), a medical encyclopedia which was later translated to Latin and used in European and Muslim medical schools for centuries. Other medical advancements came in the fields of pharmacology and pharmacy.[298]

In astronomy, Muḥammad ibn Jābir al-Ḥarrānī al-Battānī improved the precision of the measurement of the precession of the Earth's axis.[citation needed] The corrections made to the geocentric model by al-Battani, Averroes, Nasir al-Din al-Tusi, Mu'ayyad al-Din al-Urdi and Ibn al-Shatir were later incorporated into the Copernican heliocentric model.[citation needed] Heliocentric theories were also discussed by several other Muslim astronomers such as Al-Biruni, Al-Sijzi, Qutb al-Din al-Shirazi, and Najm al-Din al-Qazwini al-Katibi.[citation needed] The astrolabe, though originally developed by the Greeks, was perfected by Islamic astronomers and engineers, and was subsequently brought to Europe.[citation needed]

Some most famous scientists from the medieval Islamic world include Jābir ibn Hayyān, al-Farabi, Abu al-Qasim al-Zahrawi, Ibn al-Haytham, Al-Biruni, Avicenna, Nasir al-Din al-Tusi, and Ibn Khaldun.[citation needed]

Technology

 
The Spinning wheel is believed to have been invented in the medieval era (of what is now the Greater Middle East), it is considered to be an important device that contributed greatly to the advancement of the Industrial Revolution. (scene from Al-Maqamat, painted by al-Wasiti 1237)
Main articles: List of inventions in the medieval Islamic world and Arab Agricultural Revolution

In technology, the Muslim world adopted papermaking from China.[299] The knowledge of gunpowder was also transmitted from China via predominantly Islamic countries,[300] where formulas for pure potassium nitrate[301][302] were developed.

Advances were made in irrigation and farming, using new technology such as the windmill. Crops such as almonds and citrus fruit were brought to Europe through al-Andalus, and sugar cultivation was gradually adopted by the Europeans. Arab merchants dominated trade in the Indian Ocean until the arrival of the Portuguese in the 16th century. Hormuz was an important center for this trade. There was also a dense network of trade routes in the Mediterranean, along which Muslim-majority countries traded with each other and with European powers such as Venice, Genoa and Catalonia. The Silk Road crossing Central Asia passed through Islamic states between China and Europe. The emergence of major economic empires with technological resources after the conquests of Timur (Tamerlane) and the resurgence of the Timurid Renaissance include the Mali Empire and the India's Bengal Sultanate in particular, a major global trading nation in the world, described by the Europeans to be the "richest country to trade with".[303]

Muslim engineers in the Islamic world made a number of innovative industrial uses of hydropower, and early industrial uses of tidal power and wind power.[304] The industrial uses of watermills in the Islamic world date back to the 7th century, while horizontal-wheeled and vertical-wheeled water mills were both in widespread use since at least the 9th century. A variety of industrial mills were being employed in the Islamic world, including early fulling mills, gristmills, paper mills, hullers, sawmills, ship mills, stamp mills, steel mills, sugar mills, tide mills and windmills. By the 11th century, every province throughout the Islamic world had these industrial mills in operation, from al-Andalus and North Africa to the Middle East and Central Asia.[299] Muslim engineers also invented crankshafts and water turbines, employed gears in mills and water-raising machines, and pioneered the use of dams as a source of water power, used to provide additional power to watermills and water-raising machines.[305] Such advances made it possible for industrial tasks that were previously driven by manual labour in ancient times to be mechanized and driven by machinery instead in the medieval Islamic world. The transfer of these technologies to medieval Europe had an influence on the Industrial Revolution, particularly from the proto-industrialised Mughal Bengal and Tipu Sultan's Kingdom, through the conquests of the East India Company.[306]

Arts

The term "Islamic art and architecture" denotes the works of art and architecture produced from the 7th century onwards by people who lived within the territory that was inhabited by culturally Islamic populations.[307][308]

Architecture

These paragraphs are an excerpt from Islamic architecture.[edit]

Islamic architecture comprises the architectural styles of buildings associated with Islam. It encompasses both secular and religious styles from the early history of Islam to the present day. The Islamic world encompasses a wide geographic area historically ranging from western Africa and Europe to eastern Asia. Certain commonalities are shared by Islamic architectural styles across all these regions, but over time different regions developed their own styles according to local materials and techniques, local dynasties and patrons, different regional centers of artistic production, and sometimes different religious affiliations.[309][310]

Early Islamic architecture was influenced by Roman, Byzantine, Iranian, and Mesopotamian architecture and all other lands which the early Muslim conquests conquered in the seventh and eighth centuries.[311][312][313][314][315] Further east, it was also influenced by Chinese and Indian architecture as Islam spread to South and Southeast Asia. Later it developed distinct characteristics in the form of buildings and in the decoration of surfaces with Islamic calligraphy, arabesques, and geometric motifs.[316] New architectural elements like minarets, muqarnas, and multifoil arches were invented. Common or important types of buildings in Islamic architecture include mosques, madrasas, tombs, palaces, hammams (public baths), Sufi hospices (e.g. khanqahs or zawiyas), fountains and sabils, commercial buildings (e.g. caravanserais and bazaars), and military fortifications.[310]

Islamic architecture

Aniconism

Main article: Aniconism in Islam

No Islamic visual images or depictions of God are meant to exist because it is believed that such artistic depictions may lead to idolatry. Muslims describe God by the names and attributes that, according to Islam, he revealed to his creation. All but one sura of the Quran begins with the phrase "In the name of God, the Beneficent, the Merciful". Images of Mohammed are likewise prohibited. Such aniconism and iconoclasm[317] can also be found in Jewish and some Christian theology.

Arabesque

Main article: Arabesque

Islamic art frequently adopts the use of geometrical floral or vegetal designs in a repetition known as arabesque. Such designs are highly nonrepresentational, as Islam forbids representational depictions as found in pre-Islamic pagan religions. Despite this, there is a presence of depictional art in some Muslim societies, notably the miniature style made famous in Persia and under the Ottoman Empire which featured paintings of people and animals, and also depictions of Quranic stories and Islamic traditional narratives. Another reason why Islamic art is usually abstract is to symbolize the transcendence, indivisible and infinite nature of God, an objective achieved by arabesque.[318] Islamic calligraphy is an omnipresent decoration in Islamic art, and is usually expressed in the form of Quranic verses. Two of the main scripts involved are the symbolic kufic and naskh scripts, which can be found adorning the walls and domes of mosques, the sides of minbars, and so on.[318]

Distinguishing motifs of Islamic architecture have always been ordered repetition, radiating structures, and rhythmic, metric patterns. In this respect, fractal geometry has been a key utility, especially for mosques and palaces. Other features employed as motifs include columns, piers and arches, organized and interwoven with alternating sequences of niches and colonnettes.[319] The role of domes in Islamic architecture has been considerable. Its usage spans centuries, first appearing in 691 with the construction of the Dome of the Rock mosque, and recurring even up until the 17th century with the Taj Mahal. And as late as the 19th century, Islamic domes had been incorporated into European architecture.[320]

  •  
    Example of an Arabesque
  •  
    Example of an Arabesque
  •  
    Example of an Arabesque

Girih

These paragraphs are an excerpt from Girih.[edit]

Girih (Persian: گره, "knot", also written gereh[321]) are decorative Islamic geometric patterns used in architecture and handicraft objects, consisting of angled lines that form an interlaced strapwork pattern.

Girih decoration is believed to have been inspired by Syrian Roman knotwork patterns from the second century. The earliest girih dates from around 1000 CE, and the artform flourished until the 15th century. Girih patterns can be created in a variety of ways, including the traditional straightedge and compass construction; the construction of a grid of polygons; and the use of a set of girih tiles with lines drawn on them: the lines form the pattern. Patterns may be elaborated by the use of two levels of design, as at the 1453 Darb-e Imam shrine. Square repeating units of known patterns can be copied as templates, and historic pattern books may have been intended for use in this way.

The 15th century Topkapı Scroll explicitly shows girih patterns together with the tilings used to create them. A set of tiles consisting of a dart and a kite shape can be used to create aperiodic Penrose tilings, though there is no evidence that such a set was used in medieval times. Girih patterns have been used to decorate varied materials including stone screens, as at Fatehpur Sikri; plasterwork, as at mosques and madrasas such as the Hunat Hatun Complex in Kayseri; metal, as at Mosque-Madrassa of Sultan Hassan in Cairo; and in wood, as at the Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba.

Islamic calligraphy

These paragraphs are an excerpt from Islamic calligraphy.[edit]

Islamic calligraphy is the artistic practice of handwriting and calligraphy, in the languages which use Arabic alphabet or the alphabets derived from it. It includes Arabic, Persian, Ottoman, and Urdu calligraphy.[322][323] It is known in Arabic as khatt Arabi (خط عربي), which translates into Arabic line, design, or construction.[324]

The development of Islamic calligraphy is strongly tied to the Qur'an; chapters and excerpts from the Qur'an are a common and almost universal text upon which Islamic calligraphy is based. Although artistic depictions of people and animals are not explicitly forbidden by the Qur'an, pictures have traditionally been limited in Islamic books in order to avoid idolatry. Although some scholars dispute this, Kufic script was supposedly developed around the end of the 7th century in Kufa, Iraq, from which it takes its name. The style later developed into several varieties, including floral, foliated, plaited or interlaced, bordered, and square kufic. In the ancient world, though, artists would often get around the aniconic prohibition by using strands of tiny writing to construct lines and images. Calligraphy was a valued art form, even as a moral good. An ancient Arabic proverb illustrates this point by emphatically stating that "Purity of writing is purity of the soul."[325]

However, Islamic calligraphy is not limited to strictly religious subjects, objects, or spaces. Like all Islamic art, it encompasses a diverse array of works created in a wide variety of contexts.[326] The prevalence of calligraphy in Islamic art is not directly related to its non-figural tradition; rather, it reflects the centrality of the notion of writing and written text in Islam.[327]

Islamic calligraphy developed from two major styles: Kufic and Naskh. There are several variations of each, as well as regionally specific styles. Arabic or Persian calligraphy has also been incorporated into modern art, beginning with the post-colonial period in the Middle East, as well as the more recent style of calligraffiti.[328]

Calendar

Two calendars are used all over the Muslim world. One is a lunar calendar that is most widely used among Muslims. The other one is a solar calendar officially used in Iran and Afghanistan.

Islamic lunar calendar

These paragraphs are an excerpt from Islamic calendar.[edit]

The Hijri calendar (Arabic: ٱلتَّقْوِيم ٱلْهِجْرِيّ, romanized: al-taqwīm al-hijrī), or Arabic calendar also known in English as the Muslim calendar and Islamic calendar, is a lunar calendar consisting of 12 lunar months in a year of 354 or 355 days. It is used to determine the proper days of Islamic holidays and rituals, such as the annual fasting and the annual season for the great pilgrimage. In almost all countries where the predominant religion is Islam, the civil calendar is the Gregorian calendar, with Syriac month-names used in the Levant and Mesopotamia (Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Palestine) but the religious calendar is the Hijri one.

This calendar enumerates the Hijri era, whose epoch was established as the Islamic New Year in 622 CE.[329] During that year, Muhammad and his followers migrated from Mecca to Medina and established the first Muslim community (ummah), an event commemorated as the Hijrah. In the West, dates in this era are usually denoted AH (Latin: Anno Hegirae, lit. 'In the year of the Hijrah').[a] In Muslim countries, it is also sometimes denoted as H[330] from its Arabic form (سَنَة هِجْرِيَّة, abbreviated ھ). In English, years prior to the Hijra are denoted as BH ("Before the Hijra").[331]

Since 19 July 2023 CE, the current Islamic year is 1445 AH. In the Gregorian calendar reckoning, 1445 AH runs from 19 July 2023 to approximately 7 July 2024.[332][333][b]

Solar Hijri calendar

These paragraphs are an excerpt from Solar Hijri calendar.[edit]

The Solar Hijri calendar[c] is a solar calendar and one of the various Iranian calendars. It begins on the March equinox as determined by the astronomical calculation for the Iran Standard Time meridian (52.5°E, UTC+03:30) and has years of 365 or 366 days. It is the modern principal calendar in Iran and Afghanistan and is sometimes also called the Shamsi calendar and Khorshidi calendar. It is abbreviated as SH, HS or, by analogy with AH, AHSh.

The ancient Iranian Solar calendar is one of the oldest calendars in the world, as well as the most accurate solar calendar in use today. Since the calendar uses astronomical calculation for determining the vernal equinox, it has no intrinsic error.[335][336][337][338] It is older than the Lunar Hijri calendar used by the majority of Muslims (known in the West as the Islamic calendar); though they both count from the Hijrah, the journey of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and his followers from Mecca to Medina in the year 622,[339][340] one uses solar years and the other lunar years.

Each of the twelve months corresponds with a zodiac sign, and in Afghanistan the names of the zodiacal signs were used for the months;[d] elsewhere the month names are the same as in the Zoroastrian calendar. The first six months have 31 days, the next five have 30 days, and the last month has 29 days in common years but 30 days in leap years.

The ancient Iranian New Year's Day, which is called Nowruz, always falls on the March equinox. While Nowruz is celebrated by communities in a wide range of countries from the Balkans to Mongolia, the Solar Hijri calendar itself remains only in official use in Iran.

Women

See also: Women in Islam and Musawah

According to Riada Asimovic Akyol while Muslim women's experiences differs a lot by location and personal situations such as family upbringing, class and education;[342] the difference between culture and religions is often ignored by community and state leaders in many of the Muslim majority countries,[342] the key issue in the Muslim world regarding gender issues is that religious texts constructed in highly patriarchal environments and based on biological essentialism are still valued highly in Islam; hence views emphasizing on men's superiority in unequal gender roles are widespread among many conservative Muslims (men and women).[342] Orthodox Muslims often believe that rights and responsibilities of women in Islam are different from that of men and sacrosanct since assigned by the God.[342] According to Asma Barlas patriarchal behaviour among Muslims is based in an ideology which jumbles sexual and biological differences with gender dualisms and inequality. Modernist discourse of liberal progressive movements like Islamic feminism have been revisiting hermeneutics of feminism in Islam in terms of respect for Muslim women's lives and rights.[342] Riada Asimovic Akyol further says that equality for Muslim women needs to be achieved through self-criticism.[342]

See also

References

Notes

  1. ^ This notation is similar to that of AD for the Christian era, CE for the Common Era and AM for the Jewish era.
  2. ^ exact dates depend on which variant of the Islamic calendar is followed.
  3. ^ Persian: گاه‌شماری خورشیدی, romanized: Gâhšomâri-ye Xoršidi; Pashto: لمريز لېږدیز کلیز, romanized: lmaríz legdíz kalíz; Kurdish: ڕۆژژمێری کۆچیی ھەتاوی, romanized: Salnameya Koçberiyê; also called in some English sources as the Iranian Solar calendar[334]
  4. ^ Since 1 Muharam 1444 AH (30 July 2022 CE), this calendar is no longer used by the government of Afghanistan, after its switch to the Lunar Hijri calendar.[341]

Citations

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  26. ^ * "Mapping the Global Muslim Population: A Report on the Size and Distribution of the World's Muslim Population". Pew Research Center. 7 October 2009. from the original on 25 December 2018. Retrieved 24 September 2013. Of the total Muslim population, 10–13% are Shia Muslims and 87–90% are Sunni Muslims.
    • Sunni Islam: Oxford Bibliographies Online Research Guide 16 May 2020 at the Wayback Machine "Sunni Islam is the dominant division of the global Muslim community, and throughout history it has made up a substantial majority (85 to 90 percent) of that community."
    • "Sunni". Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs. from the original on 12 October 2014. Retrieved 20 December 2012. Sunni Islam is the largest denomination of Islam, comprising about 85% of the world's over 1.5 billion Muslims.
    • . The World Factbook. Central Intelligence Agency. Archived from the original on 24 December 2018. Retrieved 25 August 2010. Sunni Islam accounts for over 85% of the world's Muslim population...
  27. ^ See
    • "Shiʿi". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 4 October 2019. from the original on 20 July 2019. Retrieved 30 September 2019. In the early 21st century some 10–13 percent of the world's 1.6 billion Muslims were Shiʿi.
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January 01, 1970
muslim, world, this, article, multiple, issues, please, help, improve, discuss, these, issues, talk, page, learn, when, remove, these, template, messages, this, article, needs, additional, citations, verification, please, help, improve, this, article, adding, . This article has multiple issues Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page Learn how and when to remove these template messages This article needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed Find sources Muslim world news newspapers books scholar JSTOR June 2020 Learn how and when to remove this message This article possibly contains original research Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding inline citations Statements consisting only of original research should be removed June 2020 Learn how and when to remove this message Learn how and when to remove this message The terms Muslim world and Islamic world commonly refer to the Islamic community which is also known as the Ummah This consists of all those who adhere to the religious beliefs politics and laws of Islam 1 or to societies in which Islam is practiced 2 3 In a modern geopolitical sense these terms refer to countries in which Islam is widespread although there are no agreed criteria for inclusion 4 3 The term Muslim majority countries is an alternative often used for the latter sense 5 World Muslim population by percentage Pew Research Center 2014 The history of the Muslim world spans about 1 400 years and includes a variety of socio political developments as well as advances in the arts science medicine philosophy law economics and technology during the Islamic Golden Age Muslims look for guidance to the Quran and believe in the prophetic mission of the Islamic prophet Muhammad but disagreements on other matters have led to the appearance of different religious schools of thought and sects within Islam 6 The Islamic conquests which culminated in the Arab empire being established across three continents Asia Africa and Europe enriched the Muslim world achieving the economic preconditions for the emergence of this institution owing to the emphasis attached to Islamic teachings 7 In the modern era most of the Muslim world came under European colonial domination 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 as well as religious trends 8 As of 2013 update the combined GDP nominal of 60 Muslim majority countries was US 5 7 trillion 9 As of 2016 update they contributed 8 of the world s total 10 In 2020 the Economy of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation which consists of 57 member states had a combined GDP PPP of US 24 trillion which is equal to about 18 of world s GDP or US 30 trillion with 5 OIC observer states which is equal to about 22 of the world s GDP As of 2020 1 8 billion or more than 25 of the world population are Muslims 11 12 By the percentage of the total population in a region considering themselves Muslim 91 in the Middle East North Africa MENA 13 89 in Central Asia 14 40 in Southeast Asia 15 31 in South Asia 16 17 30 in Sub Saharan Africa 18 25 in Asia 1 4 in Oceania 19 20 6 in Europe 21 and 1 in the Americas 22 23 24 25 Most Muslims are of one of two denominations Sunni Islam 87 90 26 and Shia 10 13 27 However other denominations exist in pockets such as Ibadi primarily in Oman Muslims who do not belong to do not self identify with or cannot be readily classified under one of the identifiable Islamic schools and branches are known as non denominational Muslims 28 29 30 31 About 13 of Muslims live in Indonesia the largest Muslim majority country 32 31 of Muslims live in South Asia 33 the largest population of Muslims in the world 34 20 in the Middle East North Africa 35 where it is the dominant religion 36 and 15 in Sub Saharan Africa and West Africa primarily in Nigeria 37 Muslims are the overwhelming majority in Central Asia 38 the majority in the Caucasus 39 40 and widespread in Southeast Asia 41 India has the largest Muslim population outside Muslim majority countries 42 Pakistan Bangladesh Iran and Egypt are home to the world s second fourth sixth and seventh largest Muslim populations respectively Sizeable Muslim communities are also found in the Americas Russia India China and Europe 43 44 45 Islam is the fastest growing major religion in the world partially due to their high birth rate 46 47 48 49 50 according to the same study religious switching has no impact on Muslim population since the number of people who embrace Islam and those who leave Islam are roughly equal 51 China has the third largest Muslim population outside Muslim majority countries while Russia has the fifth largest Muslim population Nigeria has the largest Muslim population in Africa while Indonesia has the largest Muslim population in Asia Contents 1 Terminology 2 History 2 1 Gunpowder empires 2 2 Great Divergence 2 3 Colonialism 2 4 Postcolonial era 3 Islam by country 3 1 Government and religion 3 1 1 Islamic states 3 1 2 State religion 3 1 3 Secular states 3 1 4 Others 3 1 5 Muslim minority states 3 2 Politics 3 2 1 Islamism 4 Demographics 4 1 Geography 4 2 Religion 4 2 1 Islam 4 2 1 1 Islamic schools and branches 4 2 2 Other religions 4 3 Literacy and education 4 4 Refugees 5 Culture 5 1 Classical culture 5 1 1 Ceramics 5 1 2 Literature 5 1 3 Philosophy 5 1 4 Sciences 5 1 5 Technology 5 2 Arts 5 2 1 Architecture 5 2 2 Aniconism 5 2 3 Arabesque 5 2 4 Girih 5 2 5 Islamic calligraphy 5 3 Calendar 5 3 1 Islamic lunar calendar 5 3 2 Solar Hijri calendar 6 Women 7 See also 8 References 8 1 Notes 8 2 Citations 8 3 Sources 9 External linksTerminologyThe term has been documented as early as 1912 to encompass the influence of perceived pan Islamic propaganda The Times described Pan Islamism as a movement with power importance and cohesion born in Paris where Turks Arabs and Persians congregated The correspondent s focus was on India it would take too long to consider the progress made in various parts of the Muslim world The article considered the position of the Amir the effect of the Tripoli Campaign Anglo Russian action in Persia and Afghan Ambitions 52 In a modern geopolitical sense the terms Muslim world and Islamic world refer to countries in which Islam is widespread although there are no agreed criteria for inclusion 53 3 Some scholars and commentators have criticised the term Muslim Islamic world and its derivative terms Muslim Islamic country as simplistic and binary since no state has a religiously homogeneous population e g Egypt s citizens are c 10 Christians and in absolute numbers there are sometimes fewer Muslims living in countries in which they make up the majority than in countries in which they form a minority 54 55 56 Hence the term Muslim majority countries is often preferred in literature 5 HistoryThis section needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this section Unsourced material may be challenged and removed June 2020 Learn how and when to remove this message Main articles History of Islam Spread of Islam and Timeline of Islamic history nbsp The Tabula Rogeriana drawn by Al Idrisi of Sicily in 1154 one of the most advanced ancient world maps Al Idrisi also wrote about the diverse Muslim communities found in various lands Note the map is here shown upside down from the original to match current North Up South Down map design The history of the Islamic faith as a religion and social institution begins with its inception around 610 CE when the Islamic prophet Muhammad a native of Mecca is believed by Muslims to have received the first revelation of the Quran and began to preach his message 57 In 622 CE facing opposition in Mecca he and his followers migrated to Yathrib now Medina where he was invited to establish a new constitution for the city under his leadership 57 This migration called the Hijra marks the first year of the Islamic calendar By the time of his death Muhammad had become the political and spiritual leader of Medina Mecca the surrounding region and numerous other tribes in the Arabian Peninsula 57 After Muhammad died in 632 his successors the Caliphs continued to lead the Muslim community based on his teachings and guidelines of the Quran The majority of Muslims consider the first four successors to be rightly guided or Rashidun citation needed The conquests of the Rashidun Caliphate helped to spread Islam beyond the Arabian Peninsula stretching from northwest India across Central Asia the Near East North Africa southern Italy and the Iberian Peninsula to the Pyrenees The Arab Muslims were unable to conquer the entire Christian Byzantine Empire in Asia Minor during the Arab Byzantine wars however The succeeding Umayyad Caliphate attempted two failed sieges of Constantinople in 674 678 and 717 718 Meanwhile the Muslim community tore itself apart into the rivalling Sunni and Shia sects since the killing of caliph Uthman in 656 resulting in a succession crisis that has never been resolved 58 The following First Second and Third Fitnas and finally the Abbasid Revolution 746 750 also definitively destroyed the political unity of the Muslims who have been inhabiting multiple states ever since 59 Ghaznavids rule was succeeded by the Ghurid Empire of Muhammad of Ghor and Ghiyath al Din Muhammad whose reigns under the leadership of Muhammad Bakhtiyar Khalji extended until the Bengal where Indian Islamic missionaries achieved their greatest success in terms of dawah and number of converts to Islam 60 61 page needed Qutb ud Din Aibak conquered Delhi in 1206 and began the reign of the Delhi Sultanate 62 a successive series of dynasties that synthesized Indian civilization with the wider commercial and cultural networks of Africa and Eurasia greatly increased demographic and economic growth in India and deterred Mongol incursion into the prosperous Indo Gangetic Plain and enthroned one of the few female Muslim rulers Razia Sultana citation needed Notable major empires dominated by Muslims such as those of the Abbasids Fatimids Almoravids Gao Empire Seljukids largest contiguous Songhai Empire 15th 16th centuries of Sahel West Africa southern North Africa and western Central Africa which dominated the centers of Islamic knowledge of Timbuktu Djenne Oualata and Gao Ajuran Adal and Warsangali in Somalia Mughals in the Indian subcontinent India Bangladesh Pakistan e t c Safavids in Persia and Ottomans in Anatolia Massina Empire Sokoto Caliphate of northern Nigeria Toucouleur Empire were among the influential and distinguished powers in the world citation needed 19th century colonialism and 20th century decolonisation have resulted in several independent Muslim majority states around the world with vastly differing attitudes towards and political influences granted to or restricted for Islam from country to country citation needed These have revolved around the question of Islam s compatibility with other ideological concepts such as secularism nationalism especially Arab nationalism and Pan Arabism as opposed to Pan Islamism socialism see also Arab socialism and socialism in Iran democracy see Islamic democracy republicanism see also Islamic republic liberalism and progressivism feminism capitalism and more citation needed Gunpowder empires Main article Gunpowder empires Scholars often use the term Age of the Islamic Gunpowders to describe period the Safavid Ottoman and Mughal states Each of these three empires had considerable military exploits using the newly developed firearms especially cannon and small arms to create their empires 63 They existed primarily between the fourteenth and the late seventeenth centuries 64 During the 17th 18th centuries when the Indian subcontinent was ruled by Mughal Empire s sixth ruler Muhammad Auranzgeb through sharia and Islamic economics 65 66 India became the world s largest economy valued 25 of world GDP 67 nbsp Safavid Empire s Zamburak nbsp Bullocks dragging siege guns up hill during Mughal Emperor Akbar s Siege of Ranthambore Fort in 1568 68 nbsp The Mughal Army under the command of Islamist Aurangzeb recaptures Orchha in October 1635 nbsp Gun wielding Ottoman Janissaries in combat against the Knights of Saint John at the Siege of Rhodes in 1522 nbsp Cannons and guns belonging to the Aceh Sultanate in modern Indonesia Great Divergence Main article Great Divergence Why do the Christian nations which were so weak in the past compared with Muslim nations begin to dominate so many lands in modern times and even defeat the once victorious Ottoman armies Because they have laws and rules invented by reason Ibrahim Muteferrika Rational basis for the Politics of Nations 1731 69 The Great Divergence was the reason why European colonial powers militarily defeated preexisting Oriental powers like the Mughal Empire starting from the wealthy Bengal Subah Tipu Sultan s Kingdom of Mysore the Ottoman Empire and many smaller states in the pre modern Greater Middle East and initiated a period known as colonialism 69 nbsp Mughal Emperor Shah Alam II negotiates with the East India Company after being defeated during the Battle of Buxar nbsp East India Company s Robert Clive meeting the Nawabs of Bengal before the Battle of Plassey nbsp Siege of Ochakov 1788 an armed conflict between the Ottomans and the Russian Tsardom nbsp Combat during the Russo Persian Wars nbsp French campaign in Egypt and Syria against the Mamluks and Ottomans Colonialism Main articles Colonial empire and Colonialism nbsp Map of colonial powers throughout the world in the year 1914 note colonial powers in the pre modern Muslim world Beginning with the 15th century colonialism by European powers profoundly affected Muslim majority societies in Africa Europe the Middle East and Asia Colonialism was often advanced by conflict with mercantile initiatives by colonial powers and caused tremendous social upheavals in Muslim dominated societies 70 A number of Muslim majority societies reacted to Western powers with zealotry and thus initiating the rise of Pan Islamism or affirmed more traditionalist and inclusive cultural ideals and in rare cases adopted modernity that was ushered by the colonial powers 71 70 The only Muslim majority regions not to be colonized by the Europeans were Saudi Arabia Iran Turkey and Afghanistan citation needed Turkey was one of the first colonial powers of the world with the Ottoman empire ruling several states for over 6 centuries nbsp The French conquest of Algeria from 1830 to 1903 nbsp The Hispano Moroccan War between Spain and Morocco from 1859 to 1860 nbsp The Italo Turkish War between Italy and the Ottoman Empire from 1911 to 1912 nbsp The Christian reconquest of Buda Ottoman Hungary 1686 painted by Frans Geffels nbsp French conquest of Algeria 1830 1857 nbsp Anglo Egyptian invasion of Sudan 1896 1899 nbsp The Melilla War between Spain and Rif Berbers of Morocco in 1909 Postcolonial era Further information Decolonization In the 20th century the end of the European colonial domination has led to creation of a number of nation states with significant Muslim populations These states drew on Islamic traditions to varying degree and in various ways in organizing their legal educational and economic systems 70 The Times first documented the term Muslim world in 1912 when describing Pan Islamism as a movement with power importance and cohesion born in Paris where Turks Arabs and Persians congregated The article considered The position of the Amir the effect of the Tripoli Campaign Anglo Russian action in Persia and Afghan Ambitions 52 A significant change in the Muslim world was the defeat and dissolution of the Ottoman Empire 1908 1922 to which the Ottoman officer and Turkish revolutionary statesman Mustafa Kemal Ataturk had an instrumental role in ending and replacing it with the Republic of Turkey a modern secular democracy 72 see Abolition of the Ottoman sultanate 72 The secular values of Kemalist Turkey which separated religion from the state with the abolition of the Caliphate in 1924 72 have sometimes been seen as the result of Western influence citation needed In the 21st century after the September 11 attacks 2001 coordinated by the Wahhabi Islamist 73 terrorist group 74 Al Qaeda 74 75 76 77 against the United States scholars considered the ramifications of seeking to understand Muslim experience through the framework of secular Enlightenment principles Muhammad Atta one of the 11 September hijackers reportedly quoted from the Quran to allay his fears Fight them and God will chastise them at your hands And degrade them and He will help you Against them and bring healing to the breasts of a people who believe referring to the ummah the community of Muslim believers and invoking the imagery of the early warriors of Islam who lead the faithful from the darkness of jahiliyyah 78 By Sayyid Qutb s definition of Islam the faith is a complete divorce from jahiliyyah He complained that American churches served as centers of community social life that were very hard to distinguish from places of fun and amusement For Qutb Western society was the modern jahliliyyah His understanding of the Muslim world and its social order was that presented to the Western world as the result of practicing Islamic teachings would impress by the beauty and charm of true Islamic ideology He argued that the values of the Enlightenment and its related precursor the Scientific Revolution denies or suspends God s sovereignty on earth and argued that strengthening Islamic character was needed to abolish the negative influences of jahili life 78 Islam by countryThis section possibly contains original research Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding inline citations Statements consisting only of original research should be removed June 2018 Learn how and when to remove this message Main article Islam by country Further information Political aspects of Islam and Islam and secularism As the Muslim world came into contact with secular ideals societies responded in different ways Some Muslim majority countries are secular Azerbaijan became the first secular republic in the Muslim world between 1918 and 1920 before it was incorporated into the Soviet Union 79 80 81 failed verification Turkey has been governed as a secular state since the reforms of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk 82 By contrast the 1979 Iranian Revolution replaced a monarchial semi secular regime with an Islamic republic led by the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini citation needed 83 Some countries have declared Islam as the official state religion In those countries the legal code is largely secular Only personal status matters pertaining to inheritance and marriage are governed by Sharia law 84 In some places Muslims implement Islamic law called sharia in Arabic The Islamic law exists in a number of variations called schools of jurisprudence The Amman Message which was endorsed in 2005 by prominent Islamic scholars around the world recognized four Sunni schools Hanafi Maliki Shafi i Hanbali two Shia schools Ja fari Zaidi the Ibadi school and the Zahiri school 85 Government and religion Islamic states Eight Islamic states have adopted Islam as the ideological foundation of state and constitution nbsp Afghanistan 86 87 nbsp Brunei 86 88 better source needed nbsp Iran 86 89 nbsp Mauritania 86 90 nbsp Oman 91 better source needed nbsp Pakistan 86 92 nbsp Saudi Arabia 86 93 nbsp Yemen 86 94 State religion The following nineteen Muslim majority states have endorsed Islam as their state religion and though they may guarantee freedom of religion for citizens do not declare a separation of state and religion nbsp Algeria 86 95 nbsp Bahrain 86 96 nbsp Bangladesh 97 nbsp Comoros 98 nbsp Djibouti 99 nbsp Egypt 86 100 nbsp Iraq 86 101 nbsp Jordan 86 102 nbsp Kuwait 86 103 nbsp Libya 86 104 nbsp Malaysia 86 105 nbsp Maldives 86 106 nbsp Morocco 86 107 nbsp Palestine 108 nbsp Qatar 109 nbsp Somalia 86 110 nbsp Syria 111 nbsp Tunisia 86 112 nbsp United Arab Emirates 86 113 Secular states Twenty two Secular states in the Muslim world have declared separation between civil government affairs and religion nbsp Albania 86 114 nbsp Azerbaijan 86 115 nbsp Bosnia and Herzegovina 116 nbsp Burkina Faso 86 117 nbsp Chad 86 118 nbsp Gambia 119 120 nbsp Guinea 86 121 nbsp Guinea Bissau 122 nbsp Indonesia 123 except Aceh province 124 nbsp Kazakhstan 86 125 nbsp Kosovo 86 126 nbsp Kyrgyzstan 86 127 nbsp Mali 86 128 nbsp Niger 129 nbsp Nigeria 86 nbsp Senegal 86 130 nbsp Sierra Leone 131 nbsp Sudan 132 nbsp Tajikistan 86 133 nbsp Turkey 86 134 nbsp Turkmenistan 86 135 nbsp Uzbekistan 86 136 Others nbsp Lebanon 137 Muslim minority states According to the Pew Research Center in 2015 there were 50 Muslim majority countries which are shown in the Government and religion section above in the article 138 139 Apart from these large Muslim populations exist in some countries where Muslims are a minority and their Muslim communities are larger than many Muslim majority nations 140 nbsp India 200 million Muslims 14 6 141 nbsp Ethiopia 34 7 million Muslims 31 3 142 nbsp China 25 40 million Muslims 2 3 143 nbsp Tanzania 19 4 million Muslims 35 2 144 nbsp Russia 14 20 million Muslims 10 14 145 nbsp Ivory Coast 12 million Muslims 42 146 nbsp DR Congo 10 million Muslims 15 147 nbsp Philippines 8 9 million Muslims 9 10 Politics Further information Islamic revival and Liberalism and progressivism within Islam nbsp Benazir Bhutto the former prime minister of Pakistan became the first woman elected to lead a Muslim majority country 148 During much of the 20th century the Islamic identity and the dominance of Islam on political issues have arguably increased during the early 21st century The fast growing interests of the Western world in Islamic regions international conflicts and globalization have changed the influence of Islam on the world in contemporary history 149 Islamism These paragraphs are an excerpt from Islamism edit Islamism also often called political Islam is a religio political ideology The advocates of Islamism also known as al Islamiyyun are dedicated to realizing their ideological interpretation of Islam within the context of the state or society The majority of them are affiliated with Islamic institutions or social mobilization movements often designated as al harakat al Islamiyyah 150 Islamists emphasize the implementation of sharia 151 pan Islamic political unity 151 the creation of Islamic states 152 eventually unified and rejection of non Muslim influences particularly Western or universal economic military political social or cultural In its original formulation Islamism described an ideology seeking to revive Islam to its past assertiveness and glory 153 purifying it of foreign elements reasserting its role into social and political as well as personal life 154 and in particular reordering government and society in accordance with laws prescribed by Islam i e Sharia 155 156 157 158 According to at least one observer author Robin Wright Islamist movements have arguably altered the Middle East more than any trend since the modern states gained independence redefining politics and even borders 159 Central and prominent figures in 20th century Islamism include Sayyid Rashid Riḍa 160 Hassan al Banna founder of the Muslim Brotherhood Sayyid Qutb Abul A la Maududi 161 Ruhollah Khomeini founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran Hassan Al Turabi 162 Syrian Sunni cleric Muhammad Rashid Riḍa a fervent opponent of Westernization Zionism and nationalism advocated Sunni internationalism through revolutionary restoration of a pan Islamic Caliphate to politically unite the Muslim World 163 164 Riḍa was a strong exponent of Islamic vanguardism the belief that Muslim community should be guided by clerical elites ulema who steered the efforts for religious education and Islamic revival 165 Riḍa s Salafi Arabist synthesis and Islamist ideals greatly influenced his disciples like Hasan al Banna 166 167 an Egyptian schoolteacher who founded the Muslim Brotherhood movement and Hajji Amin al Husayni the anti Zionist Grand Mufti of Jerusalem 168 Al Banna and Maududi called for a reformist strategy to re Islamizing society through grassroots social and political activism 169 170 Other Islamists Al Turabi are proponents of a revolutionary strategy of Islamizing society through exercise of state power 169 or Sayyid Qutb for combining grassroots Islamization with armed revolution The term has been applied to non state reform movements political parties militias and revolutionary groups 171 At least one author Graham E Fuller has argued for a broader notion of Islamism as a form of identity politics involving support for Muslim identity authenticity broader regionalism revivalism and revitalization of the community 172 Islamists themselves prefer terms such as Islamic movement 173 or Islamic activism to Islamism objecting to the insinuation that Islamism is anything other than Islam renewed and revived 174 In public and academic contexts 175 the term Islamism has been criticized as having been given connotations of violence extremism and violations of human rights by the Western mass media leading to Islamophobia and stereotyping 176 Following the Arab Spring many post Islamist currents became heavily involved in democratic politics 159 177 while others spawned the most aggressive and ambitious Islamist militia to date such as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant ISIL 159 DemographicsSee also Muslim population growth More than 24 1 of the world s population is Muslim with an estimated total of approximately 1 9 billion 178 179 180 181 182 Muslims are the majority in 49 countries 183 184 they speak hundreds of languages and come from diverse ethnic backgrounds The city of Karachi has the largest Muslim population in the world 185 186 Geography nbsp Indonesia is currently the most populous Muslim majority country Main article Islam by country Because the terms Muslim world and Islamic world are disputed since no country is homogeneously Muslim and there is no way to determine at what point a Muslim minority in a country is to be considered significant enough there is no consensus on how to define the Muslim world geographically 54 55 5 The only rule of thumb for inclusion which has some support is that countries need to have a Muslim population of more than 50 54 5 In 2010 73 of the world s Muslim population lived in countries where Muslims are in the majority while 27 of the world s Muslim population lived in countries where Muslims are in the minority India s Muslim population is the world s largest Muslim minority population in the world 11 of the world s Muslim population 184 Jones 2005 defines a large minority as being between 30 and 50 which described nine countries in 2000 namely Eritrea Ethiopia Guinea Bissau Ivory Coast Nigeria North Macedonia and Tanzania 5 Religion Islam The two main denominations of Islam are the Sunni and Shia sects They differ primarily upon of how the life of the ummah faithful should be governed and the role of the imam Sunnis believe that the true political successor of Muhammad according to the Sunnah should be selected based on Shura consultation as was done at the Saqifah which selected Abu Bakr Muhammad s father in law to be Muhammad s political but not his religious successor Shia on the other hand believe that Muhammad designated his son in law Ali ibn Abi Talib as his true political as well as religious successor 187 The overwhelming majority of Muslims in the world between 87 and 90 are Sunni 188 Shias and other groups make up the rest about 10 13 of overall Muslim population The countries with the highest concentration of Shia populations are Iran 89 189 Azerbaijan 65 190 Iraq 60 191 Bahrain 60 Yemen 35 192 Turkey 10 193 194 Lebanon 27 Syria 13 Afghanistan 10 Pakistan 10 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 and India 10 204 Non denominational Muslims make up a majority of the Muslims in seven countries and a plurality in three others Albania 65 Kyrgyzstan 64 Kosovo 58 Indonesia 56 Mali 55 Bosnia and Herzegovina 54 Uzbekistan 54 Azerbaijan 45 Russia 45 and Nigeria 42 205 They are found primarily in Central Asia 205 Kazakhstan has the largest number of non denominational Muslims who constitute about 74 of the population 205 Southeastern Europe also has a large number of non denominational Muslims 205 The Kharijite Muslims who are less known have their own stronghold in the country of Oman holding about 75 of the population 206 nbsp Turkish Muslims at the Eyup Sultan Mosque on Eid al Adha nbsp Shi a Muslims in Iran commemorate Ashura nbsp Friday prayer for Sunni Muslims in Dhaka Bangladesh Islamic schools and branches Main article Islamic schools and branches nbsp Islamic schools of law across the Muslim world The first centuries of Islam gave rise to three major sects Sunnis Shi as and Kharijites Each sect developed distinct jurisprudence schools madhhab reflecting different methodologies of jurisprudence fiqh The major Sunni madhhabs are Hanafi Maliki Shafi i and Hanbali 207 The major Shi a branches are Twelver Imami Ismaili Sevener and Zaidi Fiver Isma ilism later split into Nizari Ismaili and Musta li Ismaili and then Mustaali was divided into Hafizi and Taiyabi Ismailis 208 It also gave rise to the Qarmatian movement and the Druze faith although Druzes do not identify as Muslims 209 210 Twelver Shiism developed Ja fari jurisprudence whose branches are Akhbarism and Usulism and other movements such as Alawites Shaykism 211 and Alevism 212 213 Similarly Kharijites were initially divided into five major branches Sufris Azariqa Najdat Adjarites and Ibadis Among these numerous branches only Hanafi Maliki Shafi i Hanbali Imamiyyah Ja fari Usuli Nizari Isma ili Alevi 214 Zaydi Ibadi Zahiri Alawite citation needed Druze and Taiyabi communities have survived In addition new schools of thought and movements like Quranist Muslims and Ahmadi Muslims later emerged independently nbsp A Sufi dervish drums up the Friday afternoon crowd in Omdurman Sudan nbsp Druze dignitaries celebrating the Nabi Shu ayb festival at the tomb of the prophet in Hittin nbsp Ibadis living in the M zab valley in Algerian Sahara nbsp Zaydi Imams ruled in Yemen until 1962 nbsp Most of the inhabitants of the Hunza Valley in Pakistan are Ismaili Muslims nbsp Children read Qur an in Indonesia nbsp Muslim beggars stalk a car in Nigeria nbsp People pray together in the mosque in Russia nbsp People move close to the Muslim food corner in China Other religions There are sizeable non Muslim minorities in many Muslim majority countries includes Christians Jews Hindus Buddhists Bahai s Druzes Yazidis Mandaeans Yarsanis and Zoroastrians nbsp Church and Mosque in Istanbul Turkey The Muslim world is home to some of the world s most ancient Christian communities 215 and some of the most important cities of the Christian world including three of its five great patriarchates Alexandria Antioch and Constantinople 216 Scholars and intellectuals agree Christians have made significant contributions to Arab and Islamic civilization since the introduction of Islam 217 218 and they have had a significant impact contributing the culture of the Middle East and North Africa and other areas 219 220 221 Pew Research Center estimates indicate that in 2010 more than 64 million Christians lived in countries with Muslim majorities excluding Nigeria The Pew Forum study finds that Indonesia 21 1 million has the largest Christian population in the Muslim world followed by Egypt Chad and Kazakhstan 222 While according to Adly A Youssef and Martyn Thomas in 2004 there were around 30 million Christians who lived in countries with Muslim majorities with the largest Christian population number lived in Indonesia followed by Egypt 223 Nigeria is divided almost evenly between Muslims and Christians with more than 80 million Christians and Muslims 224 In 2018 the Jewish Agency estimated that around 27 000 Jews live in Arab and Muslim countries 225 226 Jewish communities have existed across the Middle East and North Africa since the rise of Islam Today Jews residing in Muslim countries have been reduced to a small fraction of their former sizes 227 with the largest communities of Jews in Muslim countries exist in the non Arab countries of Iran 9 500 and Turkey 14 500 228 both however are much smaller than they historically have been 229 Among Arab countries the largest Jewish community now exists in Morocco with about 2 000 Jews and in Tunisia with about 1 000 230 The number of Druze worldwide is between 800 000 and one million with the vast majority residing in the Levant primarily in Syria and Lebanon 231 In 2010 the Pew Forum study finds that Bangladesh 13 5 million Indonesia 4 million Pakistan 3 3 million and Malaysia 1 7 million has a sizeable Hindu minorities Malaysia 5 million has the largest Buddhist population in the Muslim world 184 Zoroastrians are the oldest remaining religious community in Iran 232 nbsp Egypt has one of the largest Christian population in the Muslim world 233 nbsp Bangladesh has the largest Hindu population in the Muslim world nbsp Turkey has the largest Jewish population in the Muslim world 234 Literacy and education The literacy rate in the Muslim world varies Azerbaijan is in second place in the Index of Literacy of World Countries Some members such as Iran Kuwait Kazakhstan Tajikistan and Turkmenistan have over 97 literacy rates whereas literacy rates are the lowest in Mali Afghanistan Chad and other parts of Africa Several Muslim majority countries such as Turkey Iran and Egypt have a high rate of citable scientific publications 235 236 In 2015 the International Islamic News Agency reported that nearly 37 of the population of the Muslim world is unable to read or write basing that figure on reports from the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and the Islamic Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization 237 In Egypt the largest Muslim majority Arab country the youth female literacy rate exceeds that for males 238 Lower literacy rates are more prevalent in South Asian countries such as in Afghanistan and Pakistan but are rapidly increasing 239 In the Eastern Middle East Iran has a high level of youth literacy at 98 240 but Iraq s youth literacy rate has sharply declined from 85 to 57 during the American led war and subsequent occupation 241 Indonesia the largest Muslim majority country in the world has a 99 youth literacy rate 242 A 2011 Pew Research Center showed that at the time about 36 of all Muslims had no formal schooling with only 8 having graduate and post graduate degrees 243 The highest of years of schooling among Muslim majority countries found in Uzbekistan 11 5 Kuwait 11 0 and Kazakhstan 10 7 243 In addition the average of years of schooling in countries in which Muslims are the majority is 6 0 years of schooling which lag behind the global average 7 7 years of schooling 243 In the youngest age 25 34 group surveyed Young Muslims have the lowest average levels of education of any major religious group with an average of 6 7 years of schooling which lag behind the global average 8 6 years of schooling 243 The study found that Muslims have a significant amount of gender inequality in educational attainment since Muslim women have an average of 4 9 years of schooling compared to an average of 6 4 years of schooling among Muslim men 243 nbsp Young school girls in Paktia Province of Afghanistan nbsp A primary classroom in Niger nbsp Schoolgirls in Gaza lining up for class 2009 nbsp Medical students of anatomy before an exam in moulage Iran Refugees nbsp Muslim Rohingya refugees in Cox s Bazar Bangladesh According to the UNHCR Muslim majority countries hosted 18 million refugees by the end of 2010 citation needed Since then Muslim majority countries have absorbed refugees from recent conflicts including the uprising in Syria 244 In July 2013 the UN stated that the number of Syrian refugees had exceeded 1 8 million 245 In Asia an estimated 625 000 refugees from Rakhine Myanmar mostly Muslim had crossed the border into Bangladesh since August 2017 246 CultureThroughout history Muslim cultures have been diverse ethnically linguistically and regionally 247 According to M M Knight this diversity includes diversity in beliefs interpretations and practices and communities and interests Knight says perception of Muslim world among non Muslims is usually supported through introductory literature about Islam mostly present a version as per scriptural view which would include some prescriptive literature and abstracts of history as per authors own point of views to which even many Muslims might agree but that necessarily would not reflect Islam as lived on the ground in the experience of real human bodies 248 Classical culture Main articles History of Islam Islamic Golden Age Islamization and Spread of Islam nbsp Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni receiving a richly decorated robe of honor from the caliph al Qadir in 1000 Miniature from the Rashid al Din s Jami al tawarikh nbsp Battle between Ismail of the Safaviyya and the ruler of Shirvan Farrukh Yassar nbsp Shah of Safavid Empire Abbas I meet with Vali Muhammad Khan nbsp Mir Sayyid Ali a scholar writing a commentary on the Quran during the reign of the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan nbsp Portrait of a painter during the reign of Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II nbsp A Persian miniature of Shah Abu l Ma ali a scholar nbsp Ilkhanate Empire ruler Ghazan studying the Quran nbsp Layla and Majnun studying together from a Persian miniature painting The term Islamic Golden Age has been attributed to a period in history during which science economic development and cultural works in most of the Muslim dominated world flourished 249 250 The age is traditionally understood to have begun during the reign of the Abbasid caliph Harun al Rashid 786 809 with the inauguration of the House of Wisdom in Baghdad where scholars from various parts of the world sought to translate and gather all the known world s knowledge into Arabic 251 252 and to have ended with the collapse of the Abbasid caliphate due to Mongol invasions and the Siege of Baghdad in 1258 253 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 Cordoba became the main intellectual centers for science philosophy medicine and education 254 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 Vedic etc Egyptian and Phoenician civilizations 255 Ceramics Further information Alchemy in the medieval Islamic world nbsp A Seljuq shatranj chess set glazed fritware 12th century Between the 8th and 18th centuries the use of ceramic glaze was prevalent in Islamic art usually assuming the form of elaborate pottery 256 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 257 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 258 Literature Main article Islamic literature Further information Islamic poetry nbsp Hadiqatus suada by Oghuz Turkic poet Fuzuli nbsp The story of Princess Parizade and the Magic Tree 259 nbsp Cassim in the Cave by Maxfield Parrish nbsp The Magic carpet The best known work of fiction from the Islamic world is One Thousand and One Nights In Persian hezar o yek sab gt 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 Hezar Afsan Thousand Fables that relied on particular Indian elements 260 It reached its final form by the 14th century the number and type of tales have varied from one manuscript to another 261 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 261 This work has been very influential in the West since it was translated in the 18th century first by Antoine Galland 262 Imitations were written especially in France 263 Various characters from this epic have themselves become cultural icons in Western culture such as Aladdin Sinbad the Sailor and Ali Baba citation needed A famous citation needed 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 Ferdowsi s Shahnameh the national epic of Greater Iran is a mythical and heroic retelling of Persian history Amir Arsalan was also a popular mythical Persian story Ibn Tufayl 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 Both of these narratives had protagonists Hayy in Philosophus Autodidactus and Kamil in Theologus Autodidactus who were autodidactic feral children living in seclusion on a desert island both being the earliest examples of a desert island story However while Hayy lives alone with animals on the desert island for the rest of the story in Philosophus Autodidactus the story of Kamil extends beyond the desert island setting in Theologus Autodidactus developing into the earliest known coming of age plot and eventually becoming the first example of a science fiction novel 264 265 Theologus Autodidactus 266 267 written by the Arabian polymath Ibn al Nafis 1213 1288 is the first example of a science fiction novel 268 It deals with various science fiction elements such as spontaneous generation futurology the end of the world and doomsday resurrection and the afterlife Rather than giving supernatural or mythological explanations for these events Ibn al Nafis attempted to explain these plot elements using the scientific knowledge of biology astronomy cosmology and geology known in his time Ibn al Nafis fiction explained Islamic religious teachings via science and Islamic philosophy 269 A Latin translation of Ibn Tufail s work Philosophus Autodidactus first appeared in 1671 prepared by Edward Pococke the Younger followed by an English translation by Simon Ockley in 1708 as well as German and Dutch translations These translations might have later inspired Daniel Defoe to write Robinson Crusoe regarded as the first novel in English 270 271 272 273 Philosophus Autodidactus continuing the thoughts of philosophers such as Aristotle from earlier ages inspired Robert Boyle to write his own philosophical novel set on an island The Aspiring Naturalist 274 Dante Alighieri s Divine Comedy 275 derived features of and episodes about Bolgia 276 from Arabic works on Islamic eschatology 277 the Hadith and the Kitab al Miraj translated into Latin in 1264 or shortly before 278 as Liber scalae Machometi 279 concerning the ascension to Heaven of Muhammad 280 and the spiritual writings of Ibn Arabi 281 The Moors also had a noticeable influence on the works of George Peele and William Shakespeare Some of their works featured Moorish characters such as Peele s The Battle of Alcazar and Shakespeare s The Merchant of Venice Titus Andronicus and Othello which featured a Moorish Othello as its title character These works are said to have been inspired by several Moorish delegations from Morocco to Elizabethan England at the beginning of the 17th century 282 Philosophy Main article Contemporary Islamic philosophy Further information Logic in Islamic philosophy and Kalam nbsp Ibn Rushd Averroes Muslim polymath from Al Andalus One of the common definitions for Islamic philosophy is the style of philosophy produced within the framework of Islamic culture 283 Islamic philosophy in this definition is neither necessarily concerned with religious issues nor is exclusively produced by Muslims 283 The Persian scholar Ibn Sina Avicenna 980 1037 had more than 450 books attributed to him His writings were concerned with various subjects most notably philosophy and medicine His medical textbook The Canon of Medicine was used as the standard text in European universities for centuries He also wrote The Book of Healing an influential scientific and philosophical encyclopedia citation needed One of the most influential Muslim philosophers in the West was Averroes Ibn Rushd founder of the Averroism school of philosophy whose works and commentaries affected the rise of secular thought in Europe 284 He also developed the concept of existence precedes essence 285 Another figure from the Islamic Golden Age Avicenna also founded his own Avicennism school of philosophy which was influential in both Islamic and Christian lands 286 He was also a critic of Aristotelian logic and founder of Avicennian logic developed the concepts of empiricism and tabula rasa and distinguished between essence and existence citation needed Yet another influential philosopher who had an influence on modern philosophy was Ibn Tufail His philosophical novel Hayy ibn Yaqdhan translated into Latin as Philosophus Autodidactus in 1671 developed the themes of empiricism tabula rasa nature versus nurture 287 condition of possibility materialism 288 and Molyneux s problem 289 European scholars and writers influenced by this novel include John Locke 290 Gottfried Leibniz 273 Melchisedech Thevenot John Wallis Christiaan Huygens 291 George Keith Robert Barclay the Quakers 292 and Samuel Hartlib 274 Islamic philosophers continued making advances in philosophy through to the 17th century when Mulla Sadra founded his school of Transcendent theosophy and developed the concept of existentialism 293 Other influential Muslim philosophers include al Jahiz a pioneer in evolutionary thought Ibn al Haytham Alhazen a pioneer of phenomenology and the philosophy of science and a critic of Aristotelian natural philosophy and Aristotle s concept of place topos Al Biruni a critic of Aristotelian natural philosophy Ibn Tufail and Ibn al Nafis pioneers of the philosophical novel Shahab al Din Suhrawardi founder of Illuminationist philosophy Fakhr al Din al Razi a critic of Aristotelian logic and a pioneer of inductive logic and Ibn Khaldun a pioneer in the philosophy of history 294 Sciences Main article Timeline of science and engineering in the Muslim world See also Physics in the medieval Islamic world Psychology in the medieval Islamic world Mathematics in the medieval Islamic world Astronomy in the medieval Islamic world and Alchemy and chemistry in the medieval Islamic world Sciences nbsp Nasir al Din al Tusi s Astrolabe 13th century nbsp One of Mansur ibn Ilyas Ak Koyunlu era colored illustrations of human anatomy nbsp Abu al Qasim al Zahrawi s Kitab al TasrifSurgical instruments illustrations 11th century nbsp A self trimming lamp from Banu Musa s work On Mechanical Devices on Automation nbsp An illustration from al Biruni s astronomical works explains the different phases of the moon nbsp The Elephant Clock was one of the most famous inventions of Al Jazari nbsp Cubic equations and intersections of conic sections of Omar Khayyam nbsp Lagari Hasan Celebi s rocket flight depicted in a 17th century engraving Muslim scientists placed far greater emphasis on experiment than the Greeks citation needed This led to an early scientific method being developed in the Muslim world where progress in methodology was made beginning with the experiments of Ibn al Haytham Alhazen on optics from circa 1000 in his Book of Optics The most important development of the scientific method was the use of experiments to distinguish between competing scientific theories set within a generally empirical orientation which began among Muslim scientists Ibn al Haytham is also regarded as the father of optics especially for his empirical proof of the intromission theory of light Jim Al Khalili stated in 2009 that Ibn al Haytham is often referred to as the world s first true scientist 295 al Khwarzimi s invented the log base systems that are being used today he also contributed theorems in trigonometry as well as limits 296 Recent studies show that it is very likely that the Medieval Muslim artists were aware of advanced decagonal quasicrystal geometry discovered half a millennium later in the 1970s and 1980s in the West and used it in intricate decorative tilework in the architecture 297 Muslim physicians contributed to the field of medicine including the subjects of anatomy and physiology such as in the 15th century Persian work by Mansur ibn Muhammad ibn al Faqih Ilyas entitled Tashrih al badan Anatomy of the body which contained comprehensive diagrams of the body s structural nervous and circulatory systems or in the work of the Egyptian physician Ibn al Nafis who proposed the theory of pulmonary circulation Avicenna s The Canon of Medicine remained an authoritative medical textbook in Europe until the 18th century Abu al Qasim al Zahrawi also known as Abulcasis contributed to the discipline of medical surgery with his Kitab al Tasrif Book of Concessions a medical encyclopedia which was later translated to Latin and used in European and Muslim medical schools for centuries Other medical advancements came in the fields of pharmacology and pharmacy 298 In astronomy Muḥammad ibn Jabir al Ḥarrani al Battani improved the precision of the measurement of the precession of the Earth s axis citation needed The corrections made to the geocentric model by al Battani Averroes Nasir al Din al Tusi Mu ayyad al Din al Urdi and Ibn al Shatir were later incorporated into the Copernican heliocentric model citation needed Heliocentric theories were also discussed by several other Muslim astronomers such as Al Biruni Al Sijzi Qutb al Din al Shirazi and Najm al Din al Qazwini al Katibi citation needed The astrolabe though originally developed by the Greeks was perfected by Islamic astronomers and engineers and was subsequently brought to Europe citation needed Some most famous scientists from the medieval Islamic world include Jabir ibn Hayyan al Farabi Abu al Qasim al Zahrawi Ibn al Haytham Al Biruni Avicenna Nasir al Din al Tusi and Ibn Khaldun citation needed Technology nbsp The Spinning wheel is believed to have been invented in the medieval era of what is now the Greater Middle East it is considered to be an important device that contributed greatly to the advancement of the Industrial Revolution scene from Al Maqamat painted by al Wasiti 1237 Main articles List of inventions in the medieval Islamic world and Arab Agricultural Revolution In technology the Muslim world adopted papermaking from China 299 The knowledge of gunpowder was also transmitted from China via predominantly Islamic countries 300 where formulas for pure potassium nitrate 301 302 were developed Advances were made in irrigation and farming using new technology such as the windmill Crops such as almonds and citrus fruit were brought to Europe through al Andalus and sugar cultivation was gradually adopted by the Europeans Arab merchants dominated trade in the Indian Ocean until the arrival of the Portuguese in the 16th century Hormuz was an important center for this trade There was also a dense network of trade routes in the Mediterranean along which Muslim majority countries traded with each other and with European powers such as Venice Genoa and Catalonia The Silk Road crossing Central Asia passed through Islamic states between China and Europe The emergence of major economic empires with technological resources after the conquests of Timur Tamerlane and the resurgence of the Timurid Renaissance include the Mali Empire and the India s Bengal Sultanate in particular a major global trading nation in the world described by the Europeans to be the richest country to trade with 303 Muslim engineers in the Islamic world made a number of innovative industrial uses of hydropower and early industrial uses of tidal power and wind power 304 The industrial uses of watermills in the Islamic world date back to the 7th century while horizontal wheeled and vertical wheeled water mills were both in widespread use since at least the 9th century A variety of industrial mills were being employed in the Islamic world including early fulling mills gristmills paper mills hullers sawmills ship mills stamp mills steel mills sugar mills tide mills and windmills By the 11th century every province throughout the Islamic world had these industrial mills in operation from al Andalus and North Africa to the Middle East and Central Asia 299 Muslim engineers also invented crankshafts and water turbines employed gears in mills and water raising machines and pioneered the use of dams as a source of water power used to provide additional power to watermills and water raising machines 305 Such advances made it possible for industrial tasks that were previously driven by manual labour in ancient times to be mechanized and driven by machinery instead in the medieval Islamic world The transfer of these technologies to medieval Europe had an influence on the Industrial Revolution particularly from the proto industrialised Mughal Bengal and Tipu Sultan s Kingdom through the conquests of the East India Company 306 Arts The term Islamic art and architecture denotes the works of art and architecture produced from the 7th century onwards by people who lived within the territory that was inhabited by culturally Islamic populations 307 308 Architecture These paragraphs are an excerpt from Islamic architecture edit Islamic architecture comprises the architectural styles of buildings associated with Islam It encompasses both secular and religious styles from the early history of Islam to the present day The Islamic world encompasses a wide geographic area historically ranging from western Africa and Europe to eastern Asia Certain commonalities are shared by Islamic architectural styles across all these regions but over time different regions developed their own styles according to local materials and techniques local dynasties and patrons different regional centers of artistic production and sometimes different religious affiliations 309 310 Early Islamic architecture was influenced by Roman Byzantine Iranian and Mesopotamian architecture and all other lands which the early Muslim conquests conquered in the seventh and eighth centuries 311 312 313 314 315 Further east it was also influenced by Chinese and Indian architecture as Islam spread to South and Southeast Asia Later it developed distinct characteristics in the form of buildings and in the decoration of surfaces with Islamic calligraphy arabesques and geometric motifs 316 New architectural elements like minarets muqarnas and multifoil arches were invented Common or important types of buildings in Islamic architecture include mosques madrasas tombs palaces hammams public baths Sufi hospices e g khanqahs or zawiyas fountains and sabils commercial buildings e g caravanserais and bazaars and military fortifications 310 Islamic architecture nbsp Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem nbsp Taj Mahal in Agra city of India was constructed during the Mughal Empire nbsp Menara Kudus Mosque in Kudus Indonesia with pre Islamic Javanese style architecture nbsp Sultan Ahmed Mosque in Istanbul Turkey nbsp Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Mosque in Selangor Malaysia nbsp Great Mosque of Cordoba in Spain is a Moorish style mosque nbsp The Charminar in Hyderabad India nbsp Tower of Introspection 省心楼 at the Great Mosque of Xi an China nbsp The design of Faisal Mosque in Islamabad Pakistan is inspired by Bedouin s tent nbsp Moscow Cathedral Mosque in Moscow Russia nbsp Lagos Central Mosque in Lagos Nigeria nbsp Shah Mosque in Tehran Iran Aniconism Main article Aniconism in Islam No Islamic visual images or depictions of God are meant to exist because it is believed that such artistic depictions may lead to idolatry Muslims describe God by the names and attributes that according to Islam he revealed to his creation All but one sura of the Quran begins with the phrase In the name of God the Beneficent the Merciful Images of Mohammed are likewise prohibited Such aniconism and iconoclasm 317 can also be found in Jewish and some Christian theology Arabesque Main article Arabesque Islamic art frequently adopts the use of geometrical floral or vegetal designs in a repetition known as arabesque Such designs are highly nonrepresentational as Islam forbids representational depictions as found in pre Islamic pagan religions Despite this there is a presence of depictional art in some Muslim societies notably the miniature style made famous in Persia and under the Ottoman Empire which featured paintings of people and animals and also depictions of Quranic stories and Islamic traditional narratives Another reason why Islamic art is usually abstract is to symbolize the transcendence indivisible and infinite nature of God an objective achieved by arabesque 318 Islamic calligraphy is an omnipresent decoration in Islamic art and is usually expressed in the form of Quranic verses Two of the main scripts involved are the symbolic kufic and naskh scripts which can be found adorning the walls and domes of mosques the sides of minbars and so on 318 Distinguishing motifs of Islamic architecture have always been ordered repetition radiating structures and rhythmic metric patterns In this respect fractal geometry has been a key utility especially for mosques and palaces Other features employed as motifs include columns piers and arches organized and interwoven with alternating sequences of niches and colonnettes 319 The role of domes in Islamic architecture has been considerable Its usage spans centuries first appearing in 691 with the construction of the Dome of the Rock mosque and recurring even up until the 17th century with the Taj Mahal And as late as the 19th century Islamic domes had been incorporated into European architecture 320 nbsp Example of an Arabesque nbsp Example of an Arabesque nbsp Example of an Arabesque Girih These paragraphs are an excerpt from Girih edit Girih Persian گره knot also written gereh 321 are decorative Islamic geometric patterns used in architecture and handicraft objects consisting of angled lines that form an interlaced strapwork pattern Girih decoration is believed to have been inspired by Syrian Roman knotwork patterns from the second century The earliest girih dates from around 1000 CE and the artform flourished until the 15th century Girih patterns can be created in a variety of ways including the traditional straightedge and compass construction the construction of a grid of polygons and the use of a set of girih tiles with lines drawn on them the lines form the pattern Patterns may be elaborated by the use of two levels of design as at the 1453 Darb e Imam shrine Square repeating units of known patterns can be copied as templates and historic pattern books may have been intended for use in this way The 15th century Topkapi Scroll explicitly shows girih patterns together with the tilings used to create them A set of tiles consisting of a dart and a kite shape can be used to create aperiodic Penrose tilings though there is no evidence that such a set was used in medieval times Girih patterns have been used to decorate varied materials including stone screens as at Fatehpur Sikri plasterwork as at mosques and madrasas such as the Hunat Hatun Complex in Kayseri metal as at Mosque Madrassa of Sultan Hassan in Cairo and in wood as at the Mosque Cathedral of Cordoba nbsp Girih tiles nbsp The subdivision rule used to generate the Girih pattern on the spandrel nbsp Girih pattern that can be drawn with compass and straight edge Islamic calligraphy These paragraphs are an excerpt from Islamic calligraphy edit Islamic calligraphy is the artistic practice of handwriting and calligraphy in the languages which use Arabic alphabet or the alphabets derived from it It includes Arabic Persian Ottoman and Urdu calligraphy 322 323 It is known in Arabic as khatt Arabi خط عربي which translates into Arabic line design or construction 324 The development of Islamic calligraphy is strongly tied to the Qur an chapters and excerpts from the Qur an are a common and almost universal text upon which Islamic calligraphy is based Although artistic depictions of people and animals are not explicitly forbidden by the Qur an pictures have traditionally been limited in Islamic books in order to avoid idolatry Although some scholars dispute this Kufic script was supposedly developed around the end of the 7th century in Kufa Iraq from which it takes its name The style later developed into several varieties including floral foliated plaited or interlaced bordered and square kufic In the ancient world though artists would often get around the aniconic prohibition by using strands of tiny writing to construct lines and images Calligraphy was a valued art form even as a moral good An ancient Arabic proverb illustrates this point by emphatically stating that Purity of writing is purity of the soul 325 However Islamic calligraphy is not limited to strictly religious subjects objects or spaces Like all Islamic art it encompasses a diverse array of works created in a wide variety of contexts 326 The prevalence of calligraphy in Islamic art is not directly related to its non figural tradition rather it reflects the centrality of the notion of writing and written text in Islam 327 Islamic calligraphy developed from two major styles Kufic and Naskh There are several variations of each as well as regionally specific styles Arabic or Persian calligraphy has also been incorporated into modern art beginning with the post colonial period in the Middle East as well as the more recent style of calligraffiti 328 nbsp Kufic script from an early Qur an manuscript 7th century Surah 7 86 87 nbsp Bismallah calligraphy nbsp Islamic calligraphy represented for amulet of sailors in the Ottoman Empire nbsp Islamic calligraphy praising Ali nbsp Modern Islamic calligraphy representing various planets Calendar Two calendars are used all over the Muslim world One is a lunar calendar that is most widely used among Muslims The other one is a solar calendar officially used in Iran and Afghanistan Islamic lunar calendar These paragraphs are an excerpt from Islamic calendar edit The Hijri calendar Arabic ٱلت ق و يم ٱل ه ج ر ي romanized al taqwim al hijri or Arabic calendar also known in English as the Muslim calendar and Islamic calendar is a lunar calendar consisting of 12 lunar months in a year of 354 or 355 days It is used to determine the proper days of Islamic holidays and rituals such as the annual fasting and the annual season for the great pilgrimage In almost all countries where the predominant religion is Islam the civil calendar is the Gregorian calendar with Syriac month names used in the Levant and Mesopotamia Iraq Syria Jordan Lebanon and Palestine but the religious calendar is the Hijri one This calendar enumerates the Hijri era whose epoch was established as the Islamic New Year in 622 CE 329 During that year Muhammad and his followers migrated from Mecca to Medina and established the first Muslim community ummah an event commemorated as the Hijrah In the West dates in this era are usually denoted AH Latin Anno Hegirae lit In the year of the Hijrah a In Muslim countries it is also sometimes denoted as H 330 from its Arabic form س ن ة ه ج ر ي ة abbreviated ھ In English years prior to the Hijra are denoted as BH Before the Hijra 331 Since 19 July 2023 CE the current Islamic year is 1445 AH In the Gregorian calendar reckoning 1445 AH runs from 19 July 2023 to approximately 7 July 2024 332 333 b Solar Hijri calendar These paragraphs are an excerpt from Solar Hijri calendar edit The Solar Hijri calendar c is a solar calendar and one of the various Iranian calendars It begins on the March equinox as determined by the astronomical calculation for the Iran Standard Time meridian 52 5 E UTC 03 30 and has years of 365 or 366 days It is the modern principal calendar in Iran and Afghanistan and is sometimes also called the Shamsi calendar and Khorshidi calendar It is abbreviated as SH HS or by analogy with AH AHSh The ancient Iranian Solar calendar is one of the oldest calendars in the world as well as the most accurate solar calendar in use today Since the calendar uses astronomical calculation for determining the vernal equinox it has no intrinsic error 335 336 337 338 It is older than the Lunar Hijri calendar used by the majority of Muslims known in the West as the Islamic calendar though they both count from the Hijrah the journey of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and his followers from Mecca to Medina in the year 622 339 340 one uses solar years and the other lunar years Each of the twelve months corresponds with a zodiac sign and in Afghanistan the names of the zodiacal signs were used for the months d elsewhere the month names are the same as in the Zoroastrian calendar The first six months have 31 days the next five have 30 days and the last month has 29 days in common years but 30 days in leap years The ancient Iranian New Year s Day which is called Nowruz always falls on the March equinox While Nowruz is celebrated by communities in a wide range of countries from the Balkans to Mongolia the Solar Hijri calendar itself remains only in official use in Iran WomenSee also Women in Islam and Musawah According to Riada Asimovic Akyol while Muslim women s experiences differs a lot by location and personal situations such as family upbringing class and education 342 the difference between culture and religions is often ignored by community and state leaders in many of the Muslim majority countries 342 the key issue in the Muslim world regarding gender issues is that religious texts constructed in highly patriarchal environments and based on biological essentialism are still valued highly in Islam hence views emphasizing on men s superiority in unequal gender roles are widespread among many conservative Muslims men and women 342 Orthodox Muslims often believe that rights and responsibilities of women in Islam are different from that of men and sacrosanct since assigned by the God 342 According to Asma Barlas patriarchal behaviour among Muslims is based in an ideology which jumbles sexual and biological differences with gender dualisms and inequality Modernist discourse of liberal progressive movements like Islamic feminism have been revisiting hermeneutics of feminism in Islam in terms of respect for Muslim women s lives and rights 342 Riada Asimovic Akyol further says that equality for Muslim women needs to be achieved through self criticism 342 nbsp A Kazakh wedding ceremony in a mosque nbsp A group of marabouts West African religious leaders and teachers of the Quran nbsp Muslim girls at Istiqlal Mosque in Jakarta nbsp A tribal delegation in Chad nbsp Minangkabau people Padang West Sumatra reciting Al Qur an nbsp Muslim girls walking for school in BangladeshSee also nbsp Islam portal nbsp Society portal nbsp World portal Arabization Arab world Glossary of Islam History of the Arabs History of Islam Index of Islam related articles Outline of Islam Spread of Islam Islam by country Islamic studies Islam and other religions Pan Islamism Islamic Military Counter Terrorism Coalition Organisation of Islamic Cooperation Sirah List of largest cities in the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation member countries OPECReferencesNotes This notation is similar to that of AD for the Christian era CE for the Common Era and AM for the Jewish era exact dates depend on which variant of the Islamic calendar is followed Persian گاه شماری خورشیدی romanized Gahsomari ye Xorsidi Pashto لمريز لېږدیز کلیز romanized lmariz legdiz kaliz Kurdish ڕۆژژمێری کۆچیی ھەتاوی romanized Salnameya Kocberiye also called in some English sources as the Iranian Solar calendar 334 Since 1 Muharam 1444 AH 30 July 2022 CE this calendar is no longer used by the government of Afghanistan after its switch to the Lunar Hijri calendar 341 Citations Waldman Marilyn R Zeghal Malika 2009 Islamic world Britannica Archived from the original on 2 February 2017 Retrieved 29 January 2017 Esposito John L ed 2009 Preface The Oxford 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