THE ISLAMIC GALLERY
Islamic Civilization counts its beginnings from 620 AD with the first year of the hijra* or the migration of the prophet Muhammad and his small band of followers from Mecca to Medina. From there, the third of the great monotheistic Abrahamic faiths of the Old World grew into an empire through conquest and conversion to take over the southern provinces of the old Roman empire and entire Persian empire. By 750 AD, the new polity centered on Baghdad stretched from the Atlantic Ocean to the Indus River. Through subsequent conquests and conversions, Islamic religion and civilization has expanded to stretch from South and South-East Asia into Sub-Saharan Africa and southeastern Europe. While Islam is still a religious ideology, it no longer constitutes a single polity or country.
What is presented in this gallery comes from the central lands of the Islamic world: Iraq, Iran, Syria, Turkey and Egypt. These are the very regions where the more ancient cultures were discovered, such as Sumer and Assyria, Pharaonic Egypt, Neolithic and Bronze Age Iran, and Asia Minor.
Islamic Civilization counts its beginnings from 620 AD with the first year of the hijra* or the migration of the prophet Muhammad and his small band of followers from Mecca to Medina. From there, the third of the great monotheistic Abrahamic faiths of the Old World grew into an empire through conquest and conversion to take over the southern provinces of the old Roman empire and entire Persian empire. By 750 AD, the new polity centered on Baghdad stretched from the Atlantic Ocean to the Indus River. Through subsequent conquests and conversions, Islamic religion and civilization has expanded to stretch from South and South-East Asia into Sub-Saharan Africa and southeastern Europe. While Islam is still a religious ideology, it no longer constitutes a single polity or country.
What is presented in this gallery comes from the central lands of the Islamic world: Iraq, Iran, Syria, Turkey and Egypt. These are the very regions where the more ancient cultures were discovered, such as Sumer and Assyria, Pharaonic Egypt, Neolithic and Bronze Age Iran, and Asia Minor.
What is presented in this gallery comes from the central lands of the Islamic world: Iraq, Iran, Syria, Turkey and Egypt. These are the very regions where the more ancient cultures were discovered, such as Sumer and Assyria, Pharaonic Egypt, Neolithic and Bronze Age Iran, and Asia Minor.
