SOC263H5 Lecture 14: Shortly before the advent of
Document Summary
Shortly before the advent of islam, apart from urban trading settlements (such as mecca and medina), much of what was to become saudi arabia was populated by nomadic pastoral tribal societies. [46] the islamic prophet muhammad, however, was born in mecca in about. In the early 7th century, muhammad united the various tribes of the peninsula and created a single islamic religious polity. Arabia soon became a more politically peripheral region of the muslim world as the focus shifted to the vast and newly conquered lands. At its greatest extent, the umayyad caliphate(661 750) covered 11,100,000 km2(4,300,000 sq mi)[48] and 62 million people (29% of the world"s population),[49] making it one of the largest empires in history in both area and proportion of the world"s population. It was also larger than any previous empire in history.
