Today there are over 1 billion Muslims in the world, making this religion the second-largest in the world after Christianity. While Muslims live in most countries, they rule fewer geographic regions today than they did at the greatest extent of the Islamic caliphates. Next up, all of the countries they once ruled, and some examples of Islamic cultural influences that still linger in these areas.

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• Islam encompassed the Arabian Peninsula by the end of the Prophet Muhammad’s life.
• His successors extended the empire across North Africa, into Europe, Central Asia, India, and Southeast Asia.
• The caliphates broke up due to internal differences and colonialism.
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How Islam Got Started

Islam started in Mecca with the Prophet Muhammad, who was born in 570 CE. Living in a polytheistic culture, he and his followers were persecuted for teaching strict monotheism. From a base in Medina, they achieved military victory over Mecca and went on to take control of most of the Arabian Peninsula by the time of Muhammad’s death. 

What Islam Teaches

Islam teaches God revealed their Scripture, the Qur’an, to Muhammad as a word-for-word dictation. All people are accountable to this one God. Humans’ good and bad deeds are recorded, to be reviewed after their death. God will then decide whether to send the individual to an oasis-like paradise or to the eternal fire of Hell. 

What Muslims Practice

The requirements to live as a Muslim are summed up in the “5 Pillars of Islam:”

1. Confess there is no God but the one God, and Muhammad is His Prophet.
2. Pray 5 times a day facing in the direction of the holy city Mecca.
3. Give charity to the poor.
4. Fast during the daylight hours of the month of Ramadan
5. Go on a pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in your life. 

How Islam Spread

Islam spread through a variety of means. Teaching and intellectual persuasion was one method. Military conquest was another. Sometimes it spread to distant areas along trade routes. Muslims have traditionally valued large families, so this has also increased their numbers. Some areas resisted the spread of Islam while others welcomed it to relieve themselves of ineffective or corrupt leadership.

How Did Muslims Treat Non-believers?

Officially, Muslims placed requirements on nonbelievers, such as special taxes, forbidding them to proselytize, and requiring that they ride donkeys rather than horses to signify subordination. If they held to these conditions they were usually allowed to practice their faith, so that tens of millions of Christians still live in countries like Egypt under Islamic rule today. In practice, however, at different points in history some Muslims have persecuted people of other faiths, as they also have been persecuted.

Islamic Countries in the Middle East

These are the modern Middle Eastern countries once ruled by Muslims (and in most cases still ruled by them):

Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Iraq, Iran, Syria, Turkey, Jordan, Israel/Palestine, Lebanon. 

Islamic Countries in Europe

At their greatest extent, Islamic empires ruled all or part of these European countries:

Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, Malta, Greece, Albania, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Russia, Moldova, Ukraine, Croatia, Slovenia, Hungary, Slovakia.

Islamic Countries in Central Asia

These are the Central Asian countries Muslims ruled:

Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgzystan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan.

Islamic Countries in South and Southeast Asia

These modern South and Southeast Asian countries were once (or currently) under Islamic rule:

Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Southwest China, Southern Vietnam, Indonesia, Philippines. 

Islamic Countries in Africa

Muslims ruled all or part of these African countries (and in many cases still do): 

Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Western Sahara, Mauritania, Niger, Mali, Chad, Sudan, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, Madagascar, Uganda, Central African Republic, Nigeria, Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Gambia.

What is the Enduring Legacy of Islam in These Countries?

Even for those countries that are no longer under Islamic rule, Islam has an enduring cultural legacy. To some extent, countries once ruled by Muslims have these kinds of culture features:

• A Muslim population
• Islamic architecture 
• Arabic language and literary works
• Influences on art, music, and other cultural productions
• Principles of Islamic jurisprudence in their legal codes
• Arabic influences on food

If you have the opportunity to travel to one of these countries, see how many of these cultural influences you notice. 

 

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