A timeline of the caliphates, dynasties and empires from the Prophet Muhammad to today. Where the archive has writings from a period, the entry links to them.
Each state sits below the power it grew out of or replaced. Tap a tile to open its branches — the major rulers, and the countries that stand on that ground today. Tap a country to follow its story through every period. Scroll sideways on small screens.
Mecca and Medina
The Prophet Muhammad was born in Mecca around 570. Revelation began around 610. The Hijra, the move to Medina in 622, marks year 1 of the Islamic calendar. He died in 632 after the whole of Arabia had come under the new community.
Medina, then Kufa
The first four caliphs, Abū Bakr, ʿUmar, ʿUthmān and ʿAlī, led the community. Syria, Iraq, Egypt and Iran came under Muslim rule. The Qurʾān was compiled in written form and the first civil wars began.
Damascus
The first hereditary dynasty. Its rule stretched from Spain and North Africa to Sindh and Central Asia. Arabic became the language of administration and the Dome of the Rock was built.
Córdoba
A branch of the Umayyads escaped to Spain and founded an emirate in 756. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān III declared a caliphate in 929. Córdoba became a centre of learning until the state broke into small kingdoms.
Marrakesh, Seville
Two Berber reform movements ruled Morocco and Muslim Spain in succession. The Almoravids held power from 1040 to 1147 and the Almohads from 1121 to 1269. Ibn Rushd and Ibn Ṭufayl lived under the Almohads.
Granada
The last Muslim state in Spain. It built the Alhambra and fell to Castile and Aragon in January 1492.
Baghdad
The caliphate of the great age of translation, law, theology and science. Real power passed to regional sultans from the ninth century. The Mongols sacked Baghdad in 1258 and killed the last caliph there.
Mahdia, then Cairo
An Ismāʿīlī Shiʿi caliphate that claimed descent from Fāṭima. It ruled North Africa, Egypt and parts of Syria and Arabia. Cairo was founded in 969 and al-Azhar around 970.
Cairo and Damascus
Founded by Saladin, who ended Fatimid rule and recaptured Jerusalem in 1187. The Ayyubids built many madrasas and restored Sunni teaching in Egypt and Syria.
Cairo
Slave-soldier sultans who defeated the Mongols at ʿAyn Jālūt in 1260. They sheltered an Abbasid caliph in Cairo as a figurehead. Ibn Taymiyya, Ibn Khaldūn and al-Suyūṭī lived under their rule.
Delhi
A series of Turkic and Afghan dynasties that ruled northern India for over three centuries. Sufi orders such as the Chishtiyya spread widely in this period.
Nishapur, Isfahan, Baghdad
Sunni Turkic sultans who took Baghdad in 1055 and ruled in the caliph’s name. Their vizier Niẓām al-Mulk founded the Niẓāmiyya madrasas.
Bursa, Edirne, Istanbul
Began as a small principality in Anatolia and conquered Constantinople in 1453. After taking Syria and Egypt in 1516–17 it ruled most of the Arab world and the Balkans. The sultanate was abolished in 1922 and the caliphate on 3 March 1924.
Dirʿiyya, Riyadh
The alliance between Muḥammad ibn Saʿūd and Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb founded the first Saudi state in 1744. A second state followed from 1824 and the modern kingdom was proclaimed in 1932.
Algiers, Cairo, Delhi
France took Algeria in 1830, Britain took over India in 1858 and occupied Egypt in 1882. Reformers such as al-Afghānī and ʿAbduh responded with the Nahḍa and new Islamic thought.
Istanbul, Ankara, Cairo
The Ottoman Empire fell after the First World War. Britain and France took mandates over Arab lands. Turkey abolished the caliphate in 1924, and independence movements grew.
Karachi, Cairo, Jakarta
Pakistan and Indonesia and most Arab and African states won independence. Islamic revival movements such as the Muslim Brotherhood and Jamāʿat-i Islāmī grew. The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation was founded in 1969.
Tehran, Kabul, Sarajevo
The Iranian revolution of 1979 founded the Islamic Republic. The Soviet war in Afghanistan, Islamisation programmes and new Muslim scholarship marked the period.
Worldwide
Writing in the age of globalisation and the internet. The Arab uprisings began in 2010–11, and Muslim intellectuals now write for global audiences in many languages.
Tabriz
Mongol rulers of Iran and Iraq. Ghazan converted to Islam in 1295, and the dynasty became Muslim.
Samarkand, Herat
Founded by Tīmūr. Its courts were centres of Persian art, astronomy and poetry, and its descendants founded the Mughal dynasty.
Delhi, Agra
Founded by Bābur. It ruled most of the Indian subcontinent and reached its height under Akbar and Shāh Jahān. Britain deposed the last emperor after the 1857 rebellion.
Tabriz, Qazvin, Isfahan
Made Twelver Shiʿism the state religion of Iran. Its rule saw great philosophy, architecture and art in Isfahan.
The modern states that stand on the ground of these empires and caliphates. Open a country to see every period it passed through, from the first community to today.
Mecca and Medina
The Prophet Muhammad was born in Mecca around 570. Revelation began around 610. The Hijra, the move to Medina in 622, marks year 1 of the Islamic calendar. He died in 632 after the whole of Arabia had come under the new community.
Medina, then Kufa
The first four caliphs, Abū Bakr, ʿUmar, ʿUthmān and ʿAlī, led the community. Syria, Iraq, Egypt and Iran came under Muslim rule. The Qurʾān was compiled in written form and the first civil wars began.
Damascus
The first hereditary dynasty. Its rule stretched from Spain and North Africa to Sindh and Central Asia. Arabic became the language of administration and the Dome of the Rock was built.
Baghdad
The caliphate of the great age of translation, law, theology and science. Real power passed to regional sultans from the ninth century. The Mongols sacked Baghdad in 1258 and killed the last caliph there.
Córdoba
A branch of the Umayyads escaped to Spain and founded an emirate in 756. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān III declared a caliphate in 929. Córdoba became a centre of learning until the state broke into small kingdoms.
Mahdia, then Cairo
An Ismāʿīlī Shiʿi caliphate that claimed descent from Fāṭima. It ruled North Africa, Egypt and parts of Syria and Arabia. Cairo was founded in 969 and al-Azhar around 970.
Nishapur, Isfahan, Baghdad
Sunni Turkic sultans who took Baghdad in 1055 and ruled in the caliph’s name. Their vizier Niẓām al-Mulk founded the Niẓāmiyya madrasas.
Marrakesh, Seville
Two Berber reform movements ruled Morocco and Muslim Spain in succession. The Almoravids held power from 1040 to 1147 and the Almohads from 1121 to 1269. Ibn Rushd and Ibn Ṭufayl lived under the Almohads.
Cairo and Damascus
Founded by Saladin, who ended Fatimid rule and recaptured Jerusalem in 1187. The Ayyubids built many madrasas and restored Sunni teaching in Egypt and Syria.
Delhi
A series of Turkic and Afghan dynasties that ruled northern India for over three centuries. Sufi orders such as the Chishtiyya spread widely in this period.
Granada
The last Muslim state in Spain. It built the Alhambra and fell to Castile and Aragon in January 1492.
Cairo
Slave-soldier sultans who defeated the Mongols at ʿAyn Jālūt in 1260. They sheltered an Abbasid caliph in Cairo as a figurehead. Ibn Taymiyya, Ibn Khaldūn and al-Suyūṭī lived under their rule.
Tabriz
Mongol rulers of Iran and Iraq. Ghazan converted to Islam in 1295, and the dynasty became Muslim.
Bursa, Edirne, Istanbul
Began as a small principality in Anatolia and conquered Constantinople in 1453. After taking Syria and Egypt in 1516–17 it ruled most of the Arab world and the Balkans. The sultanate was abolished in 1922 and the caliphate on 3 March 1924.
Samarkand, Herat
Founded by Tīmūr. Its courts were centres of Persian art, astronomy and poetry, and its descendants founded the Mughal dynasty.
Tabriz, Qazvin, Isfahan
Made Twelver Shiʿism the state religion of Iran. Its rule saw great philosophy, architecture and art in Isfahan.
Delhi, Agra
Founded by Bābur. It ruled most of the Indian subcontinent and reached its height under Akbar and Shāh Jahān. Britain deposed the last emperor after the 1857 rebellion.
Dirʿiyya, Riyadh
The alliance between Muḥammad ibn Saʿūd and Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb founded the first Saudi state in 1744. A second state followed from 1824 and the modern kingdom was proclaimed in 1932.
Algiers, Cairo, Delhi
France took Algeria in 1830, Britain took over India in 1858 and occupied Egypt in 1882. Reformers such as al-Afghānī and ʿAbduh responded with the Nahḍa and new Islamic thought.
Istanbul, Ankara, Cairo
The Ottoman Empire fell after the First World War. Britain and France took mandates over Arab lands. Turkey abolished the caliphate in 1924, and independence movements grew.
Karachi, Cairo, Jakarta
Pakistan and Indonesia and most Arab and African states won independence. Islamic revival movements such as the Muslim Brotherhood and Jamāʿat-i Islāmī grew. The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation was founded in 1969.
Tehran, Kabul, Sarajevo
The Iranian revolution of 1979 founded the Islamic Republic. The Soviet war in Afghanistan, Islamisation programmes and new Muslim scholarship marked the period.
Worldwide
Writing in the age of globalisation and the internet. The Arab uprisings began in 2010–11, and Muslim intellectuals now write for global audiences in many languages.
Archived 16 October 2026 · Source: Compiled by Islamic Internet Archives from standard reference chronologies. Dates are the commonly cited years, rounded; ruler dates were checked against Wikipedia where the page gave them, and each entry links to a Wikipedia article for further reading. Countries are the modern states that now cover the territory at its greatest extent.