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Key Characteristics Of Muhammad And Islam In The Islamic Empire

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Islam came to influence during the 7th century there were key characteristics that led to the Islamic Empire becoming one of the greatest civilisations of the era. During this initial period of Islam there were crucial elements that influenced the direction of the Islamic world. These were the emergence of caliphates and the rise of ruling dynasties, the rapid expansion of Islamic territories through trade and conquest, and finally the development of cultural, intellectual and scientific collaboration and exchange.
The prophet Muhammad and Islam, brought about an age of unification for the people of the Arabian Peninsula. The initial response to Muhammad and his teachings were slow, but saw religion replacing kinship as the basis of a collective identity, however, he was a charismatic peacemaker who preached the divine revelations of the one true God – Allah, these would later become part of the Qur’an. Muhammad became a leader in Medina, and his followers became known as the Ummah (a single community of believers which transcends place). The Muslim people saw Muhammad not as a ‘divine figure’ but as the ‘perfect man’, he had so completely given himself to his divine revelations that he influenced Muslim society so fully that it enabled his people to live in harmony (Armstrong 2002, p.24).
The death of Muhammad in 632CE saw the emergence of caliphs (supreme religious and political rulers), the first four had all been close to the prophet and had learned directly from his

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