To understand Islamic architecture, it is important to know a little about Muslim history. Muslim history involves the history of the Islamic faith as a religion and as a social institution. According to Islamic Faith and the Holy Text, it is wrong to say that the history of Islam began in Arabia with Muslim Prophet Muhammad's first recitations of the Qur'an in the 7th century, but with Adam and Eve. They are considered the First Apostles of God. Later, Abraham, Moses and Jesus all taught the same faith as prophets, albeit in different regions or at different points of time.A century after the death of Muhammad, an Islamic empire extended from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to Central Asia in the east. The subsequent empires of the Umayyads, Abbasids, the Fatimids, the Mughals, the Safavids, and Ottomans were among the largest and most powerful in the world. The Islamic civilization gave rise to many centers of culture and science and produced notable scientists, astronomers, mathematicians, doctors, nurses and philosophers during the Golden Age of Islam. Technology flourished; there was much investment in economic infrastructure, such as irrigation systems and canals; and especially, the importance of reading the Qur'an produced a comparatively high level of literacy in the general populace.
Later, in the eighteenth century and nineteenth century, many Islamic regions fell under the tutelage of European imperial powers. After the First World War, the remnants of the Ottoman empire were parcelled out as European protectorates. Since 1924, there has been no major widely-accepted claim to the caliphate (which had been last claimed by the Ottomans). The fast-growing Western interests in Islamic regions, international conflicts and globalization have changed the influence of Islam on the world of the twenty-first century.
