The rise of Islam: Mohammed, born in 570 AD, was a native of the Arabian city Mecca who received a divine revelation, a message from God, in 610. He was driven from the city for his preaching and was forced to flee to Medina in 622, what is called the Hijra. But his teachings survived and Mohammed returned to Mecca in 630. He died two years later. Islam sees itself following the same tradition of Judaism and Christianity (all three religions worship the same God), accepting both the Jewish Torah and the Christian Bible as holy books, but Mohammed, the author of the Koran, is seen as the last true prophet of God. Followers of Islam are also called Muslims.

Mohammed's successor, called the "caliph", united the new Islamic religion with an expansion of the Arabic peoples. Caliph Omar, who ruled 634-644, founded the Arab Empire and began its spectacular expansion. Key dates are:

638, Jerusalem captured;

641, Arabs occupy Egypt;

642, Persia conquered;

670, Tunisia occupied;

683, Morocco is taken and the Atlantic Ocean reached (many North Africans welcomed the Arabs as liberators from Roman rule);

711, the general Tariq crosses into Spain at Gibraltar (from Geber al- Tariq or the "mountain of Tariq:);

732, Arab-Berber invasion of northern Europe stopped by Charles Martel and the Frankish army at the Battle of Poitiers.

After 800 AD, the empire began to break up with independent Islamic states appearing in Spain and North Africa, Egypt and Palestine, and Turkestan and Afghanistan. Baghdad remained as the centre of a Persian-dominated empire.

Ferdowsi, the greatest Persian writer, lived from 939-1020. His most important work is Shahnameh, or The Book of Kings. It tells legendary stories of Persia's heroes. Ferdowsi worked at the court of Mahmud the Great, king or sultan of Ghazna.