Islam begins
A new religion unites Arabia within a decade
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The migration to Medina in 622, the hijra, marks year zero in the Islamic calendar. Within a century the Caliphate reached from the Atlantic to the Indus — one of the fastest expansions in history, explained both by religious mobilisation and by Byzantium and Persia being exhausted after decades of war against each other. Islam brought a shared legal and scholarly framework, Arabic as a language of science, and a trade network binding the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean. The Sunni–Shia split arose over who should succeed the Prophet.
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Muhammad taught that there is only one God, and that all people stand equal before him. Within a few decades the new faith united the Arab tribes, who had quarrelled for generations. It then spread with astonishing speed from Spain to India.
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Part of Terra Saga — the story of Earth on a timeline. terrasaga.org