711–1600 CE · selected regional survey · Global · Faith
Muslim rule and belief expanded through conquest, diplomacy, scholarship, Sufi networks and maritime trade into West and East Africa, Central and South Asia, and island Southeast Asia.
Atlas dossier · Medieval WorldFree device narration · synchronized English captions · transcript available
Why it matters
The 711–1600 range is a selected regional survey. Conquest mattered in some places, while trade, scholarship, rulers, teachers and local institutions mattered elsewhere. Conversion unfolded unevenly and did not erase Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish or Indigenous traditions.
Columbia Asia for Educators: Southeast Asia central themes ↗Kilwa provides archaeological evidence for Islamisation alongside Swahili commerce on the East African coast. Timbuktu’s mosques and schools document a different fifteenth- and sixteenth-century scholarly centre in West Africa. These cases show why one model cannot explain the religion’s many regional histories.
UNESCO World Heritage Centre: Kilwa Kisiwani and Songo Mnara ↗Silent pan-and-zoom motion derivative of the Islam spreads across Africa and Asia reconstruction; not archival footage.
Enlarge and examine the picturePrimary Atlas editorial reconstruction for Islam spreads across Africa and Asia.
World History in Pictures · Public site artwork. This record does not grant third-party republication rights.
How Atlas classifies this artwork →
Enlarge and examine the pictureSupporting Atlas reconstruction within the same Islam spreads across Africa and Asia editorial package; not an independent archival record.
World History in Pictures · Same editorial artwork package
How Atlas classifies this artwork →
Enlarge and examine the pictureContext crop from the same Islam spreads across Africa and Asia reconstruction; not an independent historical record.
World History in Pictures · Same editorial artwork package
How Atlas classifies this artwork →Interpretation note
This dossier distinguishes the event’s basic chronology from later arguments about meaning, responsibility and legacy. When comparing religious, national, Indigenous or scholarly interpretations, consult the primary and institutional sources above alongside peer-reviewed historical work.
Elsewhere in the world
c. 700–early 1900s CE · regional survey · AfricaIndian Ocean and East African slave tradesInterconnected Red Sea and Indian Ocean systems moved commodities and enslaved people among East Africa, Arabia, Persia, India and island societies; Zanzibar became a major nineteenth-century hub.
c. 650–early 1900s CE · regional survey · AfricaTrans-Saharan trade and enslavementCaravan routes exchanged gold, salt, textiles, books and other goods between North and West Africa; enslaved Africans were also transported northward through Saharan networks over many centuries.
793–1066 CE · EuropeViking expansion and Scandinavian worldsNorse raiders, traders and settlers crossed the North Atlantic, entered river routes toward Byzantium and established communities from Ireland and Normandy to Iceland and Greenland.