Topics · AD 661

Rise of the Rashidun Caliphate (632–661)

Between 632 and 661 AD, the Rashidun Caliphate expanded out of the Arabian Peninsula in one of the most rapid territorial reorganizations in world history.

By 661, armies under the first four caliphs had taken Syria, Egypt, Iraq and much of Iran from the Byzantine and Sasanian empires. Expansion farther across North Africa and into the Indus region continued under the Umayyads; that later extent should not be read as the Rashidun frontier.

Compare 620, 650 and 680 in the explorer to place the conquests alongside the transition to Umayyad rule. Border coverage varies by place and date: missing outlines do not mean that a region was uninhabited or lacked political authority.

Sources

• Cambridge University Press — Introduction to the Arab-Muslim empires
• Wikidata — Rashidun Caliphate
• OpenHistoricalMap

Wikidata: (Q8462)