Muhammad eventually persuaded most
of the people of Arabia (including
Mecca) to practice Islam. But after his
death in 632, Muslims disagreed as to
who should lead them. Muhammad’s
son-in-law !Ali became the Muslim
leader, or caliph, in 656. But he was
murdered in 661. Some Muslims maintained
that Muslim leadership belonged
to !Ali’s descendants alone. They formed
the Shi!ah branch of Islam. The Muslims
who disputed this claim became the
Sunnites.
During the 600s and 700s, Islam spread
far beyond Arabia, from the western
Mediterranean region to central Asia.
Holy wars called jihads were fought to
gain political control over societies so
that they could be run using Islamic
principles.
In the 11th century the Turks began
their rise as an Islamic power. The Seljuk
Turks conquered vast territories in the
Middle East. In 1071 they captured
Jerusalem. The Seljuks refused to allow
Christians to visit holy sites in the land
they controlled. Over the next two centuries,
Muslim powers fought off Christian
attempts to win back the Holy
Land in a series of wars known as the
Crusades. In the 1200s another group of
Muslim Turks, the Ottomans, began an
empire. The Ottomans eventually ruled
over North Africa, the Middle East, and
southeastern Europe for hundreds of
years.
Islam in Modern Times
During the 1800s and 1900sWestern
powers established colonies in Muslim
nations for the purpose of trade. Islamic
leaders lost political power. However,
Muslims drew together more as a community
in the face of colonization. In
the 1900s this sense of unity helped
many Muslim countries in their
struggles for political independence.
In the late 1900s Islam became one of the
fastest-growing world religions. Some
Muslims have resisted the influence of
theWest, which they view as leading to a
loss of traditionalMuslim values. In Iran
a revolution brought Islamic religious
Many Muslim women and girls wear head
scarves.
BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA Islam 165
leaders to power in 1979. Islam has had a
strong influence on the governments of
other countries as well.
#More to explore
Arabs • Caliphate • Crusades
• Jerusalem • Koran • Mecca • Middle
East • Mosque • Muhammad
• Ottoman Empire • Pilgrimage
• Ramadan
Islamabad
Population
(1998 estimate)
529,180
Islamabad is the capital of Pakistan, a
country in southern Asia. Meadows, low
mountains, and hilly plains surround
the city. Its name means “City of Islam”
or “City of Peace.”
Islamabad is a carefully planned city. It
was built during the 1960s to be the
new capital of Pakistan. Some of the
buildings in Islamabad were designed
using traditional Islamic styles. The city
has wide, straight streets and many gardens
and parks. The University of
Islamabad and the Open University are
located in Islamabad.
The city of Karachi was Pakistan’s first
capital. Islamabad became the capital in
1969. Pakistan and India fought a war
in 1971. The war slowed the city’s
development for a time.
#More to explore
Pakistan
Island
An island is an area of land that is surrounded
by water. Islands can be found
in all bodies of water, from streams and
rivers to lakes, seas, and oceans. The two
main types of islands are oceanic islands
and continental islands.
The Grand National Mosque in Islamabad
stands in front of the Margalla Hills, which
are part of the Himalayas.
An oceanic island in the South Pacific rises
from the ocean floor.
166 Islamabad BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA
Oceanic Islands
Oceanic islands are the tops of underwater
volcanoes. An oceanic island forms
when a volcano erupts deep under the
ocean and pushes the ocean floor
upward into a mountain. The island is
the top of that mountain. The Hawaiian
Islands are examples of oceanic islands.
Atolls are another type of island in the
ocean. An atoll is a ring of land around a
shallow body of water called a lagoon.
Atolls form when corals build a colony,
or reef, around the top of an underwater
volcano. Eventually the reef reaches the
surface of the water and becomes land.
Atolls make up the country of the Marshall
Islands.
Continental Islands
Continental islands are close to the continents.
They are parts of the same land
that makes up the continents. One way
that continental islands form is by the
flooding of valleys close to the coast.
The valleys fill with seawater, and the
tops of nearby hills then become islands.
Long Island, which lies off the coast of
the U.S. state of New York, is a continental
island.
The islands in rivers and lakes are also
continental islands. The city of Paris,
France, began as a settlement on an
island in the Seine River.
Archipelagoes
An archipelago is a group of islands. The
islands in archipelagoes may be oceanic
or continental. Japan and the Aleutian
Islands in the U.S. state of Alaska are
archipelagoes. Indonesia is the largest
archipelago in the world.
An atoll is a ring of land surrounding a pool of water called a lagoon. This kind of island
forms from a volcanic island circled by a coral reef.
A small continental island lies in the Seine
River near the town of Les Andelys, France.
BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA Island 167
Israel
