> Ancient Civilizations> Islamic Civilization

Abbasid Dynasty
The Abbasid Dynasty ruled the Arab world between 758-1258 AD, and so is considered the medieval period for Islamic culture.

Achaemenid Dynasty
The Achaemenids were the ruling dynasty of Cyrus the Great and his family over the Persian empire, from 550-330 BC.

Almoravid Dynasty
The Almoravid Dynasty was a Berber empire located in North Africa during the 11th and 12th centuries AD.

Architecture of Islam
From Muslim Heritage, a collection of papers on the Islamic architectural sites in the world, including the Taj Mahal, the Kutubiya Mosque, abd Topkapi.

ArchNet Digital Library
This site, developed by MIT and Texas Tech, is meant to be a meeting place for researchers in Islamic architecture. The Digital Library includes photographs of several historic sites throughout the Muslim world.

Caliphs and Kings
From the Smithsonian Institution, a webpage supporting their recent exhibit of Islamic art and architecture. Requires Flash plugin.

Ctesiphon (Iraq)
Ctesiphon is the name of a very old city at the confluence of the Tigris and Diyala rivers near Baghdad in what is now Iraq.

Excavations at Al-Fustat
From the Egyptian Culture Center, Waseda University, Japan, a brief discussion and some photographs of artifacts.

Explore the Taj Mahal
A free virtual visit to the amazing Taj Mahal is available online now, with slide shows of architectural details and 360 degree virtual tours. Stunning.

Fulani Caliphate
The Fulani are modern African pastoralists who today live in Mali, Guinea, Cameroon, Senegal and Niger.

Hamdallahi (Mali)
Hamdallahi is the capital city of the Islamic Fulani caliphate of Macina (also spelled Massina or Masina), occupied between 1820 and 1864.

Iraq and China
This online exhibit from the Smithsonian Institution investigates the effects of trade between Iraq and China created during the Abbasid Dynasty.

Islamic Civilization: Timeline and Definition
The Islamic Civilization is in reality an amalgam of wide variety of cultures, from North Africa to the western periphery of the Pacific Ocean, and from Central Asia to sub-Saharan Africa.

Kandahar of the Arab Conquest
From a special issue of World Archaeology on Islamic Archaeology dated 1983, an article on the Islamic site of Qandahar from S. W. Helms, on the Khyber website.

Qandahar (Afghanistan)
The archaeological site of Qandahar is located near the modern city of Kandahar in south central Afghanistan

Samarra (Iraq)
The modern Islamic city of Samarra is located on the Tigris River; its earliest urban occupation dates to the Abbasid period.

Seljuk Dynasty
The Seljuk Dynasty was an Islamic empire which occupied central Asia and the middle east between the 11th and 14th centuries AD.

Songhai Empire
The Songhai Empire was established in western subsaharan Africa by Sonni 'Ali Ber in AD 1464.

Tell Tuneinir
Eleven years of excavation by the St. Louis Community College at this Islamic and Bronze Age site in northeast Syria

Welcome to Isfahan
From Thomas Rochford, a computer science professor at Anglia Polytechnic, a walking tour of this ancient city. Lots of images of Islamic architecture.