This course will examine the development of Islam as a lived faith. It will begin with an examination of the social and political condition of the Arabian peninsula and its surrounding regions prior to Islam, with special emphasis on the Byzantine and Persian empires. The course will examine the advent, consolidation, and spread of Islam as a great world religion. Students will study the successive political regimes dominating the heartland of Islam, as well as the reality of the people on the periphery of the Muslim world, whose conversion has been a consistent source of renewal for the faith. The course will also examine the factors leading to the economic and political decline of the Muslims and the implications of the beginnings of what would become European hegemony in the Muslim world.