1. golden age
In pre-Islamic times the Arabian peninsula was a desert backwater, largely ignored by the rulers of the Sasanian empire. ... Driven by religious zeal and the desire for the spoils of war, they brought Muslim rule to Syria, Egypt, and what was left of the Sasanian Empire. ... Soon after this victory, Mu"awiya, a Syrian regional governor and cousin of Uthman, began a campaign against Ali to avenge Uthman's death. ... As the Empire grew to include more urbanized, cosmopolitan parts of the middle east such as Syria and Iraq, the Arabian peninsula came to be thought of as a desert was...
"Before the seventh century, the desert peninsula of Arabia was unimportant to world history"(Walker324).Yet today its a major religion, only second to Christianity in number of followers. ... The first Khalifas which were close companions of the prophet, Abu Bakr followed by Umar, conquered the great empire of Persia and the byzantine provinces of Syria and Palestine. ...