Islam Timeline

Yazdânism is seen as a blend of local Kurdish beliefs and Islamic Sufi doctrine introduced to Kurdistan by Sheikh Adi ibn Musafir in the 12th century.

Alevism is a blend of traditional 14th-century Turkish beliefs, with possible syncretist origins in Shamanism and Animism alongside Shia and Sufi beliefs.

Image source: Alevism

Earlier in the 14th century, Ibn Taymiyya promoted a puritanical form of Islam, rejecting philosophical approaches in favor of simpler theology, and called to open the gates of itjihad rather than blind imitation of scholars.

Image source: Ibn Taymiyya

Sikhism, founded by Guru Nanak in Punjab in the late 15th century, was influenced by Islam.

Image source: Sikhism

During the 18th century in Arabia, Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab, influenced by the works of Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn al-Qayyim, founded a movement called Wahhabi to return to what he saw as unadulterated Islam.

Image source: Wahhabism

In the 18th century, Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab led a Salafi movement, referred to by outsiders as Wahhabism, in modern-day Saudi Arabia.

Image source: Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab

Ma Wanfu and Ma Debao promoted salafist movements in the 19th century such as Sailaifengye in China after returning from Mecca but were eventually persecuted and forced into hiding by Sufi groups.

Image source: Ma Wanfu

The Nurcu Sunni movement was initiated by Said Nursi (1877–1960); it incorporates elements of Sufism and science.

Image source: Nurism

The Ahmadiyya Movement was founded in British India in 1889 by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian, who claimed to be the promised Messiah, the Mahdi awaited by Muslims, and a subordinate prophet to Muhammad.

Image source: Ahmadiyya

A prominent late 20th century Quranist was Rashad Khalifa, an Egyptian-American biochemist who claimed to have discovered a numerological code in the Quran, and founded the Quranist organization United Submitters International.

Image source: Rashad Khalifa

The Ottoman Empire's 19th-century Tanzimat reforms led to the Mecelle civil code and represented the first attempt to codify sharia.

Image source: Mecelle

By the 19th century, the British East India Company had formally annexed the Mughal dynasty in India, ending Muslim imperial rule over much of the subcontinent.

Image source: Mughal Empire

Similar to contemporary codification, sharia was for the first time partially codified into law in 1869 in the Ottoman Empire's Mecelle code.

In opposition to Islamic political movements, in 20th-century Turkey, the military carried out coups to oust Islamist governments, and headscarves were legally restricted, as also happened in Tunisia.

Image source: Secularism in Turkey

The Ottoman Empire dissolved after World War I, the Ottoman Caliphate was abolished in 1924 and the subsequent Sharifian Caliphate fell quickly, thus leaving Islam without a Caliph.

Image source: Abolition of the Ottoman sultanate

The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), consisting of Muslim-majority countries, was established in 1969 after the burning of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.

Image source: Organisation of Islamic Cooperation

The Islamic revival of the late 20th century brought along calls by Islamist movements for complete implementation of sharia.

Image source: Islamic revival

The resulting urbanization and increase in trade in sub-Saharan Africa brought Muslims to settle in new areas and spread their faith, likely doubling its Muslim population between 1869 and 1914.

Image source: Islam in Africa

In 1900, Muslims were estimated at 12.3% of the global population, in 1990 it was 19.9%, and projections suggest the proportion will be 29.7% by 2050.

Image source: Islamic world

By both percentage and total numbers, Islam is the world's fastest growing major religious group, and is projected to be the world's largest by the end of the 21st century, surpassing that of Christianity.

Image source: Islam

Islam in Europe is the second-largest religion after Christianity in many countries, with growth rates due primarily to immigration and higher birth rates of Muslims in 2005, accounting for 4.9% of all of Europe's population in 2016.

Image source: Islam in Europe

According to the Pew Research Center, conversion to Islam has no major net impact on Muslim population growth, though Islam is expected to experience a modest gain of 3 million through conversion between 2010 and 2050, mostly from Sub-Saharan Africa (2.9 million).

Image source: Conversion to Islam

As of 2020, about 25.6% of the global population, or about 2 billion people, are Muslims.

A Pew study from 2020 found that the global Muslim population was the fastest-growing religious group over the decade, mainly because Muslims tend to be younger on average and have higher birth rates—two key factors driving natural population growth.

Image source: Growth of religion

According to the 2020 population estimate, 65% of the Muslim population is concentrated in ten countries, with the largest populations residing in Indonesia, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Egypt, Iran, Turkey, Sudan, and Algeria, in descending order.

According to a 2020 Pew study, about 1% of adults raised Muslim leave the faith, while an equal proportion —about 1%— convert to Islam from other religions, resulting in low levels of religious switching both into and out of Islam.