The rise of Islam: from Mecca to Damascus (610–750)
Grade 11 · World History to the End of the Fifteenth Century, Grade 11, University/College Preparation · 75 min · standard
Mapped by the museum, not endorsed by the Ministry.
A CHW3M pathway following the rise of a new community in Arabia and its transformation within a century into a state stretching from al-Andalus to Central Asia: the setting, the revelation, the Hijra, the Constitution of Medina, the first battles, the Rashidun caliphate and Umayyad Damascus.
Curriculum mapping
- Ontario, Canada
- World History to the End of the Fifteenth Century, Grade 11, University/College Preparation CHW3M
- Grade
- 11
- Strand
- C · Flourishing Societies and Civilizations
- Overall expectations
- C1, C2
- What the lesson does, in the museum's words
- The lesson presents the first Muslim society (610–750) as a flourishing civilisation from a specific region and period: its social, economic and political structures (the tribe, the Constitution of Medina, the caliphate) and the factors that led to its stability and expansion (the Hijra, alliances, the conquests, Umayyad administration). It serves as one of the three societies the strand requires.
- Curriculum document consulted
- The Ontario Curriculum, Grades 11 and 12: Canadian and World Studies, 2015
- Codes checked on
- 23 October 2026 CE · 12 Jumada I 1448 AH†
Mapped by the museum, not endorsed by the Ministry.
Lesson goal
Students analyse the social and political structures on which the first Muslim community rested and the factors that contributed to its stability and expansion to 750.
Seventy-five minutes over a lesson and a half: the eight steps are read in pairs, leaving twenty minutes for the worksheet. Traditional dates are marked as traditional in the museum: a good way into the concept of evidence in strand A.
Print the pack: teacher page, worksheet and answer key Classroom quiz Walk this pathway
Lesson steps
Walk this pathway
8steps · 75min · teacher · student · standard
Arabia before Islam
Tribes, trade and the surrounding powers: Byzantium, Persia and Abyssinia.
The Prophet Muhammad and the first revelation
A man of Quraysh at forty, a cave near Mecca, and the start of a message.
The Hijra
622: the community moves to Yathrib, and a calendar begins.
The Constitution of Medina
A pact between the emigrants, the Ansar and the Jews: what the document says about the new society.
Badr and after
The first battles with Quraysh: their causes and consequences as the sources tell them.
Hudaybiyya and the conquest of Mecca
A treaty, then an entry into Mecca almost without fighting: negotiation as a political tool.
The Treaty of Hudaybiyya · The Conquest of Mecca (Fath Makka)
The Rashidun caliphate
How the four caliphs were chosen, and how a land from Egypt to Persia was governed.
The Umayyads and Damascus
A hereditary state in an ancient capital: administration, coinage, language and the great mosques.
What you now know
Mastery check
Five questions on what you walked through. Marked on your device; nothing is kept but the stamp in your passport when you pass.
Marking needs JavaScript; the questions and their key read and print without it.
Answer key (for the teacher)
- Which two great powers surrounded Arabia before Islam? — Byzantium and Persia(Learn it at step 1: Arabia before Islam)
- Why does 622 begin the Islamic calendar? — It was the year of the Hijra to Medina(Learn it at step 3: The Hijra)
- What did the Constitution of Medina regulate? — Relations and duties between the groups of Medina(Learn it at step 4: The Constitution of Medina)
- How did the Prophet enter Mecca in 630? — After a treaty, then almost without fighting(Learn it at step 6: Hudaybiyya and the conquest of Mecca)
- How did the Umayyads differ from the Rashidun in the transfer of power? — Rule became hereditary within one family(Learn it at step 8: The Umayyads and Damascus)
Tell it back
Tell what you learned in your own words. What you write stays on this device only, and no one else reads it.
- I can describe the social and political structures of the first Muslim community.
- I can explain three factors behind the state's stability and expansion to 750.
- I can distinguish what the Islamic sources relate from what historians debate.
Writing here needs JavaScript; the prompts read and print without it.
Write at least two sentences, or tick that you told it, to earn the stamp in your passport.
Worksheet
Answer in your own words after each step; every question points back to a museum page.
-
Which three powers surrounded Arabia in 600, and how did they affect Mecca's trade?
-
Read the Constitution of Medina in the museum: name two clauses and what they say about relations between groups.
-
Why do historians treat Hudaybiyya as a greater turning point than Badr?
-
Compare how the caliph was chosen in the Rashidun period with Umayyad hereditary succession.
-
Which factor do you judge most important in the state's expansion to 750? Support it with a step from the pathway.
Free and open: print, quote and adapt, with no account and no student data.