ABSTRACT
The origins of civilization in the Middle East can be found in Mesopotamia and the Nile River valley in Egypt around 3500 BCE. Mesopotamia was the center of a series of the earliest civilizations in human history. Possibilities for irrigated cultivation near the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in Mesopotamia paralleled the agricultural potential of the steady flow of the Nile River in Egypt. The importance of the hijra in Islamic history is recognized by the fact that the Muslim calendar begins with the year when Muhammad and the muhajirun emigrants fled from Mecca. The Umayyad period of Islamic history saw an immense and rapid territorial expansion, which created numerous administrative and cultural challenges. The Umayyads favored the old ruling Arab elite of Mecca, in particular their own clan, over new converts to Islam, called mawali.
