Approximate date
Phoenician traders at Byblos and Tyre spread a short alphabet of 22 letters. Greek, Latin, Hebrew and Arabic letters all descend from it.
How it touches Islam The first revelation praises Allah 'who taught by the pen' (96:4); the Quran's own letters grew from this family.
Source: History ·
Borders come from Cliopatria, the open map of the Seshat Global History Databank (CC BY 4.0), and are approximate. Dates before 1000 BCE are estimates, and for the earliest prophets the Quran gives the order of events but not their years. Sources: the Quran, Sahih al-Bukhari and Muslim, the Seerah of Ibn Ishaq, Ibn Kathir's al-Bidaya wan-Nihaya, and standard histories. See also the villains of Islamic history, from Iblis to the Dajjal, and the library of people, nations, empires and places.
