Islam is the fastest growing faith in the world. It all began in 610 AD when the Prophet Muhammad received revelations from the Quran in Mecca. Islam's reputation for promoting harsh and controlled government, oppression of women, civil war and terrorism is not entirely accurate. Islam is a rich and complex religion that is often misunderstood in the modern world. There were many obstacles that were faced. Islam would not exist today with its leaders, the Crusades and their empires. The most important leader was, of course, Muhammad. He basically founded Islam and preached and converted many to this religion. He insisted that it was wrong to build a private fortune, but it was right to share wealth and create a society in which the weak and vulnerable were treated with respect (51). Umar, Muhammad's second successor and father-in-law, was very important to the history of Islam. He was initially against Islam but converted immediately after hearing some verses of the Koran. Islam reached its greatest and most rapid expansion under the reign of Umar; Muslim forces conquered Syria, Jerusalem, Egypt, Libya, Iraq, and the armies of Persia. This period is often considered the golden age of Islam. It was when Muslims were at the top of their region's social order and when Islam was the purest because it had not yet been corrupted by power or privilege. There were many other leaders who followed and they all contributed to Islamic history. The Crusades were a series of wars started by Christians to regain their holy lands from Muslims. It all began in July 1099, when Western European Christian crusaders attacked Jerusalem, massacred its inhabitants, and founded states in Palestine, Lebanon, and Anatolia (173). It was not until 1187 that Jerusalem was reconquered by the Crusaders. The Crusades would not end for a long time. Ownership of the Holy Land is fundamental for a religion because it gives a sense of homeland. If the homeland is occupied by someone else, then it is a priority to reconquer it. The three Islamic empires, the Safavid Empire, the Mughal Empire and the Ottoman Empire, were very influential in the development of Islam. These empires covered the entire Islamic world. The Safavid Empire was the shortest-lived empire, but it made an important contribution by making Shia Islam the official religion. The Mughal Empire appears to be the most disastrous of the three empires but it gave rise to influential architecture and poetic and scientific works.