The founding of the religion of Islam and the first Islamic polity by the Prophet Muhammad was a major turning point in human history. There are currently more than a billion Muslims in the world. They live in dozens of countries and speak hundreds of languages and dialects. They are the majority population in a region spanning form Morocco to Indonesia. The purpose of this concentration is to allow students to study systematically and coherently the global civilization of Islam—its religious traditions, histories, and cultures—in all of its diversity. The indisciplinary program includes faculty from the departments of history, religious, studies, political science, international studies, Asian studies, and Modern Languages and Literatures.