Daniel 7:19 relates that the fourth empire is "different from all the rest." Furthermore, it will "crush and shatter" all previous kingdoms (Daniel 2:40). The Islamic Caliphate came to dominate all of the land contained within all three of these previous empires. The Roman Empire doesn't even come close to fulfilling this description.
The only empire that fulfills the requirements of Daniel's vision, is the Islamic Empire founded by Muhammad's successor Abu Bakr who invaded the Persian Empire and conquered the area of Babylonia in 637 A.D. He became the empire's first Caliph.
The fourth kingdom is represented by legs of iron in the metallic statue. The iron kingdom is divided into feet of iron and clay representing a "divided kingdom." The fourth kingdom, then, would be an unstable one that would become "divided," and this imagery aptly describes what happened to the Islamic Empire after the Muslim invasion of 637 A.D. It was divided into two religious or ideological factions -- namely Sunni and Shia.
The Arabs from 634-644 A.D., coming from their headquarters at Mecca, south of Palestine, conquered some 36,000 cities or strongholds, destroyed some 4,000 Christian churches, and erected some 1,400 Moslem mosques. They established an Empire that reached from Persia, through North Africa into Spain and the south of France. They sacked Rome, the seat of the Papacy, and even fought the Papal forces at sea. They besieged Constantinople, the capital of Byzantium, on two occasions in 674-678 A.D., and 717-718 A.D. But then they became divided into the Sunni and Shi'a sects represented by the two legs of Daniel's statue.
"The Midrash comments that these ten horns symbolize ten kings of the Fourth Kingdom, and the eleventh horn is the final king whom Israel will confront. All these kings, the Midrash stresses, are to be DESCENDANTS OF ESAU. The implication is that the king and initiator of the campaign against Israel will be from Esau-Edom" (ArtScroll Tanach series, Brooklyn, NY: Menorah Publications, 1989, p. 582).
In Psalm 83 we find the ONLY mentioned confederacy of ten kingdoms or nations in the entirety of the Bible --
They have said, "Come, and let us wipe them out as a nation, That the name of Israel be remembered no more." For they have conspired together with one mind; Against You they make a covenant: The tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites, Moab and the Hagrites; Gebal and Ammon and Amalek, Philistia with the inhabitants of Tyre; Assyria also has joined with them; They have become a help to the children of Lot. Selah. (Psalm 83:4-8 NASB).
The territories occupied by the nations/tribes named in Psalm 83 are roughly as follows: Edom in modern Jordan: Ishmaelites in modern Saudi Arabia; Moab in modern Jordan; Hagrites -- the territory bordering modern Jordan and Saudi Arabia; Gebal -- probably modern Golan Heights and nearby in Syria; Ammon in modern Jordan; Amalek in the modern Sinai peninsula and the Negev; Philistia -- modern Gaza Strip, part of the Palestinian authority; Tyre in modern Lebanon; Assyria -- modern Syria, Iran, and Iraq.
Some of the oldest Christian communities in the world are subject to relentless attack and teeter on the brink of extinction at the hands of the "Religion of Peace": Palestinian Christians in Gaza and the West Bank; Assyrian, Syriac and Chaldean Christians in Iraq; Coptic Christians in Egypt; Evangelical and Orthodox Christians in Eastern Ethiopia and Eritrea; Armenian Orthodox Christians in Turkey; and Maronite Christians in Lebanon.
In Aramaic, the word for "mixed" is simply 'arab. In the ancient Middle East, the Arabs were considered mixed desert peoples. Because the descendants of Ishmael and Esau had so intermarried among the various desert pagan tribes, they had essentially become known collectively as 'the mixed ones.' The first reference to the Eastern desert peoples (Ammonites and Moabites) as the 'mixed ones' is found in Nehemiah 13:1-3.
Nehemiah 13:3
Now it came to pass, when they had heard the law, that they separated from Israel all the mixed multitude.
The Jihad and terrorism from the Shia and Sunni Islam conflict could be a fulfillment of the ancient prophecy declared over Ishmael, the father of the Arab peoples, who would forever be in conflict with other men and even his own brothers:
Genesis 16:12
He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and everyone's hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers."
Also, the fact that Shia Muslims, who comprise about 15% of all Muslims, pray with their foreheads pressed against a piece of clay could be an indication of the weaker part of the iron/clay mixture.
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