People & Histories
632–661

The Succession and the Rightly Guided Caliphs

Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman and Ali lead the community in turn, as Arab armies conquer an empire and a dispute over leadership opens the Sunni–Shia divide.

  • The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates — Hugh Kennedy, Longman (1986)
  • The Succession to Muhammad: A Study of the Early Caliphate — Wilferd Madelung, Cambridge University Press (1997)
  • An Introduction to Shi'i Islam — Moojan Momen, Yale University Press (1985)
  • The Great Arab Conquests — Hugh Kennedy, Weidenfeld & Nicolson (2007)
  • Caliphate — Encyclopaedia Britannica

Debated by historians faithcommunitypoliticsempire

Who leads now?

When the Prophet died in 632, the Qur’an was complete but the question of leadership was not settled. While Ali and the Prophet’s family prepared his body for burial, leaders of the Medinan Ansar met at a hall called the Saqifa to choose a leader. Senior Meccan companions hurried there, and after a tense debate Umar pledged allegiance to Abu Bakr, the Prophet’s old friend and father-in-law. The others followed.

  • The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates — Hugh Kennedy, Longman (1986)
  • The Succession to Muhammad: A Study of the Early Caliphate — Wilferd Madelung, Cambridge University Press (1997)
Abu Bakr took the title khalifat rasul Allah, “successor of the messenger of God”, from which comes the word “caliph”. He was not a prophet: the caliph’s role was to lead and protect the community, not to bring new revelation.
  • Caliphate — Encyclopaedia Britannica
  • Islam: The Straight Path — John L. Esposito, Oxford University Press

Ali, the Prophet’s cousin and son-in-law, did not at first accept. Shia Muslims believe the Prophet had already chosen him, pointing especially to a sermon at the pool of Ghadir Khumm in 632. Sunnis accept that the Prophet praised Ali there but read it as an expression of love and loyalty, not an appointment.

  • An Introduction to Shi'i Islam — Moojan Momen, Yale University Press (1985)
  • The Succession to Muhammad: A Study of the Early Caliphate — Wilferd Madelung, Cambridge University Press (1997)
  • The Oxford Dictionary of Islam — John L. Esposito (ed.), Oxford University Press (2003)
Ali eventually gave his allegiance to Abu Bakr, reportedly after Fatima’s death a few months later.
  • The Succession to Muhammad: A Study of the Early Caliphate — Wilferd Madelung, Cambridge University Press (1997)
  • An Introduction to Shi'i Islam — Moojan Momen, Yale University Press (1985)

An empire in a generation

Abu Bakr’s short reign (632–634) was spent bringing back tribes that had broken away after the Prophet’s death, in the “Ridda wars”. Under Umar (634–644), Arab armies then defeated the Byzantine and Sasanian Persian empires, both exhausted by decades of war with each other. Syria and Jerusalem, Iraq, Egypt and much of Iran fell within about fifteen years.

  • The Great Arab Conquests — Hugh Kennedy, Weidenfeld & Nicolson (2007)
  • In God's Path: The Arab Conquests and the Creation of an Islamic Empire — Robert G. Hoyland, Oxford University Press (2015)
  • The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates — Hugh Kennedy, Longman (1986)
Muslim tradition remembers Umar as stern and just, entering Jerusalem humbly around 637–638 and guaranteeing its Christians their churches. Historians stress that conversion in the conquered lands was gradual: for generations the Muslims were a ruling minority, and non-Muslims paid a special tax (jizya) in exchange for protection and freedom of worship.
  • The Great Arab Conquests — Hugh Kennedy, Weidenfeld & Nicolson (2007)
  • In God's Path: The Arab Conquests and the Creation of an Islamic Empire — Robert G. Hoyland, Oxford University Press (2015)
  • A History of the Arab Peoples — Albert Hourani, Faber and Faber (1991)

Fitna: the first civil war

Umar was murdered in 644 and a council chose Uthman, of the powerful Umayyad clan. Muslim tradition credits him with producing the standard written text of the Qur’an. But his appointment of relatives as governors stirred resentment, and in 656 rebels killed him in his house in Medina.

  • The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates — Hugh Kennedy, Longman (1986)
  • The Succession to Muhammad: A Study of the Early Caliphate — Wilferd Madelung, Cambridge University Press (1997)
  • Islam — Encyclopaedia Britannica

Ali became caliph at last, but into a civil war, the first fitna (“trial” or “strife”). At the Battle of the Camel in 656 he defeated forces led by the Prophet’s widow Aisha and two senior companions, Talha and al-Zubayr. Then Mu’awiya, Uthman’s kinsman and governor of Syria, demanded revenge for Uthman’s death. The armies met at Siffin in 657; the fighting ended in arbitration, which satisfied no one.

  • The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates — Hugh Kennedy, Longman (1986)
  • The Succession to Muhammad: A Study of the Early Caliphate — Wilferd Madelung, Cambridge University Press (1997)
  • The Venture of Islam: Conscience and History in a World Civilization — Marshall G. S. Hodgson, University of Chicago Press (1974)
Some of Ali’s own followers, rejecting arbitration by humans, left his camp. These “Kharijites” (“those who went out”) fought him, and in 661 one of them killed Ali as he prayed in the mosque of Kufa. Mu’awiya became caliph and founded the Umayyad dynasty.
  • The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates — Hugh Kennedy, Longman (1986)
  • An Introduction to Shi'i Islam — Moojan Momen, Yale University Press (1985)

Why it still matters

For Sunnis, the four “rightly guided” caliphs were all great companions of the Prophet, and their era is the model of a just Islamic order. For Shia, the true line of leadership ran through Ali and his descendants, the Imams, and the early caliphate was a political wrong done to the Prophet’s family.

  • An Introduction to Shi'i Islam — Moojan Momen, Yale University Press (1985)
  • Islam: The Straight Path — John L. Esposito, Oxford University Press
Neither side denies Ali’s greatness: Sunnis honour him as the fourth caliph and a hero of faith. A small third tradition, the Ibadis of Oman, traces its roots to more moderate members of the early Kharijite movement, though Ibadis reject the extremism the Kharijite name now suggests.
  • The Oxford Dictionary of Islam — John L. Esposito (ed.), Oxford University Press (2003)
  • The Venture of Islam: Conscience and History in a World Civilization — Marshall G. S. Hodgson, University of Chicago Press (1974)

How it's seen
Sunni view

The Prophet left no binding designation. The community rightly chose Abu Bakr, his closest companion, and the four "rightly guided" caliphs (al-Khulafa' al-Rashidun) Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman and Ali all deserve honour, in that order. Their era is a model of just Islamic rule.

  • Islam: The Straight Path — John L. Esposito, Oxford University Press
  • The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates — Hugh Kennedy, Longman (1986)
  • The Oxford Dictionary of Islam — John L. Esposito (ed.), Oxford University Press (2003)

Shia view

The Prophet designated Ali as his successor, above all at Ghadir Khumm on the way back from the Farewell Pilgrimage, when he said "for whomever I am master (mawla), Ali is his master". Leadership belonged to Ali and his descendants, the Imams, and passing him over was a grave wrong.

  • An Introduction to Shi'i Islam — Moojan Momen, Yale University Press (1985)
  • The Succession to Muhammad: A Study of the Early Caliphate — Wilferd Madelung, Cambridge University Press (1997)

Historians

The sources were written down long after the events, under Sunni and Shia influence alike. Wilferd Madelung argued that Ali and the Prophet's family had a strong claim that was sidelined by politics; others see an open question that each side later read its own answer into.

  • The Succession to Muhammad: A Study of the Early Caliphate — Wilferd Madelung, Cambridge University Press (1997)
  • The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates — Hugh Kennedy, Longman (1986)
  • Muhammad and the Believers: At the Origins of Islam — Fred M. Donner, Harvard University Press (2010)

Why it matters today

Islam

Almost every Muslim is either Sunni or Shia, and the difference began here, in a disagreement over who should have led the community after the Prophet. For Sunnis these decades are a golden age to look back to; for Shia they are the start of a long injustice to the Prophet's family. Respect for both memories matters in any conversation.