When Mohammed died in 632 at age 62, the Muslims faced the age-old challenge of all societies – how to choose the new leader. Muhammed wore many hats including supreme spiritual leader, head of state, chief judge, sole legislator, and commander in chief of the army. How should the new leader be chosen? A battle among the strongest? Absolutely not. A son of the old leader? Although 8 of Muhammed’s 12 wives were living at the time of this death, only one of his children survived him, a daughter named Fatima, and she would die within 6 months. Fatima’s husband, Ali, was a cousin of Muhammed. Did Muhammed designate a successor? Well, that was an unresolved question that rages even now. The Shias say he named Ali. The Sunnis say Muhammed left it up to his closest companions to confer and make the best choice. And they chose one his closest friends and the first convert to Islam outside of Muhammed’s family: Abu Bakr.
What title to give the next leader? He could not become The Prophet of Allah; that title would always be Muhammed’s alone. Should he also be the spiritual leader of Islam? They decided yes and the title derived for the next leader was Khalifah Rasul Allah, “Successor of the Prophet of God.” (From this appellation came the title Khalifa (Caliph).
Abu Bakr, three years younger than The Prophet, was a wise and gentle man. He succeeded in holding together the remarkable and talented men who had risen to prominence in this new society. Understandably, many tribes in Arabia who had pledged fealty to Muhammed attempted to breakaway upon his death. Abu Bakr quickly established dominance over all of Arabia and re-converted wayward apostates to Islam. The Arabs were mainly traders with caravans and a primary source of goods came from plundering. As Muslims, they were not to attack fellow Muslims. So, Abu Bakr turned his eyes northwestward to Syria & Palestine. In 634, the Muslims defeated the Byzantines in a battle near Gaza and wrested much of Palestine from the Byzantine Christians. With the fall of Jerusalem in 638, Muslims would hold that region until the arrival of the Crusaders, four and half centuries later.
Abu Bakr died in 634. Muhammed’s Companions conferred again and selected 43-year-old Umar as the second Caliph. Unlike Abu Bakr, Umar had been a bit of a latecomer in accepting Muhammed and his spiritual claims. But there was no doubt he was a true believer committed to spreading the faith. He gave his attention to the area northeast of Arabia – Mesopotamia and Iran, which were under the dominion of the Sassanids (Persians). They were Zoroastrians who worshipped a monotheistic god. Within a few years, to the astonishment of many historians, the Muslims totally defeated the armies of the Sassanids and captured their lands and tremendous treasures – silver, goal, silk, and precious stones. At the same time, other Muslim armies were engaged in conquering Syria and Egypt. By 641, all the key cities in Egypt had changed from Byzantine to Muslim control.
Umar ruled for ten years. He devoted much of his energies to setting policies for administering the huge amount of recently acquired lands and peoples. Armies of occupation were required to live in camps outside the urban centers. Governors mainly used previous officials to manage their provinces. Non-Muslim monotheists (such as inhabitants of Iran and Egypt) could not bear arms and were subject to their own existing laws. Most of them found the burdens of taxes and control to be lighter under Muslims than they had been under their previous masters. The great wealth that was gained by the plundering armies presented vexing problems on how to properly distribute it. Umar set up policies for doing so. Much of the later success of the Muslim Empire can be attributed to the wise administration of this second Caliph. In 644, at the height of his power and prestige, Umar was assassinated at worship by an Iranian Christian slave who had a grudge to settle. On his deathbed, he appointed six men to select the next Caliph. They chose a 70-year-old close companion of Muhammed’s, Uthman Ibn Affan. He would rule for 12 years before he, too would be assassinated.
Now let’s step back and think about this. The Muslim religion had only been established 30 years ago. The key players were all Arabs who had personally known, and many had fought with Muhammed. Most were illiterate and had not had prior managerial experience. And now they had this huge super wealthy empire to manage. And, of course, very poor communications. I am trying to envision what it was like for a septuagenarian suddenly being made supreme leader over all this. Meanwhile, Ali, who believed Muhammed had wanted him to be the Caliph, was fuming that he had not been chosen.
Uthman did as well as one could expect of him. He is most remembered for convening a committee of scholars and tasking them with establishing the official Quran. (There were several versions floating around.) They completed their work in 651, 19 years after Muhammed’s death, and the Quran they certified has remained the only version ever since.
Uthman had a predilection for assigning members of his family to powerful positions which irked many Muslims. Among Uthman’s appointees was his cousin Muawiya, who he made governor of Syria. Dr. Fisher says Muawiya “was one of the greatest administrators in Muslim history.” The guy built a fleet, captured Cypress and Rhodes, and destroyed most of the Byzantine navy. Be that as it may, malcontents rose up, overtook the palace in Medina and murdered Uthman. Anarchy reigned for a week until the notables agreed to make Ali the 4th Caliph. (This is all relevant, I promise.)
While Ali did not participate in the assassination of Uthman, it became known that he was aware of the plot. Afterwards, he took no action to punish the assassins. Even so, throughout the Muslim world, he was accepted as Caliph – everywhere that is, except in Damascus where Muawiyah was governor and refused to resign. Turns out that Aishah, perhaps the most dynamic of Muhammed’s living wives, hated Ali and rallied an army that included many of Muhammed’s Companions to oppose Ali. In this first battle of Muslim against Muslim, known as The Battle of the Camel, Ali’s forces were victorious and nearly all the old Companions were killed. Aishah retired to Medina where she lived out her life in a house under the floor of which were buried Muhammed, Abu Bakr, and Umar.
Five years after The Battle of the Camel, guess what happened to Ali? Same fate as the two prior Caliphs – he was assassinated. The assassin used a poisoned soaked sword. Ali’s folks appointed Ali’s son, Hasan to be the next Caliph. Muawiyah later convinced Hasan to resign, retire on a royal pension, and allow Muawiyah to become the Caliph in 661. Muawiyah reigned until 680 and is recognized as the founder of the Umayyad dynasty.
Back to the Shias. They accepted the first three Caliphs plus Ali as legitimate and termed them “The Rightly Guided Caliphs”. After that, though, Shias required that Caliphs be blood descendants of The Prophet – i.e., Fatima and Ali’s descendants. As we noted, Hasan renounced the Caliphate. His younger brother, Husayn, did not. However, he kept that to himself until Muawiyah died. When Muawiya’s son, Yazid was selected as the next Caliph (the first to descend from the prior Caliph), Husayn raised a small army and challenged him. Husayn’s forces were defeated at Karbala in 680 where Husayn was beheaded.
Yazid turned out to be by far the worst Caliph to date – he was a drunkard and so was his pet monkey – which really irked the orthodox Muslims especially the Shias. So, they rallied behind Husayn’s son, Ali ibn Husayn, who the Shias consider to be the fourth of The Twelve Imams. (Ali, Hasan, and Husayn are 1, 2 & 3.) Yazid’s successor had Ali Ibn poisoned. As a matter of fact, every Imam from #4 to #11 died by poisoning. Hasan, #2, who renounced the title was the only one to die of natural causes. So, what about the Twelfth Imam? Muhammed Al-Mahdi went into a cave and occulated in 941. One day, the Shias believe, he will exit the cave and make the world a better place, particularly for the Shias.
To summarize: Shias believe that the Caliphate passed to The Prophet’s family beginning with Ali and the Sunnis think it went to Yazid and his successors. And now you know.
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