Bravely, or foolishly, this series begins in the Middle East and settles upon Islam as the one common denominator among the Arab nations. Islam has its own divisions, however, the major one being that between Sunni Islam and Shi’ites Islam.
The majority of Muslims accept the practices and beliefs of Sunni Islam. The word “sunna” refers to the example set by the personal behavior of the prophet Muhammad. The Sunna, along with the Qur'an, which is comprised of the words of Muhammad that are regarded as direct revelations from God, and the Hadith, which is comprised of the other sayings and teachings of Muhammad, form the basis of Islam and serve as a guide to spiritual, ethical, and social life for all Muslims. This much is accepted by all Muslims.
The differences between the Sunni and the Shi’ites include matters of belief and the way in which the Qu’ran is interpreted, but they began with a conflict over who should succeed Muhammad as Caliph or leader upon Muhammad‘s death in 632 A.D.
The Shiat Ali, or Party of Ali, believed that Muhammad had chosen his cousin, Ali ibn Abu Talib, as his successor. Muhammad had invited Ali to live in his home from the time Ali was only six years old, and Muhammad had allowed Ali to marry Muhammad’s favorite daughter and only surviving child, Fatima. In 622, Ali had slept in Muhammad’s bed on the night when, out of fear of assassination, Muhammad left Mecca for Yathrib, later renamed Medina. Ali also fought in all but one of the battles fought by Muhammad, including joining with Muhammed to defend Yathrib and Islam against the attacks by the Meccans. Ali then fought on with Muhammad to dominate Mecca.
Mecca, in 610 A.D., at the time Muhammad had the vision in which Gabriel proclaimed him to be a prophet, was the center of several polytheistic religions. Muhammad’s tribe, the Quraysh, was prominent in the city, and that, combined with his growing following, made his monotheistic beliefs a threat to the town’s economy, which depended on the pilgrimages made to the many pagan shrines in the area. The clan leaders of Yathrib had already accepted Muhammad as a prophet and had invited him to the town in 620 to arbitrate disputes between their clans, disputes which could turn violent.
The Shiat Ali constituted a minority among Muhammad’s followers even in the early days of Islam. The majority, who became known as the Sunni, believed that the successor should be chosen by a consensus, which left Ali without sufficient support. Abu Bakr, Muhammad’s father-in-law, the father of Muhammad’s favorite wife, Aisha, and one of his earliest followers was selected. The Shiat Ali eventually accepted the consensual elections and also supported the next three successors.
Upon the death of Abu Bakr, late in August of 634, Umar ibn al-Khuttab or Umar I, the father of Muhammad’s third wife and another early follower of Muhammad‘s, succeeded as Caliph. Umar died in November of 644 and was succeeded by Uthman ibn Affan, who, like Ali, was a son-in-law of Muhammad.
Muhammad, Abu Bakr, Umar, and Uthman were all members of the Quraysh tribe, but Uthman was a member of a different clan, the Umayyads, a clan which had been prominent in Mecca before the ascendancy of Muhammad, the hostile Mecca which Muhammed had fled and had then fought to dominate. Uthman was also a member of the merchant class with little experience in warfare, and this further set him apart from the previous Caliphs.
Abu Bakr, although he left the military leadership to others, was embroiled in the Riddah Wars, or the Wars of Apostasy, against Arab tribes who, in order to both avoid the zakat, or alms tax and regain self-governance, had renounced Islam upon the death of Muhammad in favor of supporting their own local prophets.
After ending these wars, Bakr successfully advanced against both the Byzantine Empire and the Persian Sassanids, both drained by years of battle and more than a century of rivalry. He captured lands in present day Syria and southern Iraq and provided his army with the opportunity to gain more converts to Islam and take more plunder.
Umar assumed the epithet of amir-al-mum-inin, Commander of the Believers, and captured Damascus in September 635. By 636, he effectively ended Byzantine rule in the fertile crescent of the Tigris and the Euphrates. In 638, he captured Jerusalem, and by 642 he had moved into and captured Khãzest~n or Khuzistan, an area in present day southwestern Iran. Alexandria, to the west, in Egypt, had already fallen to another Muslim army in 641.
Under Uthman, however, opportunities for conquest and plunder diminished for the armies, but wealth continued to flow to Yathrib, to Uthman, and to those, largely from his own clan, whom he appointed to positions his bureaucracy. The army had always opposed him, but his support among others also began to wane.
When a group of volunteer soldiers raised the issues of pensions, distribution of revenues, and land allocation, Ali took up their cause and argued on their behalf, but in 656, he took no part when groups of soldiers from Iraq and Egypt rioted in Yathrib and began stoning Uthman in the mosque. Uthman agreed to reforms the soldiers wanted, but as a group of the men were returning to Egypt, they intercepted a message to the governor of Egypt commanding that they be punished. They returned to Yathrib in June and, fearing that Uthman might have sent a messenger to Syria as well as to Egypt and that a Syrian army might be on the way, they broke into Uthman’s home, murdered him, and convinced Ali to assume the Caliphate.
Ali had no part in the murder, but Uthman’s clan, the Umayyad, and Muhammad’s favorite wife, Aisha, daughter of Abu Bakr, declared Ali had gained the Caliphate unjustly and joined forces to oppose him. A civil war, which became known as the first fitnah, or trial, because it tested the unity of the Islam, ensued and lasted from 656 to 661.
In the first battle, in December of 656, Ali defeated an army of Aisha’s supporters. He then moved his capital to Al Kufah, a city founded by Umar 1, because he believed his support was stronger there. Muawiyah, the governor of Syria, was a member of Uthman’s clan, the Umayyad, and rejected Ali. He demanded the right to avenge the death of his relative, and in 657, he attacked Ali’s forces at the Plain of Siffin in Syria, near the largest bend of the Euphrates River. When the battle turned against him, he sought a way out and offered to abide by an arbitrated decision. If the two chosen arbitrators agreed that Uthman had been killed justifiably under Islamic law and, through his own mistakes, had brought his death upon himself, his slayer would be seen as an executioner rather than a murderer, and the Umayyad’s claim of revenge against Ali would be removed.
Ali agreed to Muawiyah’s proposal, but his more extreme supporters, who became known as the Kharajites, or the leavers, withdrew in protest. They declared that Ali was enjoined by the Qur'an to fight rebels until they obeyed and that the outcome of the battle would have shown the decision of God in the matter. Instead, Ali had, in their eyes, bowed to the will of man in seeking the decision of the arbitrators. In that, they insisted, Ali was morally wrong.
When, in 658, the decision of the arbitrators went against Ali, he too, belatedly, declared that the arbitration and verdict were not supported by Islamic law and appealed to the Kharajites to return. When they refused, Ali turned on them and massacred many. Most of the rest of Ali’s forces regarded the Kharajites dissent as a pious act. Shocked and infuriated by the massacre, they abandoned Ali, forcing him to return to Al Kufah. Ali tried to continue the war from there, but in January of 661, he, in his turn, was murdered by a Kharajites.
After discouraging Ali’s son, Hasayn, from coming forward, Muawiyah declared himself Caliphate. The majority of the Muslims accepted him. The Shiat Ali did not. They returned to their claim that Ali had been chosen by Muhammad and by God himself to succeed Muhammad. They rejected Muawiyah; denounced Abu Bakr, Umar, and Uthman as usurpers; insisted that Ali had been unjustly deposed, and proclaimed that the Caliphate should belong hereditarily to Ali’s family. The main difference between Sunni and Shi’ite Islam still lies in the belief of the Shi’ites that only the family of Ali should hold the Caliphate, and the belief of the Sunni, that the Caliph should be chosen by consensus.
Even though the Shiat Ali reject three of them, these first four Caliphs---Abu Bakr, Umar I, Uthman, and Ali—are known collectively as the al-Rashidun or the rightly guided caliphs because they are regarded by later scholars as Muhammad’s truest and most virtuous followers. Their era ends with Muawiyah. Muawiyah’s Caliphate represents the beginning of the Umayyad dynasty.
Sources:
“Iraq -- A Country Study,” The Library of Congress
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/iqtoc.html
"Islam, Spread of," Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2004http://encarta.msn.com/ © 1997-2004 Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
"Kharajite," Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2004http://encarta.msn.com/ © 1997-2004 Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
"Shia Islam," Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2004http://encarta.msn.com/ © 1997-2004 Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
"Sunni Islam," Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2004http://encarta.msn.com/ © 1997-2004 Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
Further Reading:
Suggested by Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia 2004
http://encarta.msn.com/ 1997-2004 Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
Armstrong, Karen. Islam: A Short History. Modern Library, 2000. A concise overview that attempts to clear up Western misunderstandings of the faith
Cleary, Thomas, trans. The Essential Koran: The Heart of Islam. HarperCollins, 1993, 1994. An annotated translation of the core spiritual wisdom fo the Qur’an (Koran).
Dawood, N. J., trans. The Koran. Penguin, 1990. A revised, updated translation of the Qur’an (Koran), the holiest Muslim text.
Hunter, Shireen T. The Future of Islam and the West. Praeger, 1998. A pragmatic analysis of relations between Islam and the Western world.
Jones-Bey, Hassaun, Ali. Better Than a Thousand Months: An American Muslim Family Celebration. Ibn Musa, 1997. The culture and celebrations of the Islamic world; for younger readers.
Lawrence, Bruce B. Shatttering the Myth: Islam Beyond Violence. Princeton University Press, 1998. Argues that Islam cannot be reduced to stereotypes such as the hostile religious fanatics battling unbelievers.
Schimmel, Annemarie. Islam: An Introduction. State University of New York Press, 1992. Clear, concise introduction to Islam.
Viorst, Milton. In the Shadow of the Prophet: The Struggle for the Soul of Islam. Anchor, 1998. Investigates the Middle Eastern struggle to reconcile Islamic law and beliefs with political power in the modern world.