Rashidun Caliphate (632-661): The First Four Caliphs

The Rashidun Caliphate was the Muslim state ruled by the first four successors of Muhammad, Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman and Ali, from 632 to 661. In less than thirty years, armies from Arabia overran the Sasanian Persian Empire and took the richest provinces of the Byzantine Empire, creating a state that reached from Libya to eastern Iran. The period also saw the first disputes over leadership that would divide Muslims into Sunni and Shia.

Origins: who would succeed Muhammad?

When Muhammad died in Medina on 8 June 632, he left no universally accepted arrangement for leadership. Leaders of the Ansar, the Muslims of Medina, met in a hall known as the Saqifa of the Banu Sa’ida to choose a leader. Umar ibn al-Khattab and Abu Bakr joined them, and after tense debate Abu Bakr was acknowledged as leader.

He took the title khalifat rasul Allah, “successor of the Messenger of God”, from which the word caliph comes. The later term al-khulafa al-rashidun, “the rightly guided caliphs”, is mainly Sunni. Shia Muslims believe Muhammad had designated his cousin and son-in-law Ali ibn Abi Talib, a view that became central to their tradition.

Abu Bakr (632-634): holding Arabia together

After Muhammad’s death many Arabian tribes refused to pay tax to Medina or followed rival prophets, among them Musaylima of the Banu Hanifa and Tulayha of the Banu Asad. The campaigns that followed are called the Ridda wars, the “wars of apostasy”.

Abu Bakr sent several armies out of Medina. The most effective commander was Khalid ibn al-Walid, who defeated Tulayha and then Musaylima at the bloody Battle of Yamama in late 632 or early 633. By 633 the whole peninsula was under Medina’s control, for the first time united under one authority.

Arab forces then moved north into southern Iraq, a Sasanian province, and into Syria, then held by the Byzantines. Abu Bakr died of illness in August 634, having named Umar as his successor.

Umar (634-644): the great conquests

Victories over two empires

Umar’s reign saw the most dramatic expansion. Both the Byzantine and Sasanian empires were exhausted by the Byzantine-Sasanian War of 602-628 and by internal problems, and neither expected a serious threat from Arabia.

In Syria, Damascus surrendered in 635. In August 636 a large Byzantine army was defeated at the Battle of Yarmouk, after which the emperor Heraclius abandoned Syria. Jerusalem surrendered in 637 or 638, and Umar travelled there to receive the city. In Iraq, the Arab victory at al-Qadisiyya, dated between 636 and 638, opened the way to the Sasanian capital, Ctesiphon, which fell in 637.

Egypt and Iran

Amr ibn al-As invaded Egypt in 639. The Byzantine fortress of Babylon (in today’s Cairo) fell in 641, and Alexandria was surrendered by treaty in 641-642. In Iran, the victory at the Battle of Nahavand in about 642 broke the last large Sasanian army, though the conquest of the Iranian plateau took another decade.

Institutions

Umar created much of the framework of the early Islamic state. He took the title Amir al-Mu’minin, “Commander of the Faithful”. He set up the diwan, a register of Muslims entitled to annual stipends from the revenue of the conquests, with higher payments for early converts and veterans. Around 637-638 he introduced the Islamic calendar, counted from the Hijra of 622.

Rather than settling among the conquered peoples, Arab soldiers were mostly placed in new garrison cities (amsar): Basra and Kufa in Iraq, founded around 636-638, and Fustat in Egypt, founded in 641-642. These grew into major cities. Conquered Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians generally kept their religion and property in return for paying tribute, and much of the existing Byzantine and Persian administration continued to operate.

Umar is remembered in Sunni tradition for his austere personal life and strict sense of justice. He is said to have dressed simply, travelled with little escort and held his governors to account, dismissing even successful commanders such as Khalid ibn al-Walid. Many later legal and administrative customs were attributed to him, though historians note that some of these attributions were made long after his death.

In November 644 Umar was stabbed in the mosque of Medina by Abu Lu’lu’a Firuz, a Persian slave, and died a few days later.

Uthman (644-656): expansion and discontent

Before his death Umar appointed a council (shura) of six senior companions to choose his successor. They chose Uthman ibn Affan, an early convert from the wealthy Umayyad clan of Quraysh and a son-in-law of Muhammad.

Under Uthman the conquests continued. Arab armies raided into North Africa, defeating the Byzantine governor Gregory at Sufetula (Sbeitla, in Tunisia) in 647. Mu’awiya, governor of Syria, built a fleet that raided Cyprus in 649 and defeated the Byzantine navy at the Battle of the Masts, around 654-655. In the east, the last Sasanian king, Yazdegerd III, was killed near Merv in 651, ending the Sasanian dynasty.

Uthman’s most lasting act was to have an official text of the Quran compiled, around 650-653, and copies sent to the main cities, with other versions ordered destroyed. This standard text, the Uthmanic codex, is the basis of the Quran used today.

His rule also caused resentment. Critics accused him of favouring his Umayyad relatives with governorships and wealth, and of interfering with the stipends. In 656 groups of discontented soldiers from Egypt, Kufa and Basra came to Medina. In June 656 rebels broke into his house and killed him while, according to tradition, he was reading the Quran.

Ali (656-661): the First Fitna

Contested leadership

Ali ibn Abi Talib, Muhammad’s cousin and the husband of his daughter Fatima, was proclaimed caliph in Medina. His position was weakened from the start by the circumstances of Uthman’s death. The period of conflict that followed is called the First Fitna, meaning “trial” or “civil strife”.

Muhammad’s widow Aisha and two senior companions, Talha and al-Zubayr, demanded punishment of Uthman’s killers and raised forces in Basra. Ali defeated them at the Battle of the Camel, near Basra, in December 656; Talha and al-Zubayr were killed. Ali then made Kufa his capital.

Siffin and the Kharijites

Mu’awiya ibn Abi Sufyan, Uthman’s kinsman and the powerful governor of Syria, refused to recognise Ali until Uthman’s murderers were punished. The two armies met at Siffin, on the Euphrates, in July 657. After weeks of skirmishing and a major battle, the two sides agreed to arbitration.

A group of Ali’s soldiers rejected the arbitration, arguing that judgement belonged to God alone, and broke away. They became known as the Kharijites, “those who go out”. Ali defeated them at Nahrawan in 658, but the arbitration did not restore his authority, and Mu’awiya gained control of Egypt and grew stronger.

In January 661 Ali was struck with a poisoned sword in the mosque of Kufa by Abd al-Rahman ibn Muljam, a Kharijite, and died two days later. His son Hasan briefly claimed the caliphate but soon reached an agreement with Mu’awiya and withdrew. Mu’awiya became caliph, founding the Umayyad Caliphate with its capital at Damascus.

By the numbers

Arab armies in the conquests were small by later standards, typically numbering a few thousand to perhaps 20,000-30,000 men in the largest battles; the sources’ figures for enemy armies are often much higher and unreliable.

Myths and facts

• Myth: the conquests forced conquered peoples to convert. Most of the population of Syria, Iraq, Egypt and Iran remained Christian, Jewish or Zoroastrian for generations. Conversion was gradual, and Muslims probably became a majority in many regions only after several centuries.
• Myth: the Rashidun period was a time of unbroken harmony. Three of the four caliphs were assassinated, and the era ended in civil war.
• Fact: the empire depended on existing systems. The conquerors kept Byzantine and Persian coins, officials and tax practices for decades.

Timeline

• 632, 8 June: death of Muhammad; Abu Bakr becomes caliph.
• 632-633: the Ridda wars unite Arabia under Medina.
• 634, August: death of Abu Bakr; Umar becomes caliph.
• 636, August: Battle of Yarmouk; Byzantine Syria is lost.
• c. 636-638: Battle of al-Qadisiyya; Ctesiphon falls in 637.
• 641-642: conquest of Egypt completed.
• 644, November: Umar is assassinated; Uthman is chosen caliph.
• 656, June: Uthman is killed; Ali becomes caliph; Battle of the Camel in December.
• 657, July: Battle of Siffin between Ali and Mu’awiya.
• 661, January: Ali is assassinated in Kufa; Mu’awiya founds the Umayyad Caliphate.

Why it matters

The Rashidun Caliphate turned a religious community in western Arabia into one of the largest states in the world, permanently ending Sasanian Persia and reducing Byzantium to a fraction of its former size. Its institutions, from the Islamic calendar to the standard text of the Quran, shaped Islamic civilisation for centuries. The disputes over who should lead, which culminated in the First Fitna, are the historical root of the division between Sunni and Shia Islam.