Rashidun Caliphate

The Rashidun Caliphate was the first Islamic state to follow the death of the Prophet Muhammad, ruled in succession by the four 'rightly guided' caliphs whom Sunni tradition regards as the most virtuous successors.

It was established in 632 CE when, upon Muhammad's death, the Muslim community at Medina chose Abu Bakr as caliph (khalifa, 'successor') to lead the young polity. Despite its brief existence of less than three decades, the Rashidun period was one of the most consequential in world history, for under its caliphs the Arabs burst out of the Arabian Peninsula and conquered an immense empire with astonishing speed. Abu Bakr first reunified Arabia through the Ridda (apostasy) wars, after which his successor Umar ibn al-Khattab oversaw the conquest of the Sasanian Persian heartland and the wresting of Syria, the Levant, and Egypt from the Byzantine Empire, decisively defeating both great powers exhausted by their own long wars. Umar laid foundations of Islamic governance, establishing the Hijri calendar, a system of stipends, garrison cities such as Kufa and Basra, and an administration that largely retained existing Byzantine and Persian bureaucratic structures while collecting taxes from non-Muslim subjects. The third caliph, Uthman ibn Affan, is especially remembered for overseeing the compilation of the standardised text of the Quran, but his rule grew controversial amid accusations of favouring his Umayyad kinsmen, and he was assassinated in 656. His death plunged the community into the First Fitna, a civil war over the succession and legitimacy of leadership. The fourth caliph, Ali ibn Abi Talib, cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet, faced revolt and inconclusive conflict with the governor of Syria, Mu'awiya. Ali's assassination in 661 ended the Rashidun era, and Mu'awiya established the hereditary Umayyad Caliphate. The disputes of this period over rightful leadership produced the enduring division between Sunni and Shia Islam.

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