The Main Issues Confronting the Rightly Guided Caliphs from 632-661
A) After the death of the prophet, the city of medina and Mecca was
under a form of chaos, as the Islamic empire were with out a leader to
guide or to lead the people of Islam. Therefore the Muslim committee
elected Abu Bakr, as he was the closest companion of the prophet, and
so become the first caliphate, also known as ‘The Rightly Guided
Caliphs’ because a caliph is someone who truly followed the footsteps
of the prophet. Abu Bakr’s first dilemma as a caliph was the
dismemberment of the alliances of the following kingdoms ‘Yemen’ and
‘Oman’. Also the false revelations of new prophets seemed to emerge
through out of Arabia. To deal with this problem Abu Bakr had no
choice but to send out the Muslim armies to conquer the following
kingdoms and also destroy any allegations of prophet hood. These
problems were dealt swift and quick, and in two years the whole of
Arabia was united by one signal Caliph by the year 633 AC. The final
internal problem that Abu Bakr had to deal with was the creation of
the written Qur’an, it took about two years for the holly verses
scathed through out Mecca and Medina to be united and be created into
one book. Also at which time Abu Bakr had to deal with external
problem, which was the constant oppression from the Roman Empire,
causing Abu Bakr to appoint Khalid bin Waleed a military genius to
lead the Muslim army to invade the kingdoms of Syria and Iraq.
“I shall send usama’s army on its way as ordered by the prophet, even
if I am left alone.”
At the age of sixty-three Abu Bakr passed away never witnessing the
accomplishment ...
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...ph remained was Ali, Ali in my point of
view is remembered more as a religious figure then a military leader,
but yet Ali had no choice but intervene with Mu’awiya in battles to
secure his caliphate as Mu’awiya would not recognise him as a caliph
until the assassins of his uncle Uthman brought to justice, but the
assassins where mostly made of Ali’s supporters. You could argue the
fact that Ali could not expand the empire as the other three caliphs
but regardless he did intervene as a caliph to make changes to the
rules of taxing and the revenues.
Ali out of all the other caliphs had pressing matter to deal with the
instance he became a caliph, and these pressing mater affects now in
our time then at Ali’s time, as because of Ali’s events of becoming a
caliph the Islamic world was divided into two, shi’a and sunnis.
The political structure of the Arabian and Byzantine empires greatly differed from each other. The Arabian empire was ruled over by a Caliphate. The Caliphate was the successor to the great prophet Muhammad. Politically, the Caliphate sometimes caused trouble for the stability of the empire. With multiple groups such as the Umayyad and the Abbasid believing the were in charge of the Caliphate led to conflicts and violence. An example of conflict would be towards the end of the Abbasid empire when the death of Harun al-Rashid brought several full scale revolutions. Another example would be at the beginning of Abbasid empire when they went as far as too kill off all of the remaining Umayyad leaders to sustain full control with little to no interference. Politically, the Arab/Muslim empire stretched from India and the Middle East into the Africa, the Mediterranean, and Iberia. They also had a large influence in Southeast Asia. When they conquered these areas, there was no forced conversion. On the other hand, they did enforce a higher tax for non-Muslims which prompted people to convert. Only later were there violently forced conversions. A testimony to this would be when the Muslims invaded India and did not touch the Buddhist or Hindus already there. They even respected the Hindu leadership and allowed them to continue. The Muslim empire was successful in other parts of the world due to tolerance, and continued to operate in the face of power struggles.
Three Muslim empires rose during the spread of Islam. These empires are different, yet also similar. They are the Ottomans, Safavids, and Mughals. They united other Muslims but also conquered other territories to form their own empires.
After the fall of the Roman Empire, no one imagined that the next great world power would emerge from Saudi Arabia. Especially, because ancient empires thought that the land was worthless but they didn’t know that it had great trade routes. Trade brought them in connection with other civilizations and that’s how the city of Mecca, located in Saudi Arabia became known. The city of Mecca was a mix of religious beliefs, they used to worship many gods and had their own rituals. The world of Islam took place in Mecca where Muhammad was born in 570 CE. He became known as “the Prophet,” he was meant to be God’s final prophet. The main two groups of Islam are the Shia and Sunni; which they were created after Muhammad’s death. The Islam religion as
had to pick a new leader. He chose the Duke of Medina Sidonia. He was
Without these two empires, much of the Greek knowledge known today would not have existed. These two empires brought back into popularity much of Greek culture and philosophy. There are many similarities that should be compared between the Byzantine Empire and the Islamic Caliphates.
“In 622, a small community of Muslims gradually migrated from Mecca to Medina” (Cleveland 11) they were in effect kicked out of Mecca because their leader, Muhammad “posed a challenge to the social, economic, and religious structure of the city” (Cleveland 10). By 750, this small group of outcasts had gained power over “an empire that stretched from Morocco to India” (Cleveland 17). The religion of Muhammad, Islam, grew even beyond this first empire and became the driving force behind future expansions for a millennium. There are quite a few factors that played into the initial success of these Islamic empires and by extension, Islam. However, the strength of its empires was not only in their ability to gain power but also in their ability to sustain it. As each Islamic empire grew, the number cultures and religions within it grew as well. The Koran provided some guidance on how to manage these different regions in addition; each empire devised creative methods of dealing with the immense diversity. The strength of these Islamic empires lied in their ability to maintain a strong centralized government firmly based in Islam, while adapting to accept vastly different cultures.
The government of the Ottoman Empire was an absolute monarchy for a majority of the empire’s time period. During the last fifty years, change in government occurred frequently, due to the decline and lack of good leadership. The state was organized into two parts; military and civil administration, where the sultan, otherwise known as the caliphate held the highest position in the state. Though the sultan had complete and absolute control over the empire, most did not exercise complete control, usually leaving the work to the grand vizier who would lead and move forward with reforms and laws as the sultan asked (“Ottoman Empire”). Many of the sultans were men lacked ability, training or experience in leading an empire (Chambers).
After the death of the Prophet Muhammad, the death of Islam was very possible. The Arab conquests were remembered merely as one of the history’s more improbable “might-have-beens”. It may easily have been the end, if not for the decisive action taken by the early Muslim leadership, notably by the first two caliphs (or successors of the Prophet). Like Muhammad
invaders. However, the ultimate fate of this regime was placed back in the hands of the
In this instance the type of rulers that will be addressed will be the Christian and Muslim rulers as oppose to
The failure of defensive development in Egypt, the Ottoman Empire, and Persia had a large and long-lasting effect on the Muslim world. The original goal of the reforms was to end European intervention, revive the weakening empires, and to be on equal standing with Europe. Yet, all three empires over-utilized the wealth and knowledge of Europe, leading to their ultimate demise. The empires wished to impose reforms in the military, economics, education, and law which the region had not experienced previously. This resulted in backlash, violence, and division within the empires eventually leading to bankruptcy, ironically, to those which they wished to separate themselves.
This war tore the Caliphate into factions and cost a great deal to the treasuries of both sides. As with most other occasions in which a man usurps a throne there a long term repercussions and conflicts. Al-Mamun was plagued for a great part of his reign by rebellions. He struggled for five years against an Alid rebellion which tried to install ‘Al-Rida’, or t...
Politics is important to any civilization for the reason that it influences how a civilization governs their people and expands their belief system upon its citizens. Both Byzantine and Islamic civilization had used politics in a manner that provided them the success accomplished during their expansion throughout Europe. The Byzantine Empire was a form of an autocratic government that was governed by one ruler at a time, known as an emperor. The emperor had made most of the decisions that pushed the Byzantine regime forward. The Islamic civilization governed its people under one ruler known as a caliph. The caliph had the position as a leader of an Islamic community. The caliph had used Islam to promote his authority over the community and across wider fields. Muhammad used tribal methods of jihad, referred to “holy war”, to expand its authority of the movement. Both ...
The structure of Egyptian politics and state administration was also redefined during Ali’s rule. As the go...
On the surface Muhammad is usually considered to be a prophet and messenger of God, but when looking closer we can see that He played many more roles in His life time including one of a Statesman.