Rashidun Caliph

The Rashidun Caliphate () is a title given for the reigns of first caliphs (lit. "successors") — Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, and Ali collectively — believed to represent the perfect Islam and governance who led the Muslim community and polity from the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad (in 632 AD), to the establishment of the Umayyad Caliphate (in 661 AD). The reign of these four caliphs is considered in Sunni Islam to have been "rightly-guided", meaning that it constitutes a model to be followed and emulated from a religious point of view. This term is not used by Shia Muslims, who reject the rule of the first three caliphs as illegitimate.

Following Muhammad's death in June 632, Muslim leaders debated who should succeed him. Unlike later caliphs, Rashidun were often chosen by some form of a small group of high-ranking companions of the Prophet in () or appointed by their predecessor. Muhammad's close companion Abu Bakr (), of the Banu Taym clan, was elected the first caliph in Medina and began the conquest of the Arabian Peninsula. The only Rashidun not to die by assassination, he was succeeded by Umar (), his appointed successor from the Banu Adi clan. Under Umar, the caliphate expanded at an unprecedented rate, conquering more than two-thirds of the Byzantine Empire and nearly the entire Sasanian Empire.

After Umar's assassination, Uthman (), a member of the Banu Umayya (Umayyad) clan, was chosen as caliph. He concluded the conquest of Persia in 651 and continued expeditions into the Byzantine territories. Uthman was assassinated in June 656 and succeeded by Ali (), a member of the Banu Hashim clan, who transferred the capital to Kufa. Ali presided over the civil war called the First Fitna as his suzerainty was unrecognized by Uthman's kinsman and Syria's governor Mu'awiya ibn Abu Sufyan (), who believed that Uthman's murderers should be punished immediately. Additionally, a third faction known as Kharijites, who were former supporters of Ali, rebelled against both Ali and Mu'awiya after refusing to accept the arbitration in the Battle of Siffin. The war led to the overthrow of the Rashidun Caliphate and the establishment of the Umayyad Caliphate in 661 by Mu'awiya.

Name and definitions

Derived from the Arabic word rushd, rāshid (rāshid راشد) means "one who has attained the right path or maturity", al-Khulafāʾ ar-Rāšidūn (الْخُلَفاءُ الرّاشِدُونَ) is an honorific title meaning "successors or representatives who have been guided to the right path". This also implies that they were endowed with superior piety and wisdom, and supports the deeply held belief that their era was a "golden age" following Muhammad in holiness, moral and religious guidance. It was in the 9th century, during the Abbasid era, that these first caliphs were first qualified as .

In addition, a Sunni hadith, attributed to Muhammad predicted that the prophetic succession would last for thirty years, which have been interpreted by some Sunni scholars as evidence that Hasan's six-month caliphate was "rightly-guided" also. These caliphs were the "orthodox" or "patriarchal" caliphs accepted by the majority in Islamic history. However, in the Shiite understanding of Islam, the material and spiritual heritage of Muhammad including governance power was represented by the Imams who were his descendants (except for the 1st Imam Ali), the numbers of which varied according to the Shiite subgroups, and just like the Umayyad and Abbasid caliphs, the Rashidun caliphs, except for Ali and Hasan, were the individuals who usurped this right. Ibadism does not see the caliphate as an institution that includes all believers and must be obeyed; it also sees the two caliphs after Muhammad as being on the right path and the others as having strayed into injustice.

Historicity

The stories were written “a posteriori” in the form of “founding conquest stories” based on nostalgia for the golden age in Abbasids time. Humphrey, quoted by Antoine Borrut, explains that the stories related to this period were created according to a pact-betrayal-redemption principle. However, at least one inscription has been found dating to the period that mentions Umar by name and the date of his death, known as the inscription of Zuhayr. Its three lines read:
# In the name of God
# I, Zuhayr, wrote (this) at the time Umar died, year four
# And twenty

Robert G. Hoyland, finds it "all but certain" that the inscription refers to the historical Umar, adding, "and yet the absence of any epithet or title is striking". Graphites may be susceptible to alternative readings due to the erasure of letters by environmental influences and inadequate writing system, and unless specifically stated, dating can only be done approximately based on the "writing style". Other possible mentions in inscriptions from that era could be read as Amr or Usthman Ibn Affan include: an inscription at Tayma, Saudi Arabia, and one at the Alia Palace archaeological site in Makkah Province, Saudi Arabia.

Coins: Unlike known historical figures such as Ibn Zubayr and Mu'awiya I who lived during this period, there are no coins minted in the name of these caliphs that could be evidence of political power. The coins in circulation during the specified period contain two types of designs:

1. Byzantine type; This was presented with Islamic writings added to Byzantine kings and Christian figures.

2. Sassanid type; This type was presented with Zoroastrian figures and Arab-Islamic inscriptions added onto the pictures of the last Sassanid rulers.

In the world of Islamic literature, a tradition of "letter writing" can be mentioned under the names of Maktubat, Risalat, etc., and a large number of letters attributed to Umar, as well as Muhammad, which need to be scientifically verified, continue to be the subject of various religious-legal studies.

History

Background

According to the traditional account, the Islamic prophet Muhammad began receiving what Muslims consider to be divine revelations in 610 CE, calling for submission to the one God, preparation for the imminent Last Judgement, and charity for the poor and needy. As Muhammad's message began to attract followers (the ''ṣaḥāba'') he also met with increasing hostility and persecution from Meccan elites. In 622 CE Muhammad migrated to the city of Yathrib (now known as Medina), where he began to unify the tribes of Arabia under Islam, returning to Mecca to take control in 630 and order the destruction of all pagan idols. By the time Muhammad died (632 CE), almost all the tribes of the Arabian Peninsula had converted to Islam, but disagreement broke out over who would succeed him as leader of the Muslim community during the Rashidun Caliphate.

Among those seeking to be the successor of Muhammad were:
* the Quraysh tribe Companions of the Prophet known as " The ten to whom Paradise was promised" by Muhammad (''al-ʿashara al-mubashsharūn''), including Abu Bakr, Umar, Abu Ubayda ibn al-Jarrah, Uthman, Talha ibn Ubayd Allah Zubayr ibn al-Awwam, Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas, and Abd al-Rahman ibn Awf;
* Banu Hashim; members of the Hashemite clan including Ali and Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib, who were the closest blood relatives to Muhammad;
* Ansar; the people of Medina who "fed up" with being dominated by refugees from Mecca.
* members of the aristocratic Umayyad clan who had a strong position in Mecca and strong commercial and financial ties.

Timeline

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from: 632 till: 634 color:orange text:Abu Bakr
from: 634 till: 644 color:yellow text:Umar
from: 644 till: 656 color:blue text:Uthman ibn Affan
from: 656 till: 661 color:red text: Ali

(Note that a caliph's succession does not necessarily occur on the first day of the new year.)

*

Abu Bakr's reign (632–634)

Origin and accession to Caliphate

After Muhammad's death in 632 AD (11 AH), a gathering of the Ansar (), the natives of Medina, took place in the ''Saqifah'' (courtyard) of the Banu Sa'ida clan. The general belief at the time was that the purpose of the meeting was for the Ansar to decide on a new leader of the Muslim community among themselves, with the intentional exclusion of the Muhajirun (migrants from Mecca), though this has later become the subject of debate.

Nevertheless, Abu Bakr and Umar, both prominent companions of Muhammad, upon learning of the meeting became concerned about a potential coup and hastened to the gathering. Upon arriving, Abu Bakr addressed the assembled men with a warning that any attempt to elect a leader outside of Muhammad's own tribe, the Quraysh, would likely result in dissension as only they can command the necessary respect among the community. He then took Umar and another companion, Abu Ubaidah ibn al-Jarrah, by the hand and offered them to the Ansar as potential choices. He was countered with the suggestion that the Quraysh and the Ansar choose a leader each from among themselves, who would then rule jointly. The group grew heated upon hearing this proposal and began to argue amongst themselves. Umar hastily took Abu Bakr's hand and swore his own allegiance to the latter, an example followed by Abu Ubayda ibn al-Jarrah, the Ansar, the Qurayshtribe and other gathered men. Abu Bakr adopted the title of ''Khalīfaṫ Rasūl Allāh'' (, "Successor of the Messenger of God") or simply caliph.

Sunni Muslims argue Abu Bakr was near-universally accepted as head of the Muslim community (under the title of Caliph) as a result of Saqifah, though he did face contention as a result of the rushed nature of the event. Shia Muslims argue Muhammad's Medinan companions debated which of them should succeed him in running the affairs of the Muslims while Muhammad's household was busy with his burial.

Several companions, most prominent among them being Ali ibn Abi Talib, initially refused to acknowledge his authority. Ali may have been reasonably expected to assume leadership, being both cousin and son-in-law to Muhammad. The theologian Ibrahim al-Nakha'i stated that Ali also had support among the Ansar for his succession, explained by the genealogical links he shared with them. Whether his candidacy for the succession was raised during Saqifah is unknown, though it is not unlikely. Abu Bakr later sent Umar to confront Ali to gain his allegiance, resulting in an altercation which may have involved violence. However, after six months, the group made peace with Abu Bakr and Ali offered him his fealty. In addition, some (Chamieh) argue that the dissension of most of the tribes that had submitted to Islam (along with Ali) demonstrated not disbelief but that Abu Bakr did not have a consensus of the Muslim community to be Caliph.

Ridda Wars

Troubles emerged soon after Muhammad's death, threatening the unity and stability of the new community and state. Apostasy (in the form of refusal to obey and pay revenue to Abu Bakr), spread to every tribe in the Arabian Peninsula with the exception of the people in Mecca and Medina, the Banu Thaqif in Ta'if, and the Bani Abdul Qais of Oman. In some cases, entire tribes apostatised. Others merely withheld zakat, the alms tax, without formally challenging Islam. Many tribal leaders made claims to prophethood; some made it during the lifetime of Muhammad. The first incident of apostasy was fought and concluded while Muhammad still lived; a supposed prophet Aswad Ansi arose and invaded South Arabia; he was killed on 30 May 632 (6 Rabi' al-Awwal, 11 Hijri) by Governor Fērōz of Yemen, a Persian Muslim. The news of his death reached Medina shortly after the death of Muhammad. The apostasy of al-Yamama was led by another supposed prophet, Musaylimah,Gianluca Paolo Parolin, ''Citizenship in the Arab World: Kin, Religion and Nation-state'' ( Amsterdam University Press, 2009), p. 52. who arose before Muhammad's death; other centers of the rebels were in the Najd, Eastern Arabia (known then as ''al-Bahrayn'') and South Arabia (known as ''al-Yaman'' and including the ''Mahra''). Many tribes claimed that they had submitted to Muhammad and that with Muhammad's death, their allegiance was ended. Caliph Abu Bakr insisted that they had not just submitted to a leader but joined an ''ummah'' (, community) of which he was the new head. The result of this situation was the Ridda wars.

The campaign against Apostasy or Ridda wars were fought and completed during the eleventh year of the Hijri. The year 12 Hijri dawned on 18 March 633 with the Arabian peninsula united under the caliph in Medina. Abu Bakr divided the Muslim army into several corps. The strongest corps and the primary force of the Muslims was the corps of Khalid ibn al-Walid. This corps was used to fight the most powerful of the rebel forces. Other corps were given areas of secondary importance in which to bring the less dangerous apostate tribes to submission. Abu Bakr's plan was first to clear Najd and Western Arabia near Medina, then tackle Malik ibn Nuwayrah and his forces between the Najd and al-Bahrayn, and finally concentrate against the most dangerous enemy, Musaylimah and his allies in al-Yamama. After a series of successful campaigns Khalid ibn al-Walid defeated Musaylimah in the Battle of Yamama.

Expeditions to Persia and Syria

After Abu Bakr unified Arabia under Islam, he began the incursions into the Byzantine Empire and the Sasanian Empire. Whether or not he intended a full-out imperial conquest is hard to say; he did, however, set in motion a historical trajectory that in just a few short decades would lead to one of the largest empires in history. Abu Bakr began with Iraq, the richest province of the Sasanian Empire.''The Arab Conquest of Iran and its Aftermath'', 'Abd Al-Husein Zarrinkub, ''The Cambridge History of Iran'', Volume 4, ed. William Bayne Fisher, Richard Nelson Frye (Cambridge University Press, 1999), 5–6. He sent general Khalid ibn al-Walid to invade the Sassanian Empire in 633. He thereafter also sent four armies to invade the Roman province of Syria, but the decisive operation was only undertaken when Khalid, after completing the conquest of Iraq, was transferred to the Syrian front in 634.

Umar's reign (634–644)

Umar ibn al-Khattab (, c. 586/590 – 644) c. 2 November ( Dhu al-Hijjah 26, 23 Hijri) was a leading companion and adviser to Muhammad, and father-in-law by his daughter Hafsa bint Umar's marriage to Muhammad. He was appointed by a dying Abu Bakr to be his successor and took power on 23 August 634, becoming the second Muslim caliph after Muhammad's death. At least according to Laura Veccia Vaglieri, the expansion of Islam from an "isolated episode" in Arab history to an event of "worldwide importance" can be attributed to Umar's political skills.

Upon his accession, Umar adopted the title (Commander of the Faithful) which later became the standard title of caliphs. During his 10-year reign, the Islamic empire expanded at an unprecedented rate. The new caliph continued the war of conquests begun by his predecessor, pushing further into the Sassanian Empire, north into Byzantine territory, and went into Egypt. These were regions of great wealth controlled by powerful states, but the long conflict between Byzantines and Persians had left both sides militarily exhausted, and the Islamic armies easily prevailed against them. By 640, they had brought all of Mesopotamia, Syria and Palestine under the control of the Rashidun Caliphate; Egypt was conquered by 642, and almost the entire Sassanian Empire by 643.

While the caliphate continued its rapid expansion, Umar laid the foundations of a political structure that could hold it together. He created the Diwan, a bureau for transacting government affairs. The military was brought directly under state control and into its pay. Crucially, in conquered lands, Umar did not require that non-Muslim populations convert to Islam, nor did he try to centralize government. Instead, he allowed subject populations to retain their religion, language, and customs, and he left their government relatively untouched, imposing only a governor (''amir'') and a financial officer called an ''amil''. These new posts were integral to the efficient network of taxation that financed the empire.

With the bounty secured from conquest, Umar was able to support its faith in material ways: the companions of Muhammad were given pensions on which to live, allowing them to pursue religious studies and exercise spiritual leadership in their communities and beyond. Upon entering Jerusalem, Umar ordered that rubbish be cleared away from the mount of the Temple of Solomon and that a mosque be built there. Jebran Chamieh writes that Muslim stories passed down after his death stress Umar's "asceticism, his care for the poor, and ... for public money. Tradition claims that he had a single threadbare dress thawb which he patched with leather whenever it was torn. The purpose of these tales was to emphasize his piety and abnegation, and that he did not take money from the treasury", however history books make no mention of Omar ever donating "his share to the treasury or to the poor". It is difficult to reconcile these stories of self-denial "with the fact that the other leading Companions amassed great wealth", and Umar's share of the spoils from the conquered lands was at least equal to their shares.

Umar is also remembered for establishing the Islamic calendar; like the Arabian calendar, it is lunar, but the origin is set in 622, the year of the Hijra when Muhammad emigrated to Medina.

While Umar was leading the morning prayers in 644, he was assassinated by the Persian slave Abu Lu'lu'a Firuz. He appointed Suhayb ibn Sinan to lead the prayers.

Uthman's reign (644–656)

Uthman ibn Affan () (c. 573 – 17 June 656), who became the third caliph at the age of 70, was one of the early companions, and son in law of Muhammad by marriage to two of Muhammad and Khadija daughters Ruqayyah and Umm Kulthum. Uthman was born into the powerful Umayyad clan of the Meccan Quraysh tribe. Under his leadership, the empire expanded into Fars (present-day Iran), some of Khorasan (present-day Afghanistan), and Armenia. His rule ended when he was assassinated. Uthman is perhaps best known for forming the committee which standardised and canonised the Quran.

Election of Uthman

Before Umar died, he appointed a committee of six men to decide on the next caliph and charged them with choosing one of their own numbers. All of the men, like Umar, were from the tribe of Quraysh. His plan for choosing the next Caliph has been criticised its small size and unrepresentativeness, which excluded Muslims from Medina, Mecca, Tayef, and other tribes; for Umar's choice of people whom he considered unfit they were for the position of Caliph (Something he told one by one to their face), for his inclusion of a tie breaking seventh member who would be sure to veto Ali, and for instructions to a henchman to execute committee members if the committee was deadlocked.

The committee narrowed down the choices to two: Uthman and Ali. Ali was from the Banu Hashim clan (the same clan as Muhammad) of the Quraysh tribe, and he was the cousin and son-in-law of Muhammad and had been one of his companions from the inception of his mission. Uthman was from the Umayyad clan of the Quraysh. He was the second cousin and son-in-law of Muhammad and one of the early converts of Islam. Uthman was ultimately chosen.

Reign of Uthman

Uthman reigned for twelve years as a caliph. During the first half of his reign, he was the most popular caliph among all the Rashiduns, while in the latter half of his reign, he met increasing opposition, led by the Egyptians and concentrated around Ali, who would albeit briefly, succeed Uthman as caliph.

Uthman's most lasting project was the final compilation of the Qur'an. Uthman formed the committee which was tasked with producing copies of the Quran based on text that had been gathered separately on parchment, bones and rocks during the lifetime of Muhammad. Under his authority diacritics were written with Arabic letters so that non-native speakers of Arabic could easily read the Qur'an. Uthman sent copies of the sacred text to each of the Muslim cities and garrison towns and destroyed variant texts.

Despite internal troubles, Uthman continued the wars of conquest started by Umar. The Rashidun army conquered North Africa from the Byzantines and even raided Spain, conquering the coastal areas of the Iberian Peninsula, as well as the islands of Rhodes and Cyprus. Coastal Sicily was raided in 652. The Rashidun army fully conquered the Sasanian Empire, and its eastern frontiers extended up to the lower Indus River.

Assassination of Uthman

Uthman was generous in distributing booty and land to his relatives and Companions in the Quraysh tribe. Governors under his jurisdiction were accused of extravagance and harsh tax collection. This provoked jealousy and anger among excluded Muslims, especially in Egypt and Iraq, at a time when the numbers and power of the Quraysh were being diluted by the vast new conquered lands and converts to Islam. Outraged at what they considered the nepotism and corruption of Uthman, protestors gathered and put Uthman's house under siege, offering Uthman a choice of abdication or death.

Early caliphs had no security force to protect them—no praetorian guard or even regular armed forces. They depended in tribal levies from the Arabs whose loyalty came from the deference due to the Caliph as a successor of the Prophet. When Uthman lost that deference he had little left to protect him. Uthman refused the rebels' demand to abdicate declaring, "it is easier for me to die than to disown a mission (the caliphate) that God has entrusted to me." Returning to his room, he read the Quran as the protesters broke into his house from the back and killed him. It was later discovered that the order to kill the rebels did not, in fact, originate from Uthman, but was, rather, part of a conspiracy to overthrow him.

Ali's reign (656–661)

Ali ibn Abi Talib () was Muhammad's cousin and son-in-law. The fourth caliph in Sunni Islam, in Shia Islam, Ali is considered the rightful successor of Muhammad whose appointment was announced at the event of Ghadir Khumm and earlier in his prophetic mission.

Among the good and significant deeds he is credited with in Islamic literature, is being the first male to embrace Islam and the person who offered his support when Muhammad first presented Islam to his relatives; facilitating Muhammad's safe escape to Medina by risking his life as the decoy; swearing a pact of brotherhood with Muhammad in Medina; taking the hand of Muhammad's daughter, Fatimah, in marriage; acting as Muhammad's secretary in Medina, and serving as his deputy during the expedition of Tabuk, being (according to many) the most able warrior in Muhammad's army and one of the two Muslim men who represented Islam against a Christian delegation from Najran; and playing a key role in the collection of the Quran, the central text of Islam.

Crisis and fragmentation

Following Uthman's assassination, Muhammad's cousin Ali was elected caliph by the rebels and townspeople of Medina. He transferred the capital to Kufa, a garrison city in Iraq. Soon thereafter, Ali dismissed several provincial governors, some of whom were relatives of Uthman, and replaced them with trusted aides, such as Malik al-Ashtar and Salman the Persian.

Demands to take revenge for the assassination of Caliph Uthman rose among parts of the population, and a large army of rebels led by Zubayr, Talha and the widow of Muhammad, Aisha, set out to fight the perpetrators. The army reached Basra and captured it, whereupon 4,000 suspected seditionists were put to death. Subsequently, Ali turned towards Basra and the caliph's army met the rebel army. Though neither Ali nor the leaders of the opposing force, Talha and Zubayr, wanted to fight, a battle broke out at night between the two armies. It is said, according to Sunni Muslim traditions, that those who were involved in the assassination of Uthman initiated combat as they were afraid that negotiations between Ali and the opposing army would result in their capture and execution. The battle thus fought was the first battle between Muslims and is known as the Battle of the Camel. Ali emerged victoriously and the dispute was settled. The eminent companions of Muhammad, Talha, and Zubayr were killed in the battle and Ali sent his son Hasan ibn Ali to escort Aisha back to Medina.

Thereafter, there rose another cry for revenge for the blood of Uthman, this time by Mu'awiya, a kinsman of Uthman and governor of the province of Syria. However, it is regarded more as an attempt by Mu'awiya to assume the caliphate rather than to take revenge for Uthman's murder. Ali fought Mu'awiya's forces to a stalemate at the Battle of Siffin, and then lost a controversial arbitration that ended with the arbiter, 'Amr ibn al-'As, pronouncing his support for Mu'awiya. After this Ali was forced to fight the Battle of Nahrawan against the rebellious Kharijites, a faction of his former supporters who, as a result of their dissatisfaction with the arbitration, opposed both Ali and Mu'awiya. Weakened by this internal rebellion and a lack of popular support in many provinces, Ali's forces lost control over most of the caliphate's territory to Mu'awiya while large sections of the empire – such as Sicily, North Africa, the coastal areas of Spain and some forts in Anatolia – were also lost to outside empires.

In 661, Ali was assassinated by Ibn Muljam as part of a Kharijite plot to assassinate all the different Islamic leaders in an attempt to end the civil war, but the Kharijites failed to assassinate Mu'awiya and 'Amr ibn al-'As.

Ali's son Hasan briefly assumed the caliphate for six months and came to an agreement with Mu'awiya to fix relations between the two groups of Muslims that were each loyal to one of the two men. The treaty stated that Mu'awiya would not name a successor during his reign and that he would let the Islamic world choose the next leader. This treaty would later be broken by Mu'awiya as he named his son Yazid I successor. Hasan was assassinated, and Mu'awiya founded the Umayyad Caliphate, supplanting the Rashidun Caliphate.

Military expansion

The Rashidun Caliphate expanded steadily; within the span of 24 years, a vast territory was conquered comprising Mesopotamia, the Levant, parts of Anatolia, and most of the Sasanian Empire.

Some explanations for the success of the Arab invasion of the empires to the north, west and east initiated by the Rashidun were the weakening of the two empires brought on by wars between them (especially the Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628), and by the Plague of Justinian, which crippled both states. Arab tribes had served as mercenaries for both empires in decades prior to the invasion and the experience of gave them valuable military tactical skills and familiarity with the battlefields they would fight on against the two empires. Prior to the invasion a good number of Arab infiltrators, known as ''musta 'riba'' "self-styled Arabs", migrated into Syria, Palestine and Iraq. They shared Arab language and customs and "received the invaders with enthusiasm", sometimes joining the invaders' forces. The buffer states of the Lakhmids and Ghasanids that had protected the empires in earlier times had disappeared by the time of the invasion. Other factors include the Arab Bedouin love of raiding and robbing sedentary peoples; the willingness of Bedouin tribes to cease their time honored practice of raiding each other and obey the commands of Hijazi Muslim leaders; and perhaps most decisively the Islamic belief of the invaders that conquering the unbelievers' land was a holy war/jihad of the sword, and that booty taken by them was divinely ordained reward for the invaders.

The Arab conquests began as raids against the empires but quickly escalated as the raiders discovered that Byzantines and Persians gave little resistance their assault.

Conquest of the Sasanian Empire

The first military move following the suppression of rebellion in Arabia was the invasion of the Sasanian Empire. In 633 Caliph Abu Bakr sent troops out to Sasanian-controlled Iraq, i.e. southern modern-day Iraq. Abu Bakr sent his general, Khalid ibn al-Walid, to conquer Mesopotamia after the Ridda wars. After entering Iraq with his army of 18,000, Khalid won decisive victories in four consecutive battles: the Battle of Chains, fought in April 633; the Battle of River, fought in the third week of April 633; the Battle of Walaja, fought in May 633 (where he successfully used a pincer movement), and the Battle of Ullais, fought in mid-May of 633. In the last week of May 633, the capital city of Iraq fell to the Muslims after initial resistance in the Battle of Hira.

After resting his armies, Khalid moved in June 633 towards Anbar, which resisted and was defeated, and eventually surrendered after a siege of a few weeks in July 633. Khalid then moved towards the south and conquered the city of Ein ul Tamr in the last week of July 633. By now, almost the whole of Iraq was under Islamic control. Khalid received a call for help from Dumat al-Jandal in Northern Arabia, where another Muslim general, Iyad ibn Ghanm, was trapped among the rebel tribes. Khalid diverted there and defeated the rebels in the Battle of Dawmat al-Jandal in the last week of August 633. Returning from Arabia, he received news that a large Persian army was assembling. Within a few weeks, he decided to defeat them piecemeal in order to avoid the risk of defeat by a large unified Persian army. Four divisions of Persian and Christian Arab auxiliaries were present at Hanafiz, Zumiel, Sanni, and Muzieh.

In November 633, Khalid divided his army into three units and attacked these auxiliaries one by one from three different sides at night, starting with the Battle of Muzieh, then the Battle of Sanni, and finally the Battle of Zumail. These devastating defeats ended Persian control over Iraq. In December 633, Khalid reached the border city of Firaz, where he defeated the combined forces of the Sasanian Persians, Byzantines and Christian Arabs in the Battle of Firaz. This was the last battle in his conquest of Iraq.

Khalid then left Mesopotamia to lead another campaign in Syria against the Byzantine Empire, after which Mithna ibn Haris took command in Mesopotamia. The Persians once again concentrated armies to regain Mesopotamia, while Mithna ibn Haris withdrew from central Iraq to the region near the Arabian desert to delay war until reinforcement came from Medina. Umar sent reinforcements under the command of Abu Ubayd al-Thaqafi. This army suffered a severe defeat from the Sasanian army in 634 at the Battle of the Bridge in which Abu Ubayd was killed, and Al-Muthanna saved the army from complete disaster by heroically defending a bridge over the Euphrates. The response was delayed until after a decisive Muslim victory against the Romans in the Levant at the Battle of Yarmouk in 636. Umar was then able to transfer forces to the east and resume the offensive against the Sasanians. Umar dispatched 36,000 men along with 7500 troops from the Syrian front, under the command of Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas against the Persian army. The Battle of al-Qadisiyyah, the decisive battle of the campaign (near modern Najaf) followed, with the Persians prevailing at first, but, on the third day of fighting, the Muslims gained the upper hand. The legendary Persian general Rostam Farrokhzad was killed during the battle. According to some sources, the Persian losses were 20,000, and the Arabs lost 10,500 men.

Following this battle, the Arab Muslim armies pushed forward toward the Persian capital of Ctesiphon (also called Madā'in in Arabic), which was quickly evacuated by Yazdegerd III after a brief siege. After seizing the city, they continued their drive eastwards, following Yazdgird and his remaining troops as they attempted to regroup in the Zagros mountains. Within a short span of time, the Arab armies defeated a major Sasanian counterattack in the Battle of Jalula, as well as other engagements at Qasr-e Shirin, and Masabadhan. By the mid-7th century, the Arabs controlled all of Mesopotamia, including the area that is now the Iranian province of Khuzestan. It is said that Caliph Umar did not wish to send his troops through the Zagros Mountains and onto the Iranian plateau. One tradition has it that he wished for a "wall of fire" to keep the Arabs and Persians apart. Later commentators explain this as a common-sense precaution against over-extension of his forces. The Arabs had only recently conquered large territories that still had to be garrisoned and administered. The continued existence of the Persian government was, however, incitement to revolt in the conquered territories and unlike the Byzantine army, the Sasanian army was continuously striving to regain their lost territories. Finally, Umar pressed forward, which eventually resulted in the wholesale conquest of the Sasanian Empire. Yazdegerd, the Sasanian king, made yet another effort to regroup and defeat the invaders. By 641, he had raised a new force, which made a stand at the Battle of Nihawānd, some forty miles south of Hamadan in modern Iran. The Rashidun army, under the command of Umar's appointed general Al-Nu'man ibn Muqrin, attacked and again defeated the Persian forces. The Muslims proclaimed it the Victory of Victories (Fath alfotuh), after which the Persians were unable to offer any effective resistance.

Though Yazdegerd was unable to raise another army, the invading Arabs advanced slowly because "distances were great, the population hostile, and towns and fortresses had to be captured one by one". Yazdegerd retreating east with a dwindling band of supporters, eventually to Khurasan where he was assassinated. In 642 Umar sent the army to conquer the remainder of the Persian Empire. The entirety of present-day Iran was conquered, followed by Greater Khorasan (which included the modern Iranian Khorasan province and modern Afghanistan), Transoxania, Balochistan and Makran (part of modern-day Pakistan), Azerbaijan, Dagestan (Russia), Armenia and Georgia; these regions were later re-conquered during Uthman's reign with further expansion into the regions which were not conquered during Umar's reign; hence, the Rashidun Caliphate's frontiers in the east extended to the lower river Indus and north to the Oxus River.

Wars against the Byzantine Empire

Unlike the Sasanian Persians, the Byzantines, after losing Syria, retreated back to Anatolia. As a result, they also lost Egypt to the invading Rashidun army, although the civil wars among the Muslims halted the war of conquest for many years, and this gave time for the Byzantine Empire to recover.

Conquest of Byzantine Syria

After Khalid ibn al-Walid consolidated his control of Iraq, Abu Bakr sent four armies to Syria on the Byzantine front under four different commanders: Abu Ubaidah ibn al-Jarrah (acting as their supreme commander), Amr ibn al-As, Yazid ibn Abu Sufyan and Shurhabil ibn Hasana. However, their advance was halted by a concentration of the Byzantine army at Ajnadayn. Abu Ubaidah then sent for reinforcements. Abu Bakr ordered Khalid, who by now was planning to attack Ctesiphon, to march from Iraq to Syria with half his army. There were 2 major routes to Syria from Iraq, one passing through Mesopotamia and the other through Daumat ul-Jandal. Khalid took an unconventional route through the Syrian Desert, and after a perilous march of 5 days, appeared in north-western Syria.

The border forts of Sawa, Arak, Tadmur, Sukhnah, al-Qaryatayn and Hawarin were the first to fall to the invading Muslims. Khalid marched on to Bosra via the Damascus road. At Bosra, the Corps of Abu Ubaidah and Shurhabil joined Khalid, upon which, per Abu Bakr's orders, Khalid assumed overall command from Abu Ubaidah. Bosra, caught unprepared, surrendered after a brief siege in July 634 (''see'' Battle of Bosra), effectively ending the dynasty of the Ghassanids.

From Bosra, Khalid sent orders to the other corps commanders to join him at Ajnadayn, where, according to early Muslim historians, a Byzantine army of 90,000 (modern sources state 9,000) was concentrated to push back the Muslims. The Byzantine army was defeated decisively on 30 July 634 in the Battle of Ajnadayn. It was the first major pitched battle between the Muslims and Byzantines and cleared the way for the former to capture central Syria. Damascus, the Byzantine stronghold, was conquered shortly after on 19 September 634. The Byzantine army was given a deadline of 3 days to flee as far as they could, with their families and treasure, or simply agree to stay in Damascus and pay tribute. After the three days had passed, the Muslim cavalry, under Khalid's command, attacked the Roman army by catching up to them using an unknown shortcut at the battle of Maraj-al-Debaj.

On 22 August 634, Abu Bakr died, making Umar his successor. Umar replaced Khalid with Abu Ubaidah ibn al-Jarrah as overall commander of the Muslim armies, though Khalid continuing play an important part in the conquests under Abu Ubaidah. The conquest of Syria slowed down under Abu Ubaidah while he relied heavily on the advice of Khalid, who he kept close at hand.

The last large garrison of the Byzantine army was at Fahl, which was joined by survivors of Ajnadayn. With this threat at their rear, the Muslim armies could not move further north nor south. Thus Abu Ubaidah decided to deal with the situation and defeated and routed this garrison at the Battle of Fahl on 23 January 635, which proved to be the "Key to Palestine". After this battle Abu Ubaidah and Khalid marched north towards Emesa; Yazid was stationed in Damascus while Amr and Shurhabil marched south to capture Palestine.

While the Muslims were at Fahl, sensing the weak defense of Damascus, Emperor Heraclius sent an army to re-capture the city. This army, however, could not make it to Damascus and was intercepted by Abu Ubaidah and Khalid on their way to Emesa. The army was destroyed in the battle of Maraj-al-Rome and the second battle of Damascus. Emesa and the strategic town of Chalcis made peace with the Muslims for one year in order to buy time for Heraclius to prepare his defences and raise new armies. The Muslims welcomed the peace and consolidated their control over the conquered territory. However, as soon as the Muslims received the news of reinforcements being sent to Emesa and Chalcis, they marched against Emesa, laid siege to it and eventually captured the city in March 636.

The prisoners taken in the battle informed them about Emperor Heraclius's plans to take back Syria. They said that an army possibly 200,000 strong would soon emerge to recapture the province. Khalid stopped here on June 636. As soon as Abu Ubaida heard the news of the advancing Byzantine army, he gathered all his officers to plan their next move. Khalid suggested that they should consolidate all of their forces present in the province of Syria (Syria, Jordan, Palestine) and then move towards the plain of Yarmouk for battle.

Abu Ubaida ordered the Muslim commanders to withdraw from all the conquered areas, return the tributes they had previously gathered, and move towards Yarmuk. Heraclius's army also moved towards Yarmuk, but the Muslim armies reached it in early July 636, a week or two before the Byzantines. Khalid's mobile guard defeated the Christian Arab auxiliaries of the Roman army in a skirmish.

In the third week of August, the Battle of Yarmouk was fought, resulting in the whole of Syria falling into Muslim hands. The battle lasted 6 days during which Abu Ubaida transferred the command of the entire army to Khalid. Outnumbered five-to-one, the Muslims nevertheless defeated the Byzantine army in October 636. Abu Ubaida held a meeting with his high command officers, including Khalid, to decide on future conquests, settling on Jerusalem. The siege of Jerusalem led to great hunger but it negotiated a treaty of surrender with Umar with very generous terms. Christians were promised protection, freedom of worship, that churches would not be turned into mosques, and a tax less heavy than what they had paid Byzantium. Jerusalem surrendered in April 637 and Caliph Umar's appearance wearing a course robe made a strong impression on Jerusalemites accustom to Byzantine splendor. He allowed the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to remain and prayed on a prayer rug outside of the church.

Abu Ubaida sent Amr bin al-As, Yazid bin Abu Sufyan, and Sharjeel bin Hassana back to their areas to reconquer them; most submitted without a fight. Abu Ubaida himself, along with Khalid, moved to northern Syria to reconquer it with a 17,000-man army. Khalid, along with his cavalry, was sent to Hazir and Abu Ubaidah moved to the city of Qasreen.

Khalid defeated a strong Byzantine army at the Battle of Hazir and reached Qasreen before Abu Ubaidah. The city surrendered to Khalid, and soon after, Abu Ubaidah arrived in June 637. Abu Ubaidah then moved against Aleppo, with Khalid, as usual, commanding the cavalry. After the Battle of Aleppo the city finally agreed to surrender in October 637.

Occupation of Anatolia

In the mountains of Asia Minor, the Muslims enjoyed less success, with the Byzantines adopting the tactic of "shadowing warfare"—refusing to give battle to the Muslims, while the people retreated into castles and fortified towns when the Muslims invaded; instead, Byzantine forces ambushed Muslim raiders as they returned to Syria carrying plunder and people they had enslaved.

Abu Ubaidah and Khalid ibn al-Walid, after conquering all of northern Syria, moved north towards Anatolia taking the fort of Azaz to clear the flank and rear of Byzantine troops. On their way to Antioch, a Roman army blocked them near a river on which there was an iron bridge. Because of this, the following battle is known as the Battle of the Iron Bridge. The Muslim army defeated the Byzantines and Antioch surrendered on 30 October 637 AD. Later during the year, Abu Ubaidah sent Khalid and Iyad ibn Ghanm at the head of two separate armies against the western part of Jazira, most of which was conquered without strong resistance, including parts of Anatolia, Edessa and the area up to the Ararat plain. Other columns were sent to Anatolia as far west as the Taurus Mountains, the important city of Marash, and Malatya, which were all conquered by Khalid in the autumn of 638. During Uthman's reign, the Byzantines recaptured many forts in the region and on Uthman's orders, a series of campaigns were launched to regain control of them. In 647 Muawiyah, the governor of Syria sent an expedition against Anatolia, invading Cappadocia and sacking Caesarea Mazaca. In 648 the Rashidun army raided Phrygia. A major offensive into Cilicia and Isauria in 650–651 forced the Byzantine Emperor Constans II to enter into negotiations with Muawiyah. The truce that followed allowed a short respite and made it possible for Constans II to hold on to the western portions of Armenia. In 654–655, on the orders of Uthman, an expedition prepared to attack Constantinople, but this plan was not carried out due to the civil war that broke out in 656.

The Muslim advance north was stopped by the barrier of the Nur Mountains. The Taurus Mountains in Turkey marked the western frontiers of the Rashidun Caliphate in Anatolia during Caliph Uthman's reign. In the frontier area where Anatolia met Syria, the Byzantine state evacuated the entire population and laid waste to the countryside, creating a no man's land where any invading army would find no food. For decades afterwards, a guerrilla war was waged by Christians in the hilly countryside of north-western Syria supported by the Byzantines. At the same time, the Byzantines began a policy of launching raids via sea on the coast of the caliphate with the aim of forcing the Muslims to keep at least some of their forces to defend their coastlines, thus limiting the number of troops available for an invasion of Anatolia. Unlike Syria with its plains and deserts – which favored the offensive – the mountainous terrain of Anatolia favored the defensive, and for centuries afterwards the line between Christian and Muslim lands ran along the border between Anatolia and Syria.

Conquest of Egypt

The Byzantine province of Egypt held strategic importance for its grain production, naval yards, and as a base for further conquests in Africa. Possessing some of the most productive and fertile farmland in the entire world, the Nile Delta made Egypt the "granary" of the Byzantine empire. Control of it meant that the caliphate could weather droughts without the fear of famine. In 639, Egypt was a prefecture of the Byzantine Empire but had been occupied just a decade before by the Sasanian Empire under Khosrau II (616 to 629). The power of the Byzantine Empire was shattered during the Muslim conquest of Syria, and therefore the conquest of Egypt was much easier.

The Muslim general Amr ibn al-As began the conquest of the province on his own initiative in 639 The majority of the Byzantine forces in Egypt were locally raised Coptic forces, intended to serve more as a police force; since the vast majority of Egyptians lived in the Nile River valley, surrounded on both the eastern and western sides by desert, Egypt was felt to be a relatively secure province.

In December 639, Amr entered the Sinai with a large force and took Pelusium, on the edge of the Nile River valley, and then defeated a Byzantine counter-attack at Bibays.

Contrary to expectations, the Arabs did not head for Alexandria, the capital of Egypt, but instead for a major fortress known as Babylon located at what is now Cairo. They advanced rapidly into the Nile Delta. The imperial garrisons retreated into the walled towns, where they successfully held out for a year or more. Amr was planning to divide the Nile River valley in two. The Arab forces won a major victory at the Battle of Heliopolis in 640, cleverly luring Byzantine forces away from the Babylon Fortress.

However Amr found it difficult to advance further because major cities in the Nile Delta were protected by water and because Amr lacked the machinery to break down city fortifications.

Amr next proceeded in the direction of Alexandria, which was surrendered to him by a treaty signed on 8 November 641. The Thebaid seems to have surrendered with scarcely any opposition.

The ease with which this valuable province was wrenched from the Byzantine Empire is said to have been due to the treachery of Cyrus, prefect of Egypt and Patriarch of Alexandria, and the incompetence of the Byzantine generals, as well as the loss of most of the Byzantine troops in Syria. Cyrus had persecuted the local Coptic Christians. He was one of the authors of monothelism, a 7th-century heresy, and some supposed him to have been a secret convert to Islam.

In 645, during Uthman's reign, the Byzantines briefly regained Alexandria, but it was retaken by Amr in 646. In 654 an invasion fleet sent by Constans II was repulsed. After this, no serious effort was made by the Byzantines to regain possession of the country.

The Muslims were assisted by some Copts, who found the Muslims more tolerant than the Byzantines, and of these, some turned to Islam. In return for a tribute of money and food for the occupation troops, the Christian inhabitants of Egypt were excused from military service and left free in the observance of their religion and the administration of their affairs. Others sided with the Byzantines, hoping that they would provide a defense against the Arab invaders. During the reign of Caliph Ali, Egypt was captured by rebel troops under the command of former Rashidun army general Amr ibn al-As, who killed Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr, the governor of Egypt appointed by Ali.

Conquest of the Maghreb

After the withdrawal of the Byzantines from Egypt, the Exarchate of Africa (i.e. that part of Byzantine North Africa west of Egypt), under its exarch (governor), Gregory the Patrician declared its independence. Abdullah ibn Sa'ad sent raiding parties to the west, resulting in considerable booty and encouraging Sa'ad to propose a campaign to conquer the Exarchate, which Uthman approved. A force of 10,000 soldiers was sent as reinforcement. The Rashidun army assembled in Barqa in Cyrenaica, and from there marched west, first capturing Tripoli, and then Sufetula, Gregory's capital. In the ensuing battle in 647, the Exarchate was defeated and Gregory was killed due to the superior tactics of Abdullah ibn Zubayr. Afterward, the people of North Africa sued for peace, agreeing to pay an annual tribute. Instead of annexing North Africa, the Muslims preferred to make North Africa a vassal state, fearing a counter offensive. When the stipulated amount of the tribute was paid, the Muslim forces withdrew to Barqa. Following the First Fitna, the first Islamic civil war, Muslim forces withdrew from North Africa to Egypt. The Umayyad Caliphate would later re-invade North Africa in 664.

Campaign against Nubia (Sudan)

A campaign was undertaken against Nubia during the Caliphate of Umar in 642, but failed after the Makurians won the First Battle of Dongola. The Muslim army pulled out of Nubia with nothing to show for it. Ten years later, Uthman's governor of Egypt, Abdullah ibn Saad, sent another army to Nubia. This army penetrated deeper into Nubia and laid siege to the Nubian capital of Dongola. The Muslims damaged the cathedral in the center of the city, but Makuria also won this battle. As the Muslims were unable to overpower Makuria, they negotiated a mutual non-aggression treaty with their king, Qalidurut. Each side also agreed to afford free passage to each other through their respective territories. Nubia agreed to provide 360 slaves to Egypt every year, while Egypt agreed to supply grain, horses, and textiles to Nubia according to demand.

Conquest of the islands of the Mediterranean Sea

During Umar's reign, the governor of Syria, Muawiyah I, sent a request to build a naval force to invade the islands of the Mediterranean Sea but Umar rejected the proposal because of the risk to the soldiers. Once Uthman became caliph, however, he approved Muawiyah's request. In 650, Muawiyah attacked Cyprus, conquering the capital, Constantia, after a brief siege, but signed a treaty with the local rulers. During this expedition, a relative of Muhammad, Umm-Haram, fell from her mule near the Salt Lake at Larnaca and was killed. She was buried in that same spot, which became a holy site for many local Muslims and Christians and in 1816, the Hala Sultan Tekke was built there by the Ottomans. After apprehending a breach of the treaty, the Arabs re-invaded the island in 654 with five hundred ships. This time, however, a garrison of 12,000 men was left in Cyprus, bringing the island under Muslim influence. After leaving Cyprus, the Muslim fleet headed towards Crete and then Rhodes and conquered them without much resistance. From 652 to 654, the Muslims launched a naval campaign against Sicily and captured a large part of the island. Soon after this, Uthman was murdered, ending his expansionist policy, and the Muslims accordingly retreated from Sicily. In 655 Byzantine Emperor Constans II led a fleet in person to attack the Muslims at Phoinike (off Lycia) but it was defeated: both sides suffered heavy losses in the battle, and the emperor himself narrowly avoided death.

Rashidun military

The Rashidun military was the primary arm of the Islamic armed forces of the 7th century, serving alongside the Rashidun navy. The army maintained a very high level of discipline, strategic prowess, and organization, along with the motivation and initiative of the officer corps. For much of its history, this army was one of the most powerful and effective military forces throughout the region. At the height of the Rashidun Caliphate, the maximum size of the army was around 100,000 troops.

Army

The Rashidun army was divided into infantry and light cavalry. Reconstructing the military equipment of early Muslim armies is problematic. Compared with Roman armies or later medieval Muslim armies, the range of visual representation is very small, often imprecise. Physically, very little material evidence has survived, and much of it is difficult to date. The soldiers wore iron and bronze segmented helmets from Iraq, of Central Asian type.

The standard form of body armor was chainmail. There are also references to the practice of wearing two coats of mail (''dir'ayn''), the one under the main one being shorter or even made of fabric or leather. Hauberks and large wooden or wickerwork shields were also used as protection in combat. The soldiers were usually equipped with swords hung in a baldric. They also possessed spears and daggers. Umar was the first Muslim ruler to organize the army as a state department, in 637. A beginning was made with the Quraysh and the Ansar and the system was gradually extended to the whole of Arabia and to Muslims of conquered lands.

The basic strategy of early Muslim armies on the campaign was to exploit every possible weakness of the enemy. Their key strength was mobility. The cavalry had both horses and camels, the latter used as both transport and food for long marches through the desert (''e.g.'', Khalid ibn al-Walid's extraordinary march from the Persian border to Damascus). The cavalry was the army's main strike force and also served as a strategic mobile reserve. The common tactic was to use the infantry and archers to engage and maintain contact with the enemy while the cavalry was held back till the enemy was fully engaged. Once fully engaged, the enemy reserves were held by the infantry and archers, while the cavalry executed a pincer movement (like modern tank and mechanized divisions) to attack the enemy from the sides or to assault their base camps.

The Rashidun army was, in quality and strength, below the standard set by the Sasanian and Byzantine armies. Khalid ibn al-Walid was the first general of the Rashidun Caliphate to successfully conquer foreign lands. During his campaign against the Sasanian Empire (Iraq, 633–634) and the Byzantine Empire (Syria, 634–638), Khalid developed brilliant tactics that he used effectively against both enemy armies.

Abu Bakr's strategy was to give his generals their mission, the geographical area in which that mission would be carried out, and resources for that purpose. He would then leave it to his generals to accomplish their missions in whatever manner they chose. On the other hand, Umar, in the latter part of his Caliphate, adopted a more hands-on approach, directing his generals where to stay and when to move to the next target and who was to command the left and right wing of the army in each particular battle. This made conquests comparatively slower but made the campaigns well-organized. Uthman and Ali reverted to Abu Bakr's method, giving missions to their generals and leaving the details to them.

Rashidun navy

The early caliphate naval conquest managed to mark long time legacy of Islamic maritime enterprises from the Conquest of Cyprus, the famous Battle of the Masts up to of their successor states such as the area Transoxiana from area located in between the Jihun River (Oxus/Amu Darya) and Syr Darya, to Sindh (present day Pakistan), by Umayyad, naval cove of privateer in La Garde-Freinet by Cordoban Emirate, and the Sack of Rome by the Aghlabids in later era.

Governance

The four Rashidun Caliphs (all companions of Muhammad) not only conquered large amounts of territory but established "a system of government" and formulated "political principles for the Muslim Community", according to Jebran Chamieh. Because they were the only Muslim rulers who followed the teachings of Islam "in their purity", their example should be followed. Abdus Salam Nadvi sees piety and virtue as the common thread of the Rashidun.

Political theory or system

Some of the distinctive features of the polity (according to Chamieh)—that were sometimes followed by succeeding dynasties—were internal instability (as noted above—three of the four caliphs died by assassination), use of force rather than consultation (shura), calls for total obedience to the Caliph enforced by coercion (as reflected in Abu Bakr's demand that followers hear and obey, and by his lieutenant Umar's threat against any who would vote against him); often disregarding the advice of other Companions; a privileged position for the Quraysh tribe, whose members were the only ones who could be caliphs, no police, providing autonomy to conquered imperial administrations by allowing them to continue operating under their own administration; the using a bay'ah (pledge of obedience) from Muslims to legitimise the caliph's rule, but without formalising who the pledge-givers were to be and how many of them were needed to make the caliph's rule legitimate.

Abu Bakr and Umar supported the supremacy of the Arabs over other Muslims and the Quraysh tribe over other Arabs, marginalizing Medinites, Hashemites, and Umayyads to repay them for their opposition to Abu Bakr and himself. And also following Abu Bakr he used political and civil coercion to enforce his will.

Use of previous administrations

The conquests begun under caliphs Abu Bakr and expanded under Umar resulted in an empire of vast size, covering a diversity of races, customs, and types of government.

To deal with this diversity, Caliph Umar allowed the local administration of occupied countries to carry on much as before, (according to scholar Laura Veccia Vaglieri), and confined himself to appointing a commander or governor (''amir'') with full powers, sometimes assisted by an agent (''amil''), responsible directly to the empire's capital in Medina, to take care of financial matters. He then kept a "tight rein" on these officials.

During his reign, Abu Bakr established the ''Bayt al-Mal'' (state treasury). Umar expanded the treasury and established a government building to administer the state finances.

Choosing the caliph

According to historians Bosworth Marín and Ayalon, with the exception of Umar, who was appointed by Abu Bakr, the Rashidun caliphs were chosen by a small group of prominent members of the Quraysh tribe called (, ).

Journalist historian Thomas W. Lippman describes the selection of Abu Bakr as being a choice of "insiders" who presented it to the Muslim community as a "''fiat accompli''" and argues that this precedent and the failure to establish a "formal system" to select a caliph ensured that "difficulties would arise in the choice of later caliphs".

Fred Donner, in his book ''The Early Islamic Conquests'' (1981), describes a standard Arabian practice followed during the early Caliphates were the prominent men of a kinship group, or tribe, gathered after a leader's death and elect a leader from amongst themselves, although there was no specified procedure for this shura, or consultative assembly. Candidates were usually from the same lineage as the deceased leader, but they were not necessarily his sons. Capable men who would lead well were preferred over an ineffectual direct heir, as there was no basis in the majority Sunni view that the head of state or governor should be chosen based on lineage alone.

At least two historians (Wilferd Madelung and Jebran Chamieh) deny the Rashidun used shura and describe a more complicated process of selection.

Madelung writes that Abu Bakr, acting as a shrewd politician, ensuring his selection as Muhammad's successor by avoiding the use of a shura (because it "would have backed hereditary success"), "sidelining" the Ansar and early "Companions of the Prophet" in favor of his supporters among the Meccan Quraysh. The next two Caliphs Umar and Uthman also had support of the Quraysh but would not have had that of the shura (according to Madelung).

Chamieh writes that Umar, an ally of Abu Bakr in his quest for the caliphate was appointed by Abu Bakr when he felt his death was near with the order: "Do you accept whom I have chosen for you? I have considered the question seriously and I have not chosen a relative of mine; my choice for you is Umar ibn al-Khattab, so hear and obey."

As Umar lay mortally wounded, he chose a committee of six Companions to choose the next caliph from among them, adding his son to make a tie-breaking vote if one was needed. Five of six of this committee were related to Muhammad and were part of "the elite of the Muslim community"; Ali, received bay'a (pledge of loyalty) from companions in Medina, but had opponents in southern Iraq, and in the governor of Syria. The committee ultimately choose Uthman over Ali.

While Chamieh believes Umar fixed the committee to choose Uthman, Bernard Lewis describes Umar's process of appointing a shura as one "deemed" by Muslim as the "classic" way to pick a Caliph, though it was not repeated for any other caliph.

Treatment of conquered peoples

The conquered people of the caliphate (the vast majority of the population) were non-Muslim. Those who were monotheists – Jews, Zoroastrians, and Christians – in conquered lands were called ''dhimmis'' (the protected people). ''Dhimmis'' were allowed to "practice their religion, and to enjoy a measure of communal autonomy" and were guaranteed their personal safety and security of property, but only in return for paying tax (''jizya'')Cl. Cahen in Encyclopedia of Islam – Jizya and acknowledging Muslim rule.

The Rashidun caliphs had placed special emphasis on relatively fair and just treatment of the ''dhimmis'' which were also provided "protection" by the Caliphate and were not expected to fight as Muslims were. Sometimes, particularly when there were not enough qualified Muslims, ''dhimmis'' were allowed to hold important positions in the government.
In the following decades Islamic jurists elaborated a legal framework in which other religions would have a protected but subordinate status. Islamic law followed the Byzantine precedent of classifying subjects of the state according to their religion, in contrast to the Sasanian model which put more weight on social than on religious distinctions. In theory, only monotheists could be ''dhimmi'' and severe restrictions were placed on paganism, as the Byzantine empire had. But in practice most non-Abrahamic communities of the former Sasanian territories were classified as possessors of a scripture (''ahl al-kitab'') and granted protected ('' dhimmi'') status. According to Bernard Lewis, one minority (the Jews) found their position "somewhat improved" from the rule of the Sassanids and Christian Byzantines.

However, according to Jebran Chamieh, the treatment of the non-Muslims by Caliph Omar (at least) was "harsh ... In 635–636, he expelled the Christians of Najran from their region and the Jews of Khaybar from their city. The Jews went to Jericho in Jordan and the Christians to Syria and Iraq. No Jew or Christian remained in Hejaz. To Caliph Omar also are attributed the "Edicts" that discriminate against the "People of the Book".

Conquered land

According to Islamic law, Muslim conquerors may do as they wish with the property of non-Muslims who did not surrender before being conquered, (enemy who surrendered under terms of a treaty were generally allowed to keep their land), and many Muslims called for Umar to distributed the land of the conquered as spoils among the Arabs (according to a pious work by Abdus Salam Nadvi based on Muslim literature).

Instead, Umar allowed the non-Muslims landowners to keep their land and set up a system of taxation of land. (Nadvi attributing this to Umar's benevolence, and non-Muslim scholar Laura Vaglieri to Umar's good sense – the conquering rank and file who the land might have been divided among being Bedouin, who knew herding and raiding but not the cultivation skills of peasantry.)

Districts or provinces

Under Abu Bakr, the empire was not clearly divided into provinces, though it had many administrative districts.

Under Umar the Empire was divided into a number of provinces which were as follows:
# Arabia was divided into two provinces, Mecca and Medina;
# Iraq was divided into two provinces, Basra and Kufa;
# Jazira was divided into two provinces, the Tigris and the Euphrates;
# Syria was a province;
# Palestine was divided in two provinces: Aylya and Ramlah;
# Egypt was divided into two provinces: Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt;
# Persia was divided into three provinces: Khorasan, Azerbaijan, and Fars.

In his testament Umar had instructed his successor, Uthman, not to make any change in the administrative setup for one year after his death, which Uthman honored; however, after the expiration of the moratorium, he made Egypt one province and created a new province comprising North Africa.

During Uthman's reign the caliphate was divided into 12 provinces. These were:
# Medina;
# Mecca;
# Yemen;
# Kufa;
# Basra;
# Jazira;
# Fars;
# Azerbaijan;
# Khorasan;
# Syria;
# Egypt;
# Maghreb.

During Ali's reign, with the exception of Syria (which was under Muawiyah I's control) and Egypt (lost during the latter years of his caliphate to the rebel troops of Amr ibn Al-A'as), the remaining ten provinces were under his control, with no change in administrative organisation.

The provinces were further divided into districts. Each of the 100 or more districts of the empire, along with the main cities, were administered by a governor ('' Wāli''). Other officers at the provincial level were:
# ''Katib'', the Chief Secretary;
# ''Katib-ud-Diwan'', the Military Secretary;
# ''Sahib-ul-Kharaj'', the Revenue Collector;
# ''Sahib-ul-Ahdath'', the Police Chief;
# ''Sahib-ul-Bait-ul-Mal'', the Treasury Officer;
# ''Qadi'', the Chief Judge.

In some districts there were separate military officers, though the governor was in most cases the commander-in-chief of the army quartered in the province.

The officers were appointed by the Caliph. Every appointment was made in writing. At the time of appointment, an instrument of instructions was issued to regulate the conduct of the governors. On assuming office, the Governor was required to assemble the people in the main mosque and read the instrument of instructions before them.

Umar's general instructions to his officers were:

During the reign of Abu Bakr, the state was economically weak, while during Umar's reign because of an increase in revenues and other sources of income, the state was on its way to economic prosperity. Hence Umar felt it necessary to treat the officers strictly in order to prevent corruption. During his reign, at the time of appointment, every officer was required to swear an oath:
# That he would not ride a Turkic horse (''which was a symbol of pride'');
# That he would not wear fine clothes;
# That he would not eat sifted flour;
# That he would not keep a porter at his door;
# That he would always keep his door open to the public.

Caliph Umar himself followed the above postulates strictly. During the reign of Uthman the state became more economically prosperous than ever before; the allowance of the citizens was increased by 25%, and the economic condition of the ordinary person was more stable, which led Caliph Uthman to revoke the second and third postulates of the oath.

At the time of an officer's appointment, a complete inventory of all his possessions was prepared and kept on record. If there was later an unusual increase in his possessions, he was immediately called to account, and the unlawful property confiscated by the State. The principal officers were required to come to Mecca on the occasion of the Hajj, during which people were free to present any complaint against them. In order to minimize the chances of corruption, Umar made it a point to pay high salaries to the staff. Provincial governors received as much as five to seven thousand dirhams annually besides their share of the spoils of war (if they were also the commander-in-chief of the army of their sector).

Judicial administration

The judicial administration, like the rest of the administrative structure of the Rashidun Caliphate, was set up by Umar, and it remained basically unchanged throughout the duration of the Caliphate. In order to provide adequate and speedy justice for the people, justice was administered according to the principles of Islam.

Accordingly, '' Qadis'' (judges) were appointed at all administrative levels. The ''Qadis'' were chosen for their integrity and learning in Islamic law. Wealthy men and men of high social status, compensated highly by the Caliphate, were appointed in order to make them resistant to bribery or undue influence based on social position. The ''Qadis'' also were not allowed to engage in trade. Judges were appointed in sufficient numbers to staff every district with at least one.

Accountability of rulers

Sunni Islamic lawyers have commented on when it is permissible to disobey, impeach or remove rulers in the Caliphate. This is usually when the rulers are not meeting public responsibilities obliged upon them under Islam.

Al-Mawardi said that if the rulers meet their Islamic responsibilities to the public, the people must obey their laws, but if they become either unjust or severely ineffective, then the Caliph or ruler must be impeached via the Majlis al-Shura. Al-Juwayni argued that Islam is the goal of the ummah, so any ruler that deviates from this goal must be impeached. Al-Ghazali believed that oppression by a caliph is enough for impeachment. Rather than just relying on impeachment, Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani obliged rebellion upon the people if the caliph began to act with no regard for Islamic law. Al-Asqalani said that to ignore such a situation is ''haraam'', and those who cannot revolt inside the caliphate should launch a struggle from outside. He used two ayahs from the Qur'an to justify this:

Islamic lawyers have commented that when the rulers refuse to step down via successful impeachment through the Majlis, becoming dictators through the support of a corrupt army, the majority, upon agreement, has the option to launch a revolution against them. Many noted that this option is only exercised after factoring in the potential cost of life.

Spoils

Impact on conquerors

The Arab conquests extended to Merv (in what is now Turkestan) by 652. The victorious armies returned to Medina with booty including slave and gold. It was "as if the sky had opened with a flood of gold". Abu Hasan al-Mas'udi (d.957) also writes of the great mass of wealth acquired in a relatively short period of times. Taha Husain writes:

Distribution

Beginning of the allowance

After the Battle of the Yarmuk and Battle of al-Qadisiyyah the Muslims won heavy spoils, filling the coffers at Medina. The problem before Umar was what to do with this money. Someone suggested that the money should be kept in the treasury as a reserve for public expenditures. However, this view was not acceptable to the general body of Muslims. Accordingly, a consensus was reached to distribute whatever was received during a year to the citizens as "allowances" (aka pensions), the register of which was called the ''dīwān''.

The next question was what system should be adopted for distribution. One suggestion was to distribute it equally on an ad hoc basis. Others objected that, as the spoils were considerable, the proposal would make the people very rich. It was therefore agreed that, instead of ad hoc division, the amount of the allowance to the stipend should be determined beforehand and this allowance should be paid regardless of the amount of the spoils.

Umar drew up lists of who had a right to booty from the conquests, ranking recipients according to how early they had converted to Islam and how close they were in bloodline to the Prophet Muhammad. Blood relationship was organized by clan. Bani Hashim appeared as the first clan, then the clan of Abu Bakr, and then the clan of Umar. Umar accepted the first two placements but relegated his clan lower on the relationship scale.

The main provisions of the final scale of allowance approved by Umar were:

# The widows of Muhammad received 12,000 dirhams each
# 'Abbas ibn 'Abd al-Muttalib, the uncle of Muhammad, received an annual allowance of 7,000 dirhams
# The grandsons of Muhammad, Hasan ibn Ali and Husayn ibn Ali received 5,000 dirhams each
# Those who had become Muslims by the time of the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah got 4,000 dirhams each
# The veterans of the Apostasy wars received 3,000 dirhams each

Under this scale, Umar's son Abdullah ibn Umar received an allowance of 3,000 dirhams, while Usama ibn Zaid got 4,000. The ordinary Muslim citizens were given allowances of between 2,000 and 2,500. The regular annual allowance was given only to the urban population because they formed the backbone of the state's economic resources. The Bedouin living in the desert, cut off from the state's affairs and making no contributions to development, were nevertheless often given stipends. On assuming office, Uthman increased these stipends by 25%.

Economy

According to a pious work on early Islam by Abdus Salam Nadvi, among their other virtues, the Rashidun were known for their leniency in levying taxation.

Treasury and coinage

''Bait-ul-Maal'' (lit., ''the house of money''), aka treasury, aka state exchequer, was established by Abu Bakr. Umar built the building housing it.

Revenues for the ''Bait'' came from taxes on lands left in the hands of their owners, rents from confiscated lands, and to a lesser extent zakat tithe paid by Muslims, one fifth the value of booty, and tribute and personal taxes paid by the conquered.

A "major portion" of the funds collected for the ''Bait-ul-Maal'' (at least under caliph Umar) went to stipends or allowances that Muslims gave themselves as conquerors of the land.

After consulting the Companions, Umar decided to establish the central Treasury at Medina. Abdullah bin Arqam was appointed as the Treasury Officer. He was assisted by Abdur Rahman bin Awf and Muiqib. A separate Accounts Department was also set up to maintain spending records.

Later treasuries were set up in the provinces. After meeting the local expenditure, the provincial treasuries were required to remit the surplus revenue to the central treasury at Medina. According to Yaqubi, the salaries and stipends charged to the central treasury amounted to over 30 million dirhams.

A separate building was constructed for the royal treasury, the ''bait ul maal'' which, in large cities, was protected by as many as 400 guards.

Most historical accounts state that, among the Rashidun caliphs, Uthman was the first to strike coins; some accounts, however, state that Umar was the first to do so. When Persia was conquered, three types of coins were current there: the Baghli, of eight dang; Tabari of four dang; and Maghribi of three dang. Umar (or Uthman, according to some accounts) first struck an Islamic dirham of six dang.

Social welfare and pensions were introduced in early Islamic law as forms of ''zakāt'' (charity), one of the Five Pillars of Islam, since the time of Umar. The taxes (including ''zakāt'' and ''jizya'') collected in the treasury of an Islamic government were used to provide income for the needy, including the poor, elderly, orphans, widows, and the disabled. According to the Islamic jurist Al-Ghazali (Algazel, 1058–1111), the government was also expected to stockpile food supplies in every region in case a disaster or famine occurred. Many Muslim thus argue the Rashidun caliphate was thus one of the earliest welfare states. (se
online


File:Rashidun coin Pseudo-Byzantine types.jpg, Coin in use during the Rashidun Caliphate (661–750 CE). Pseudo-Byzantine type with depictions of the Byzantine Emperor Constans II holding the cross-tipped staff and ''globus cruciger''.
File:First Islamic coins by caliph Uthman-mohammad adil rais.jpg, The Rashidun caliphs used the Sassanids symbols (Star and crescent, fire temple, the picture of the last emperor Khosrau II) by adding the phrase ''bismillah'' on their coins, instead of designing a new one.
File:Islamic coin, Time of the Rashidun. Khosrau type. AH 31-41 AD 651-661.jpg, Coin of the Rashidun Caliphate. Imitation of Sasanid Empire ruler Khosrau II type. BYS ( Bishapur) mint. Dated YE 25 = AH 36 (AD 656). Sasanian style bust imitating Khosrau II right; ''bismillah'' in margin/ Fire altar with ribbons and attendants; star and crescent flanking flames; date to left, mint name to right.

Taxation

A "regular system of revenue" for Iraq was set up during Umar's caliphate. According to Abdus Salam Nadvi, Umar chose to set up a system of taxation of the current (non-Muslim) owners of land of the conquered people instead of distributing the land as spoils among the conquering Arabs.

Among other benevolences reported in Muslim literature, the Rashidun were said to be lenient in their tax collection. He appointed capable Companions of the Prophet to organise an assessment of arable/taxable land, confiscating only land from pagan temples, "absconders and the rebellious", and some others, and set taxes according to crops raised on the land, giving the taxpayer the choice of several tax collectors to collect their taxes. In doing all this he sought advise from "venerable persons" for improvement of his work, including non-Muslims Zimmi subject. Outside of Iraq, he forbade extra confiscation of crops above the rate of tribute taxation and forbade Muslims (who received stipends) from taking possession of the conquered people's land, threatening or punishing those who did. He also confiscated land from those who did not cultivate it.

Caliph Ali reportedly advised a newly appointed tax collector:

The economic resources of the State were:

# ''Zakāt''
# ''Ushr''
# ''Jizya''
# ''Fay''
# ''Khums''
# ''Kharaj''

Zakat

'' Zakāt'' tax on Muslims to give to the poor (usually amounting to 2.5% of dormant wealth over a certain amount). The Rashidun reportedly complied with the practice of Muhammad of not taking the best goods of the taxpayers by way of Zakat.

Ushr

''Ushr'' was another tax on non-Muslims. It was a reciprocal 10% levy on agricultural land as well as merchandise imported from states that taxed the Muslims on their products. Umar was the first Muslim ruler to levy ''ushr''. Umar issued instructions that ''ushr'' should be levied in such a way so as to avoid hardship, so as not to affect trade within the Caliphate. The tax was levied only on merchandise meant for sale; goods imported for consumption or personal use but not for sale were not taxed. Merchandise valued at 200 dirhams or less was not taxed. Imports by citizens for trade purposes were subject to the customs duty or import tax at lower rates. In the case of the ''dhimmis'', the rate was 5% and, in the case of the Muslims, 2.5%, the same as that of ''zakāt''. The levy was thus regarded as a part of ''zakāt'' rather than a separate tax.

Jizya

''Jizya'' was a per capita tax imposed on able bodied (disabled were exempt) non-Muslim men (known as Zimmis). Nadvi states that collectors were forbidden from torturing the Zimmis while collecting Jizyah.

Fay

''Fay'' was the income from state land, whether an agricultural land or a meadow or land with any natural mineral reserves.

Khums

''Ghanimah'' or ''Khums'' represented war booty, four-fifths of which was distributed among serving soldiers, while one-fifth was allotted to the state.

Kharaj

''Kharaj'' was a tax on agricultural land. Initially, after the first Muslim conquests in the 7th century, ''kharaj'' usually denoted a lump-sum duty levied upon the conquered provinces and collected by the officials of the former Byzantine and Sasanian empires, or, more broadly, any kind of tax levied by Muslim conquerors on their non-Muslim subjects, dhimmis. At that time, ''kharaj'' was synonymous with ''jizyah'', which later emerged as a poll tax paid by dhimmis. Muslim landowners, on the other hand, paid only ushr, a religious tithe, which carried a much lower rate of taxation.Lewis (2002), p. 72

Public works

Upon conquest, in almost all cases, the caliphs were burdened with the maintenance and construction of roads and bridges in return for the conquered nation's political loyalty.

Civil welfare in Islam started in the form of the construction and purchase of wells. During the caliphate, the Muslims repaired many of the aging wells in the lands they conquered.

In addition to wells, the Muslims built many tanks and canals. Many canals were purchased and new ones constructed. While some canals were excluded for the use of monks (such as a spring purchased by Talhah) and the needy, most canals were open to general public use. Some canals were constructed between settlements, such as the Saad canal that provided water to Anbar, and the Abi Musa Canal to provide water to Basra.

During a famine, Umar ibn al-Khattab ordered the construction of a canal in Egypt connecting the Nile with the sea. The purpose of the canal was to facilitate the transport of grain to Arabia through a sea-route, hitherto transported only by land. The canal was constructed within a year by Amr ibn al-As, and Abdus Salam Nadiv writes that "Arabia was rid of famine for all the times to come."

After four floods hit Mecca after Muhammad's death, Umar ordered the construction of two dams to protect the Kaaba. He also constructed a dam near Medina to protect its fountains from flooding.

Settlements

The area of Basra was very sparsely populated when it was conquered by the Muslims. During the reign of Umar, the Muslim army found it a suitable place to construct a base. Later the area was settled and a mosque was erected.

Upon the conquest of Madyan, it was settled by Muslims. However, soon the environment was considered harsh, and Umar ordered the resettlement of the 40,000 settlers to Kufa. The new buildings were constructed from mud bricks instead of reeds, a material that was popular in the region but caught fire easily.

During the conquest of Egypt, the area of Fustat was used by the Muslim army as a base. Upon the conquest of Alexandria in 641, the Muslims returned and settled in the same area. Initially the land was primarily used for pasture, but later buildings were constructed.

Other already populated areas were greatly expanded. At Mosul, Arfaja al-Bariqi, at the command of Umar, constructed a fort, a few churches, a mosque and a locality for the Jewish population.

Miracles

According to a work by al-Suyuti (in his History of the Caliphs (''Tarikh al-Khulafa''), Umar performed several miracles according to different hadith.

One series of hadith describe how Umar interrupted a ''khutbah'' (Friday prayer sermon) to call out "Sariyah, the mountain!" to the confusion of his listeners who saw no Sariyah. It later turned out that Sariyah was a commander of an army Umar had sent to fight, and which at that moment was losing its battle. Though a long distance away, Sariya heard Umar's cry and realized he must position his army with its rear to a close by mountain, whereupon Sariya was victorious over the enemy. In another series of hadith, Umar told a stranger he met to "Go to your family for they have been burnt", which the man did and found they had been victims of a fire; and on another occasion Umar was able to detect whenever a lie is being told to him.

Amr ibn al-As, a military commander and governor who served under the Rashidun, learned of an Egyptian tradition where a virgin was sacrificed by being drown in the Nile river at the beginning of the year, "without which he Niledoes not flow". Al-As forbade this as unIslamic, but after the human sacrifice stopped, the river stopped flowing, seeming to prove the tradition right. In answer to the Egyptians fears of famine, Al-As gave them a slip of paper to throw in the river upon which a request was written for Allah to make the river flow. The day after the paper was thrown, the river rose sixteen cubits.

Significance and legacy

Notable features

* All four Rashidun caliphs were connected to Muhammad through marriage and were early converts to Islam, and so were thought to be "a continuation of the prophetic period with all its virtues and sanctity"; the daughters of Abu Bakr and Umar, Aisha and Hafsa respectively, were married to Muhammad, and two of Muhammad's daughters Ruqayyah, Umm Kulthum were married to Uthman, and another daughter, Fatimah, to Ali.
* Were Muhammad's closest companions by association and support, often praised by him, and delegated roles of leadership within the nascent Muslim community.

According to different schools

Sunni

Among the notable features of the dynasty according to Sunnis were that:

* Likewise, their succession was not hereditary, something that would become the custom after them, beginning with the subsequent Umayyad Caliphate. Council decision or caliph's choice determined the successor originally. They were chosen according to will of leaders of the Muslim community, rather than inheriting the title through their family relation to their predecessor like most later caliphs;
* They are among the ten Muslims explicitly promised paradise according to several hadiths in Sunni Islam.

The term or phrase ''Rashidun''/"Rightly Guided" is derived from a famous Sunni hadith where Muhammad foretold that the caliphate after him would last for 30 years (the length of the Rashidun Caliphate) and would then be followed by kingship (the Umayyad Caliphate being hereditary and often compared to a monarchy).

The Rightly Guided Caliphate is also featured in other hadiths about endtimes in Sunan Abu Dawood and Musnad Ahmad ibn Hanbal, where it is foretold they will be restored once again by God in the time before Judgement Day. The first four caliphs are particularly significant to modern intra-Islamic debates: for Sunni Muslims, they are models of righteous rule; for Shia Muslims (at least Twelver Shia), the first three of the four were usurpers. Accepted traditions of both Sunni and Shia Muslims detail disagreements and tensions between the four rightly guided caliphs.

In Sunni Islam, the application of the label "rightly-guided" to the first caliphs signifies their status as models whose actions and opinions (Arabic: ) should be followed and emulated from a religious point of view. In this sense, they are both rightly-guided and rightly-guiding: the religious narratives about their lives serve as a guide to right belief. For example, pious Sunni historian Salam Nadvi emphasizes that as Companions of the Prophet the Rashidun were "deserving for Divine caliphate" because of their "beliefs and good deeds", their "moral characteristics", adherence to "the true path", their forbidding others from doing evil deeds, reluctance to be rulers, humility about their abilities ("O people! I do not wish to be a Caliph. If you expect following the Sunnah, I shall not be able to do so do not follow me"), disinterest in comfort and pleasure (sleeping on pebble covered ground.

The Sunni have long viewed the period of the Rashidun as an exemplary system of governance—based upon Islamic righteousness and merit – which they seek to emulate. The Sunni also equate this system with the worldly success that was promised by Allah, in the Quran and hadith, to those Muslims who pursued His pleasure; this spectacular success has further added to the emulatory appeal of the Rashidun era.

In the modern Sunni Salafi movement some have asserted that only was "perfect justice and fairness ... fully realized" under the Rashidun, and that Muslims should "strive to replicate", its religious practices, but that Muslims should strive to follow (what they believe to be) everyday practices of the Rashidun, such as miswak teeth cleaning, not wearing neckties, not applauding speakers, etc. Islamists and fundamentalists see Rashidun as not only a model but the successor Ummayads as "religious deviates".

At the same time, it has been noted that the domination of Arabs over non-Arabs on an ethnic basis during Umar's reign and the widespread nepotism of Uthman's caliphate are in essential conflict with the call of Islam.

Twelver Shia

The (Twelver) Shia view is that, similar to the past prophets in the Quran, the succession to Muhammad was settled by divine appointment (not consensus), and chosen from Muhammad's family. Specifically, the successor was Muhammad's cousin and son-in-law, Ali, who Muhammad announced as his rightful successor (according to Shia doctrine) shortly before his death at the event of Ghadir Khumm and on other occasions, e.g., at the event of Dhul Asheera. In the Shia view, while direct revelation ended with Muhammad's death, Ali remained the righteous guide or Imam towards God, similar to the successors of the past prophets in the Quran. After Muhammad's death, Ali inherited Muhammad's divine knowledge and his authority to correctly interpret the Quran, especially its allegorical and metaphorical verses ( ''mutashabihat'').

In the Shia view, since the time of the first prophet, Adam, the earth has never remained without an Imam, in the form of prophets and their divinely-appointed successors. Likewise, Imamate was passed on from Ali to the next Imam, Hasan, by divinely-inspired designation (''nass''). After Hasan's death, Husayn and nine of his descendants are the Shia Imams, the last of whom, Mahdi, went into occultation in 260 AH, due to the hostility of Mahdi's enemies and the danger to his life. His advent is awaited by the Shia and Sunni alike, although the Sunni hold different views about Mahdi. In his absence, the vacuum in the Shia leadership is partly filled by '' marjaiyya'' and, more recently, by ''wilayat al-faqqih'', i.e., guardianship of the Islamic jurist.

Views of other Shia

While the Ismaili Shi'ites accept a closely-related understanding of Imamate as the Twelver Shia, the Ismailis under the leadership of the Aga Khans do recognize the caliphates of the first three caliphs before Ali ibn Abi Talib while distinguishing Imamate as a separate office apart from the Caliphate:

The Nizari Ismailis on the other hand, have come to accept the caliphates of Abu Bakr, Umar, and Uthman in the modern times under the leadership and teachings of the Aga Khans, even though polemics against those early caliphs were prevalent during the Fatimid period. For instance, the Fatimid Ismaili Imam-Caliph Al-Hakim bi Amr Allah ordered the public cursing of the first three caliphs in the year 1005 in Cairo.

The Zaydi Shia Muslims believe the first three caliphs to be legitimate leaders.

Kharijites

The Kharijites recognize only part of Uthman's caliphate as being legitimate, and only the caliphate of Ali before the Battle of Siffin.

Questions about virtue and guidance

Some secular scholars/historians/observers have questioned the traditional reverent Sunni view of the Rashidun. Fred Halliday, for example noting that "of the four caliphs, the first, Abu Baker, lived less than two years - too short a time to validate any political system - and the other three, Umar, Uthaman and Ali, were all murdered".

Jebran Chamieh, quoting Ahmad Amin, lists quarrels that sometimes led to bloodshed between the Rashidun and other Companions that arose after Muhammad died over who should rule:

Similarly, Shia view the companions, including the Rashidun Caliphs, as less than models of piety, instead accusing many of them of conspiring after the Prophet's death to dispossess Ali ibn Abi Talib and his descendants of the divinely ordained right to leadership. In this Shi'ite perspective, many of the companions and their successors were usurpers, even hypocrites, who never ceased to subvert the religion for their own interests.

Robert G. Hoyland has questioned the alleged moral superiority of the Rashidun (or at least of Uthman and Ali) to their Umayyad successors, noting Ali was involved in the first civil war (First Fitna) and Uthman had "already inaugurated a nepotistic style of government", Hoyland, ''In God's Path'', 2015: p. 134 for which later Caliphs were condemned.

Fred Donner points out the difficulty in reconciling the alleged virtue of the Rashidun with their infighting. Muslims might find Abu Bakr and Umar rightly guided and moral paragons, but since Ali and Uthman were enemies whose supporters were waging civil war and killing each other, logically, at least one of them had to be in error and not "rightfully" guided.

Skeptical assessments

Donner and Jebran Chamieh write that it was only later when memories of fighting had faded that the community came to consider them both rightly guided. Chamieh and Ahmad Amin note earlier historians saw the Rashidun as mortals who possessed both great achievement and human weaknesses such as competition for political power and pursuit of worldly riches and pleasure.Amin, Ahmad, ''Doha al Islam'' (The Forenoon of Islam), v. 3, p. 75; quoted in Chamieh, ''Traditionalists, Militants and Liberal in Present Islam'', 1977, p. 40) With the political and intellectual decline of the Abassid dynasty and rise of the religiously conservative ''Ahl al-Naql'' (People of Revelation), the idea that the Rashidun caliphate was a "utopia" that Muslims can recreate by imitating its (alleged) purity, took root. In the centuries hence (starting around 874 according to Chamieh), the idea "assumed the character of an absolute truth which accepts no argument."

Historian Hoyland questions not only the virtue of the Rashidun but also how much is known about them. He argues that "writers who lived at the same time as the first four caliphs ... recorded next to nothing about them, and their names do not appear on coins, inscriptions, or documents. Coins struck during the Rashidun rule are inscribed "In the name of God," but do not include the name of Muhammad.Ghabban, A.I.I., Translation and concluding remarks by and Hoyland, R., 2008, The inscription of Zuhayr, the oldest Islamic inscription (24 AH/AD 644–645), the rise of the Arabic script and the nature of the early Islamic state 1. ''Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy'', 19(2), pp. 210–237.
It is only with the fifth caliph", Muawiyah I (661–680), "that was have evidence of a functioning Arab government, since his name appears on all official state media". Hoyland, ''In God's Path'', 2015, p. 98

Hoyland explains the idea of a divinely guided "golden age" of early Islam as coming not from the historical virtue of the Rashidun and other Companions of the Prophet (aṣ-ṣaḥāba), but from the desire of the religious scholars (Ulama) of the late Umayyad and Abbasid to have Caliphs of their era defer to them (the ulama) in religious matters. By differentiating the first caliphs (who had more power in law making) from contemporary Caliphs, they could argue for taking away the religious power of post-Rashidun Caliphs. Consequently, the companions were "given a makeover" as "model's of piety and beyond reproach". Hoyland, ''In God's Path'', 2015, p. 227

List of Rashidun caliphs

See also

* The Four Companions
* Islamic Golden Age
* Talut
* The ten to whom Paradise was promised
* Timeline of Medina

Notes

References

Sources

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