calligraphic representation of Husayn at Hagia Sophia-istanbul |
Unlike in many western kingdoms at the time, where succession was usually hereditary e.g. would pass to the son of the ruler upon the death of the ruler; in Islam there was no set rule for succession. This is because it has to be remembered that Islam was still a relatively young movement at the time and there was no instructions in the Qu'ran on how do deal with succession. Indeed was a succession even permitted? It is also worth noting that no one was expecting Muhammed to pass away so soon, so the debate of who would bare the mantle of Islam after his death was not one that had been contemplated. Moreover, in relation to the common western notion of hereditary succession, the prophet himself although having 6 children (all with his first wife Khadijah who had since passed away), had zero male heirs which didn't make the situation much simpler.
As you can imagine, once the prophet died, there was plenty of dicussion over who should succeed him, which is where lies the main divisive point between Sunni's and Shias. Shia's maintain to this day that according to Hadiths, Muhammed had requested the presence of Ali on his death bed because he wanted him to succeed him after his death. Essentially Shias believe that the successor of Islam should have came from within the Prophets own bloodline as Ali was also the prophets cousin. Some also maintain that Ali coming to power was thwarted by the prophet's last wife - Aisha (daughter of Abu Bakr). The issue with Ali for the rest of the community was that he wasn't proven in battle nor charismatic. Eventually Ali didn't initially become Caliph and instead many of the prophets companions rallied around Abu Bakr to become the next leader of the Islamic community.
This leads us to the Sunni belief that the leadership should have been egalitarian and elected from the prophet's close companions. Eventually Abu Bakr go
t elected to become the successor of Muhammed, however inevitably this was met with some opposition in the form of Muhammed's influential Banu Hashim clan who wanted someone from their own tribe to become the leader, and indeed Fatimah tried to rally supporters away from Abu Bakr and towards her own husband Ali- a member of the Banu Hashim clan. Soon after, Fatimah dies and Ali ends up allying himself with Abu Bakr, perhaps in the hope that he would still gain some influence in the Islamic community? Or perhaps out of sincere loyalty to the prophet and Islam.
After 2 years of consolidating a growing empire and aiding with the collecting of the Qu'ran, Abu Bakr passes away and leaves the caliphate to Umar, another of the prophet's companions who had facilitated his rise to power. Umar further expanded the empire, taking Jerusalem and much of the Persian empire. it could be said that it was under the rule of Umar that the Islamic empire took shape, whereas under the prophet it had merely been a small community in Medina and Mecca.
Umar was killed and the Caliph to succeed him was Uthman who was also a close companion of the prophet. Again, it is important to note that whilst all this was going on and caliphs were being appointed, Ali still had not been given his chance of becoming caliph, and this to Shia's was an external conspiracy in which Ali had been prevented from becoming caliph by other companions of the prophet.
Umayyad mosque |
me active in rallying support against Ali. Ali further loses two more crucial supporters in the form of Zubayr and Talha who were also companions of Muhammed-perhaps they wanted political power for themselves as they were Aisha's cousins? What we do know is that they defect to Aisha's side.
So by now divisions between the Ali camp and that of Aisha have deepened and a war is fought between the two at a battle in Basra - titled 'the battle of the camel' because in the middle of it all Aisha sits on a camel and directs her side in the war - a totally unheard of role for a female in early Arabian society. Aisha surrenders in battle to Ali who is quite respectful towards her and he in fact remains caliph.
After the death of Ali, Mu'awiya becomes Caliph, and there starts the Umayyad era of Islamic history
Umayyad's renovate the dome of the rock and al Aqsa |
80. This understandably caused outrage amongst the Shia community as they had now lost all descendants of Ali and indeed the event is remembered even today every year on day called 'Ashura'. The event is also poignant as it spurred a lot of other shia movements to take hold. Therefore the end result is not a question of w
ho will become the next successor but it is about the Ali dynasty versus other Islamic leaders.
Sources: For more in depth info listen to: http://15minutehistory.org/2014/10/29/episode-57-the-succession-to-muhammad/AND http://15minutehistory.org/2014/11/12/episode-58-islams-first-civil-war/
READ - lost islamic history by Firas Alkhateeb