The Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought

Rightly Guided Caliphate (632–61)

The first four rulers after Muhammad’s death in 632 came to be regarded in later (Sunni) historiography as the “Rightly Guided Caliphs” (al-khulafā’ al-rāshidūn). They comprised Abu Bakr (r. 632–34, allegedly the first male Muslim after Muhammad); ‘Umar b. al-Khattab (r. 634–44, who introduced the Islamic calendar starting with the Prophet’s emigration from Mecca to Medina, i.e., the hijra); ‘Uthman b. ‘Affan (r. 644–56, to whom Sunni tradition ascribes the compilation of the text of the Qur’an); and ‘Ali b. Abi Talib (r. 656–61, who became the progenitor of Shi‘ism). They not only belonged to the same tribe as the Prophet (the Quraysh) but were also closely related to him by marriage: Abu Bakr and ‘Umar were his fathers-in-law, and ‘Uthman was the Prophet’s son-in-law, as was ‘Ali, who also was his cousin. The era of the Rightly Guided Caliphs is marked by two main characteristics that had a decisive influence on Islamic history: a rapid expansion of Islamic rule on the one hand and a severe crisis of legitimacy on the other, which finally led to the split of the Muslim community into religiopolitical factions that only later became tangible as Sunnis and Shi‘is.

Within a few years after Muhammad’s death, the Islamic realm underwent a geographical expansion beyond the Arabian Peninsula that is largely unparalleled in history. By the year 661, Muslims ruled over Mesopotamia (conquered in 633), Palestine and Syria (634–40), Iraq (636–41), Egypt (639–42), Persia (640–42), parts of North Africa (647), Armenia (652), and Cyprus (654) and had laid the foundation for the later Muslim empire stretching from Andalus to Central and South Asia. The military activities, however, did not take place under a central supreme command. None of the early caliphs distinguished himself as an army leader, and the title amīr al-mu’minīn (Commander of the Faithful), which was first assumed by ‘Umar, always remained more of a claim than a reality. Instead, the conquests were carried out by local leaders such as Khalid b. al-Walid, and the tribal entities acted largely on their own authority. Being rulers without sufficient troops of their own, the caliphs could never be sure of the loyalty of these armies; not even the provincial governors were reliable in this regard. It is not by chance that ‘Uthman was defenseless in the face of opposing tribal groups and was finally murdered in 656.

The early conquests entailed two other developments with long-standing consequences. One was the establishment of a central administrative system begun under ‘Umar, who formed an institution for the distribution of the incoming booty, the so-called dīwān. The other was the shift of the center of gravity away from the Arabian Peninsula: ‘Ali moved the capital from Medina to Kufa in southern Iraq, and later, under the Umayyads and Abbasids, it was transferred to Damascus and Baghdad. Henceforth, the Arabian coastal area of the Hijaz as the cradle of Islam fell into political oblivion and remained present in Muslim memory only as the spiritual center and the site of the annual pilgrimage.

Following Muhammad’s death in 632, not only did prophetic guidance of the nascent Islamic community come to an abrupt halt, but the political leadership also had to be reformulated, as the Prophet had apparently not left any explicit instructions on how to organize his succession. The so-called wars of apostasy (ridda) immediately after his death, when several tribes broke away from Medina and counterprophets appeared on the stage, were easily halted by Abu Bakr, but the ensuing crisis of legitimacy left far more enduring marks on the Muslim community. Throughout the early period, there was no unanimity on how the leader should be elected or what the basis of his legitimacy should be. (Abu Bakr was appointed by acclamation, ‘Umar by designation, and ‘Uthman by consultation.) In general, the genealogical tribal principle was predominant, while outstanding service to Islam played only a secondary role.

The crisis came to a head when ‘Uthman was killed by his opponents, who had not acknowledged the legitimacy of his rule and accused him of favoritism and other transgressions. His murder provoked what came to be known as the First Civil War (fitna, lit. “affliction, trial”), the single most crucial event in Islamic history in that it was the starting point of the deep split within the Muslim community. It was only later that the emerging two main parties could be identified as Sunnis and Shi‘is; in the context of the early period it is more appropriate to define them as adherents of ‘Uthman and adherents of ‘Ali, respectively. The two groups represented contrasting approaches to the question of the legitimacy of succession. The adherents of ‘Uthman recognized the third caliph’s rule as legitimate, denying that he had forfeited his position by his transgressions and stressing that he was elected by a council (shūrā) after ‘Umar’s death. The followers of ‘Ali, who seem initially to have stressed ‘Uthman’s transgressions, soon came to narrow the circle of claimants to the caliphate to the direct descendants of the family of the Prophet (ahl al-bayt), which eventually came to mean descendants of ‘Ali and Fatima, daughter of the Prophet. The power struggle was finally decided in favor of the adherents of ‘Uthman. ‘Ali’s brief rule, which bore the marks of a countercaliphate, was challenged by a number of oppositional currents and was finally replaced by the Umayyad dynasty, which restored the claim to ‘Uthmani leadership. By then the adherents of ‘Ali had split by the defection of the so-called Kharijis, who rejected ‘Ali as no better than ‘Uthman and who were willing to accept as leader of the community only the most meritorious Muslim, disregarding ancestral affiliations. Around 700 another party emerged in the Murji’is, who suspended judgment with regard to the relative status of ‘Ali and ‘Uthman without accepting the Umayyads.

The concept of the Rightly Guided Caliphate is a later construction of Islamic theology based on the retrospective need for a unified community. It was only in the formation of the hadith in the ninth century that the thesis of four primary caliphs was finally acknowledged and ‘Uthman and ‘Ali were equally regarded as legitimate rulers; this process coincided with the general canonization of the Companions of the Prophet (ṣaḥāba) and even entailed occasional attempts to add a fifth ruler to the Rightly Guided Caliphs (either Hasan b. ‘Ali or ‘Umar b. ‘Abd al-‘Aziz). Nevertheless, it was too late by then to reverse the basic split of the community: the ‘Alids that evolved into Shi‘ism rejected the legitimacy of the first three caliphs (as well as the testimony of most ṣaḥāba) by claiming that the Prophet himself had designated ‘Ali as his successor and that caliphal rule had therefore been usurped. Finally, the era of the Rightly Guided Caliphs was completely transfigured in modern Islam (especially after the formal abolition of the caliphate in 1924) when Islamist currents in particular started defining it as the golden age of Islam, which they planned on restoring. An epoch that had been highly controversial (three of the four caliphs died at the hands of a murderer) now acquired a normative character.