The early history of Islam after the death of Muhammad is one of glorious wars and victories on the one hand, and
hatred, dissension, jealousy, intrigue and deceit on the
other.
It begins with the so-called 'Ridda' of a number of Arab
tribes after the death of Muhammad. Several 'prophets'
contested the leadership of Muhammad and his subsequent
successor Abu Bakr, who was chosen after his death to lead
the Muslim believers.
The first Khalif Abu Bakr 10-12 AH 632-634 AD
died after only two years of reign, and was followed by Khalif
Umar 12-22 AH 634-644 AD Umar was, like Abu Bakr, a
father-in-law of Muhammad. He was assassinated by an Iraqian
slave while at prayer in the mosque. Under him - probably the
most gifted and respected of the Khalifs, the Arab Empire
grew vastly. He was succeeded by the third Khalif Uthman 22-34 AH 644-656 AD By trying to unify the Empire,
largely comprising independence-loving Arabs, he fell into
disfavour, particularly for his revision of the Qur'an (see
this chapter). He was assassinated in a gruesome way and was
not allowed to be buried in the Muslim cemetery. His wife,
with some of his friends, buried him by night without the
ritual washings, listening to the curses of the Arabs, who
also pelted stones at them. He was buried in the Jewish
cemetery. Khalif Ali was the last of the 'four rightly
guided' Khalifs.
Two well exposed leaders, Talha and al-Zubair, with the
support of Aysha, rebelled against Ali. The resulting Battle of the Camel saw 10 000 Muslims
slaughtered. Ali and his troops won, but soon faced another
contender, Mu'awiya, the Governor of Syria, who accused him
as did Aysha, of complicity in the assassination of Uthman.
Another battle resulted with tremendous loss of life but
without a decisive victory. Mu'awiya and Ali agreed to
appoint arbiters and to abide by their solution. This
strongly undermined the authority of Ali, who eventually was
assassinated by one of his disillusioned followers.
The heir and expected successor of Ali, al-Hassan,
renounced his khalifship in favour of Mu'awiya, who from then
on ruled not only Syria and Egypt, but the whole Islamic
empire.
Al-Hussein, Ali's other son, together with most of his
family, was slain under the reign of Mu'awayia's son, the
Khalifah Yazid I. at the battle of Kerbela, which actually
was rather an assassination than a battle.
This triggered off a split in Islam. Those who sided with
Ali and his sons, whom they declared the only true Khalifs,
because they were relatives of Muhammad, are now known as the
Shiáh followers Muslims. The much
bigger part today about 80% are known as Sunni one of the path Muslims.
Islam History
Muthana ibn Haritha, a new convert to Islam after the Prophet(s)'s death, from the north eastern Arab tribe called Bakr was sent on a campaign in Iraq with Khalid ibn al-Walid and later took over the command. After the victory in the so called Battle of the River of Blood at Ullais near modern Samawah in Iraq the two Muslim generals gave the enemy no respite and Hira was captured in May with only a small and in part locally recruited force. Hira was a Persian outpost but largely inhabited by Arabsand an important city in Iraq. It was also the first acquisition of the Muslims outside the Arabian Peninsula. Hira was spared military occupation and its Arab inhabitants were allowed to remain Nestorian Christains this sect was bitterly hostile to the Monophysite form of Christainity prevailing among the Egyptians Syrians, and Abyssinians on the payment of a large sum of .
Next year Khalid was suddenly ordered to go and take over the command of the Muslim armies in Syria who needed help and Muthana was left behind in charge of the campaign on the Persian front.
While the campaign in Iraq against the Sasnids was going on, at home
major apostasy was stamped out by the revolting tribes being brought
under control. Abu Bakr now turned his attention to the conquest of
Syrian and Palestine on the Byzantine frontier which he regarded as
more important. Through their commercial activities, the Arabs were
more familiar with, and interested in, this region than Persia, which
was largely unknown to them. Even the Prophet(s) in his lifetime showed
interest in it and sent an expedition under his adopted son Zayd ibn
Haritha, to the Syrian broder in 629. But the vastly superior Byzantine
army had no difficulty in crushing the raw soldiers of early Islam.
Zayd died fighting, and the expedition ended in diaster.
In 633 Abu Bakr organized three armies of 3.000 soldiers
eachg and put them under the command of Yezid ibn Abi Sufyan his
father, Abu Sufyan, the Makkan leader in battles against the
Muslims, was then governor of Najran and Hijaz Shurahbil ibn Hasana
and Amr ibn al As who was later to become famous for his conquest of
Egypt in 640.2 and three times its governor The first two columns
entered Jordan while Amr led his troops to south-eastern Palestine, and
near Gaza he annihilated in February a small army under
