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.
