RASHIDUN CALIPHS


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Rashidun
CALIPHS
WRITTEN BY: The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
See Article History
Rashidun, (Arabic: “Rightly Guided,” or “Perfect”), the first four caliphs of the Islāmic community, known in Muslim history as the orthodox or patriarchal caliphs: Abū Bakr (reigned 632–634), ʿUmar (reigned 634–644), ʿUthmān (reigned 644–656), and ʿAlī (reigned 656–661).

The 29-year rule of the Rashidun was Islām’s first experience without the leadership of the Prophet Muḥammad. His example, however, in both private and public life, came to be regarded as the norm (sunnah) for his successors, and a large and influential body of anṣār (companions of the Prophet) kept close watch on the caliphs to insure their strict adherence to divine revelation (the Qurʾān) and the sunnah. The Rashidun thus assumed all of Muḥammad’s duties except the prophetic: as imams, they led the congregation in prayer at the mosque; as khaṭībs, they delivered the Friday sermons; and as umarāʾ al-muʾminīn (“commanders of the faithful”), they commanded the army.

The caliphate of the Rashidun, in which virtually all actions had religious import, began with the wars of the riddah (“apostasy”; 632–633), tribal uprisings in Arabia, and ended with the first Muslim civil war (fitnah; 656–661). It effected the expansion of the Islāmic state beyond Arabia into Iraq, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, Iran, and Armenia and, with it, the development of an elite class of Arab soldiers. The Rashidun were also responsible for the adoption of an Islāmic calendar, dating from Muḥammad’s emigration (hijrah) from Mecca to Medina (622), and the establishment of an authoritative reading of the Qurʾān, which strengthened the Muslim community and encouraged religious scholarship. It was also a controversy over ʿAlī’s succession that split Islām into two sects, the Sunnite (traditionalists) and the Shīʿite (shīʿat ʿAlī, “party of ʿAlī”), which have survived to modern times.

The religious and very traditionalist strictures on the Rashidun were somewhat relaxed as Muḥammad’s contemporaries, especially the anṣār, began to die off, and the conquered territories became too vast to rule along theocratic lines; thus the Umayyads, who followed the Rashidun as caliphs, were able to secularize the operations of the state.

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LEARN MORE in these related Britannica articles:
caliph
Caliph, in Islamic history the ruler of the Muslim community. Although khalīfah and its plural khulafāʾ occur several times in the Qurʾān, referring to humans as God’s stewards or vice-regents on earth, the term did not denote a distinct political or religious institution during the lifetime of…
World distribution of Islam.
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Islamic world, the complex of societies and cultures in which Muslims and their faith have been prevalent and socially dominant. Adherence to Islam is a global phenomenon: Muslims predominate in some 30 to 40 countries, from the Atlantic eastward to the Pacific and…
Abū Bakr
Abū Bakr, Muhammad’s closest companion and adviser, who succeeded to the Prophet’s political and administrative functions, thereby initiating the office of the caliph. Of a minor clan of the ruling merchant tribe of Quraysh at Mecca, Abū Bakr purportedly was…
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Rashidun
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632 - 661
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Islam
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Caliph
ISLAMIC TITLE
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Caliph
ISLAMIC TITLE
WRITTEN BY: Asma Afsaruddin
See Article History
Alternative Titles: calif, khalīfah
Caliph, Arabic khalīfah (“successor”), in Islamic history the ruler of the Muslim community. Although khalīfah and its plural khulafāʾ occur several times in the Qurʾān, referring to humans as God’s stewards or vice-regents on earth, the term did not denote a distinct political or religious institution during the lifetime of the Prophet Muhammad. It began to acquire its later meaning and to take shape as an institution after Muhammad’s death (June 8, 632 CE), when Abū Bakr, a companion of the Prophet and an early convert to Islam, was elected by a majority of Muslims as the leader of the Muslim community and assumed the title khalīfat rasūl Allāh, “successor of the messenger of God.” Abū Bakr’s successor, ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, is said to have first assumed the title khalīfat Abī Bakr (“successor to Abū Bakr”), because the title khalīfat khalīfat rasūl Allāh (“the successor to the successor of the messenger of God”) would have been cumbersome. ʿUmar also designated himself amīr al-muʾminīn, “the commander of the faithful,” which became an additional customary title for succeeding rulers.

Abu Darweesh Mosque
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Islam: The state
…the office of the Sunni caliph (khalīfah, one who is successor to the Prophet Muhammad in rulership) is religious, this does not…
Abū Bakr and his three immediate successors are known as the “perfect” caliphs or the “rightly guided caliphs” (al-khulafāʾ al-rāshidun), whose combined rule is idealized by the majority of Muslims for having been based on the concepts of shūrā (consultation), ijmāʿ (consensus) of Muslims, and bayʿah (allegiance). In contrast, subsequent rulers of the Muslim polity instituted dynastic rule, which violated the concept of shūrā and, therefore, was largely regarded as illegitimate, although it was often grudgingly accepted in a pragmatic vein.

Nevertheless, the title of caliph was borne by the 14 Umayyad rulers of Damascus and subsequently by the 38 ʿAbbāsid caliphs of Baghdad, whose dynasty fell before the Mongols in 1258. There were titular caliphs of ʿAbbāsid descent in Cairo under the Mamlūks from 1258 until 1517, when the last caliph was captured by the Ottoman sultan Selim I. The Ottoman sultans then claimed the title and used it until it was abolished by the Turkish Republic on March 3, 1924.


After the fall of the Umayyad dynasty at Damascus (750), the title of caliph was also assumed by the Andalusian branch of the family who ruled in Spain at Córdoba (755–1031; see also Caliphate of Córdoba), and it was also assumed by the Fāṭimid rulers of Egypt (909–1171), who claimed to descend from Fāṭimah (a daughter of Muhammad) and her husband, ʿAli.

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According to the Shiʿahs, who call the supreme office the “imamate,” or leadership, no caliph is legitimate unless he is a lineal descendant of the Prophet Muhammad. Later, Sunni scholars insisted that the office belonged to the tribe of Quraysh, to which Muhammad himself belonged, but this condition would have vitiated the claim of the Ottoman sultans, who held the office after the last ʿAbbāsid caliph of Cairo transferred it to Selim I.


This table provides a list of the primary caliphs.

Primary caliphs*
caliph reign
"Perfect" caliphs
*When Muhammad died, Abū Bakr, his father-in-law, succeeded to his political and administrative functions. He and his three immediate successors are known as the "perfect" or "rightly guided" caliphs. After them the title was borne by the 14 Umayyad caliphs of Damascus and subsequently by the 38 ʿAbbāsid caliphs of Baghdad. ʿAbbāsid power ended in 945, when the Būyids took Baghdad under their rule. The Fāṭimids, however, proclaimed a new caliphate in 920 in Tunisia, and it lasted until 1171. ʿAbbāsid authority was partially restored in the 12th century, but the caliphate ceased with the Mongol destruction of Baghdad in 1258.
Abū Bakr 632–634
ʿUmar I 634–644
ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān 644–656
ʿAlī 656–661
Umayyad caliphs (Damascus)
Muʿāwiyah I 661–680
ʿAbd al-Malik 685–705
al-Walīd 705–715
Hishām 724–743
Marwān II 744–750
ʿAbbāsid caliphs (Baghdad)
al-Saffāh 749–754
Hārūn al-Rashīd 786–809
al-Maʾmūn 813–833
Fāṭimid caliphs (Al-Mahdiyyah)
al-Mahdī 909–934
al-Qāʾim 934–946
al-Manṣūr 946–953
al-Muʿizz 953–975
al-Ḥākim 996–1021
al-Mustanṣir 1036–94
al-Mustaʿlī 1094–1101
ʿAbbāsid caliph (Baghdad)
al-Nāṣir 1180–1225
Asma Afsaruddin

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