Communication Between Cultures

to take his place. This void was filled by a series of caliphs (Arabic for“successor”or

“representative”),^153 a role assumed by successive leaders of Islam until the demise of

the Ottoman Empire in 1923, in the aftermath of World War I. The first caliphs

were drawn from those who had directly served Muhammad and were known as the

Patriarchal Caliphate or“Rightly Guided Caliphs” (632–661 CE).^154 Soon after

Muhammad’s death, many of the Arab groups that had previously submitted to his

teachings and leadership sought to disassociate themselves from the new caliphs.

Armed groups of“believers”were quickly dispatched to suppress these dissenters, and

within a few years, the many nomadic tribes and the urban areas of the Arabian

Peninsula had been completely subdued. By the middle of the seventh century, the

“believers”held control of most of what is now called the Middle East.^155 As Donner

points out, these conquests“established a large new empire in the Near East, with a

leadership‘committed to a new religious ideology.’”^156 The new empire provided the

political order and organizational structure necessary for the spread of Islam.

The death of the last of the caliphates who had a direct connection to Muhammad

ended the era of the Patriarchal Caliphate and ushered in the Umayyad Caliphate

(661–750 CE). This period brought many changes to Islam, one of which was the

relocation of the capital from Medina in Arabia to Damascus in Syria. Of greater

consequence, consolidation of the Middle East enabled Muslims to embark on the

conquest of more distant lands. To the west, Muslims spread across all of North

Africa, crossing into southern Europe in 710, where they remained a significant pres-

ence until 1492, when Christian armies forced them to abandon the city of Granada

(in present-day Spain), the last Muslim bastion in Western Europe.^157 To the east,

Islam moved across what is now Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan and into India and

Central Asia, ultimately reaching western China. Southward, Islam extended to

present-day Indonesia and the southern Philippines, where it continues to command

a dominant position. Despite the geographical advances of Islam during this period,

the Umayyad Caliphate was not without internal problems. Questions of leadership

succession persisted and ultimately led to civil wars and the division of Islam into its

two major branches—Sunni and Shia. Today, Sunnis represent 87 to 90 percent of all

Muslims and Shia 10 to 13 percent,^158 with the latter concentrated in Iran, Iraq,

Pakistan, and India. The fundamental difference separating them has its roots in the

question of leadership of the Muslim community, and the historical basis of those

differences justifies a brief review.

Sunnis believe that the leader of Islam should be whoever is best qualified. The

Shia, however, contend that leadership is a function of heredity, through lineage

traced to Muhammad. Originally, the two groups saw themselves divided not by ide-

ology but by a question of politics, but with the passage of time, varied theological

TABLE 5.8 Eras of Islamic Civilization

Prophet Muhammad 610 – 632

PatriarchalCaliphate (Rightly Guided Caliphs) 632 – 661

Umayyad Caliphate 661 – 750

Abbasid Caliphate 750 – 1258

Medieval Islam^1259 – 1300?

Ottoman Empire^1301 –^1923

Nation-states^1923 – Present

The Rise and Spread of Islam 191

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