BIRTH OF THE KHALIFATE 39engendered two different sects of Islam, the Sunnis and the Shi'i, each of
whom has a different version of these events. Ali's partisans developed into
the Shi'i, a word that simply means "partisans" in Arabic, and they remain
convinced to this day that Ali was the Prophet's only legitimate successor.
In either case, within six months the rift had closed, and just in time, for
a new crisis was threatening the survival of Islam. All across Arabia, tribes
were seceding from the alliance that Mohammed had forged. Most claimed
they had never pledged allegiance to Abu Bakr or the Umma but only to
Mohammed himself, and that pledge had been voided by Mohammed's
death. Nominally, these tribespeople had all converted to Islam, and many
of them insisted they were still Muslims. They still acknowledged the sin-
gleness of God and Mohammed's authority. They would still pray, still fast,
still try to keep the drinking and debauchery under control-but zakat?
The charity tax payable to the treasury at Medina? No, that they could no
longer tolerate: no more payments to Medina!
A few tribal leaders went further. They claimed that they themselves
were now Allah's living Messengers. They claimed they were receiving rev-
elations and had permission to issue divinely authorized laws. These up-
starts thought to use the model pioneered by Mohammed to forge
sovereign "sacred" communities in competition with the Umma.
Had Abu Bakr allowed these departures, Islam would surely have gone in
a very different direction. It might have evolved into a set of practices and
beliefs that people embraced individually. But Abu Bakr responded to the
crisis by declaring secession to be treason. The Prophet had said, "No com-
pulsion in religion," and Abu Bakr did not deny that principle. People were
free to accept or reject Islam as they pleased; but once they were in, he as-
serted, they were in for good. In response to a political crisis, Abu Bakr es-
tablished a religious principle that haunts Islam to this day-the equation of
apostasy with treason. Braided into this policy was the theological concept
that the indissoluble singleness of God must be reflected in the indissoluble
singleness of the Umma. With this decision Abu Bakr even more definitively
confirmed Islam as a social project and not just a belief system. A Muslim
community was not just a kind of community, of which there could be any
number, but a particular community, of which there could be only one.
The new khalifa proved himself a formidable strategist. It took him a lit-
tle over a year to end the rebellion known as the Apostate Wars and reunite