The creation of Islam came about from the prophet Muhammad. Islam means submission to G-d, otherwise known as Allah to the Islamic people. Muhammad was someone who knew how to capture the attention of the people and did so very successfully. He spoke with passion and brought together the Arabian tribes who had been fighting for many years. Once united, Muhammad influenced these tribes to convert to Islam. Immediately following his death, the tribes who were once united broke apart and began fighting the way they had been before Muhammad came into place.
After the death of Muhammad, it was the caliph’s job to continue spreading Islam throughout the world. Caliph literally means the deputy to God’s messenger. The first caliph, Abu Bakr, Muhammad’s best friend, father-in-law, and one of the first people to convert to Islam, stopped the fighting and the Islamic tribes were once again reunited. Although there was no comparison, Abu Bakr was influential enough to save the Islamic tribe from completely falling apart after Muhammad’s death.
He made people realize that Muhammad was not only preaching the power and truth of G-d, but that Muhammad himself was only the messenger of G-d.However people stopped focusing on G-d and only believed in Muhammad, which was a big problem. Abu Bakr was the caliph from 632-634 when he died during a war brief to reunite the Muslims took place. Following the death of Abu Bakr, Umar, a general in the war, took Abu Bakr’s place and ruled for ten years (634-644). While on his deathbed, Abu Bakr had chosen Umar to be the new caliph.
Umar was the most influential caliph and was the real founder of the early Muslim Empire. His commanded his Arab armies to go into North Africa. There they succeeded in conquering Egypt by 642.During that time, he also invaded Persia and the Byzantine territory in the eastern Mediterranean.
Umar enforced religious tolerance in the new lands, which was how he spread Islamic beliefs to the people who lived in the places he conquered. Umar was very successful in conquering lands and increasing his empire but due to such a rapid expansion of the Muslim rule, Umar found it difficult to rule over such vast territory. By the time of Umar’s death in 644, Arabs continued to raid and conquer other countries and were doing so as far as in western India.Uthman Affan, the third caliph chosen from a six-person committee created by Umar was the next successor. He ruled from 644-656 and was the first caliph from the Umayyad clan.
Interestingly enough, Umayyad was one of the wealthy clans that very much opposed Muhammad. In fact, Uthman started out opposed to Muhammad’s beliefs. Uthman was an extremely practical and intellectual military and political leader. Although he ruled for 12 years, both the original followers of Muhammad and Islamic people in general opposed Uthman and the dislike people had for him increased over the years.
Despite the opposition people had for Uthman, Uthman continued to conquer other lands like Umar had once done. The Islamic Empire conquered Libya in North Africa and the eastern portions of the Persian Empire. The government was in financial crisis all within his empire and as a result, in 656, a riot broke out in Medina. The riot was so bad, that Uthman had requested that there be more military help. The rioters had found out about his demand and then broke into Uthmans house and killed him.
Ali was the fourth and last caliph of the first stage of the Muslim expansion. He was the last orthodox caliph for a long time and ruled from 656 until he died in 661. Ali was first cousins with Muhammad. Ali’s failure in punishing Uthman’s murderers after he became the new caliph caused a tremendous amount of outrage. Many blamed Ali for the death of Uthman and as a result caused conflicts within the Muslim people.
Ali wins his first battle against an army fighting in support of Muhammad’s widow, A’isha in 656, but his success quickly comes to an end.People started to loose faith in Ali, which allowed for the rise in power of Muawiya, the son of Abu Sufyan, the leader of the Abd Shams clan. The majority of the members of Abd Shams had rejected Muhammad, which of course was not to Ali’s advantage. Many people abandoned Ali, and they became known as Kharijites.
Eventually, one of the Kharijite’s killed Ali. After Ali’s death in 661 the expansion of Islam started to decrease. All four of the caliphs following Muhammad’s death impacted the spread of Islam.All four of the caliphs were challenged in one way or another, and nly some of them were able to get through the hard time successfully.
Islam primarily spread through the word of one man – Muhammad. A convincing man and one who believed wholeheartedly in what he was preaching, but still just one man. The Muslims fought amongst themselves, which threatened their ability to survive and their very identity. Abu Bakr was one such man as he pulled through in his religion’s time of need and saved them from what seemed to be the end of Islam. He was just the first of all the caliphs to save and spread Islam after the death of Muhammad.
