We discussed the five pillars of faith last. It is widely appealing, and recognizes the
equality of believers. In 632 mohammed dies. It isn't long into the religion, merely in its
infancy. As soon as he is dead, the muslim community divides. Some want a different
leader, others just wants to GTFO because of the lack of leadership. A large number
defect. Those believers that are left have a crises over who is going to lead the
community.
We have two potential leaders: 1 is Ali. Ali was a son in law. Mohammed
had no male children of his own, only daughters. Ali was married to mohammed's
daughter, so we have family succession, that the leader of the community should be an
heir of mohammed. Ali doesn't have much experience, however, so there was a little
controversy. Mohammed never said that he was anything special, but his image started
to be blown out of proportion after he died. He never said who should follow him before
his death either. It is either going to be Ali or another relative: an older uncle who was
wiser and an earlier convert: Abu Bakr. Abu becomes the next Caliph, leader. Ali wasn't
ready yet. They needed someone more mature, especially someone to take back the
defecting tribes. Ali is overshadowed by the older, more mature member of the
community. Caliphs are religious and political leaders of the Muslim community. They
didn't have a government yet, so the caliph gave them unity. We have these tribes that
defected. THe islamic community had to go back around and earn them back. It was a
forceful reconquering of the bedouins. ONce these two major crises have been
resolved, then the community is reunited and has a clear leadership. Abu was elected
by a counsel, and that process becomes the standard for choosing the caliph.
THey will turn to external conquests after this. The arabs have not much to do after this.
Remember that this was a militaristic community, and had all that blood feuding going
on, and the Mohammed made them stop. ONce they are united, they had a bunch of
pent up military aggression, so they decided to use against people outside their
community. THey start attacking their neighbors. THe persian shave an empire above
them, and the byzantine empire as well. They have lots of booty to conquer. What is
today he holy land was frontier border areas to them. They were less regulated areas,
and they were easy pickings for the Bedouin. They would hit a village, grab the loot, and
run. THey would do it before the byzantine government could react. What they find is
that as they begin this conquest, both the Sesanian and Byzantine empires are in a
state of decline, so the arabs are finding that it is really really easy. They are meeting
virtually no resistance. They start going further and further. THey don't' just hit and run,
