Definition and the role of Calif
Calif was a title that was given to a spiritual and political leader who was to succeed prophet, Muhammad. Caliphate thus was a government that was to be headed by a caliph. A calif, therefore, was a ruler who was to guide the Muslim community on day to day activities. He assumes the role of a political leader where he was the head of a caliphate government and a religious leader who guided the community in the worship of Allah. The idea of a Calif within the Muslim community came as a result of the need of having a leader who was to pick the community leadership mantle after Muhammad. Before Muhammad death, the Muslim prophet through whose teachings the Holy Quran is written chose his father in law Abu Bakr to be the Muslim Calif in 632-634 (Esposito 1988). Later other califs who followed were Umar, Uthman, and Ali (Hansen 2017).
Causes of the Muslim Split
Succession battles of who was to be the calif are what brought about the split among the Muslim community. For example, after the assassination of the leader named Uthman and Ali, split conflicts intensified. Muawiyah who hailed from the Uthman’s Umayyad clan but a rival to Ali wrestled his way to leadership and established the Umayyad rule in 661-750. The Umayyads had Damascus as their capital where they built the Great Mosque (Hansen 2017). It is during this period that Islamic armies conquered North Africa in the quest to spread Islamic religion.
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Spread of Muslim religion
After the conquest wars in North Africa for example; Muslim Arab traders are the ones who spread the religion more. The influence of trade made the religion spread too far lands. For example, in the eighth up to the ninth century, Arab traders who traveled to central Sudan and East African coast facilitated the spread of Islamic religion and development of Muslim ruled cities. According to the Metropolitan Museum Art (2001), within West Africa, Muslim merchants had an impact in the establishment of Mosques. In 1312 -1337 when Mansa Musa the Malian king returned from Pilgrimage to Mecca he brought the Al- Sahili architecture. During the seventh and eighth centuries, Muslims army conquered Spain with Ibn Abd-el-Hakem as the calif and Musa the great Islam army commander (Halsall 1996). In work by Halsall (1998), Musa is quoted saying, "Never has a company from my army been beaten. And never have the Moslems hesitated to follow me when I have led them; though they were two scores to fourscore." Meaning the Muslim community had established themselves as the great nation and were determined to spread their religion through conquering other countries.
The real Muslim split into Shiite and the Sunnis
In 747- 750, a rebellion against the Umayyads broke. Marwan II a Calif who hailed from Umayyads family was defeated by Abbasid family who claimed ancestry from Muhammad’s uncle. The main reason that led to the spilled of the Muslim community was based on Muhammad’s succession. The few who are presently the Shi’ite believed that a Muslim leader should come from the Muhammad family. The larger group the Sunnis who account for 85% of the Muslim community in the present world believed that the Muslim elites are the ones to select who the leader would be (Esposito 1988). Thus, there was a great misunderstanding, mistrust and an undermining feeling. Such kind of emotions brought about hostility among Muslims depending on the succession ideology one believed in. An ideological division was created; those who were for a Muhammad defendant to be the calif took one side called the Shiite, and the other who believe elite Muslim leaders were to select a ruler became the Sunnis. This split causes short-term and long-term effects on the Muslim community. The immediate effect was hostility division wars that brought death like that of Hussein, the leader of the Shiite group. The long-term effects are like the rivalry that we witness today among the Muslim community.
References
Esposito, J. L. (1988). Islam: The Straight Path . New York/Oxford: Oxford University Press, (1st edition),
Halsall P. (1996). Medieval Sourcebook: Ibn Abd-el-Hakem: The Islamic Conquest of Spain . Retrieved from: https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/halsall/source/conqspain.asp
Halsall P. (1998). Medieval Sourcebook: Arabs, Franks, and the Battle of Tours, 732: Three Accounts. Retrieved from:
https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/halsall/source/732tours.asp
Hansen V. (2017). Voyages in World History. Vol. 1 Cengage learning
The Metropolitan Museum of Art (2001). Trade and the Spread of Islam in Africa . Retrieved from:
https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/tsis/hd_tsis.htm
