World Religions › Medieval › Islam
Caliphates: Rashidun, Umayyad, Abbasid
632–1258 (Ottoman claim to 1924)· Event· Judaism, Christianity & Islam
Historical recordConfirmed by archaeology, outside sources or contemporary records.
The successive states led by caliphs, 'successors' of Muhammad, which built an empire from Spain to Central Asia within a century.
See it on the World Religions map →What it is
The first four caliphs, the Rashidun ('rightly guided', 632–661), conquered Byzantine Syria and Egypt and all of Sasanian Persia. The Umayyads ruled from Damascus (661–750) and reached Spain and the Indus. The Abbasids overthrew them and ruled from Baghdad (750–1258), presiding over a golden age of science and translation, until the Mongols sacked the city. Ottoman sultans later claimed the title, until the Turkish Republic abolished it in 1924.
Why it matters
They spread Arabic and Islam across three continents and built the legal, scholarly and political institutions Muslims still look back to as models.
Sources and history
Coins, inscriptions, papyri and buildings from each dynasty; Arabic chronicles such as al-Tabari's history; Byzantine, Syriac and Chinese accounts of the conquests.
Questions and debates
Why the early conquests succeeded so fast is debated: faith, plunder, or exhausted Byzantine and Persian empires. Most conquered peoples converted gradually, over centuries.
Connections (4)
▸Caliphates: Rashidun, Umayyad, Abbasid brought Islam to Persia, gradually displacing ZoroastrianismHistorical record
The connection
Arab armies destroyed the Sasanian Empire, whose state religion was Zoroastrianism, between 636 and 651. Zoroastrians got protected status in exchange for a poll tax (jizya) but lost royal patronage, and conversion to Islam spread over about three centuries. Persia was majority Muslim by about the 900s; some Zoroastrians moved to India, becoming the Parsis.
When and where
Iraq and Iran, from the battles of Qadisiyya (636) and Nahavand (642) to the last Sasanian king's death in 651; Parsis reached Gujarat sometime in the 700s-900s.
Historical evidence
Arabic chronicles of the conquest; Zoroastrian texts of the 800s-900s lamenting their decline; and Richard Bulliet's study of Muslim names in biographical dictionaries, which traces the conversion curve.
Questions and debates
How much conversion was pressured versus voluntary is debated. Estimates vary, but perhaps 100,000–200,000 Zoroastrians remain today, mostly in India, Iran and North America.
▸Caliphates: Rashidun, Umayyad, Abbasid built Dome of the RockHistorical record
The connection
The Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik commissioned the Dome, finished in 691/692, widely seen as a statement of Islam's power and permanence. Using Byzantine-style craftsmen, mosaics and an octagonal plan, it rivaled Jerusalem's churches, while its Arabic inscriptions asserted the new faith. Al-Aqsa Mosque followed nearby under his son al-Walid.
When and where
Jerusalem, about 688–692, during a civil war in which a rival caliph, Ibn al-Zubayr, held Mecca.
Historical evidence
The foundation inscription gives the year 72 AH; the Abbasid caliph al-Mamun later swapped in his own name for Abd al-Malik's but left the date.
Questions and debates
Historians debate its purpose: honoring the Night Journey, outshining churches, or rivaling Mecca during the civil war; the last view rests on a later, contested source.
▸Sunni and Shia split began over leadership of Caliphates: Rashidun, Umayyad, AbbasidHistorical record
The connection
The split began as a question about the caliphate itself: should the community choose its leader, as Sunnis hold it rightly did with Abu Bakr, or should leadership pass within Muhammad's family through Ali, as Shia believe? Ali's contested caliphate (656–661) brought civil war, and Umayyad rule pushed his supporters into opposition.
When and where
Medina, 632, where Abu Bakr was chosen at the Saqifa meeting; the First Fitna, or civil war, 656–661, including the battle of Siffin (657).
Historical evidence
Early Arabic histories such as al-Tabari's describe the Saqifa meeting and the civil war in detail, drawing on reporters with differing sympathies.
Questions and debates
How much the earliest dispute was religious versus tribal and political is debated; the Shia theology of the imams developed over the following centuries.
▸Muslim Brotherhood arose after the end of Caliphates: Rashidun, Umayyad, AbbasidMostly agreed by scholars
The connection
Turkey abolished the caliphate in 1924, shocking many Muslims who saw it as the last symbol of Muslim political unity. Four years later Hasan al-Banna founded the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt to revive Islam in society and politics, and restoring an Islamic order, even a caliphate, became a long-term goal of such movements.
When and where
Ismailia, Egypt, March 1928, founded by schoolteacher Hasan al-Banna, four years after the Turkish parliament in Ankara abolished the caliphate in March 1924.
How do we know?
Al-Banna's own writings lament the caliphate's fall and call for its eventual restoration; historians link the timing, though local causes mattered too.
Questions and debates
How central the caliphate's end was, versus British domination and Egyptian social change, is debated; Brotherhood branches today differ on whether a caliphate is a real goal.