Subscribers can listen to the audio of this post here.
Being that it was born six centuries after Christianity, we know a fair bit of the real history of how Islam began, and there was quite a bit of death involved. Not that Christianity hasn’t had its share of killing, it’s just that for the early days of Islam there was better record-keeping on who was snuffed and when.
--On This Day in History Shit Went Down: January 26, 661--
Islam found its spark early in the seventh century, and the religion launched wars across the Arabian Peninsula between monotheists vs. polytheists. One of the reasons the two most popular and powerful religions in the world are monotheist (more or less, especially less when it comes to Christianity) is that believing in one all-powerful god is a more unifying idea than a whole pile of gods is, and such unification makes for good conquering.
Muhammad the prophet, the founder of Islam, died in 632, and there was immediate fuckery following his death that eventually led to the Sunni-Shia split based around an argument over which Muslim sect should be in charge. It also began the period of the Rashidun Caliphate, lasting almost three decades. It was a time of military expansion and internal discord.
Abu Bakr was the first caliph. His followers became Sunnis, and he was popular. And that’s why today 85% of Muslims are Sunni. After he died, there were two more Sunni caliphs and their reigns both ended via assassination. The first three caliphs are viewed as “fuck those guys” by Shia Muslims. The fourth caliph was Ali, who began the Shia branch way back when Muhammad died. He reigned for five years, during which time there was a civil war within Islam between Sunni and Shia. Ali too was assassinated, on January 26, 661. That killing is what is known in history as a Big Fucking Deal, as it furthered the animosity between Sunni and Shia, contributing to an irrevocable schism. Iran and Iraq had a war 1300 years later that killed a million people due in part to this division.
Technical clarification: Ali was stabbed with a poisoned sword on January 26 while at prayer but didn’t actually die until a couple of days later. Ali is considered a martyr by Shia Muslims.
After the assassination, the followers of Ali proclaimed his son Hasan the new caliph, but after six months Hasan was all I’d really rather not die the way the previous three caliphs did, so he signed a peace treaty and abdicated to end the Rashidun Caliphate, launching the Umayyad Caliphate, which was more of a kingship. Hasan then went off to be head Imam of the Shia. He still got deaded though, by his wife. She poisoned him nine years later at the behest of Sunni leader Muawiyah, the guy Hasan abdicated to in 661.
Nineteen years later the Battle of Karbala made the Islamic schism permanent. That battle is another story.
Subscribe:
Get both volumes of ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY SH!T WENT DOWN
Image information:
Artist: Yousef Abdinejad
Date: 2000
Title: The Martyrdom of Imam Ali