Rightly Guided Caliphs Period of Rule

The Rashidun Caliphate

The formal name for the combined reigns of Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman and Ali is the Rashidun Caliphate. Rashidun is the Arabic term for 'Rightly Guided' - why are they considered rightly guided? Most Muslims believe that these four caliphs represented a golden age when the Islamic community adhered to Muhammad's teaching and vision.

Another name for the Rashidun Caliphate is the 'Patriarchal Caliphs'. This refers to the fact that Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman and Ali were all relatives or close companions of the Prophet Muhammad.

History of the Rightly Guided Caliphs Period of Rule

This table condenses some of the most important facts about who these four caliphs were and what happened during their reigns.

Achievements of the Rightly Guided Caliphs

What were the main achievements of the Rashidun Caliphs?

1. Military Conquest: The Rashidun Caliphs conquered the whole of the Arabian Peninsula, the whole of the Sasanian Empire, and two-thirds of the Byzantine Empire within a span of twenty-four years.
2. Establishment of one of the first welfare states: Under Caliph Umar, allowances for children and the elderly were introduced, paid for by the zakat tax (an early kind of progressive taxation).
3. Consolidation of Islam: Abu Bakr's successes against rebel tribes in the Ridda Wars ensured that Islam would not be forgotten with the death of Muhammad but that it would become a powerful religious and political force in world history. Caliph Uthman was responsible for compiling the written Qur'an, which ensured that Muhammad's teachings were preserved for the future.
4. Toleration of other religions: The Rashidun caliphs mostly treated other religious people with respect. Jews, Christians, Zoroastrians and other religious groups were called dhimmis, 'the protected people'. They had to pay a special tax called the jizya and acknowledge Muslim rule, but in exchange for this, they were mostly left to practice their faiths in peace. Some dhimmis even became important members of the Muslim government.

Effects of the Right Guided Caliphs Period of Rule

This period saw the establishment of Islam as the unquestionable superpower in the Near East.

Before the Rashidun Caliphate, the big cheeses on the block were the Byzantine Empire and the Sasanian Empire. Muhammad may have won local fame and power in central Arabia, but his territorial and cultural impact was limited compared to these two empires.

However, within just twenty-nine years, the rising star of the Rashidun Caliphate meant that the Islamic Empire became the most powerful force in the Near East. They conquered all the lands of the Sasanian Empire, meaning that this ancient Persian empire crumbled after several centuries of rule. Moreover, they made serious inroads into Byzantine territory. It would be another two hundred years before the Byzantine Empire started to assert itself again under the Macedonian dynasty.

These two maps side by side, showing the Near East before Muhammad and after the Rashidun Caliphate, shows this radical change.

Map showing the tribes and empires of the Near East before Muhammad migrated to Medina c.600, Getoryk, Wikimedia Commons

Map Showing the Expansion of the Islamic Caliphate. Key: Dark red: Muhammad, Orange: Rashidun Caliphs, Yellow: Umayyad Caliphs, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons

Historical Importance of the Rightly Guided Caliphs Period of Rule

The significance of the Rashidun Caliphate is hotly contested.

Caliph Umar with his council, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons

The traditional Muslim view of the Rashidun Caliphate

Most Muslims believe that the Rightly Guided Caliphs' period of rule was a golden age for Islam. Although they do not believe that Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman or Ali were prophets capable of receiving revelation as Muhammad did, they do believe that they were moral exemplars who followed Islam faithfully and that their authority 'to implement and execute law' was as great as the Prophet Muhammad's.¹

For different reasons, most Muslims believe that after the fall of the Rashidun Caliphate, the office of the caliph became 'corrupted'.² Shia Muslims think that the caliphate should only pass down through Caliph Ali's descendants; hence later caliphs were not the true heirs to the caliphate. Sunni Muslims think that these later caliphs were out for their own gain rather than true caliphs faithful to Muhammad's teaching and example.

Thus the Rashidun Caliphs get singled out within the history of Islam as a unique golden age when the political and religious community of Islam, the umma, was truly devout and obedient to God's will.

Revisionist Approach

Historian Robert Hoyland sums up the critical Western approach to this traditional Islamic narrative in the following words.

Robert Hoyland, Fred Donner and other Western scholars advocate a way of treating the past that takes into account 'complexity and ambiguity' rather than accepting a black-and-white picture of reality which makes some people into moral heroes and others into tyrants.⁴

A good example of this approach in practice is an article by Heather Keaney, which analyses ninth-century Islamic histories of Caliph Uthman. She argues that later Islamic writers 'used literary techniques to point to moral and political lessons' about the Rashidun caliphs for their own present time.⁵ Moreover, her article points out that in two of the three sources she looks at, Caliph Uthman is portrayed in a highly negative light - 'corrupt at worst, weak at best'.⁶ The portrayal of Uthman as a bad ruler in these early sources again complicates the view that the Rashidun Caliphs are always seen as moral exemplars, even in the long tradition of Islamic historiography.