Leaders+of+Islam

= **__Leaders of Islam__** = The leadership structure of Islam was caliphs. There was one ruler who led a simple life and was a political, military and religious leader for the growing empire.

__Muhammad__
====The founder of Islam was a man named Muhammad. He was born in Mecca in 570 A.D. He grew up in a wealthy family but as he became older he noticed the poor people that lived in Mecca. But Muhammad still became a businessman and married. His life drastically changed tough on one night when he was about 40 years old, where he heard the voice of an angel, Gabriel who told Muhammad that he was the messenger of Allah(the arabic word for god). Muhammad then spent his life trying to convert people to his religion but lots of people rejected him. He was forced out of Mecca with his small group of followers in 622 A.D. after multiple followers of Islam had been harassed. This travel away from Mecca is called the //Hijrah//. They traveled to Yathrib which was later named Medina, where Muhammad showed spectacular leadership skills and he built a community. Also he received many new people willing to accept Islam. And in 630 A.D. Muhammad and his 10,000 followers returned to Mecca and destroyed the Ka'ba which contain idols of other gods. Then the leaders of Mecca, realizing they would be defeated, surrendered to Muhammad and his people. Finally, lots of people living in Mecaa converted to Islam, became apart of the Islam community(the //umma//) and followed Muhammad. He died 2 years later in 632 A.D. but not before he started the beginning of great religion of Islam.====

__The Rightly Guided Caliphs__
====When Muhammad passed away, no one was sure who should be his successor and all muslims went into confusion. But after a while everyone decided on Abu'Bakr as a successor and he started the rule of the rightly guided caliphs. These caliphs were four men who each ruled at a different time but they had all agreed to rule after Muhammad's example and teachings.====

Abu'Bakr: ruled 632-634 A.D
====In 632 A.D. after Muhammad's death, muslims had trouble choosing a successor to Muhammad and some men argued and fought against each other for the power. Eventually, a man named Abu'Bakr took control and led the religion for 2 years. He struggled to keep the religion together because lots of people stopped following after Muhammad died and so Abu issued the //jihad,// which according to the Qu'ran means an armed struggle against non-believers.But after 2 years, Abu'Bakr died and then another man named Umar took control.====

Umar: ruled 634-644 A.D
====When Abu'Bakr died the religion again needed a strong leader, and therefore Umar took over. During his rule he expanded the religion by conquering most of Syria and parts of Egypt. Umar also contributed to the religion and society of Islam by ordering a new, innovative, financial administration and by building the first public treasury. His last improvement on the empire was creating the basic government practices. After a decade Umar died and Uthman came to power.====

Uthman: ruled 644-656 A.D.
====After Umar died, Uthman took control of the empire and ruled for 12 years until he was murdered. Uthman is known for copying the Qu'ran and sending it to the "four corners of the Islamic world". Uthman also continued expanding the religion past the borders that Abu'Bakr and Umar had conquered.====

Ali: ruled 656-661 A.D.
====The final caliph, Ali, took over the religion after Uthman was murdered. But Ali had trouble ruling because violence was arising within the muslims. Even with this happening, Ali ruled confidently and was known for his strong letters and sermons to everyone, including non-muslims. And the second thing that Ali was known for was his bravery. Eventually though, Ali was murdered and he ended the rule of "The Rightly Guided Caliphs". But not before his helped with the continuation of the expansion of Islam.====

__The Umayyads:__661-750 A.D.
====After Ali was killed, a powerful group named the Umayyads came to power. The first thing the Umayyads did was move the capital to Damascus. This move made it easier to control the areas that the muslims conquered. But the weakness of the Umayyads was that they didn't follow the simple lifestyle that Muhammad had lived, instead they collected and kept lots of money which surrounded them in possessions. These events caused the famous division of muslims. The muslims split into 2 groups; the Sunni and the Shi'a. The Sunni follow Muhammad's example but they didn't resist the rule of the Umayyads. The Shi'a believed that Ali should've been Muhammad's successor. They also believed that the leader of Islam should be a descendant of Muhammad (which the Umayyads weren't). Eventually the Umayyads were taken over by a group called the Abbasids in 750 A.D. who killed most of the Umayyads. And by the time the Abassids took over, the religion and empire had spread all the way to the Indus River in Asia.====

__The Abbasids:__750-1258 A.D.
====The Abbasids violently took control but they had multiple contributions and they ruled for the greater good of muslims and the islamic religion. They ruled for 12 years with the capital as Damascus until they moved the capital to Baghdad in 762 A.D. The Abbasids also created a strong bureaucracy to keep track of all the empire's deals and decisions. They also had a treasury for the empire to handle the money flow. The Abbasids earned authority by consulting and questioning religious leaders but other, individual Muslim states came together and the Abbasids had great difficulty controlling the politics of the empire. In the end the Abbasids fell, but not without making huge expansions and accomplishments for the religion.====