Editing Caliphate (section)

=== Rashidun caliphs ===
{{See also|Early Muslim conquests}}
[[File:Mohammad adil-Rashidun-empire-at-its-peak-close.PNG|thumb|left|Rashidun Caliphate at its greatest extent under Uthman]]
Abu Bakr nominated Umar as his successor on his deathbed. Umar, the second caliph, was killed by a Persian slave called [[Abu Lu'lu'a Firuz]]. His successor, Uthman, was elected by a council of electors ([[majlis]]). Uthman was killed by members of a disaffected group. [[Ali]] then took control but was not universally accepted as caliph by the governors of Egypt and later by some of his own guard. He faced two major rebellions and was assassinated by [[Abd-al-Rahman ibn Muljam]], a [[Khawarij]]. Ali's tumultuous rule lasted only five years. This period is known as the [[First Fitna|Fitna]], or the first Islamic civil war. The followers of Ali later became the Shi'a ("shiaat Ali", partisans of Ali.<ref name="The Economist-2013">{{cite news |url=https://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2013/05/economist-explains-19 |newspaper=The Economist |title=What is the difference between Sunni and Shia Muslims? |date=28 May 2013 |access-date=13 July 2017 |archive-date=25 July 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170725153328/http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2013/05/economist-explains-19 |url-status=live}}</ref>) minority sect of Islam and reject the legitimacy of the first three caliphs. The followers of all four Rāshidun Caliphs (Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman and Ali) became the majority Sunni sect.
[[File:First_Islamic_coins_by_caliph_Uthman-mohammad_adil_rais.jpg|thumb|230px|right| [[File:Rashidun_coin_Pseudo-Byzantine_types.jpg|thumb|230px|right]] The ''rāshidūn'' caliphs used symbols of the [[Sasanian Empire]] ([[Star and crescent]], [[Fire temple]], depictions of the last [[Sasanians|Sasanian emperor]] [[Khosrow II]]) by adding the Arabic expression ''[[Basmala|bismillāh]]'' on their coins, instead of designing new ones.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |author1-last=Album |author1-first=Stephen |author2-last=Bates |author2-first=Michael L. |author3-last=Floor |author3-first=Willem |author3-link=Willem Floor |title=COINS AND COINAGE |url=https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/coins-and-coinage- |volume=VI/1 |pages=14–41 |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Iranica]] |publisher=[[Columbia University]] |location=[[New York City|New York]] |date=30 December 2012 |orig-date=15 December 1992 |doi=10.1163/2330-4804_EIRO_COM_7783 |doi-access=free |issn=2330-4804 |access-date=23 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150517020427/https://iranicaonline.org/articles/coins-and-coinage- |archive-date=17 May 2015 |url-status=live |quote=As the Arabs of the Ḥejāz had used the ''drahms'' of the Sasanian emperors, the only silver coinage in the world at that time, it was natural for them to leave many of the Sasanian mints in operation, striking coins like those of the emperors in every detail except for the addition of brief Arabic inscriptions like ''besmellāh'' in the margins. [...] In the year 79/698 reformed Islamic dirhams with inscriptions and no images replaced the Sasanian types at nearly all mints. During this transitional period in the 690s specifically Muslim inscriptions appeared on the coins for the first time; previously Allāh (God) had been mentioned but not the prophet Moḥammad, and there had been no reference to any Islamic doctrines. Owing to civil unrest (e.g., the revolt of ʿAbd-al-Raḥmān b. Ašʿaṯ, q.v., against Ḥajjāj in 81/701), coins of Sasanian type continued to be issued at certain mints in Fārs, Kermān, and Sīstān, but by 84/703 these mints had either been closed down or converted to production of the new dirhams. The latest known Arab-Sasanian coin, an extraordinary issue, is dated 85/704-05, though some mints in the east, still outside Muslim control, continued producing imitation Arab-Sasanian types for perhaps another century.}}</ref> Second picture; Coin of the Rāshidūn Caliphate (632–675 CE). Pseudo-Byzantine type with depictions of the Byzantine emperor [[Constans II]] holding the cross-tipped staff and ''[[globus cruciger]]'']]

Under the Rāshidun, each region ([[Sultan]]ate, [[Wilayah]], or [[Emirate]]) of the caliphate had its own governor (Sultan, [[Wāli]] or [[Emir]]). [[Muawiyah I|Muāwiyah]], a relative of Uthman and governor (''wali'') of [[Syria]], succeeded Ali as caliph. Muāwiyah transformed the caliphate into a [[Inheritance|hereditary]] office, thus founding the Umayyad [[dynasty]].

In areas which were previously under [[Sasanian Empire]] or [[Byzantine]] rule, the caliphs lowered taxes, provided greater local autonomy (to their delegated governors), greater religious freedom for Jews and some indigenous Christians, and brought peace to peoples demoralised and disaffected by the casualties and heavy taxation that resulted from the decades of [[Roman–Persian Wars|Byzantine–Persian warfare]].<ref>[[John Esposito]] (1992)</ref>