The Curious Case of the Missing Caliphs
It's not only Muhammad who is missing from the historical record
In my book ‘The Mecca Mystery’, I point out that Muhammad is entirely absent from the primary historical record. What is even more surprising is that the same can be said for his first four successors.
Muslims believe that Muhammad was followed by a series of Caliphs (literally ‘successors’). The first four of these are known as the ‘Rightly Guided Ones’ (or ‘Rashidun’) and the period of their rule is still viewed by many Muslims as a vanished golden age. According to the official version of Sunni Muslim history, these Caliphs ruled for the following periods:
• Abu Bakr: 632-634 CE
• Umar ibn al-Khattab: 634-644 CE
• Uthman ibn ‘Affan: 644-656 CE
• ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib: 656-661 CE
If the absence of Muhammad from the wider historical record is puzzling, it is doubly the case for these leaders. It could perhaps be argued that Muhammad never ventured outside of the Arabian Peninsula (except for a mythical ‘night journey’ to Jerusalem) after taking up the mantle of leadership of the Muslim community. In the case of the men listed above, however, Muslim history tells us that they had a stunning impact on the wider world.
Abu Bakr supposedly launched the early conquests as Muslim armies started to threaten the Persian and Roman empires. Umar was at the head of these armies as they conquered first Jerusalem and then the Sassanian (Persian) Empire and he thus became the ruler of one of the most important political entities of late antiquity. Under Uthman the wide-ranging conquests continued (albeit at a slower pace) and he is pictured as a man with enough political control to standardize the text of the Qur’an over a vast area. Ali, who would go on to become the major figure within Shi’a Islam, stood at the center of the first Islamic Civil War (known as the ‘Fitna’), a conflict that supposedly tore the Islamic world apart and that had stunning repercussions in terms of the political stability of the areas ruled over by Islam.
In short, the official Islamic record paints the ‘Rightly Guided Caliphs’ as giants on the geopolitical stage of their day. Yet, as with Muhammed, they are absent from the primary source record dealing with this period. We must wait for documents (especially the histories of Muhammad Al-Tabari, 839-923 CE and Ibn Kathir, 1300-1372 CE) that were written hundreds of years after their supposedly glorious exploits to even learn of their existence. Think for a moment how utterly implausible this is. We have primary source evidence for even the minutest engagements in the back-and-forth wars between the Romans and Persians. Yet the person who supposedly finally brought Persian Empire to its knees (Umar ibn al-Khattab) is never so much as mentioned in the contemporary primary source record. This simply beggars belief.
The first of the Arab caliphs to definitively appear in traceable archaeological records is not one of the four ‘Rightly Guided’ ones, but a ruler named Muawiya. He was the first leader of the Umayyad Caliphate and acted as Caliph from (661-680 CE). The only problem, from a Muslim perspective at least, is that Muawiya is not presented as a Muslim ruler at all. An inscription on a dam near Ta'if (in modern-day Saudi Arabia) built around 678 CE simply calls him ‘The Commander of the Faithful’. No mention whatsoever is made to Mecca, to Muhammad or to the Qur’an. This is very surprising considering the subsequent insistence on the Islamic confession of faith on all official documents and inscriptions.
It is clear that there are more questions than answers in this area. For a deeper dive into the murky history of early Islam, please see my book ‘The Mecca Mystery - Probing the Black Hole at the Heart of Muslim history’.
Kind regards,
Peter
Ps. The link above will take you to Amazon (US). You can also find The ‘Mecca Mystery’ at Amazon (UK), Barnes and Noble, Book Depository and the ebook version on Kobo, Apple Books and Nook.
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