Muhammad & 4 Rightly Guided Caliphs (feb 23, 570 – jan 1, 661)

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Muhammad began to notice the large empires seeking to push into the Arabian peninsula, so he began to introduce his religion of Islam to those around him; however, the Umayyad elite didn’t like that people were starting to follow other people, not them. Once the Umayyads began to convert to the religion, the religion swept across the Arabian peninsula and surrounding areas and thus, united all the nomadic/tribal people. During this time period, a religion was able to spread rapidly just like Christianity, developed legal codes, established egalitarianism, strong sense of community, and established the 5 Pillars of Islam. Once Muhammad died, the Sunnis and Shias split due to a disagreement of succession, and Ali died, there was either Ali’s son, Hasan, or the Umayyads to take over the rule, but that all changed once the Umayyad elite pressured Hasan into renouncing his claims to the caliphate after they added Egypt to the caliphate.