After Muhammad died a new leader was chosen. He did not appoint anyone to succeed him. Abu Bakr. Muhammad’s closest Companion, was selected to be the first caliph which is essentially a combination of pope (religious) and king (political). After Muhammad’s death, many of the new Muslims wanted to leave Islam. Being an apostate was a death sentence and Abu Bakr spent the first two years of his draconian rule killing all of those who wanted to leave. Umar, another of Muhammad’s companions, became the second caliph. Umar spent the next ten years in a violent jihad subjugating Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Persia at the point of a sword. Christianity was utterly destroyed in these areas.
The next caliph was Uthman and the compiling of all the extant copies of the Qur’an were copied into one corroborating text and the rest burnt. Ali was the last of the companions of Muhammad to be the fourth caliph. He was implicated as part of the conspiracy that assassinated Uthman.
Aisha, Muhammad’s favorite wife, led a civil war against Ali. In the end, Ali was killed. In what was to become a source of the Sunni/ Shia split we see today, his two sons were killed as well. The split between the Sunnis and the Shias is primarily religious.
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