| The major divisions of Islam, revolving around the question of leadership, go back to the death of the Prophet but were intensified by the first civil war (656-661) and its aftermath in the following generation (680-81). The first Caliph, Abu Bakr, had been one of the Prophet's oldest companions and the father of his youngest wife, Aisha. On the Prophet's death he had been chosen by acclamation with the powerful support of Umar, an early convert and natural leader. When Abu Bakr died Umar's caliphate was generally acknowledged and it was during his ten-year reign that the Muslim state began to take shape. Under Umar the tensions resulting from the conquests, over the distribution of booty and the status of tribal leaders in the new Muslim order, began to surface. The tensions were kept in check under Umar's stern and puritanical rule but would surface disastrously during the reign of his successor. Uthman, who was murdered in Medina by disgruntled soldiers returning from Egypt and Iraq. |
| Though renowned for his commitment to the new religion as an early convert, Uthman was linked to the Ummavad clan in Mecca that had originally opposed Muhammad's message. He was accused of favoring his fellow clansmen at the expense of more pious Muslims. The latter congregated around Ali, the Prophet's cousin and closest surviving male relative, who was already regarded by some of his followers as the originally designated successor to the Prophet, and now assumed the role of caliph. Ali's failure to punish Uthman's assassins provoked a rebellion by two of Muhammad's closest companions, Talha and Zubayr, supported by Aisha. Though he defeated Talha and Zubayr, Ali failed to overcome Uthman's kinsman Muawiya, the governor of Syria, at the battle of Siffin. His eventual decision to seek a compromise with Muawiya provoked a rebellion among his more militant supporters, who came to be known as Kharijis (seceders). |
| Though Ali defeated the Kharijis in July 658, enough of them survived to continue the movement, which has lasted to this day in a moderate version known as Ibadism. One of the Khariji leader, Ibn Muliam, avenged his comrades by murdering Ali in 661. Ali's elder son Hasan made an accommodation with the victorious Muawiya, who became the first Ummavad caliph. On Muawiya's death in 680, when the succession passed to Muawiya's son, Yazid, Ali's younger son Husein made an unsuccessful bid to restore the caliphate to the Prophet Muhammad's closest descendants. The massacre of Husein and a small group of followers at Karbala in 680 by Yazid's soldiers provoked a movement of repentance of Ali's supporters in Iraq. They became known as the Shiites, the "partisans" of Ali. |
The Mughal emperor and their descendants had an abiding interest in the history and wisdom of their faith. This was expressed both in their memoirs and in their paintings. By the mid-1600s , the Emperor Jehangir's artists had developed a format in which two or more sages, or holy men were depicted seated in discussion. Mughal artists did not shrink from depicting fabled holy men from the past as if they were still alive. The figures in this painting represent the Muslim orthodoxy, with the only non-conformist being the bare-headed dervish seated at the lower left.
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