The Complete Infidel's Guide to ISIS (2 page)

The Rightly Guided Caliphs.

661

The fourth caliph, Muhammad’s son-in-law Ali, is killed. Controversy over Ali will lead to the division of Muslims into Sunni and Shia (Sh
‘atu ‘Al
, the Party of Ali).

661–750

Umayyad Caliphate.

750–1258
and
1261–1517

Abbasid Caliphate (restored in the latter period under the Mamluk sultans).

909–1171

Rival Fatimid Caliphate in North Africa.

1147–1269

Rival Almohad Caliphate in North Africa and Spain (where the Umayyads also had a revived caliphate from 929 to 1031).

1517–1924

Ottoman Caliphate.

1744

Muhammad ibn Saud, whose family will one day rule Saudi Arabia, undertakes a mutual pact of allegiance with ‘Abd al-Wahhab, a reformist Sunni preacher leading an Islamic revival movement.

1924

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder of the Republic of Turkey, abolishes the Ottoman Caliphate.

1928

Egyptian schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna founds the Muslim Brotherhood, which aims to restore the caliphate and return “Andalusia [Spain], Sicily, the Balkans, the Italian coast, as well as the islands of the Mediterranean . . . all of them Muslim Mediterranean colonies . . . to the Islamic fold.”